(originally aired November 3, 1992)
Bart is a truly incorrigible hellion, seemingly from birth as we’ve seen in some flashbacks. The reasons for his behavior are occasionally explored, but ultimately he’s just an out-of-control kid, doing whatever his sick little mind desires. This episode shines a light on Homer and Marge’s parenting, and why exactly Bart manages to get away with so much shit. A warning flag is put up during parent teacher night over Bart’s shenanigans, on that he doesn’t get enough discipline for his actions. It’s here we see a different shade to Homer;,one that seems to be overly forgiving to his son. Perhaps due to his laziness or ineptitude, Homer seems to find it difficult to punish Bart, no matter what horrible thing he’s done. Following the reckless destruction of Abe’s dentures, Bart is sent to bed without supper, with the boy calling the bluff. In a pivotal scene, later that night, Bart realizes they aren’t budging, but just before he reconsiders his life of sin, Homer sneaks him some pizza, his buckling starting the chain of chaos all over again.

Alongside Bart’s antics is extensive coverage and promotion for the upcoming Itchy & Scratchy movie, which is slated to be the biggest motion picture event ever (though it claims to only feature 53% new footage.) With this, we get a bunch of great animation parodies, starting with the pretty brutal portrayal of Korean studios as demoralizing workhouses. The earliest I&S cartoon “Steamboat Itchy,” obviously a “Steamboat Willie” parody, is amazing: it looks so much like the original cartoon, it’s astounding. Also fantastic is the riff on 1940s wartime cartoons where the cat and mouse, modeled in a cutesier Warner Bros. style, brutally kill Adolf Hitler, and a strong-chinned, grinning, able-bodied FDR comes to kick his corpse in the ass. Not only is it great to see different styles and looks of animation in the show, but it’s amazing how good it all looks; it’s a real treat to watch.

These two stories intertwine in Homer finally getting the gumption to punish Bart: he is forbidden to ever see the Itchy & Scratchy movie ever, ever. This is another example of how Homer, when motivated, can get really be firm and focused on something. He’s concerned for his son’s future, and believes that not budging from this punishment will be the first step to helping him. The I&S movie is a monster hit and the talk of the town, with Bart miserably sitting in the sidelines. Even Marge and Lisa think it’s gone too far, but Homer remains true to his guns, having faith it will be all worth it. And, in the end sequence, it does: future Bart is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I like to see this is an accurate future; I think that Bart is one of those kids who will grow out of his rambunctious youth to actually make something of himself, so I think the end, with him and elderly Homer finally watching the I&S movie (a double bill with Beauty and the Beast) is a really sweet and satisfying ending to a dynamite show.

Tidbits and Quotes
– “Star Trek XII: So Very Tired” is a great opening parody, with Hank Azaria doing an amazing Kirk and Sulu (“Again with the Klingons…”)
– Homer in Miss Hoover’s class is really great; for some reason being in an elementary school gives Homer free reign to behave like a kid and make armpit noises. The drawing of him with a vacant stare and innocent smile, his gut bulging from the small desk chair, is absolutely hilarious.
– Where Homer receives all praise for Lisa, Marge is raked over the coals about Bart. The progressive dark turns regarding his behavior get funnier as they get grimmer, from a hidden switchblade inside a Krusty doll, to a child witness pointing out where Bart stuck a firecracker in him on an anatomically correct doll.
– Homer exhibits an unusual knowledge of past Supreme Court Justices for some reason (“Mmmm… Warren Berger.”)
– The dream sequence of Bart as a disheveled pudgy male stripper may be one of my favorites of the whole show; it’s so disturbing, but in the best way possible.
– I love Homer’s thought process in punishing Bart: since he broke Abe’s teeth, he gets to break his. Abe’s eager willingness to do so is also wonderfully unsettling. As is later when Jasper holds a gun to Abe when he tries to swipe his dentures late at night.
– I think this is the first appearance of Bumblebee Man, star of Latino daytime TV. He’s proven to be one of the most bizarre secondary characters ever, with no real explanation for who this guy is, but that makes it all the funnier.
– Homer’s blind eye to Bart gets worse and worse, to when Marge comes home to find Bart tearing up the carpet as Homer vacantly stares at the TV (another hilarious drawing.) I like how cavalier both of them are about their roles: prompted to do something, Homer sends Bart to his room. Bart casually leaves (“See you in the funny pages!”)
– Desperate to get Homer to rescind his ban on the I&S movie, Bart pulls on his pants, preparing to be spanked. Homer shouts, “Don’t point that thing at me!”
– Absolutely perfect that during the moon landing, teen Homer is obliviously lounging in a bean bag chair listening to Ohio Express.
– Great heart-to-heart with Bart as Homer explains reasoning for the punishment (“You know, when I was a boy, I really wanted a catcher’s mitt, but my dad wouldn’t get it for me. So I held my breath until I passed out and banged my head on the coffee table. The doctor thought I might have brain damage.”) When asked what the point of the story is, he answers, “I like stories.”
– Nice swipe from Lisa talking about how Michael Jackson and Dustin Hoffman did uncredited guest spots in the I&S movie (“They didn’t use their real names, but you could tell it was them.”)
– I love the humongous-sized I&S movie novelization; considering what the show is, what could be in there to make it that long?
– The billboard for the movie is also amazing, as is the replacement following the end of its run for Springfield Barber College.
– Finally, I love that when we finally see the movie, one of universal acclaim and winner of nine Academy awards, it’s basically the same exact stuff we see in the regular cartoon. Still funny, but even funnier due to all the hoopla attached to this particular incarnation.

