The Simpsons 101-105

The Boy Who Knew Too Much

The title of this episode came from the Hitchcock classic The Man Who Knew Too Much.

This episode premiered on May 5th 1994. It ran in its usual time slot and was followed by a Simpsons rerun. It ran opposite Byrds Of Paradise, Christy and Mad About You.

The chalkboard gag is "There Are Plenty Of Businesses Like Show Business" and the couch gag is a repeat of the David Letterman set.

Bart hates being imprisoned in school on a nice day, as Lisa is trying to explain they aren't actually imprisoned Otto shows up in an actual prison bus, he has a Shining thing going on with the bus and threatens to blow their heads off if they don't sit down. Bart imagines floating down a river with Huck and Lincoln (He misspells the President's name). At school they have new chairs designed to fix kids posture and they are painful, plus the clocks were running fast all year, thanks to Bart, so they have to stay for an extra two hours to make up for it. Bart gives Mrs. Krabappal a note excusing him to go to the dentist. Skinner runs it through an old punch card computer but it's inconclusive. When they try to grill Lisa she laughs at Skinner and Willie because they keep changing their rolls as Good Cop/Bad cop. Bart sees his fantasy of Huck and Lincoln coming down the river on a raft but it turns out to be a couple of creepy bums. Skinner goes to the Natural History Museum to find Bart, meanwhile Bart goes to see the Boob-A-Rama R rated triple feature at the Aztec theater. Skinner goes to the 4-H Club and finds the building deserted and vandalized. Bart goes to an art auction and when he has the highest bit he laughs and runs out. The guy with the next highest bid also laughs and runs out. Homer and Bart see each other and pretend to be someone else as they pass. Skinner almost catches Bart but he jumps in the back of Freddy Quimby's sports car. Freddy mocks the French waiter for the way he says chowder. Bart is hiding in the kitchen when he sees something happen to the waiter. The next day Marge is reading the story about Freddy being arrested for beating the waiter and Bart gets upset because he knows Quimby is innocent but telling his story will result in Skinner shipping him off to the Christian Military Reform School. Homer gets jury duty and swears to see Freddy hang. Moe testifies that Quimby was with him on the night of the attack, and then is paid off by Wiggums. Hutz has Dr. Hibbert testify that Quimby has the evil gene, like Hitler and Walt Disney. In the jury box Apu points out that Homer is wearing a pair of glasses with eyes painted on them and is really asleep. The lawyer calls Freddy to the stand but he freaks out when the lawyer says chowder. When Bart considers testifying he imagines that Skinner sentences him to a lifetime of detention in the cafeteria. Homer finds out that if the jury doesn't come to a decision they'll be sequestered in the Springfield Palace Hotel so he votes innocent. Bart finally comes forward and describes how the waiter hurt himself. When the waiter claims he isn't a clumsy Clouseau stereotype he accidentally falls out the window. The judge rules Quimby innocent. Bart ends up with four months detention and Homer has remodeled the house in stolen hotel furniture. 

Bart uses the Li'l Bastard Clock-Tampering Kit to make the school clocks run faster. 

Bart's excuse note : Dear Mrs. Krabappal, Please excuse Bart for a dentist appointment today Please excuse the handwriting. I busted whichever hand it is I write with. Mrs. Simpsons.

Springfield Auction House, Formerly Vacant Lot

The painting at the auction is Gainsborough's Blue Boy. My grandmother had a reproduction on her wall.

Bart goes to Phineas Q. Butterfat's Ice Cream Parlor, first seen in Lisa's Pony

Skinner chasing Bart is a take on Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

When Skinner is chasing Bart he walks through a river while Terminator music plays.

This is the first appearance of Freddy Quimby. He was first mentioned in the episode Marge On The Lamb

Quimby Compound, Thursday is Ladies Night. Happy 18th Birthday Freddy. 

Bart runs into McBain (continuity error since McBain is a character in a movie played by Rainer Wolfcastle) Bart tells "McBain" his last movie stank and Wiggums makes a comment about a "magic ticket my ass" This is in reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie The Last Action Hero which came out in 1993 and was generally panned by the critics and a box office flop. "McBain's" wife is Maria, in real life Arnold had married Maria Schriver, a member of the Kennedy family. the Quimby family is based on the Kennedys.

