(originally aired November 11, 1993)
Self-help gurus are a pretty open target, and this episode brilliantly nails them in a fantastic scene: self-described “PhD in Pain” Brad Goodman invigorates his crowd of suckers with catchy slogans and platitudes, leading them to grab all his books and tapes off the merch table and leave piles of money behind. Viewing the madness, Lisa points out, “He’s just peddling a bunch of easy answers.” An enthusiastic Carl passing by responds, “And how!” Perfect. All the stuff in the second act is fantastic. It’s just a little too bad we have a first and a third that have a lot of funny bits, but feel very disjointed. We open with Homer, who can hardly contain himself (or even speak properly) upon seeing an ad for a free trampoline. He sets up a backyard business charging kids to bounce, but when injuries start to pile up, he is forced to get rid of it. This is our first sign of truly insane Homer: ramming cars off the road thinking they’ll beat him to the trampoline, his dream of Homerland, his descent into madness when he repeatedly fails to get rid of the thing… first act Homer is crazy, but his incredible passion and giddiness over this bizarre venture keeps it funny.

The through-line emotion that brings us to act two is that Marge fears she is too much of a nagger, having been against the trampoline from the beginning. The segue is fair enough, especially considering the insanely disconnected act ones we’d see later on. Marge, Homer, and later the whole town are hooked onto self-help expert Brad Goodman, Albert Brooks’s most forgettable role, but still a strong outing. He delivers ridiculous lines with such a level of professionalism and calmness. At Goodman’s seminar, he latches onto the cheeky outburts of Bart, exemplifying him as a well-adjusted free spirit, turning the boy’s half-hearted excuse of “I do what I feel like” into a mantra to live by. This sort of becomes a plot line, where Bart feels a lack of identity in a town desperately trying to be as rebellious and irreverent as him. It never seems to amount to much though, as there’s no real concrete resolution to the story. The climax sort of ends on a joke and we have a scene of the family on the couch trying to recap the show, a la “Blood Feud” or “Rosebud.”

In terms of character-driven stories, we have two: Marge’s attempts to loosen up, and Bart’s losing his sense of self. The first is basically dropped half way, and the second doesn’t amount to much. Brad Goodman disappears in act three, and the story has no real ending. This isn’t exactly the most cohesive twenty-two minutes of television, sure, but there’s nothing egregiously off about it. The episode itself is saved by, as usual, the laughs. The only reason I can shrug off the ending is because it’s hilarious, and I quote it all the time (“They’re heading for the old mill!” “No we’re not!” “…well, let’s go to the old mill anyway and get some cider!”) The trampoline plot has nothing to do with the rest of the episode, but I love the black comedy that comes with seeing young children getting horribly hurt jumping on the thing. And of course Albert Brooks, who’s fantastic as always, with Phil Hartman as well. Great jokes and hilarious bits can save even the most fractured of episodes; this one may not be perfect structurally, but it’s damn funny.

Tidbits and Quotes
– Homer’s excitement over free items is great; we all know people who are more than willing to take in junk solely because they don’t have to pay for them. It’s taken even further here where Homer raves over soiled mattresses and surplus drums of mayonnaise from Operation Desert Storm.
– I’m not sure what Krusty is doing living in a residential neighborhood, nor why he appears to have sinister motives in giving away the trampoline. Regardless, him sitting on the porch aiming a shotgun at Homer when he tries to return it is hysterical (“You just keep right on drivin’.”)
– The reveal of the trampoline, with Homer jumping up and down from Bart’s window, is pretty neat, as are some of the camera angles, like Homer and the kids jumping up and down and the POV up-and-down shot from their view of a worried Marge.
– Fantastic Gone with the Wind parody with the endless lawn of injured kids. Again, children in pain are always funny. Also, it’s a perfect example of how you can break the rules and do stuff that makes no sense, like show that the lawn is thousands of feet long, only if it’s funny. Laughter excuses anything.
– I’m not a big fan of Homer’s attempts to get rid of the trampoline. It got a bit too wacky for me. I do like when his buzzsaw wraps around it and the entire electrical outlet rips out of the kitchen wall though.
– Brad Goodman is hilarious from the start with his “Feel Bad Rainbow,” listing off the personality disorders he treats. The icing on the cake is the disgruntled leprechaun depicted on the graphic.
– A wonderful bit of animation at the start of act two where Homer walks in the TV room doing a weird little strut until saying, “What up, Marge?” It’s given no context, but I love it so much. Maybe Homer was just having a particularly nice day outside and was having some fun.
– Troy McClure, brilliant as always. Two particularly great catalog titles this time, too (“Smoke Yourself Thin” and “Get Confident, Stupid!”) Brooks and Hartman together is like a match made in heaven. I only wish they had shown more of the special (“Troy, this circle is you.” “My God, it’s like you’ve known me all my life!”)
– There’s a bit with Goodman after having brought Homer and Marge on stage that’s really great. Goofing around, Bart identifies himself as Rudiger. Goodman continues spewing his gospel, and when Marge tries to correct him by telling her son’s actual name, Goodman snaps, “His name’s not important!” and continues. Marge immediately gives a half-lidded annoyed look, dually ending the first story of Marge’s elation toward Goodman, and illuminating Goodman’s slightly rougher side.
– Great look into Springfield history as Kent Brockman reports the “Do What You Feel” festival will replace the annual “Do As We Say” Festival started by German settlers in 1946.
– Wonderful Burns and Smithers moment, with Burns quite excited to eat his “iced cream” and Smithers confessing that he loves him… in those colors (“Who am I kidding, the boathouse was the time!”)
– Nice, brief appearance by James Brown. Nothing that amazing, but I do love his only line (“Hold on here! This bandstand wasn’t double bolted!”) How would he know that just from examining the rubble?
– The very ending is great, with the infamous McGonigle, which is another thing I quote a lot (“You’re off the case, McGonigle!!”)

