Another Simpsons Clip Show
| "Another Simpsons Clip Show" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| File:2f33.jpg | |
| Episode no. | Season 6 |
| Directed by | David Silverman[1] |
| Written by | Jon Vitti[1] |
| Original air date | September 25, 1994 |
| Episode features | |
| Chalkboard gag | "I will not use abbrev"[1] |
| Couch gag | The Simpsons sit on the couch and get crushed by the paper cut-out foot from Monty Python's Flying Circus.[2] |
| Commentary | Matt Groening David Mirkin David Silverman |
"Another Simpsons Clip Show" is the third episode of The Simpsons' sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 25, 1994. In the episode, Marge reads a romance novel in bed, and it prompts her to have a family meeting, where the Simpson family recall their past loves in form of clips from previous episodes.
The episode was written by Jon Vitti and directed by David Silverman. It is the second Simpsons episode featuring a clip show format and uses clips from all the previous five seasons. The episode features cultural references to the 1992 book The Bridges of Madison County and the 1967 film The Graduate. The episode has received rather negative reviews, since clip shows tend to be among the least favorite episodes among fans.[3] It acquired a Nielsen rating of 8.7 and was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network that week.
Plot
Marge is reading The Bridges of Madison County one night and wakes up Homer to ask if he thinks the romance has gone out of their marriage. He grumbles and throws the book into a fireplace which was built off-screen in the bedroom (but is actually a clip of Homer tossing a book into a fire from "Dog of Death"). Marge groans and falls asleep.
In the morning, Marge gets the family together to discuss romance, but they can only come up with vignettes from their failed relationships (and in the parents' case, near-extramarital paramours) in the form of clips from previous episodes. Homer, however, saves the day when he brings up how he and Marge got together (in clips from the second season episode "The Way We Was"). Ultimately, the kids do not care and wind up watching Itchy & Scratchy while Homer and Marge share another special moment.
Production
As the title of the episode suggests, it is second clip show episode of The Simpsons after "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", the 18th episode of the fourth season. It was written by Jon Vitti, who used the pseudonym Penny Wise in the closing credits because he did not want to be credited for writing a clip show, and it was directed by David Silverman.[3] The episode also includes contributions from John Swartzwelder, Frank Mula, David Richardson, Jeff Martin, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Matt Groening, Sam Simon, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky, Nell Scovell, David M. Stern, George Meyer, Conan O'Brien, Robert Cohen, Bill Canterbury, and Dan McGrath.[4]
During the early years of the show, the staff was forced by the Fox network into doing clip shows to save money.[5] There was originally intense pressure on the producers of the show to create extra episodes in each season, and the plan was to make four clip shows per season to meet that limit. Writers and producers, however, felt that this many clip shows would alienate fans of the series.[3] The Fox network's reasoning was that clip shows cost half of what a normal episode cost to produce, but they could sell syndication rights at full price.[6]
Referenced clips
This flashback episode uses clips from episodes released during the all the previous five seasons: two each from the first and second, three from the third and fifth, and six clips from the fourth season.[1][7] In addition to the longer clips, there are three montage sequences of very short clips from many more episodes. These montages depict some important themes of the show. In the first one, Bart makes prank calls to Moe, making him say: Al Coholic ("Some Enchanted Evening"), Jacques Strap ("Moaning Lisa"), I.P. Freeley ("Homer's Odyssey"), Seymour Butts ("One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish"), Homer Sexual ("Principal Charming"), Mike Rotch ("Blood Feud"), Amanda Huggenkiss ("New Kid on the Block"), Hugh Jass ("Flaming Moe's"), Ivana Tinkle ("New Kid on the Block"), I'm a Stupid Moron With an Ugly Face and a Big Butt and My Butt Smells and I Like to Kiss My Own Butt ("Treehouse of Horror II").[1] The second one contains Homer's "mmm..." lines: mmm... chocolate ("So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"), mmm... invisible cola ("Marge on the Lam"), mmm... forbidden donut ("Treehouse of Horror IV"), mmm... sacrilicious ("Homer Loves Flanders"), mmm... snouts ("Dog of Death"); mmm... free goo ("Boy-Scoutz N the Hood"); mmm... something (new).[1] The last montage, with Homer and Marge kissing, contains clips from "Homer's Night Out", "Bart Gets Hit by a Car", "Simpson and Delilah", "I Married Marge" (two clips from this episode), "A Streetcar Named Marge", and "$pringfield".[1]
| Episode (in order of appearance) | Season | Clip description |
|---|---|---|
| "New Kid on the Block" | 4 | Homer searches for his hot dog while lounging in the kiddie pool. |
| "Dog of Death" | 3 | Homer tosses Marge's book into the fireplace (in the original, the book was The Lottery). |
| "Krusty Gets Busted" | 1 | The kids watch an Itchy & Scratchy episode. |
| "Homer the Heretic" | 4 | The Itchy & Scratchy episode "Flay Me to the Moon". |
| "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" | 2 | The Simpsons eating diner (with new dialogue added). |
| "Bart's Friend Falls in Love" | 3 | The students in Bart's class watch Fuzzy Bunny's Guide to You-Know-What. |
| "I Love Lisa" | 4 | Ned serenading Maude with his G-rated version of Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?". |
| "Marge Gets a Job" | 4 | Smithers dreams about Mr. Burns flying in through the window. |
| Montage sequence | 1 – 5 | Prank calls to Moe. |
| Montage sequence | 1 – 5 | Homer's "mmm..." lines. |
| "Homer Loves Flanders" | 5 | Homer kissing Ned repeatedly at a local football game. |
| "Life on the Fast Lane" | 1 | Marge tells her story of how she almost fell in love with a French bowler. |