Springfield Shopper headline: Quimby Nephew Charged In Beating, Chowder Said Wrong. 

When Bart is reading Homer's thoughts he hears him sing the Meow Mix jingle 

The courtroom artist is Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. 

When Quimby's lawyer points out the waiter wasn't born in America all the reporters run to a bank of pay phones along the back wall of the court room

The waiter hired Lionel Hutz as his attorney. 

Regular cast in the jury: Homer, Apu, Ned Flanders, Patty, Jasper, Helen Lovejoy, Moleman, Skinner. 

Jasper is happy the trial is almost over because the dog from Frasier is going to ride the dolphin from SeaQuest. Both were shows that ran opposite The Simpsons at one point. 

Bart sees a commercial for McGarnigle. His first mention was in the episode Bart's Inner Child. In this one we see a clip from the show. A kid testifies to prove McGarnigle innocent, and then is killed by the mob. 

Homer watched Free Willie, but it's the Director's Cut where Willie doesn't make it and crushes the boy. 

The Waiter's accident, he slips on some of the giant Rice Crispy Treat, smacks his head on a series of hanging skillets, shoves one hand into the blender and the other into the toaster, crashes into the stove, dumps a pot of boiling water on himself and then crashes into the closet full of rat traps. He ends up falling through a stack of glasses. When Freddy is proclaimed innocent in court the waiter protests but trips over a chair, falls out the window and lands in a truck full of rat traps. 

Rat Trap Delivery, Caution: Open Roof. Since 1989.

Lady Bouvier's Lover

This episode gets it title from the novel and movie Lady Chatterly's Lover, although the tv show plot is the G rated version

This episode premiered on May 12th, 1994 in its usual time slot. It was followed by a rerun of The Simpsons. It ran opposite the miniseries The Stand, The Magic Of David Copperfield and Mad About You.

The chalkboard gag is "I Will Not Re-Transmit Without The Express Permission Of Major League Baseball" and the couch gag is a repeat of the family shattering. 

Sideshow Mel conducts the Monkeytown Philharmonic. When one is off key he pokes it and the monkeys then attack him. It's Maggies birthday but she gets scared when everyone comes at her with cameras. The kids are forced to do a song. Marge realizes that her mother and Homer's father are lonely and wants to get them together. When they go out to dinner Abe does the Charlie Chaplin potato dance but a set of lawyers show up and demand he cease, and then smash his potatoes. Grandma bouvier's friends were Zelda Fitzgerald, Frances Farmer and Sylvia Plath. Bart sees an informercial selling animation cels from Itchy And Scratchy so he steals Homer's wallet and orders one. When Homer worries about Grandpa Abe and Grandma Bouvier getting married he thinks that him and Marge will become brother and sister and their kids will be freaks with pink skin and five fingers on each hand, we see the kids as normal humans. A guy shows up and says he has a special delivery for Homer Simpson, Bart thinks it's his animation cel so he says "that's me", the guy punches him and says to stop writing letters to Sinatra. (Sinatra would die four years later) Another guy shows up with another special delivery, punches Bart and says to stop stealing driving range golf balls. When the third guy shows up Bart is afraid to open the door but when he peeks out he sees the cel tube and opens it. The guy punches him for making him wait. (Could you get away with this much child abuse in the modern world?) When Bart opens up the package he discovers it's a cel of a nondescript arm. When Bart says he paid $350 for the cel a disembodied Nelson shows up to laugh at him, meanwhile his body is passed out at the Kwik-E-Mart. Bart goes to Comic Book Guy to find out the value of his cell arm, the only thing he can get in exchange is a Mary Worth phone (a comic strip soap opera character). Abe and Jackie go to the Seniors Swing Dance. At the dance Mr. Burns cuts in and sweeps Jackie off her feet while Abe stands in the corner and angrily frowns at them. On the way home Abe does the Goodnight Mrs. Calabash routine until lawyers of the estate of Jimmy Durante show up and give him a cease and desist order, and smash his hat. Mr. Burns is in love and Smithers is jealous. Burns can't remember the Simpson's name so Mr. Smithers tells him they are Fred and Wilma Flintstone. In the living room Bart tries to hold up Burns with squirt guns full of condiments, Bart gets the money for the cel. To cheer Abe up the guys at the retirement home get him a special cake but the stripper who was suppose to pop out drops dead. When Bart gives Homer the $350 dollars he runs off to buy transcripts of Nightline. Burns proposes to Jackie and she says yes. Just before she says "I Do" Grandpa shows up and asks her to marry him instead. She deicides she doesn't want to be married and they hop on the senior bus. A version of Simon and Garfunkle's The Sound Of Silence starts plain in a spoof on the ending of The Graduate. 