(originally aired November 4, 1993)
Marge is a woman with a lot of gumption, she just needs someone to get it out of her. That’s why I wish Ruth Powers had become more of a regular character, like a Kelsey Grammar role where she’d come back every season or so as Marge’s wildfire friend who’d drag her on another adventure. This also is inadvertently a Homer/Marge relationship show, but not in the overdone way implying their marriage is in trouble. It’s partly based in miscommunication, and Homer’s unconscious dependency on Marge as a friend and a life partner. I appreciated the episode’s efforts to not make things lazy right from the start: Marge gets tickets to the ballet, and while Homer isn’t thrilled about it (especially after finding out there are no bears riding in tiny cars involved,) he is still ready to fulfill his promise to his wife. As always, fate smacks Homer in the face when their night out is thwarted after getting his arms trapped in two vending machines (in a spectacular sequence.) As a result, Marge takes Ruth, where they quickly form a bond and have a swell evening, with more to come.

Obviously this episode is a Thelma and Louise parody, not that it matters much. I haven’t seen the movie, but I know enough about it to understand what they’re getting at, and in that frame of mind, the episode still works. It’s not just blatant disconnected references, it’s weaving our characters into this familiar story. Around that we have the much more interesting story of Homer wandering aimlessly about town, trying to occupy his time. He’s a man who willfully tethered himself to Marge and his family, and despite his occasionally bombastic behavior, they’re who he cares about most. Without Marge, he’s lost, and he knows it. It’s intriguing to see our protagonist, who’s usually at the forefront of a story in control, not really knowing what to do with himself. Also around this we have some genius Lionel Hutz material, who sinks to a new low as Bart and Lisa’s babysitter, bitterly grumbling watching a legal procedural with the kids (“Oh, sure, like lawyers work in big skyscrapers and have secretaries. Look at him! He’s wearing a belt! That’s Hollywood for ya.”)

The two stories collide pretty seamlessly, culminating in a big police chase. I like the tag team of Homer and Wiggum, two dimwits playing off each other. We have our big finish, toying with the infamous Thelma finale and giving the conclusions to all the characters, Dragnet style, which wraps things up quickly and sufficiently. I feel an episode like this is probably pretty underrated and unnoticed, a lot of Marge episodes feel that way, but I think this one is elevated with the flip side Homer angle, and a lot of hilarious material. It’s got heart, it’s got jokes, it got Marge out of the house, I got no complaints about this one.