(originally aired October 29, 1992)
The Treehouse of Horror specials are always just so fun. The Simpsons universe is crazy enough, but there are still established rules to be followed. In the Halloween shows, all rules go out the window, and we’re treated to creepier and wilder stories involving everything from aliens to zombies. It’s hard to write analyses for these specials since there’s not much to really dissect, they’re just really funny. The first segment “Clown Without Pity” is a great parody of the old Twilight Zone segment with the killer doll, here being a Krusty doll hell bent on killing Homer. There’s the classic opening with the shopkeeper at the House of Evil (why exactly would Homer decide to look in there for Bart’s gift?) We have the great line from Patty after Homer runs naked through the kitchen (“There goes the last lingering thread of my heterosexuality.”) And we have the wonderfully dumb resolution of simply switching the Krusty doll from “Evil” to “Good.” It’s not one of the show’s most dynamic stories, but it’s so incredibly funny in its own right.

In contrast, “King Homer” is very ambitious and spectacularly well done, one of the best in the series. It condenses the classic King Kong perfectly into a slim seven minute story, featuring Mr. Burns’s expedition to Ape Island to capture the giant beast known as Homer. Homer already has the appearance of a big, dumb gorilla, so the design of him as King Homer must not have been a huge stretch. The segment honors the original film, but also pokes at it, with Burns laying out the specifics of his new Broadway show (“Well, the Ape’s going to stand around for three hours or so. Then we’ll close with the ethnic comedy of Duggan and Dirschwitz.”) The segment looks great, done in black-and-white, of course, with all of the in-period characters and set designs looking fantastic. We also get our first fatalities in Treehouse of Horror history with King Homer eating Lenny, Smithers, and Shirley Temple (I love the small bit where her little shoes fall off as Homer picks her up to eat her.) The twist on Homer not being able to climb one story is great, as is the eventual wedding between him and Marge, the church divided by monkey and man.

“Dial ‘Z’ for Zombies” is sort of a riff on Night of the Living Dead. In the early 90s, zombies weren’t quite as ubiquitous in mainstream horror culture as they are now. This is another segment I can’t comment much about, but it has a lot of great bits in it. Bart wearing the Thriller record jacket on his head, the zombies acknowledging Homer is actually brainless, “To the book depository!” and of course, Homer shooting a zombified Ned Flanders (“He was a zombie?”) We also have a brief bit from Kang and Kodos, which is slightly out of place, but it wouldn’t be a Halloween special without them. Homer mows down George Washington, Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare, who I guess happen to have been buried near Springfield. I’ve not much to say about this one, other than it’s got plenty of clever, hilarious moments to cover the entire running time.