| "The Last Temptation of Homer" | 5 | Homer tells the story of how he almost cheated on Marge with Mindy Simmons. |
| "I Love Lisa" | 4 | Lisa tells the story of Ralph Wiggum's crush on her which ended in Ralph being heat-broken. |
| "New Kid on the Block" | 4 | Bart tells the story of how he fell for Laura Powers, the only girl he ever loved. |
| "Black Widower" | 3 | Sideshow Bob mutters "Soon I will kill you" to Selma while rubbing her feet. |
| "Lady Bouvier's Lover" | 5 | Grampa runs in on the wedding of Jacqueline Bouvier and Mr. Burns. |
| "The Way We Was" | 2 | Homer finds a love story that does not end in heartbreak: his relationship with Marge. |
| Montage sequence | 1 – 5 | Homer and Marge kissing. |
Cultural references
At the beginning of the episode, when Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are watching Itchy & Scratchy, Marge says they watch the same shows all the time, while Lisa says that the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons are just pasted together from pieces of old episodes (and pointing out that Ren and Stimpy do it all the time). This comment is a sly joke about the construction of this episode; the blackboard and couch gags are taken from other episodes, there are clips from past episodes, and the interstitials are actually clips from past episodes that feature the family members talking in the kitchen. These three aspects support the idea of this episode being a clip show to the extreme.[8]
In the clip from "Lady Bouvier's Lover", Grampa tries to stop the wedding between Jacqueline Bouvier and Mr. Burns by banging on the window while shouting "Mrs. Bouvier!", which is a reference to the 1967 film The Graduate.[9][10] Marge is seen reading the 1992 book The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller.[2]
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Another Simpsons Clip Show" finished 68th in the ratings for the week of September 19 to September 25, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 8.7.[11] The episode was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network that week, beaten only by Beverly Hills, 90210, The X-Files, and Married... With Children.[11]
The episode has received rather negative reviews, since clip shows tend to be among the least favorite episodes among fans.[3] Nevertheless, it is considered one of the better clip show episodes of The Simpsons. The episode has been described as "framed in such a way as to still make [it] worth watching,[...] like a slideshow that's not quite so boring,"[12] "another clip show, although not the worst of them,"[13] or as "the episode title pretty much says it all".[14] Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide said in a review: "The romance related storyline fizzles. That leaves us with a good collection of clips, but since we can already watch them in their original episodes, why bother with this cheap excuse for product?"[15]
Lisa's comments — "romance is dead, it has acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold over piece-by-piece" — have been used in case studies of the cultural representations of organizations.[16][17] The episode is also referenced in the 1996 song "The First Big Weekend" by the Scottish band, Arab Strap, in which it is described as "a really good episode about love always ending in tragedy, except of course for Marge and Homer".[18]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Richmond, Ray (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. p. 151. ISBN 0-00-638898-1.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b Martyn, Warren (2000). I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide. Virgin Books.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|unused_data=(help); Text "Section: "Another Simpsons Clip Show: A loving look back at the Simpsons' romantic hightlights"" ignored (help) - ^ a b c d Groening, Matt (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Another Simpsons Clip Show" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Alberti (2004), pp 316.
- ^ Mirkin, David (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Another Simpsons Clip Show" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Groening, Matt (2004). The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD commentary for the episode "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Martyn (2000)
- ^ Turner, Chris (2005). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 030681448X. OCLC 55682258.
- ^ Groening, Matt (2007). The Trivial Simpsons 2008 366-Day Calendar. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0061231304.
- ^ J Floyd King (2005-12-10). "A Special Simpsons Season Six Clip Show". Entertainment Magazine. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
- ^ a b "How They Rate". St. Petersburg Times. September 30, 1994. p. 11.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) Retrieved on December 10, 2008. - ^ Jun, Posted (2006-06-15). "The Simpsons: Another Simpsons Clip Show". Tvsquad.com. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
{{cite web}}: More than one of|author=and|last=specified (help) - ^ "DVD Review: Simpsons - Season 6". Currentfilm.com. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
- ^ Ian Jane (2005-09-09). "The Simpsons - The Complete Sixth Season : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
- ^ Jacobson, Colin (2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season (1994)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
- ^ Benshoff, H. M. (1992). "Heigh-ho, heigh=ho, is Disney high or low? From silly postmodern politics". Animations Journal (Fall): 62–85.
- ^ Clegg, Stewart (2002). "6". Management and Organization Paradoxes. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 119. ISBN 9027233071.
- ^ "♫ "The First Big Weekend" lyrics — Arab Strap". Lyrics.doheth.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
References
- Alberti, John (2004). Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press. p. 316. ISBN 0814328490.
- Gimple, Scott M. (December 1, 1999). The Simpsons Forever!: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ...Continued. HarperCollins. p. 24. ISBN 978-0060987633. OCLC 42857430.
External links
