The Simpsons List Discussion and Suggestions

[swo17]

A few great early Mr. Burns-centered episodes:

Blood Feud (S2, Ep 22)
Homer convinces Bart to give blood to Mr. Burns in the hopes of getting rich but when all the Simpsons receive in return is an empty "Thank You" card, Homer writes a letter of his own. Marge convinces him not to send it but it makes its way into the post anyway, and attempts to retrieve it prove fruitless. Mr. Burns retaliates and it ultimately takes Smithers' intercession to reconcile the two.

When Flanders Failed (S3, Ep 3)
Flanders starts a risky venture (the Leftorium) and Homer gleefully wishes him ill. The whole wishbone scene including the close-up of Homer crudely eating with his mouth open as he taunts Flanders is brilliant, as is his reaction to Mr. Burns (the wealthy southpaw that ends up saving Flanders' business) 55 seconds into this clip.

Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk (S3, Ep 11)
Burns sells the power plant to a group of German investors, whose insistence on efficiency poses a threat to Homer's livelihood. Most of the employees get rich off the news (which Lenny uses to get a permanent smile through plastic surgery) though Homer is satisfied to cash out his stock for the price of a hammer (which he instead spends on a premium beer at Moe's, where he brags about his success playing the market). The "land of chocolate" daydream sequence here was the first thing I thought to show my daughter when introducing her to the show.

[domino harvey]

I always wondered how they got that giant head into their basement. Like, it really bothered me as a kid

[swo17]

A wizard did it.

[colinr0380]

What's more perplexing is how it got into the attic in background shots in a later season!

[mfunk9786]

*mfunk9786's Spotlight*
A Milhouse Divided (S8, E6)
So I'm going to kick off spotlights in this thread, assuming that we haven't entirely abandoned the concept. The addition of animated GIFs to Frinkiac today led me to searching for a ton of memorable quotes, clipping them, making GIFs out of them - and at a certain point I realized that about 25% of the entirety of the quotes I found memorable enough to do this with were from one episode of this show. Yes, it's from Season 8, when arguably, cracks were beginning to reveal themselves in the facade - but to me, this is the pinnacle of the writing and voice acting and direction of The Simpsons. The show would eventually handle more adult themes much more awkwardly, but the subject of divorce and long marriages is picture perfect - the tension that runs through some of them, the concrete love that reinforces others, and how they're seen through the eyes of friends and children. Hank Azaria's performance as Kirk Van Houten in this episode is some of his best work in the series' history, capturing the awkward enthusiasm and barely concealed misery of a recently divorced middle aged man perfectly. The writing shines all over, but particularly in the surreal realism of the 'branding' of the universe this time around - it being a more verbose and somewhat less visual gag-heavy episode than usual, stuff like Gudger College, Table Time, Allied Biscuit, Southern Cracker (the dryyyyyy cracker), and the all-too-real Arby's that Kirk lives next door to... no episode has managed to seep into my consciousness over the years quite like this one, and I think I'm finally ready to admit that it's just because it's so great. So, while I'm still wondering whether it'll top my list, and where it belongs if not - this is definitely my spotlight episode and one that's worth nudging everyone here to revisit.

[swo17]

So I'm going to kick off spotlights in this thread, assuming that we haven't entirely abandoned the concept.

I haven't done any personally here because I figure that everyone's already seen the episodes I'm recommending numerous times. But yours is a good choice, if only because it's not a very celebrated episode. The IMDb page has some good quotes.

[mfunk9786]

*Homer whine* then put it in the lead postttttt

[swo17]

Thought I had, but the post must not have gone through. Now fixed.

[mfunk9786]

I couldn't have possibly just shut up and done that myself, so thank you.

[swo17]

Radio Bart (S3, Ep 13)
Bart gets a radio transmitter for his birthday and pranks the town by pretending to be a kid that's fallen down a well. I love how excited Homer gets to give Bart this gift, contrasted with how little Bart cares for it at first. Very true to life. Also all the stuff with the labelmaker, another failed gift attempt.

Bart the Lover (S3, Ep 16)
I'd nearly forgotten about the yo-yo troupe and the swear jar stuff, let alone that both of these things happened in the same episode. And that doesn't even get to the A-story, about Bart getting revenge on Ms. Krabappel by writing her love letters.

Homer at the Bat (S3, Ep 17)
I'm sure I don't need to cheerlead for this episode, but I'll just mention I found it interesting how José Canseco insisted his part be rewritten from seducing Ms. Krabappel to something more heroic, because what made it in the episode seems far funnier.