Tidbits and Quotes
– The wrap-around stories will soon be lost from these specials due to time constraints, but this one is definitely my favorite one, featuring a Halloween party at the Simpson house. There’s a lot of great jokes, like Homer eating the grapes and spaghetti (“It was an evil game,”) his failed attempt to tell a scary story, and Ned’s surprisingly gruesome costume.
– I noticed this episode has a large number of voice-over lines where the lip sync doesn’t match. The commentary reveals that they had an huge number of retake lines they did after the animation was complete that they had to cut from existing footage. But hey, the show’s hilarious, so it worked in the end.
– Great response from Abe on where he got all the money he gave to Bart (“The government. I didn’t earn it, I don’t need it, but if they miss one payment, I’ll raise hell!”) I also love later when he claims each present is evil because he just wants attention.
– The bottomless pit is a ridiculous set piece where Homer disposes of the Krusty doll, a mobster tosses a body, and some poor schmoe tries to get rid of a box full of nude photos of Whoopi Goldberg… only to have the pit toss it back up.
– One more inappropriate hold music gag (maybe the last?) where Marge calls regarding the killer Krusty doll, only to have “Everybody Loves a Clown” play on the other end.
– An early, absolutely brilliant hinting at Smithers’s sexuality, where he comments how he doesn’t think women and sea men mix. Burns snidely retorts, “We know what you think.”
– Barney gets two great moments during the Broadway show: when King Homer is first revealed (“Look at the size of that platform!”) and when the ape snatches all of his peanuts and he proceeds to kick his gigantic foot futilely (“I said one!!”)
– Burns is full of great lines in the “King Homer” segment: his lament in the hotel room after the fiasco (“I’m dreading the reviews, I can tell you that”) and his comments after Homer’s fall (“I remember when Al Jolson ran amok at the Winter Garden and climbed the Chrysler building. After that, he couldn’t get arrested in this town.”)
– Very biting sight gags of having ‘Capital Critters,’ ‘Family Dog’ and ‘Fish Police’ tombstones in the Pet Cemetery, referring to the incredibly short lived animated shows that sprung following the success of The Simpsons.
– Bart’s incantations of four similar items in a row are great, like “Collin, Rayburn, Nars, Trebek” being game show hosts, and oddest of all at the end, “Trojan, Ramses, Magnum, Shiek” being all brands of condoms.
– Willie’s cavalier attitude toward the zombies is hilarious. I occasionally still quote, “Pretty as a picture!” Also, Homer’s cavalier attitude about not having barricaded the door (“Why? …..oh right, the zombies.”)
– My favorite part of the show is probably the unusually cordial nature of the zombies upon re-entering their graves (“Excuse me, I’m John Smith.” “John Smith, 1882?” “My mistake!”)

(originally aired October 15, 1992)
Homer is a man of pure heart, but of horrible judgement. A fair share of Homer/Lisa episodes are interesting in seeing Homer’s attempts to feebly understand her daughter’s troubles, a girl who operates at a much higher emotional frequency than himself. Here, an unflattering caricature makes Lisa conscious about her image, and Homer’s solution is to enter her daughter into a beauty pageant. Marge rightfully points out that that’s the worst possible thing he could have done, and he’s looking at Lisa with a loving, but inherently biased, father’s eyes. Homer retorts, “Well if I could gouge out somebody else’s eyes and shove them into my my sockets I would; but to me, she’s beautiful!” He knows Lisa will win and she’ll be in better spirits again, so much so that he pays the pageant entry fee by selling his ticket to ride on the Duff blimp. When the chips are down, Homer is continuously shown to sacrifice what means most to him for the happiness of his family, and hearing this, Lisa agrees to do the pageant for her father.

In this day and age where we’ve lived through many pageant scandals and shit on TV like Toddlers & Tiaras, a show has a lot more ammo to use to mock, but here, the only real parody element to the pageant is Amber Dempsey, cutie pie extraordinaire with eyelash augmentation only legal in Paraguay. Her vacuous sweetheart persona completely wins over the judges, and despite Lisa’s crazy dance number and use of petroleum jelly (however much Homer didn’t eat), she still wins first prize. They couldn’t end the episode like this, however; as hinted at the pageant, runner up takes the crown if something were to befall the winner. So what happens? Amber gets struck by lightning, her royal scepter being actual metal rather than plastic. It’s so overtly grim, but hilariously so; part of me almost wishes she had actually been killed, but we get a good joke from Dr. Hibbert that Amber has already won the Little Miss Intensive Care pageant. And we also get an amazing quick scene where Lisa is being sworn in just like Lyndon Johnson after the Kennedy assassination, complete with Marge dressed like Jackie O. What a crazy show this is.