The unibrow baby is seen in this episode, he and Maggie exchange angry looks although he's still not mentioned by name. 

The grandparents cures for when Maggie starts to shake during her birthday party, Grandpa: Put some Lister's Carbolic Unguent on a wad of cotton and put it in her ear. Grandma Bouvier: A Balsam Specific. Grandpa says a Balsam Specific is burning money and they might as well get a Galvanic Belt. Bart mocks them by saying they should use Smeckler's Powder. 

There's a reel to reel tape recorder between the floors of the Simpson's house. 

Bart and Lisa sing the Armour Hot Dogs song. Armour meats went through a series of owners and currently belongs to Smithfield Foods. Homer walks by with a sign that says "Please Buy Armour tm Brand Hot Dogs. They then sing I Feel Like Chicken Tonight complete with the flapping arms dance from the commercials of the day. Chicken Tonight was a brand of sauce from Ragu, it's no longer available in the United States.

Homer quotes a Ross Perot pamphlet on how valuable nutrients can be extracted from the elderly.  Perot was a third party candidate during the 92 and 96 Presidential elections and founder of the Reform Party. 

Marge's mother lives at the Hal Roach Apartments, Retirement living in the heart of the cemetery district. Hal Roach was a studio executive during the silent movie era. He was best known for the Laurel and Hardy movies and the Our Gang shorts. 

The family goes out to dinner at the P. Piggley Hogswine's Super-Smorg.

Grandma Bouvier claims she was quite the looker and it drove all her friends crazy, Zelda Fitzgerald, Frances Farmer and Sylvia Plath. Each were famous for their depression and deaths, Farmer claimed she was forced to have a lobotomy. 

Troy McClure known for The Boatjacking Of Supership 79 and Hydro: The Man With Hydraulic Arms. (The first film is a joke about the Airport series of the 70's)

Generation X appears in this episode. It's a guy with the sides of his head shaved, wearing a plaid shirt and snarking at the TV. 

Grandpa has novelty dentures that have Kiss Me Sweetheart written in glowing ink. 

Springfield Community Center, Today: Senior Citizens Swing Dance. Tomorrow: Cat Spay-A-Thon.

Jackie gets her wedding dress at the Venus Bridal Salon, Not Affiliated With The Planet Venus. 

First Church Of Springfield, Private Wedding, Please Worship Elsewhere. 

When Grandpa Abe shows up at the church and they run away to the bus is a take on the final scene of The Graduate.

Secrets Of A Successful Marriage

This episode premiered on May 19th 1994. It ran in its usual time slot and was followed by a repeat of another Simpsons episode. It ran opposite Matlock, A The Twilight Zone special and Mad About You.

The chalkboard gag is "Five Days Is Not Too Long To Wait For A Gun" and the couch gag is a repeat of the family running into each other and exploding.

Homer is winning at poker without realizing it and he finds out he's stupid. Marge convince him to take a class at the adult education annex. Homer sees other people teaching classes and decides he can teach one. He gets hired to teach how to have a successful marriage. Homer goes around telling everyone "Can't talk now, I've got a class to teach". Homer doesn't know what to say so he takes questions from the students. Mr. Smithers says he was married once. Homer claims marriage is like eating an orange. When the class gets up to leave he starts talking about Marge so everyone comes back to hear the gossip. He reveals that Marge dyes her hair because it's naturally grey. The next day at the Kwik-E-Mart Apu mentions that they have a sale on hair dye and Marge gets mad. When Homer tries to stick to just teaching the class plans on leaving again until Homer describes how Marge likes to have her elbows nibbled on. Then he invites the class over to observe dinner at the Simpson's house. Marge kicks everyone out, including Homer, he winds up living in Bart's treehouse. Lovejoy advises Marge to get a divorce. While driving down the road Marge starts to hear Homer's voice, he's hiding in the back seat saying positive memory things. Homer cuts a bush to resemble Marge's hair but drops the plant out of the treehouse. Lisa tells Homer that he has to come up with the one thing that makes him special to Marge. Meanwhile Moe shows up. (Normally he calls her Midge). Homer shows up and Moe runs off in a panic. Homer realizes the only thing he can give Marge is total dependence, without her he'll be dead within a day. 