Tidbits and Quotes
– I’m not really familiar with Garrison Keillor, but again, the joke still works, as it could really be any sort of soft-spoken comedian, and Homer’s aggravation of not getting the humor is great (“Stupid TV! Be more funny!”)
– Some of the best Homer bits are when he adapts a serious tone, such as his response when Marge is shocked at his enthusiasm over ballet (“Marjorie, please. I enjoy all of the meats of our cultural stew.”) And of course he imagines the ballet as a circus.
– Homer’s trials with the vending machines is a real classic moment. Again, his dedication is exemplary, managing to pull a heavy vending machine down the corridor to fulfill his promise to Marge… but he gets waylaid by another machine. I love his vision of the future of being at Maggie’s wedding with his arms still stuck (“Candy and sodas for all!”) and the solution to the problem: Homer just lets go of the cans. Also great is Homer covering his bases, providing a note to Marge written by the firemen (“Mrs. Simpson, while we were rescuing your husband, a lumberyard burned down.”) Homer is crushed (“D’oh! Lumber has a million uses!”)
– For some reason, there’s a sky box in the high school gym, specifically for the ballet, I guess.
– Homer watching Marge get ready and asking her where she’s going and when she’ll be back is a cute scene, like he’s a little kid asking his mother. Also great is his attempt to use the kids to elicit sympathy, but they only give their mother praise, much to his annoyance (“Man’s best friend indeed!”)
– Bart and Lisa provide Homer with no comfort, from Bart proposing he give a makeover to his father (“Oh, that would be delight… quiet, boy!”) and Lisa’s whip noise. Homer’s attempt to call friends proves fruitless: Lenny is preoccupied with his wife (?), we get a disturbing look at Burns’s personal life, who seems to be adapting the persona of a 50s teenage girl, and Flanders, who Homer immediately hangs up on.
– I love the scene at Sh_tkickers with the unusually polite rednecks propositioning Marge. I assume this is also a Thelma and Louise reference, but again, it works just as well as a joke in and of itself.
– My favorite bit may be the grizzled old farmer lamenting over his antique cans. Dan Castellaneta puts in a lot for a one-shot role, and it has a great payoff at the end revealing Marge had to pay fifty cents for the cans, and two thousand in punitive damages and mental anguish. Also, it seems like the farmer is the same one from much later in “Natural Born Kissers.” He has his pitchfork, but has yet to add a shotgun to it.
– The flashback to Homer and Marge’s dating life is hysterical. Homer is a madman smashing a weather machine with no real reasoning, then snaps back to Marge (“You got real purty hair…”) It turns bittersweet when present day Homer giddily prepares to take revenge on the new weather machine, but sadly observes it’s not the same without Marge.
– More disturbing insight into Wiggum’s personal life, with his homemade moonshine and his story about apparently having bought a male blowup doll.
– We also learn a bit about Marge’s murmur; as her mind puts it, it’s a way to say something reassuring but noncommittal.
– Classic bit when Ruth turns off her lights and Wiggum automatically jumps that it must be a ghost car. He and Homer is terrified.
– I love the stuff at the truck stop, pushing Marge to go back to Ruth (“I hate it when the waffles stick together.” “Sticking together’s what good waffles do.”)
– Homer’s apology to Marge is really funny (“I’m sorry I haven’t been a better husband. I’m sorry about the time I tried to make gravy in the bathtub. I’m sorry I used your wedding dress to wax the car. And I’m sorry… oh well, let’s just say I’m sorry for the whole marriage up to this point!”)
– Oh, and props again to Lionel Hutz! He’s brilliant, as usual (“As of this moment, Lionel Hutz no longer exists. Say hello to Miguel Sanchez!”)

(originally aired October 28, 1993)
The first three Halloween shows are fantastic, but number four is the first one that really knocked it out of the park. It encapsulates all that a Treehouse of Horror special should be: beautifully directed, have at least some suspense and chills, all with snarky humor throughout. These are fantasy stories, so you should be aiming to do stuff you could never do in the show proper. They should be good, damn spooky fun.

No segment better encapsulates this than our first, “The Devil vs. Homer Simpson,” if not the best Halloween short, then at least among the top 3. Impulsively wishing to sell his soul for a donut, Homer is approached by Satan himself, who is none other than Ned Flanders. I really want to know who thought of this idea, it’s absolutely brilliant. The Devil, at least in the context of making deals with unsuspecting mortals, should have this facade of niceness to him, but be menacing when necessary, so Flanders is really the perfect choice (“It’s always the one you least suspect!”) Harry Shearer makes Ned sound the part too; you believe he’s this different shade of our favorite neighbor-eeno. The entire segment looks absolutely gorgeous: the fiery vortex in the kitchen, Homer’s dizzying descent into Hell, Devil Flanders’s true form as a monstrous devil (reminiscent of Chernabog from Fantasia.) On top of all this, the show is hilarious. Homer is fortunate enough to find a small loophole in his contract and gloats about it right in Lucifer’s face. We have the infamous Jury of the Damned, including Richard Nixon, who at the time wasn’t dead yet (only six months left, Tricky Dick!) and one of Lionel Hutz’s best appearances, and since he only has about three lines, that’s saying a lot.