The third act revolves around Lisa realizing the dark side of her title; with the pageant being sponsored by Laramie Cigarettes, she is now their new spokesperson of sorts (honcho Jack Larson explains the situation: “It’s been an unlucky year for Laramie. A lot of the people who smoke our product have been… well, dying. And we need young smokers to take their place.”) Of course, this is something Lisa can’t stand for, so she attempts to use her menial power for good, vouching for causes that mean something to her, until those higher ups manage to find a loophole to strip her of her title. We end back with Homer and Lisa, in a really sweet wrap-up where Lisa tells her father that he did well entering her into the pageant (“The point is you wanted me to feel better about myself, and I do.”) This episode has just the right level of sweetness as a Homer/Lisa show should have, and plenty of great gags, from a slightly hung over Krusty hosting the pageant to a slightly effeminate Bart helping her sister out.

Tidbits and Quotes
– The school carnival is your classic Simpsons intro set piece with plenty of gags: Skinner throwing down the Disney lawyers (“Copyright expired,”) Bart’s three-card Monty booth disappearing in smoke, Willie proudly promoting his haggis, the “Guess Your Weight & Age” booth operator’s shock toward Homer, and ride operator Otto propelling an empty ride capsule into the school, bursting it into flames.
– I like how Homer’s fantasy of riding on the Duff Blimp starts out sort of normal, with the pilot pointing out crop irrigation. That’s a good joke, you think it’s going to be a crazy dream, but it’s not. Then they fly over the Super Bowl and fans hold up cards that form Homer’s face. Hilarious bait-and-switch on a bait-and-switch.
– The pageant commercial is great, with the aged film footage of Krusty’s seal-of-approval (“I heartily endorse this event or product”) and the sweet little girl playing the winner (“I’m as happy as a smoker taking that first puff in the morning!”) Homer enthusiastically says, “That could be Lisa!”
– Homer singing the Blimpy Boy song is funny, but him mournfully singing it after he gave up his blimp ticket, miming a pickle flying as the blimp before crumpling his head into the kitchen table, is even funnier.
– We see Marge’s first celebrity crush, Jack Nicholaus, with her fantasy of him reaching down to retrieve his ball from the hole.
– I like the running bit of Homer teaching Bart how sweet-talking women on their appearance will do wonders for you, including some stuff he’ll tell him when he’s older (we see it’s suckering a wife into doing yard work). Surprisingly, Marge and Lisa are immediately susceptible to such suckery. Bart asks his father if he knows anything else about women, to which Homer responds, “No, that’s it.”
– Krusty as pageant host is hilarious: he shows up not even knowing what the hell he’s hosting (“What is this, the Republican fundraiser?”) The best part is following a long rendition of “MacArthur Park” by Apu’s niece, a truly out-of-sorts Krusty groans, “Woah, that just kept going, huh?” Also, the amazing song he sings at the end (“L the losers in her wake, I the income she will make, T is for her tooth-filled mouth, T is for her tooth-filled mouth…”)
– Great bit with Barney on the blimp. He asks if he can drive, the pilot, naturally, can’t see the harm. Barney immediately puts it into a nose dive and crashes it, bursting into flames. A reporting Kent Brockman is stunned…. but only for very briefly (“Oh, the humanity! Anyway…”)
– Nice appearance by Bob Hope (“I want to show you what you’re fighting for, if there was a war on”), with the troops quite upset that they got stuck with Little Miss Springfield.
– I feel bad for the guy in the Menthol Moose costume. He never did anything, but Lisa kicks down the giant cigarette box, crushing him.
– Great scene with the nerds at the football game, hearing that sports funding takes away funds from education and the arts, angrily chase after the football players. Cut to a newspaper sub-headline: “Nerds Pummeled in Football Melee.”
– The loophole to oust Lisa from her crown is really brilliant. Kent Brockman reports (“The father of the deposed beauty queen, Homer Simpson, filled out the pageant application incorrectly. In the area under ‘do not write in this space’ he wrote ‘OK’.”) I also love Kent’s anger over the goat footage accidentally being played twice, causing him to storm out of the studio (“Call the weekend guy, I don’t care!”)

