(originally aired April 27, 1994)
Status quo is God for a reason. Just as in life, radical change can shake things up something fierce. Many characters in this show are defined by where they work and what they do, and are in deep trouble if they’re not. Mr. Burns needs the power plant. Apu needs the Kwik-E-Mart. And Principal Skinner needs to be Principal Skinner. Here we get a better examination of ol’ Spanky, the overbearing nature of his work, and his piddling attempts to live a life after he is let go. A lot of the middle of the episode of seeing Skinner’s day-to-day routine, living at his mother’s house, faux-conducting an orchestra in his bedroom, is extremely fascinating, and gives up real human insight into his character. As I mentioned last time about Burns, I’d love to see an entire episode just about Skinner and a regular week for him. These secondary characters are so rich, they’re just as engaging as the Simpson family.
The first time we see Skinner in the episode, he’s already a nervous wreck, struggling to defend himself on the phone with the superintendent. He’s a man who loves his job and the authority, but we can see he’s in hot water already. That leads us to further shenanigans when Santa’s Little Helper, who Bart brought in for show-and-tell, ends up roaming around the air ducts, and only a greased up Willie can apprehend him. When this turns into a disastrous fiasco, Superintendent Chalmers pays the school a visit (uttering the very first “SKINNER!!”) and promptly fires Skinner. Now Seymour is just any other civilian, shopping at the Kwik-E-Mart and paying a visit to the laundromat. The scene of Skinner running through all the detergent names and pondering which to use is spectacular. It’s so true to him that he would run through all his options and really consider his choice, even for something so trivial. Bart feels guilty for the situation he directly caused and decides to spend time with his ex-principal. At times it borders on out-of-character for him, but the fact that the friendship is slightly awkward on both of their ends feels very genuine.
Deciding it’s finally time to move on, Skinner re-enlists as a sergeant in the army, while the head of the PTA Ned Flanders is made the new principal. We get some nice moments displaying Ned’s namby-pamby disciplinary skills, and also a really telling look into his past, revealing his parents were a bunch of beatniks (I also want a young Ned Flanders spin-off too.) Eventually, Bart and Skinner hatch a plan to get him back, which comes up short, but Flanders ends up thwarting himself by daring to speak the name of the Almighty over the intercom (Chalmers delivers a classic line: “A prayer in a public school! God has no place within these walls, just like facts have no place within organized religion!”) As odd as it may have been at times, Bart and Skinner’s friendship was very sweet. It was interesting to see the two mortal enemies on a level playing field, actually enjoying each other’s company. They both acknowledge that once Skinner is back in power, their friendship must end, and they accept that (unless Bart becomes a good student, which he scoffs at the idea). It’s a real nice episode, lots of laughs, interesting character stuff. Jolly good show.
Tidbits and Quotes
– Nice home movies at the start, with Homer lighting his beard on fire, and the adorable baby Bart on the toilet. Marge makes a clever comment regarding Bart bringing the movies into class (“I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with the idea of your classmates laughing at our family’s private moments. How would you like it if, twenty years from now, people were laughing at things you did?”) Twenty years now, and I’m still laughin’.
– Nice quick moment with an ecstatic Willie, enamored by Santa’s Little Helper, pressing his face against the window of Mrs. K’s class.
– A nice brief appearance by Lunchlady Doris sifting through a barrel of assorted horse parts (“More testicles means more iron.”) Her deadpan reaction to Willie ripping off his shirt, revealing his muscular physique is fantastic (“Grease me up, woman!!” “…okey-dokey.”)
– The chase in the vents is wonderfully directed, and references not one, not two, but all three Alien movies. The first Alien with Skinner observing their locations on a computerized diagram of the vents (for a school with no budget, I’m surprised they have such sophisticated technology for such a useless purpose). Aliens when Skinner sticks his head in the vents and is licked by the dog. Then Alien 3 with the blurred shapes of the dog as he dashes through the vents. On catching the mutt, Willie delivers classic line (“There’s nary an animal alive that can outrun a greased Scotsman!”)
– Great timing as Skinner tells Chalmers everything’s under control, then a fireman falls off a ladder, knocks down the giant scoreboard machine and smashes the gymnasium window.
– First appearance of Leopold, who’s only been in two episodes, and serves one purpose: act like the angriest man who ever lived all for the purpose of a mislead when he drops the act. I love this character, and Dan Castelleneta does such a great job doing the grittiest, most enraged possible voice, all deflating for the final line of dialogue. I also love Chalmers’s anger toward the kids not responding to his jokes (“It’s just a damn popularity contest with you kids!”)
– Speaking of anger, Apu has a wonderful tirade toward Skinner’s obliviousness that he has ripped off Jurassic Park with his novel idea, with terrific time fades as Apu gets more and more irate (“…most popular movies of all time, sir! What were you thinking?! …I mean, thank you, come again.”)
– Great moment that makes Bart truly guilty about Skinner when the bullies steal his underwear at the laundromat (“I can buy a new pair! …no I can’t. I needed those, I really did.”)
– We also get the first appearance of Luigi, the greatest Italian stereotype, voiced by Hank Azaria. Not much to really say about him, other than he’s hilarious (“Hey Salvatore, give-ah the ugly kid a plate of the red-ah crap-ah!”)
– A nice sweet moment of a depressed Skinner mournfully gazing at the school after dark, remembering the good times, varying from serious (“I learned to read because of you, Principal Skinner!”) to the not so (“I got car sick in your office.”)
– More great true-to-Skinner moments when he reprimands his troops for their lewd army chants, who then switch over to a clean one about how old the Parthenon is.
– Another first appearance, this time of Gerald, the one-eyebrowed baby, Maggie’s arch nemesis. The baby has got to be up to something.
