What he meant was that Homer, Bart & Co. are sadly deficient in the old fashioned-values sweepstakes. What he proved is that he watches T- shirts, not the show itself.

For, in their quirky way, the Simpsons are as devoted to "family values" as the brood at Waltons Mountain; they simply find it a helluva lot harder living up to them. Which, alas, is hardly rare in contemporary America.

Take the episode that immediately preceded the President's remark. When daughter Lisa starts watching football games with her father, they discover she has an incredible knack for picking winners. The family fortunes bloom with gambling loot--until the little girl begins feeling Homer has no real interest in *her*. Chastened, desperate to prove otherwise, in the end he forces himself to feign enthusiasm for Lisa's passion...nature.

It may not be a pretty picture--not, at least, compared to John-Boy and Jim-Bob fishin' at the creek--but it's one that a fair number of families, well-intentioned but far from perfect, will recognize.

What Mr. Bush, or whoever wrote the speech, might actually find disturbing is something else: that the society the Simpsons inhabit has so clearly been loosed from its moorings. For in fictional Springfield, a typical small American city, there is corruption, voracious consumerism, moral decay everywhere. Indeed, that is the show's subtext. "I got you down for 40 bucks. Good luck, your Eminence," says bartender/bookie Moe into the phone before turning his attention to Homer. Meanwhile, an announcer (months before the horrific events in Los Angeles) can be heard over the bar TV predicting the fallout of a Redskins Super Bowl victory: "Happy fans may well be looting and turning over cars in our nations's capital tonight!"

In that sense, the show truly *is* subversive--this is not the America usually found in too-safe-by-half family TV fare.

"Risk-taking starts with high ratings," says Harry Shearer, the gifted satirist who provides many of the show's voices, from the flinty super- capitalist Mr. Burns to the despised educator Principal Skinner. Without those, we'd have Homer and Marge arguing every week over who does the dishes." But, he adds, it also has to do with "producers who fight hard. It's known as integrity."

Which is why there's such irony in the President picking this, of all shows, as representing the worst in the culture. If he gave it a fair shot, he might be surprised--even amused. Just the other week, Springfield's mayor eyed a nearby female and leered, "Check out the rack on *her*." The mayor's resemblance to Ted Kennedy was uncanny.

Transcribed by Raymond Gilbert.