(originally aired October 8, 1992)
The writers have talked about a good source for ideas is looking at the Ten Commandments and seeing which one of them Homer can break. They did it previous with the 8th, and here we have the 4th: observing the Sabbath day. The ideals of hard work and altruism of an ideal religious man, say Ned Flanders, are far from the mind of Homer, who would prefer a life of sloth and ignorance. This is a great character study episode, featuring Homer at his unabashed happiest, being a complete slob free of any responsibility, before his seemingly perfect life goes up in smoke (literally). Being the first of the fourth season production run, it also boasts some incredible animation, ranging from some great character acting during Homer’s best day ever, to the amazing sequence of the Simpson house on fire.

One fateful Sunday, Homer decides to skip church… and it ends up being the best decision he’s ever made. Just seeing him home alone, left to his own devices, is funny enough: he takes great joy cursing in the shower, cavorting around in his undies, making the most unhealthy snack imaginable, watching football, and to top it off, finding a lucky penny. In stark contrast, Marge and the kids end up stuck in the unheated icebox that is the First Church of Springfield. The choice is obvious for Homer: he becomes a hedonist. Most of the episode is quite leisurely, but only that the story is very introspective. Marge is very vocal of her concerns of her husband’s soul, but there’s only so much she can do. Same with Lovejoy and Ned Flanders, though the latter does engage in an insane car chase with Homer, in the sole over-the-top crazy scene of the show. While on the path of his new life style, Homer observes other denizens of Springfield’s religions and scoffs at them: Krusty goes door-to-door raising money for the Brotherhood of Jewish Clowns, and Apu points out his statue of Ganesh he keeps at his post (“Please do not offer my God a peanut.”)

All it takes to shake Homer’s beliefs is a mere raging fire that nearly turns his home to a pile of ash. Luckily for him, Ned and a motley crew of volunteer firefighters, Apu and Krusty included, manage to rescue him and his house. As mentioned before, the sequence of Ned saving Homer is gorgeous, from him nearly falling through the floorboards into a fiery inferno, to the animation of he and Homer falling onto the mattress outside and smashing through the bottom window. One of the best things about the episode is the handling of its themes of religion, divine retribution, relations with others beliefs… it doesn’t go anywhere near being preachy or moralistic, but allows the characters, and the audience, to make what they will of the situations that occurred. For Homer, he believes God Himself saved his life, so he owes it to Him to go to church, and next week, he’s there front and center… snoring loudly. But that’s Homer, and this episode is perhaps his greatest characterization.