Adult Education Annex "We take the 'Dolt' out of A-Dolt Education"

Patty and Selma teach a class in Turn A Man Into Putty In Your Hands. Moe teaches Funk Dancing for Self-Defense. Lenny teaches How To Chew Tobacco. 

Homer's students: Otto, unknown, Princess Kashmir, Sideshow Mel, Carl, Apu, Mr. Smithers, Principal Skinner, Willie, Unknown, Mrs. Krabappal, Lionel Hutz, Barney, Jacque the bowling instructor (who tried to have an affair with Marge in the episode Life On The Fast Lane)

Smithers flashback to his marriage is a spoof of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. His marriage broke up because of his devotion to Mr. Burns.

Homer's rant to Marge: "Look Marge, you don't know what it's like - I'm the one out there every day putting his ass on the line. And I'm not out of order. You're out of order. The whole freakin' system is out of order. (And Justice For All) You want the truth? You want the truth? You can't HANDLE the truth. (A Few Good Men) 'Cause when you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do. (Patton) Forget it, Marge, it's Chinatown." (Chinatown)

Homer reading the definition of a wedding, "The process of removing weeds from one's garden". The Office would later steal this joke when Michael Scott gives the dictionary description of a wedding as the joining of two metals. 

Springfield Stores: Broken-Home Chimney Repair, Splitsville Ice Cream Sundaes, Painful Memories Party Supplies.

They hadn't done one in a while but this was another in the "Homer and Marge's marriage is in trouble" episodes. They aren't my favorites especially as the years go by and they are repeated, a lot. 

This was the last episode of the 93-94 season. There would be a big change at the start of the next season, which I'm going to watch right now.

Bart Of Darkness

This episode premiered on September 4th, 1994. The show had moved back to its original time slot on Sunday night. It had moved to Thursdays in 1990 in order to expand the weeknight Fox lineup and to compete with the #1 show on TV at the time, The Cosby Show. The lead in show was Fortune Hunter (an action adventure drama) and it was followed by Hardball (a short lived sitcom about a baseball team). The show ran opposite America's Funniest Home Videos, 60 Minutes and the NBC Sunday Night Movie: Police Academy 6. (I didn't know they made six of those movies)

The title of this episode comes from the novel Heart Of Darkness (Apocalypse Now was based on the book)

The chalkboard gag is "Beans are neither fruit or musical" and the couch gag is the family is sitting without a couch under them. It comes in as various parts and joins together on top of the Simpsons, who then collapse to the floor.