Dog of Death (S3, Ep 19)
I love all the lottery stuff at the beginning of the episode. Also what Homer does with books when they overwhelm him:

Spoiler

[domino harvey]

For reasons I'll never understand, "Bingo bango, sugar in the gas tank, your ex-husband strikes again" is one of those stray lines that isn't exactly funny or outwardly memorable that nevertheless managed to get lodged into my head since childhood

"Homer at the Bat" and "Radio Bart" are, of course, absolutely incredible episodes. I love that they got the same guy who sang "Talkin' Baseball" to sing the parody version over the credits, with memorable plot summaries like "Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw / Steve Sax, and his run-in with the law."

[swo17]

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Terry Cashman gets more requests for "Talkin' Softball" at his shows than for the original version. Also, apparently people go and see Terry Cashman shows.

Also, multiple people's lives have supposedly been saved because someone remembered about the Heimlich Maneuver from this scene.

[colinr0380]

Here's another example of a later Simpsons episode being all over the place:

Million-Dollar Abie (Season 17, Episode 16)
This episode feels totally haphazard perhaps in order to keep throwing curve balls at the audience about what might come next. It begins with Springfield being about to get a big football sponsorship (which of course involves a lot of shameless kowtowing by the civic authorities, re-naming their streets to "Off Season Knee Surgery Avenue" and so on!) that gets messed up by Grandpa attacking the official when after a distressing Blackberry incident he barges into the house and demands to use their bathroom and telephone ("As you can see, I've been crying").

This causes Homer and the entire town to shun Abe. Whenhe gets the friendly advice to visit the assisted suicide clinic run by Dr Egoyan (yes, that is a reference), Abe takes the advice but unfortunately the police break in and arrest the doctor before he finishes ("I'll kill you all!...when the law is reversed."; "I'd like to see you try! When the law is reversed"), so Abe wanders off thinking he is dead but gains a new zest for life when it turns out he isn't.

Then the episode turns into a piece about the morality of bullfighting (!!!?!!?), as the vacant stadium is sold to the highest bidder and Abe takes on the position of matador while of course Lisa protests outside. It all ends with a big muddle where Abe has killed a bull or two but then turns the rest loose to rampage through the streets of Springfield whilst he and Lisa float in lawn chairs with helium balloons attached to them(!), with the inevitable final gag of the bulls floating up attached to balloons too! (As someone in the commentary says at that point "so it takes five balloons to float a bull!")

This is sort of an example of the problems with the later seasons of the show, as any one of these multiple plot strands could perhaps have been the subject of an entire show earlier on. It feels as if the show is milking the situation for the comedy but then immediately moving on, and what is being lost are the more touching or developed ideas about say bullfighting or assisted suicide. Instead we just get a gag about Abe being hooked up to a monolithic "diePOD".

And also the wacky elements get shortchanged too as there's no room for these to develop either. And its kind of unforgivable to do such a referential episode with a bullfighting theme and not reference Bugs Bunny at all!

So why am I bothering to write it up? For two moments really - Grandpa's Soylent Green moment when instead of a lyrical end, his final request is for footage of hippies getting beaten to the tunes of Glenn Miller!

And the Homer line when he gets distracted from calling Abe (and thereby preventing him from going to the clinic) by a telephone call:

You want my opinion on current movies? Well, first of all, they're all perfect. Also when's the Cap'n Crunch movie coming out? And will it be R or hard R?

[Lemmy Caution]

The euthanasia scenes have some terrific moments.
Grandpa's request for hippies getting beaten up to Glenn Miller, as you noted.

But also the suicide manager reciting to Grandpa a list of famous suicides (Socrates, Hemingway, ...) which ends with Fred Gorlicky.
Grandpa: "Who's Fred Gorlicky?"
"The last guy to use our services (we see him getting wheeled out under a sheet).
Nice guy. A little messed up though ..."
Then after Chief Wiggum busts the place: "Hey, I think you know my brother-in-law ... Fred Gorlicky"

(I probably don't have the name right, but it doesn't matter for the joke)

There were two very good Season 19 episodes I've been meaning to write up.
The season finale, All About Lisa (narrated by Mel)
And I'll have to look up the other one.

[swo17]

Not sure I agree that using up one source of a joke and then moving on to the next is unique to late-period Simpsons. Consider the subject of this quiz (originally posted by domino in the thread for the show).

[colinr0380]

Yes but this one goes even beyond the opening of an episode turning into something completely different (the football team bid turning into the euthanasia plot) with a third completely leftfield plot twist at the two thirds point with the bullfighting stuff.

[Lemmy Caution]

It really is a bit frantic.
it's almost like they didn't have enough or didn't want to explore the euthanasia concept, so just jumped to something else unrelated. Maybe they thought going from football to bullfighting had a sports link. But it does seem very scattershot.

