David Cooper
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BONUS! Dr Hibbert and Teenage Homer/Barmey/Marge
🕑 Added 2024-09-13 08:00:15 +0000 UTCNow that the McBain review section of the episode is out of the way, every other character in this episode - numbered and bonus - is introduced in flashback. And of those, Hibbert is the only one not to be taken from the "main" flashback of 1974.
I guess this is me softly committing to covering all of Julius's hairstyle choices throughout the years, although I've never really gotten the joke of why it's different every time. Is it just a silly runner? We'll attempt to get to the bottom of it, because if we don't who will?
What will be trickier to track, however, is the consistency of the teenage character designs:
This episode firmly places this story in 1974, and the fashion choices definitely reflect that throughout.
But it would no longer make sense for Homer and Marge to have been high-schoolers in the seventies, so at some point this must be retconned. I'd be interested in seeing if there is a deliberate pivot away from this era, or whether it's just kind of hand-waved away without drawing attention to it. The trading cards of these teenage designs even make reference to 1974, it being so important to this episode's identity.
1974 is specifically flashbacked (flashbuck?) to one other time, I think. We see Homer again in season 7's "Homerpalooza", and his design is unchanged:
This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.
Comments
David Cooper
Yeah, spoiler: that Treehouse segment is gonna come up a couple of times over the next few posts! They definitely follow it pretty closely, at first.
David Cooper
Yeah I can think of a few over the years. We'll keep an eye out to cover them all.
Elliot Jay O'Neill
Barmey Gunble
sea
Dr. Hibbert has a lot of different popular black hairstyles over the years. Well not necessarily popular, but known, like his Mr. T look at one point. I don't think I've ever known anyone to have that hair in real life on purpose!
Alexander Hale
Incidentally, I've always felt like there's a thread linking 70s Homer and Fry from Futurama. Maybe it's just the idiot-wearing-a-jacket aspect?
Alexander Hale
There's a Treehouse of Horror segment from 2012 (noting the year as almost all of the voices already sound very far gone from the original characters, yet the show is still trundling on 12 years later) called Bart & Homer's Excellent Adventure, which you've just inspired me to rewatch, that directly references The Way We Was and features all 4 of the character designs you've drawn here (even Hibbert). At one point Future (current) Marge references the events as being 20 years ago, but there's no implication that this is a joke/the events actually being 38 years ago).
Max Flower
I love Barmey