“Terror at 5 1/2 Feet” is the weakest of the two, but that’s only because it’s sandwiched between two powerhouses. It’s pretty great though; like the famous Twilight Zone short, Bart becomes increasingly paranoid that a gremlin is dismantling the school bus from the outside. Even in such a small environment, the direction remains just as intense, with appropriate flashes of lightning and dramatic angles and push-ins toward the window where the monster may or may not be wrecking havoc. There’s particularly great animation on Bart as he becomes a twitchy, unhinged mess over the situation, especially when he desperately tries to get his beloved friend Milhouse to believe his ravings. I also love that they retained elements of the source material even though it makes no sense, like the airplane window shade and the pressurized cabin. I also think this is the first appearance of Uter, the giddy German exchange student (just in time for him to be eaten in next year’s Halloween show.) In the end, Bart is proven right, but to Skinner, that don’t matter (“Right or wrong, your behavior was still disruptive, young man. Perhaps spending the remainder of your life in a madhouse will teach you some manners.”) Sometimes the best way to end one of these shorts is with a punch in the face. Or someone get decapitated (“Hidely-ho, Bart!”)

“Bart Simpson’s Dracula” is pretty much just as masterful as the first segment. Mr. Burns lures the Simpsons into his spooky castle, clearly nothing suspicious, and Bart and Lisa discover he is in fact a vampire. Again, the direction is spectacular; almost every shot in the episode feels dynamic and suspense-building. It also may be the funniest segment, a lot due to everyone’s complete obliviousness to Burns being a vampire, despite increasingly glaring clues (“Dad, this is blood!” “Correction: free blood!”) A lot of the greatness of these segments is managing to keep the dramatic aspect of the stories going while cramming in as many jokes as possible. Bart smashing through Lisa’s window and going to bite her is kind of intense, but it’s put between a whole mess of jokes. In the end, Homer kills Burns (first staking his groin, then his heart), but it turns out he wasn’t the head vampire. Marge was, and the entire family except for Lisa are vampires too. Right before they go into the kill, the show inexplicably ends with an homage to A Charlie Brown Christmas. Why? No reason. Simple holiday mix-up. It’s an unbelievable show, one that all future Halloween specials are now forced to live up to.

Tidbits and Quotes
-This episode has the very last wrap-around framing device for a Halloween show, and it’s a great one, with Bart posing as a sub for Rod Serling in Night Gallery. Marge puts in her traditional Halloween warning, and we’re treated to many parodies of famous paintings, from the obvious (Lisa as Munch’s “The Scream”) to a bit more obscure (Homer in Jacques-Louise David’s “Death of Marat” holding a grocery list instead of a dying note.) Sweet, sweet candy for those who have taken their share of art history courses.
– I love the donut fashion show dream opening of the first segment, and the reveal that Homer seems to have dozed off while standing up in the break room. Narcolepsy? Also great is his anger toward his past self for having eaten his emergency donut (“Bastard! He’s always one step ahead!”)
– The genius of dim-witted Homer: he appears to have outsmarted the Devil, since if he doesn’t finish the forbidden donut, he’s in the clear. Throw out the donut, toss it in a woodchipper, chuck it in the ocean. Nope. He puts it in the fridge, albeit with warning post-its, but a sleepwalking Homer eats it anyway.
– Bart and Devil Flanders’s nonchalant greetings to each other is great. As is Flanders’s annoyance at Lisa’s insistence on a fair trial (“Oh, you Americans with your due process and fair trials. This is always so much easier in Mexico.”)
– The Hell sequence is brilliant, and I only wish we saw more. Homer getting chopped to bits is pretty brutal, but hilarious nonetheless.
– As mentioned, Lionel Hutz is absolutely hysterical, showing up in the Simpson house combing his hair with a fork (“I watched Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn’t on, but I think I got the gist of it.”) Later, he backs himself into a corner by defining a contract as unbreakable, then runs off to the bathroom. When Marge checks on him later on, Hutz has already taken off, the window wide open with wind blowing through.
– Strangely enough, Blackbeard steals the show amongst the jurors, from being forced to sit in a high chair (“This chair be high, says I!”) and being exposed as illiterate (“‘Tis true. My debauchery was my way of compensatin’!”)
– Great twist ending regarding the wedding photo, and of course, spectacular big finish with Donut Head Homer.
– I love the half-assed Krusty trading cards: Krusty visits relatives in Annapolis, Maryland, Krusty poses for trading card photo.
– Again, at this point I might as well just run off all the great jokes: Skinner on the bus (“I’m riding the bus today because Mother hid my car keys to punish me for talking to a woman on the phone. She was right to do it,”) Otto running Moleman’s AMC Gremlin off the road, which comes to a stop before a tree, and then violently explodes, Ralph saying “You’re deceptive,” Kang’s Charles Nelson Reilly nervous murmur finding a gremlin is dismantling their ship, “Now I’ve gotten word that a child is using his imagination, and I’ve come to put a stop to it,” “Me mule wouldn’t work in the mud. So I had to put seventeen bullets in ‘er!” Homer driving by during the climax with all his stolen marina goods, and Nelson’s well-timed “Ha-ha!” as Bart is being hauled off.
– As I said, everyone is incredibly dense regarding Burns being a vampire: the police destroying the Egyptian wing of the museum, the Simpsons being told to wash their necks (Homer proudly holds up a filth-ridden rag), and Burns flat-out admitting his plans over the intercom accidentally (“Oh, son-of-a-bi-“) Also, great animation with Burns’s shadow’s independent movements. A lot of the acting is so great, through the whole show, but the third act has a lot of it. Every character is so full of life, so animated, if you will.
– This is getting too long, it happens when the episode is so great. Let’s finish this off: Yes, I Am A Vampire, with forward by Steve Allen, Bart’s Three Stooges impersonations, the effects of Homer’s drinking (“Now let’s go back to that… building… thingy, where our beds and TV… is,”) Abe wanting to stake Bart before realizing he’s a vampire, “Kill my boss? Do I dare to live out the American dream?,” “Super fun happy slide!” (with Homer’s excited elbow movements), and Burns coming back alive briefly just to fire Homer before expiring.