[Ribs]

I watched Homer's Night Out for the first time in over a decade if not ever as I had no memory of it, and was pleasantly surprised by it. It's not reinventing the wheel and it uses a formula the show would do far better later but something about basic earnestness of the first two-ish years can't help but make you enjoy it even if it's not especially funny.

[domino harvey]

Ah yes, Princess Kashmir. One of the many one shot characters from the first season and a half to be given inflated importance in early promotional materials because marketers eager to cash in on the Simpsons had limited characters to draw from! See also: Blinky, Bleeding Gums Murphy, et al

[colinr0380]

This seems an appropriate time for a quote from the "138th Episode Spectacular" episode!

[Drucker]

Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie (Season 4, Episode 6)

Itchy and Scratchy the Movie is brilliant from start to finish, doing everything the Simpsons does well, but not doing too much of anything: humorous but cruel, a heartwarming ending and story, lessons learned, and insanity.

I just watched the episode and was in stitches from the start. It begins with a roar from Grandpa and never lets up. Brilliant one-liners? This thing is chock full of them. Just one example:

"What if one of us is good and the other is bad?"
"Poison pizza?"
"Oh no, I'm not making two stops."

And that's within the first two minutes. There is amazing physical comedy with Bart's shenanigans in the first bit of the show: grabbing Grandpa's false teeth, hammering mustard for no apparent reason, these gags and more are laugh out loud funny.

There is brilliant satire, with the honeymooning couple who laughs at the billboard's blood getting in the car. There's also a several minute long Kent Brockman segment which gives a nice breather in the middle of the episode, between the side-splitting first half and back half of the episode.

Homer's dumb one-liner near the end is perfect, when lamenting that if he gives in Bart won't become a justice on the Supreme Court, he goes: "I can't let that happen, I won't let that happen, and I can't let that happen."

The episode would be great if you just considered the humor, but it does maturity, high-brow references, and plot superbly as well. The general theme and plot of the show starts at the beginning. Sprinkled within is a recurring gag about Bart becoming a Supreme Court justice which pays off emotionally at the end. And Lisa, when lamenting Bart's depression at not seeing the movie, remarks:

"He has the demented melancholia of a Tennessee Williams heroine."

This episode hits every mark. I don't know that I'll get around to compiling a list, but this episode could honestly be even better than you remember.

[tarpilot]

The episode would be great if you just considered the humor, but it does maturity, high-brow references, and plot superbly as well. The general theme and plot of the show starts at the beginning. Sprinkled within is a recurring gag about Bart becoming a Supreme Court justice which pays off emotionally at the end. And Lisa, when lamenting Bart's depression at not seeing the movie, remarks:

"He has the demented melancholia of a Tennessee Williams heroine."

[domino harvey]

Just made my preliminary list. Came in at 62 titles on first pass, so even the few bones I initially threw at some late-period episodes didn't last for long. As of right now (I still intend to revisit at least the glory year seasons), my breakdown by season forms a clear curve:

Three: 5
Four: 11
Five: 13
Six: 10
Seven: 6
Eight: 4
Eleven: 1

Breakdown by character names in the titles themselves:
Homer: 9
Bart: 8
Lisa: 7
Burns: 3
Itchy & Scratchy: 3
Marge: 3
Krusty: 2

[Lemmy Caution]

S2E5 Dancin' Homer
There's some real nice things here.
I like how it begins with Homer telling the story in the bar and then flashbacks to the events in question. I like the jaded baseball announcer. And how they refer to the local Isotopes team as 'Topes.

Some great lines:
Upon learning they are moving to Capitol City,
Lisa: "But Springfield is where we're from. I was born here, lived my whole life here and I assumed I'd die here."
Homer (trying to be reassuring): " Oh it's okay honey, you can die somewhere else."

And after Homer gets fired from the Big Leagues, we hear his voiceover:
"But my family stuck by me. They didn't care if I failed.
And on the way home I realized how little that meant."

[Ribs]

Just made my preliminary list. Came in at 62 titles on first pass, so even the few bones I initially threw at some late-period episodes didn't last for long. As of right now (I still intend to revisit at least the glory year seasons), my breakdown by season forms a clear curve:

Three: 5
Four: 11
Five: 13
Six: 10
Seven: 6
Eight: 4
Eleven: 1

Breakdown by character names in the titles themselves:
Homer: 9
Bart: 8
Lisa: 7
Burns: 3
Itchy & Scratchy: 3
Marge: 3
Krusty: 2

Very intrigued by the complete lack of Season 2! I know I'm considerably more infatuated with it than most, but just leaving it out completely? I'll probably end up with practically all of it on my list!