Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Lisa's First Word" finished thirteenth in the ratings for the week of November 30 to December 6, 1992, with a Nielsen rating of 16.6 (translating to about 15.5 million households). The episode was the highest-rated show on Fox that week. It acquired the highest national Nielsen rating of the show since the season two episode "Bart Gets An F" aired on October 11, 1990. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics.
Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, said the episode is a "convincing portrait of young marriage and hardship in the days of Reaganomics - and the biggest name to guest voice gets the littlest, but the most significant, to say". When asked to pick his favorite season out of The Simpsons seasons one through twenty, Paul Lane of the Niagara Gazette picked season four and highlighted "the sweetly funny" "Lisa's First Word". David Johnson at DVD Verdict named it "one of the greatest flashback episodes". Dave Manley at DVDActive said in a review of the The Simpsons: Greatest Hits DVD that it is "one of the better episodes and probably my personal favourite on the disc, although most Simpsons connoisseurs would probably go for the previous episode ", and added that there are "some great parodies in the episode too". The Orlando Sentinel's Gregory Hardy named it the fourteenth best episode of the show with a sports theme (the Olympics in this case).
Elizabeth Taylor's performance as Maggie was praised by critics. She was named the 13th greatest guest spot in the history of the show by IGN. Taylor also appeared on AOL's list of their favorite 25 Simpsons guest stars. Todd Everett at Variety called the last scene in the episode, where Maggie speaks her first word, "quite a heart-melter". He added that "it is probably no surprise that the casting of Elizabeth Taylor as the voice for baby Maggie Simpson's first word was a publicity stunt . No mind, the episode in question delivered well-rounded view of series' multiple attractions." Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked her performance as the best guest appearance in the show's history. Fox rebroadcast the episode on April 3, 2011 in memory of Taylor, following her death on March 23.
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Famous quotes containing the word reception:
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—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
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—Walter Pater (1839–1894)