(originally aired October 14, 1993)
So we follow the bonkers “Cape Feare” with an episode just as crazy. It’s pretty jarring how nutty the series got so quickly. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for fans to return in the fall to find that their beloved show had gone insane. I was surprised to find this episode is pretty polarizing, with some thinking Homer’s characterization was pushed too far, and some others believing this to be the first appearance of the dreaded “Jerkass Homer.” I am not in this belief at all; this is one of the most memorable and hilarious episodes the series has to offer. The entire episode is a weird send-up of Animal House-style movies, but through our main character’s eyes. Homer’s seemingly cruel actions are only done out of delusion. This is a man so reliant on TV that it shapes his reality, to the point that he thinks his college antics are redeemable and his hatred of the dean is acceptable, despite him actually being a pretty swell guy. He is misguided in his efforts, but never overtly malicious. It’s a parody about a man attempting to live a parody.

Before we hit campus, we get a brilliant opening with a safety commission paying a surprise visit to the power plant. Homer’s complete incompetence is quickly exposed, leading him to be forced to pass Remedial Physics 101 at Springfield University in order to keep his job. Things are crazy right off the bat as Homer manages to create a meltdown in the simulator (even though there was no nuclear material in the truck), and easily shakes off his radioactive green glow when he hears it’s lunchtime. Despite the madcap elements of this show, it stays pretty focused and has a brisk pace. By act two, Burns has gotten Homer into college, and upon setting foot on campus, he believes he’s in a college movie, berating “nerds” and begrudging the affable Dean Peterson. His attitude turns a bit when he gets friendly with his geeky tutors, and attempts to enlist them in wacky college hijinks, all of which go awry.

The number of laugh-out-loud moments in this episode are staggering: guarding the plant bee, the professor dropping his notes, Homer’s “prank” call to the dean, Snake posing as a wallet inspector, “Curly, straight!,” it just goes on and on. It bears a lighter tone than the equally wacky “Cape Feare,” but is still pretty ridiculous overall. However, as different as it is from a season 3 episode, it still feels very true to the show. Characterizations can wax and wane depending on the circumstances; here, Homer’s misguided delusions based upon old college movies lead him to become a bombastic lout. His behavior may emulate what “normal” Homer would do in a season 11 episode, but here, it’s done with a purpose. This is a definitive classic, and one of the funniest episodes of the series.

