The Simpsons: Every Season 1 Episode Ranked

So by now, it should be pretty well established that Season 1 had some extremely shocking content amongst its stories – we’ve already been through depression, child slavery, affairs, evil babysitters, bullying and a suicide attempt! Krusty Gets Busted is probably the most far removed from the general tone of Season 1.

Yes, it does use the subject of framed robbery which is fairly dark but Brad Bird breathes life into the story by adding some cleverly placed humour as well as a good mystery solving crusade. It also doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence by going too far in the direction of childish cartoon with a far-fetched plot (a mistake made by Call of the Simpsons). It was a true testament to what the writers were capable of and felt like the window to The Classic Era of The Simpsons.

Krusty Gets Busted is also important for being the origin of iconic villain Sideshow Bob (The Telltale Head doesn’t count as his introduction, for the record). Sideshow Bob has been a prevalent part of The Simpsons universe – having a political career, an unconventional marriage to Selma Bouvier, attempting to blow up Springfield and of course several attempts at murdering Bart, between other series regulars.

He’s one of the best cartoon villains ever created – cultured, intelligent and downright psychotic. Nobody other than Frasier’s Kelsey Grammar could possibly voice him - he gave Bob that extra edge of charisma which he needed to make the red-haired maniac a treasured recurring role instead of a one-off appearance, thus also kickstarting that insane yet brilliantly written feud between a 10-year-old and a celebrity criminal.