Tidbits and Quotes
– The first scene is so great, featuring a peaceful prenatal Homer desperately attempting to prolong his stay in his comfy womb, just as a post-natal Homer attempts to stay in his comfy bed.
– I’ve always been tempted to try Homer’s Moon Waffles: caramel, waffle batter, liquid smoke, all wrapped around a stick of butter. Then I realize I’d probably go into cardiac arrest immediately upon eating it.
– I love how Lovejoy’s vivid depictions of the fires of Hell manage to warm up his freezing audience (Bart contently sighs, “I’m there…”)
– Homer calls into Bill & Marty’s radio contest and manages to fumble his answer (but still wins) even though he’s looking right at the record jacket (“This Things I Believe.” “Can we accept that?”) Also, a wonderful Homer observation upon watching the Three Stooges (“Moe is their leader!”)
– “I… found… a penny!!” Such incredible enthusiasm; I always quote it when I find a cent-piece. I also like his thinking back of previous best days ever: marrying Marge and running joyfully under a sprinkling of beer from a ruptured tanker truck.
– Homer’s logic for not going to church is worded poorly, but still contains nuggets of truth (“And what if we picked the wrong religion? Every week, we’re just making God madder and madder!”)
– The showcase of this episode is Homer’s dream of meeting God, who has five fingers, as if He transcends the crude four-fingered animated characters beneath Him. I love His disappointment with Lovejoy, apparently not knowing whether St. Louis has a football team or not, and His parting words to Homer (“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to appear in a tortilla in Mexico.”) Also immensely quotable is Homer’s description of the Almighty (“Perfect teeth. Nice smell. A class act, all the way.”)
– Homer tells Lovejoy of his dream of meeting God (“He appeared before me in a dream, and I knew that was special because I usually dream about naked… Marge.”) I also like his attempts to swap Bible verses with the Reverend, which fails immediately.
– The car chase is so ridiculous, but hilarious for that very reason. The ending cracks me up: “Where’s this thing headed?” “Garbage Island.” [ship horn]
– We haven’t seen an Itchy and Scratchy in a while, but this is one of the best ones. I love how nonchalantly Scratchy looks out the window, and how he thinks hiding in the closet will protect him from the moon falling to crush him.
– Classic Homer quote talking to the kids (“Let me tell you about another so-called ‘wicked’ guy. He had long hair and some wild ideas. He didn’t always do what other people thought was right. And that man’s name was… I forget. But the point is… I forget that, too. Marge, you know what I’m talking about. He used to drive that blue car?”)
– I love how Marge’s last plea to Homer to go to church is instantly dismissed by a special on TV on how to make your own ladder.
– The fire spreads to the basement, right to two boxes, conveniently labeled “Oily Rags” and “Blasting Caps.” Maybe should’ve kept them in a safer place.
– I love fire chief Apu racing down the street, only to be stopped by a long line of ducks crossing (“You ducks are really trying my patience! …but you’re so cute.”)
– It’s still funny, but a little horrible that after Ned has just risked his life to save him, Homer has a delightful vision of himself on a hammock laughing while Ned burns alive in his house.
– If I can make one complaint about the show, the run of gags following Homer’s rescue seem to go on a while. Barney chopping the mailbox, the insurance agent, Kent Brockman; they’re funny bits, but I feel that they should have kept it moving to the emotional climax after all that. The only thing that is crucial is the great bit of God seemingly having a hand in instantaneously saving Ned’s house, complete with a nice rainbow.

(originally aired October 1, 1992)
This show is as multi-layered as they come, not just in its story and characters, but in its jokes. I’m referring to how intelligent some of the gags in the series can be, referencing classic literature, old films, anything that the writers think would be funny to some percentage of the audience. I don’t remember when I first saw this episode, but it must have been some time in middle school, and I had never read, or really even heard of, A Streetcar Named Desire. I still enjoyed the episode regardless; the play was funny on its surface. A song bitching about New Orleans, Apu’s solo, Flanders’ passionate “Stella!”, they were all funny instances by themselves. In high school, when we all were assigned to read the play in English class, I knew I had to rewatch this episode, and when I did, it was a completely different experience. The episode reached a new level for me having known the source material, but the jokes and story were so solid it still worked without me. Then even later, learning a bit more about Ayn Rand gave it another layer. It’s the show that keeps on giving.

In a feeble attempt to escape her marital servitude, Marge goes out to audition for a community play, a musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire. Homer is less than responsive, and his boorish, insensitive treatment of his wife is what ends up not only getting her the lead role, but riling her up with the rage needed to play a convincing Blanche. The key here is that Homer is never intentionally mean to anyone. The first act features him and the kids watching TV, where Marge tells them about the play and then leaves, with none of them being any the wiser. This seems to be TV’s function in a lot of these shows, to just drown out other members of the family, usually at the start of an episode. But the telling scene is later in bed when Homer admits he doesn’t care about Marge’s play and he can’t fake an interest like he had in other activities of her past. When Marge asks him why he never told her any of this, he responds, ever-so sincerely, “You know I would never do anything to hurt your feelings” and promptly goes to sleep. Homer is completely oblivious in how his behavior is hurting his wife, and that’s the important thing: he doesn’t realize he’s an asshole. When called out on such a thing, like being a bad father or an overall jerk, he goes into overdrive to fix things. Watching Marge’s play strangely touches Homer, and Marge is equally touched when her husband feebly attempts to explain it to her.

