78. The Front

(originally aired April 15, 1993)
Not every episode needs to feature a rich, focused storyline. Here, we have two smaller scale plots running side-by-side, with nothing too extraordinary or grandiose at stake. And you know what? I still loved it. It’s almost like they’re two mini-episodes, depicting bizarre days-of-the-lives of the characters, all topped off with the fantastic “The Adventures of Ned Flanders” at the end. I always thought this show could retain its freshness with doing smaller scale stories, sometimes involving secondary characters, instead of always feeling the need to go big and brash with wacky set pieces and action sequences. Clearly the writers went the other way, though. I think the whole series could have benefited with a few episodes like this a season.

Plot the first: Bart and Lisa moonlight as Itchy & Scratchy writers under Abe Simpson’s alias. We get some great meta humor in seeing depictions of the staff writers, the “How to Write Cartoons” book by John Swartzwelder, and animation jokes about repeating backgrounds. It all comes to a head in a finale at an award show where Grampa has been nominated. We see how scathing and sharp this show can be in the matter of seconds: the “How to Buy Action Figure Man” clip, which is all of four seconds, exquisitely encapsulates all the merchandise-driven 80s cartoons and how crappy they were. Then they take a well-deserved shot at Rea & Stimpy creator John K for never finishing his goddamn work on time. Plot the second: Homer and Marge attend their high school reunion, where Homer is exposed for not having actually graduated, leading him to take a night class to get his GED. There’s lots of great stuff at the reunion with the perfect class clown type and Homer’s various trophies. The night class stuff is a bit thin, but what we see of it works, and the joke of Homer never having passed remedial science, yet he’s still a nuclear technician is enough fuel to get us through.

I really want to talk about the Ned Flanders thing at the end. Its origins were that this episode was too short and they needed something to fill thirty seconds, so they whipped this short together, sort of parodying the quick single page Archie comics that bookend the actual stories. I absolutely love it, it’s one of the best things the series has ever done. As I mentioned above, it shows how genius and impacting the series can be in such little time. The chorus singers, the title card, the classic set-up and punch, and the outro; so succinct, quick and perfect. I only wish we’d have seen more stuff like this, little skits from different characters serving as outros. But maybe it’s for the best that “Everyone Loves Ned Flanders” is one-of-a-kind; it makes it that much more special.

Tidbits and Quotes
– I love how angry Krusty gets at his special guest chef bringing up his heritage (“I don’t do the Jewish stuff on the air!”) Guess he’s gone right back to stereotypical self-loathing after his tearful on-air reconciliation with his rabbi father.
– The lackluster Itchy & Scratchy at the start is great. Shearer’s “Ow”s and Castellaneta’s Itchy giggling really make me laugh, as does their on-point, direct into the camera anti-drug message as their big finish.
– Bart’s fantasy of hijacking Santa’s sleigh at gunpoint is one of the more disturbing, but hilarious dream sequences of the series. And that includes the later one in the episode of Grampa as a beautiful belle in the old west.
– I love Bart & Lisa’s internal logic regarding rock-paper-scissors; my friend and I mimicked this basically every time we or some other friends of ours had a face-off.
– When Bart asks Grampa what his first name is, Abe’s knee-jerk reaction is perfect (“You’re making my tombstone?!”)
– Not quite sure why the I&S scripts are so long. I’d imagine a typical short would fit on one script page, two tops.
– Homer mixing up his real life with Happy Days is a subtle comment on how pop culture infuses itself into our memories. It’s also really funny.
– Dan Castellaneta subs for Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff at the reunion, now a pompous rich guy. Oddly, his indecent proposal conversation to Homer later became an episode. I guess not so odd, since one of the writers probably re-watched this later on and thought, “Hey, that’s good enough for a show.”
– I love Homer’s sense of pride in winning so many unflattering awards, from Most Weight Gained (“I discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch”) and Least Distance Traveled to get to the reunion. Stripped of his winnings after being exposed for not graduating, Homer vows to regain his pride… and his Most Improved Odor trophy.
– Abe looks damn sharp in his new suit, and I love the explanation he gives Homer about his new job (“They pay me eight hundred dollars a week to tell a cat and mouse what to do!”) In reaction to this, Homer envisions carting his demented father off to the nut house.
– More Homer bartering with his brain in psyching himself for his final exam (“All right brain, you don’t like me, and I don’t like you. But let’s just get me through this, and I can get back to killing you with beer.”) His brain accepts these conditions.
– The plunger at the very end may be the longest possible callback, but I still love it, and it’s the perfect way to resolve the Homer story.