Certainly "The Simpsons", in both concept and originality, can be considered ahead of its time. These cases, however, may take that label to a slightly different level.
Consider this: In Season 3's "Homer at The Bat", Mr. Burns continually screams at Don Mattingly to shave his sideburns. Only two months before the episode aired (but well after the script was written) Yankee's General Manager George Steinbrenner fined Mattingly for his long hair, and ordered him to cut it shorter.
In that same season, the publicized episode "Stark Raving Dad" featured Michael Jackson singing a birthday song to Lisa. The song, apparently written by Jackson, has a verse where Bart wishes Lisa "better than your heart desires" and then Jackson adds "and your first kiss from a boy." Something tells me if that episode aired five years later, that 'sweet' moment would have been greeted with a different reaction.
More recently, look at "Brother's Little Helper" where Homer and Marge attempt to control Bart'd ADD with riddlin-like "focusyn". After a crazed Bart shoots down a satellite that he claims Major League Baseball is using to spy on the town, Mark McGuire is helicoptered in to downplay the suspicion. This was of course Mark McGuire straight from his 70 home-run season. When Bart asks for an explanation behind MLB's ploy, McGuire responds: "Do you want to know the terrifying truth, or do you want me to sock a few dingers?"
As Barry Bonds nears Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record, I'm sure Major League Baseball is hoping fans will also only want to watch more "dingers" and not learn the "terrifying truth".
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