The Simpsons: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Season 1
5. The Bald Eagle
As we mentioned earlier, The Simpsons writers rejected the idea of each episode being an anthology of three shorts.
The irony of this is that a classic episode of the show's first season was basically just that.
"The Call of The Simpsons" sees our beloved family get lost in the woods. Whilst at the mercy of nature, Marge and Lisa build the family a shelter, Homer gets mistaken for Bigfoot, and Maggie is taken in by a family of bears.
It's that last storyline that we're most interested in, because it could have been something very different.
On the DVD commentary for Season 1, writer and future showrunner, Al Jean, revealed a totally bonkers plot that James L. Brooks suggested for the episode.
Jean said that instead of Maggie falling in with bears, Homer was going to be the one raised by animals. The plan was to have him carried away by an eagle and have it raise him as a chick.
Would it have been too wacky and turned viewers away? Is it actually any weirder than a human baby being raised by bears? Either way, Homer the Eagle wasn't meant to be and we got Homer the Sasquatch instead.
Fair enough.