The musical itself… is genius. Firstly, we have Jon Lovitz as the acerbic director Llewellyn Sinclair, which is probably my favorite of his characters (maybe tied with Artie Ziff). He’s loud and demanding, a true nightmarish artiste (his best line is in response to Marge’s weak read for Blanche: “If you set out to push the bile to the tip of my throat, mission accomplished!”) He also voices Sinclair’s sister (who is nearly identical to him), who runs the Ayn Rand Daycare Center (“where A is A”) where Maggie is left at. We get a great subplot involving her attempts to relinquish her fellow toddler’s pacifiers in a Great Escape-esque sequence, culminating in a great Birds reference as Homer tactfully tiptoes through a sea of suckling babies to retrieve Maggie and slowly back out. Again, these references are funny due to their context within a story, not because we recognize them as references. The same goes for the play, which already is a joke; the idea of making an upbeat musical of the dramatic play is funny already. The opening number, riffing off of the opening number of Sweeney Todd, is hilarious, as is Apu’s ballad as the paperboy, and the ridiculous over-theatrical laser light show depicting Blanche losing her mind. But the crown jewel is the finale: “You Can Always Depend on the Kindness of Strangers” is the best song ever written on the show. That’s a bold statement that I may take back (the Planet of the Apes musical may rival it); it’s just so, so, so wrong in terms of what happens in the play, and ultimately the point of the story, but it’s absolutely hilarious turning the depressing ending into a showstopping final production number (randomly ending with “Streetcar!”) There had been songs in the show previously, but this I felt was really the first musical episode, one that prepared us for the bevy of wonderful, memorable songs soon to come.

Tidbits and Quotes
– On TV, Troy McClure hosts the Miss American Girl Pageant, which opens with the contestants singing “At Seventeen” (unironically). Again, only Phil could have hosted this event (“If you ask me, they’re all winners! We’ll be cutting our first 40 contestants right after this.”) There’s also a Mr. Blackwell expy commenting on wardrobe, who amuses Bart (“He’s such a bitch!”)
– Ned is a great addition to the cast; first in his admission that he played Blanche back when he attended an all-boys school (later he comments, “not to be an armchair Blanche” in teaching Marge how to properly break a bottle). Him playing Stanley is a wonderful contrast, and one Ned doesn’t shy away from. I feel Ned in the later seasons would be taking notes on all the offensive material in the play like a media watchdog, but here, he’s a normal guy playing a role. He takes direction, responds, “Rodger dodger!” and proceeds to throw Marge onto the bed… and his heart melts when Maggie takes his glasses. It’s completely in character, and makes Ned more like a real person than the Christian extremist he would later become.
– Lovitz goes big as Llewellyn, and he’s hilarious from his first scene (“While directing ‘Hats off to Chanukah,’ I reduced more than one cast member to tears. Did I expect too much from fourth-graders? The review ‘Play Enjoyed By All’ speaks for itself.”) Also great that his first order is for the potential Stanleys to immediately take off their shirts, and that we see Apu’s various bullet wounds from the back.
– Marge’s reservations about her character gives us a classic, telling line (“I just don’t see why Blanche should shove a broken bottle in Stanley’s face. Couldn’t she just take his abuse with gentle good humor?”) The build-up of Homer’s obnoxiousness in the background, ramming into a vending machine and honking the horn outside, is a great sequence in building Marge’s anger. This is turned humorous later when Marge rehearses at Ned’s, and Homer’s wailing winds her up further: “Let’s rehearse the bottle scene!” as she smashes another one. Ned, already with a bloody mark on his chest, worriedly suggests, “Let’s not and say we did?”
– The family talking in different accents at the dinner table gives us a Homer line I still quote today: “I’m living in a cuckoo clock!”
– Homer’s summary of the play is perfect, poorly worded, but still understanding (“The poor thing gets hauled to the nuthouse when all she needed was for that big slob to show her some respect.”) The ending as Homer realizes he’s similar to Stanley and Marge’s mollifying of him is very sweet.