– I always thought the kids wrecking total havoc throughout the school was a bit much, like that wouldn’t happen with the other teachers and faculty still there, no matter how much they didn’t give a shit. I guess it’s worth it for Chalmers’s blasé attitude (“The way America’s public schools are sliding, they’ll all be this way in a few months. I say, lay back and enjoy it! It’s a hell of a toboggan ride.”)
– An absolutely lovely ending with the “Kick Me” and “Teach Me” signs, and one final “Oh, mercy” from Skinner.
Me Blog Write Good 
If you want a great indication of how the writing style of the show has changed drastically over the years, just check out the animatic for this episode, included on the Season 5 DVD. The ending to this one, so perfect in its low-key character interaction that still stays so true to who Bart and Skinner are? That was originally a scene of Homer smashing through the school corridors with a bulldozer, laughing like a madman.
I think it’s really interesting to note that Jerkass Homer would occasionally crop up in the early versions of these classic episodes, but back then, the writers had the good sense to say “No, this is too extreme, we need to dial it back.”
Exactly. A writer, especially in comedy, always try to do something more, to push the limits of the comedy, and The Simpsons always did that. But as you said, whenever they came up with a “too much-over the top idea”, they knew when it wouldn’t have worked. That’s the difference between great writers and a bunch of pathetic incompetent led by a sleazy money lover.
At Fort Springfield, Skinner’s recruits practice with mortars while Skinner watches through binoculars the spots where the bombs land. When he sees Bart approaching, he orders the recruits to change their trajectories.
Cut to the Kwik-E-Mart, where sixteen brand new gas pumps are being installed. Apu proudly tells Sanjay, “At last we can compete with the Gas ‘N’ Gulp.” They then hear whistling overhead and look up.
Cut back to Fort Springfield, where Bart and Skinner discuss trying to get rid of Flanders – both oblivious to the giant, smoking red ‘K’ landing upright in the ground nearby.
Yet another moment that would never happen on the show these days.
I call it “Billy and the Cloneasaurus”
I found the whole scenario with Bart befriending Skinner as Bart feeling he went too far.
I also love the Kwik-E-Mart scenes when Apu went off on Skinner’s novel but moreso the gas tanker scene Des Elmes mentioned. So hilarious.
The Alien parody was fantastic too.
The only thing I find odd is that it doesn’t really feel like it would be the 100th episode. Although, I don’t recall them even advertising it as such, so it could just be that they wanted to keep it low key.
No, it was definitely advertised as the 100th episode. It wasn’t a huge thing like later milestones, but it was there.
I agree about Bart. He can actually be nice, sweet kid when he feels he’s gone too far. The funny thing is, Bart really isn’t entirely to blame. Yes, he brought the dog to school, but he tried to put it somewhere secure. It wasn’t Bart’s fault the vent was so easy for the dog to open. It just always kinda bugged me how much Bart takes blame, or when Lisa shames him the next day.
They mention it in the chalkboard gag.
Can’t believe you didn’t highlight my favorite moment of the whole episode. Santa’s Little Helper falls into Chalmers’ arms, and the superintendent finds him so cute that he’ll let Skinner off the hook. And then greasy half-naked Willie falls on Chalmers.
I love that just for how he screams ‘AHHHH MAKE WAY FOR WILLY!’, just perfect timing and choice of words
Great episode – it also has my favourite Skinner-Chalmers exchange:
“Did you just call me a liar? Oh… that’s much worse.”
A pretty strong episode. In a season that’s been pretty crazy so far, it’s nice to see a more low key episode that harkens back to seasons 2 and 3. It also provides much for Skinner’s character. One of my favorite parts about this show in its early seasons is how the characters feel like real people through their emotions, dialogue, etc. I also like how the series chooses to provide focus on Skinner, as something the later seasons miss out on is focusing on its secondary characters.
Being a season 5 episode means it’s got tons of funny bits, too. “Grease me up, woman!” “Did you just call me a liar?!”, Leopold’s appearance, “It’s just a damn popularity contest with you kids.”, Apu’s rant against Skinner’s idea (capped off with “Thank you, come again” at the end), Skinner not being able to buy a new pair of underwear, Luigi’s insults, and how the Status Quo is restored (“God has no place within these walls! Just like facts have no place within organized religion!”) Again, it’s a pretty stellar episode with funny jokes and a pretty solid emotional core.
“God has no place within these walls! Just like facts have no place within organized religion.”
I think this line would have been funnier if it were just the first sentence.
Also, lots of great little details in this one; I especially like Skinner’s cross-eyed expression after the Parthenon chant, Lisa adorably cracking up over Bart’s home movie on the toilet, and how Agnes lets Bart in while referring to her son as though he were Bart’s age (“Seymour, do you want me to tell you when it’s 7:30?”). Also, it’s funny to imagine just how negatively Skinner must have reacted to his Jewish student requesting the day off for Yom Kippur.
OH, and Martin shouting opera lyrics while he irons his shirt in his cage. Is that a reference to something? Either way, it’s hilarious and makes that whole plot turn worth it.
I love that they were all real detergent brands. and “Mr. Kookalabanza” still amuses me all the time. and Billy and the Cloneasaurus has to rank in the top 3 simpsons book/movie gags where I want to buy a poster of it, but don’t want to pay 15 bucks to someone who didn’t even buy a license. The best part of that exchange, to me, was how Apu’s “thank you, come again” was sort of twanged out of its usual melody because he was so out of sorts. all “thankyawww”
I think the reason the school went so wild is the same reason when Marge taught at the school, Bart still got beaten up: nicey-nice people are easily distracted. We didn’t see anything grabbing Flanders’ attention, but something probably did. He probably spent a significant portion of his day calling Reverend Lovejoy asking for advice.