The main thing I remember was that the ambient sounds if you bought a house in Magic Town were creepy as anything, and I had to keep the TV running to drown them out.
I was initially hyped about getting them, but I'm not too happy with Unleashed, Superstar, and Makin' Magic. They are fun, but they detract from the original gameplay experience of The Sims -- in ways quite obnoxiously...
Unleashed introduces stray pets in hundreds on your lawn, making a mess and creating unnecessary additional work in an already busy schedule -- that's without even owning your own pet! Superstar introduces an alternative career path that is quite distinct in the way it works from other jobs, and it introduces a separate newpaper for a fame-zine (again, taking additional time from your sims' daily schedule), which is loaded with pop-ups when your sims read it for fun and quite obnoxious if you're not interested in playing a celebrity. Makin' Magic is best balanced out of the three, by separating Magic Town from the main game, and only giving you the option to go that direction if you're interested, but the world it creates is, naturally, quite distinct from the original world of The Sims.
I feel that they leave much to be desired in terms of design and programming (balancing). The developers seem to have lost their vision somewhat as the expansion packs rolled on and The Sims became a sensation. Vacation onwards is fun to play, but if you're looking for the core Sims experience, The Sims, House Party, Hot Date, and Vacation are the way to go. The other expansions jazz up the game, but IMHO don't really add anything meaningful content and gameplay elements to the original gameplay -- unless you intend to play The Sims in the Harry Potter universe, are looking to play a celebrity, or looking to turn your game into a pet management sim.
Livin' Large doesn't even deserve a mention -- unless you find the original Sims too boring and are looking to add goofiness (strange and world-of-fiction events) to your game. I feel their first expansion pack was a huge misstep, and is responsible for the later mess.
Remember the Sims movie that was always rumored? It was eventually released, with no mention made of The Sims but it was obvious from some visuals (green plumbobs at one point). Just knowing this was a Sims movie before watching it is a major spoiler. Let me know if you need the title.
I do. I have never actually seen it, but that sounds highly amusing! I gave my Sims collection to my sister, who was an even bigger fan of it than I was. It took me over a decade to build up my own collection again. Now I'm super-hyped about The Sims. So much has happened in the community since the release of Vacation/On Holiday -- which is the last expansion pack I played in the original before giving my copies away. I especially love all the official pop/rock artists made Simlish songs!
I've downloaded the best of them, and I'm going to add them to the radio stations (music genres for stereos/HI-FIs) in The Sims 1, so that when my sims turn on their radio, I can enjoy it, too!
P.S. The Sims was one of my very first experiences modding. :3
Take The Sims 1 for example. 
Makes you bang your head against the screen when the game crashes, maids get stuck in the shower and save files get corrupted, and yet still one of the best games of its kind ever made, and still stands its ground against the newer releases in the franchise.