Tidbits and Quotes
– Homer seems so focused on such an asinine task of watching the bee, and it’s hilarious watching him freak out about screwing it up. Smithers’s “I’m afraid he couldn’t bee here,” is fantastic, as is the classic Homer line, “The bee bit my bottom! Now my bottom’s big!” Also to note, this episode has some pretty exaggerated animation, particularly with Homer running down the corridor and his exaggerated posterior welt. There’s a lot of great “off-model” moments in this episode that really get out a lot of character and emotion. You’ll see none of that nowadays.
– Burns’s bribery technique being reminiscent to giving away game show prizes is a great moment, as is one of the inspector’s enthusiastic response to it (“The box! The box!”) Also great is when the other inspector lectures Burns that he can’t just throw money at a problem to make it go away, Mayor Quimby, donning a fur coat with a giant ‘$5000’ price tag on it, comes into frame to deliver the punchline (“Gentlemen, I’ve decided there will be no investigation. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go away.”) The outro to the scene is wonderful too, the great line reading from Burns (“I have a feeling you’ll be dropping the charges,”) and his quiet chagrin about the painters having moved his desk. Every scene in this show is brilliant, I’m going to try to not list every single joke here…
– I really want to read Homer’s application essay based upon how it ends (“It was the most I every threw up and it changed my life forever.”) Also, great photo of him scarfing down a birthday cake, complete with red eye. I love the admissions officer’s disturbed reaction (“Reading his essay would only waste valuable seconds.”)
– The “School of Hard Knockers” movie is one of the best moments of the entire series, one I quote endlessly with friends (“Mr. President!!“). It’s a pitch perfect parody of college movies.
– Burns appealing to the Springfield U council is such a fantastic scene, starting from his incredibly imposing chair, to one of the best uses of Burns’s total lack of strength as he feebly “attacks” one of his fellow councilmen with a bat. I love the man’s little “Stop that” in-between his sentence. Upon collapsing, an exhausted Burns orders Smithers, “Dismember the corpse and send his widow a corsage.”
– And so, the GED Homer worked so hard to get a mere six episodes ago goes up in flames. At least we got a classic line out of it (“I am so smart! S-M-R-T! …I mean, S-M-A-R-T!”)
– The start of Homer’s first class is an absolutely classic scene. The instructor’s clever joke (“Out with the old, in with the nucleus”) is completely lost to Homer, but him accidentally dropping his notes kills Homer, in one of Dan Castellaneta’s greatest performances.
– I love the stupid joke involving Homer stealing cinder blocks from a construction site to use for his faux college dorm, only to have inadvertently thwarted the building of a children’s hospital. It’d be cruel if it weren’t so dumb. And funny.
– The nerds are really great characters, I wish they could have found some way to bring them back more. When one tells Homer he needs to memorize the periodic table, Homer dismissively claims he’ll just write it on his hand. Another nerd scoffs (“Including all known lanthanides and actinides? Good luck!”)
– Homer’s prank game plan is another classic line (“We roll him up in a carpet and throw him off a bridge!”) More great animation of the motion wipe on the angry Sir Oinks-a-Lot biting Homer. Plus we get the great Dean line (“That sounded like a pig fainting!”) and a great, quick guest appearance from Richard Nixon, who apparently is one of the pig’s “very powerful friends” (“Oh, you’ll pay. Don’t think you won’t pay!”)
– Another classic scene of the Itchy & Scratchy short “Burning Down the Mouse,” where Scratchy seemingly has finally got Itchy right where he wants him: in front of piles of explosives. However, before the big finale, one of the nerds unplugs the TV. Bart and Lisa are horrified. Upon getting it back on, the cartoon is over. Krusty serves to dig the knife even deeper for Bart and Lisa, having just missed history being made forever (“WOAH!! They’ll never let us show that again! Not in a million years!!”)
– I love how even Marge, who’s pretty much a saint in putting up with her husband’s antics, can’t even defend him in the last act (“I want those geeks out of my house.”) To get the nerds back into college, Homer devises that they pull off a zany scheme. Now, here is a perfect example of the distinction between Homers. He’s only of the mindset that a zany scheme will work because he’s trying to emulate similar situations from TV. In later years, Homer will just come up with something stupid off the cuff with no reference to anything. There’s a difference.
– I don’t know why, but I love Homer’s master plan for passing the final exam (“During the exam, I’ll hide under some coats, and hope that somehow everything will work out.”)
– The montage of Homer studying is wonderful. In later episodes, they’d use a montage every single episode (sometimes twice) just to kill time or move the story along, but this montage is memorable, funny and used effectively. The animation of Homer turning in his exam is wonderful; each action is clearly thought out and looks so fun. Homer is truly alive. And of course, the final result: Homer fails anyway.
– I love the end credits images of Homer’s second run of college played over “Louie Louie” (what else?)