It's a extra warm day in Springfield, Moleman sets himself on fire with his extra thick glasses, All the figures at the Springfield Wax Museum melt. A guy punches a street performing hippie for singing the John Denver song Sunshine. Homer has set up a tent in front of the fridge and he cranks it down as far as possible, however it burns out the motor. An ice cream truck comes down the road but the guy is all out, he's followed by a guy selling chili and warm ginger ale. Just then the community Springfield Pool-Mobile shows up however the pool is only there temporarily and just for one day. The kids bug Homer to buy a pool. The family puts together their new pool but when they're done they've built a barn. Amish guy "Tis a fine barn, but sure 'tis no pool, English" Homer "D'ho-ith!" (I say this every time I screw something up). Seconds after finally completing the actual pool a bunch of children show up. Bart plans to jump off the treehouse into the pool but falls off and misses breaking his leg. Bart asks Milhouse to sign his cast but he writes "MilPool" and then runs off. While watching out the window Bart sees the other kids do a synchronized swimming number. Bart plans on watching TV for the summer but Krusty is running classic episodes. The first one is a 1961 interview with George Meany, the head of the AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1979. Homer goes for a swim in the pool but it's full of slime, he thinks it is The Blob but Lisa tells him he has to add chlorine, he fills it up with bleach blinding all the children. Lisa gives Bart a telescope. Homer and Marge have a midnight skinny-dip until the police helicopter flies over and hits them with the spotlight. Bart gets bored looking at the stars so he starts spying on the people of Springfield. He sees Skinner sharpening pencils, Dr. Hibbert riding his stationary bike and Jimmy Stewart as Jefferies from Rear Window. He puts the telescope away just as he hears a scream. He sees Flanders saying "Oh my god, I killed her", He turns on Classic Krusty to see Ravi Shankar. Later he sees Flanders burying something in the back yard. Martin gets a better pool so all the kids take off. The water level drops so low that Lisa can't get out. Bart has Lisa go over to Flanders house and look around. In the fridge Lisa finds a bag labeled Human Head but when she wipes it off it says Schuman Farms Head Of Lettuce. Flanders shows up as Lisa is looking upstairs. When Bart sees Flanders heading upstairs with an axe he sets out to save Lisa but gets everything in his path stuck on his cast. It turns out Maude went to Bible Camp. Flanders admits to murder, of a ficus plant. Too many kids get in Martin's pool and it ruptures. He ends up naked and singing Summer Wind instead of the closing credits.

Pool Sharks: Where they buyer is our chum. (there is an image of a guy on an inner tube surrounded by attacking sharks. The pools: The Hick Tub (wooden) The Insta-Rust, The Lightning Magnet, The Tinkler

Lisa's swimming pool scene is a take on the Esther Williams movies of the 1940's.

Itchy And Scratchy Planet Of The Aches (a Planet of the Apes card) Itchy seals Scratchy behind a wall. (from the Edgar Allen Poe novel The Cask Of Amontillado) 3000 years later Scratchy, still alive, is removed by futuristic Itchys who treat him well until they take him to a coliseum and use their brain power to slice him up. (This is a spoof on the original Star Trek pilot The Cage).

Bart calls 911 and gets the emergency hotline where he has to punch in the number for the crime being committed, he randomly punches in numbers and get Regicide. It asks if he knows the name of the regent being murdered to press 1.

Lisa's Rival

This episode premiered on September 11th 1994. It ran in its new regular time slot. It ran opposite The Emmy Awards (The Simpsons had been nominated in two categories, both music), The Boys Are Back (A short lived sitcom) and Unsolved Mysteries

The chalkboard gag is "No one is interested in my underpants" and the couch gag is the family swims in, Bart is wearing a snorkel. 

Bart makes a prank call to Skinner but his refrigerator wasn't running so the joke backfired. Lisa is trying to practice her sax but she keeps getting kicked out of everywhere. At school a new girl, Alison, who shows up Lisa by knowing the bonus answer to a Columbus question (everybody would be angry if you did a Columbus question in the modern world.) Lisa finds out the new girl is a year younger than her and plays the sax. At the band tryouts Lisa and Alison get into a playoff. Lisa passes out and winds up second chair. Lisa goes to Alison's house and feels stupid compared to her family. Lisa discovers that Alison has finished her diorama of Poe's Tell Tale Heart. Homer comes across a crashed sugar tanker and fills up his trunk. Homer is guarding his sugar and Marge says he's being paranoid but he catches a British guy stealing sugar for his tea. He's then attacked by a swarm of bees. To rival Alison Lisa builds a diorama of Oliver Twist, however when she turns on a fan to create a snowstorm it blows out the window. Bart offers to help by sabotaging Lisa's diorama. The owners of the bees offer to pay Homer $2000 for the return of their swarm but then a rainstorm melts his sugar pile and the bees leave on their own. Bart pretends to be a bird to divert attention while Lisa switches out Alison's diorama, this is a call back to the first Halloween Special where he was the Raven in the Edgar Allen Poe story. Bart switches out Alisons diorama of the Tell Tale Heart with a cow's heart he stole from the cafeteria. Lisa starts hearing the beating metronome just like in the Poe story. She confesses and shows the real diorama but Skinner is under impressed by her's and Lisa's. Ralph wins when he brings in his Star Wars action figures in the original packaging. 

Bart makes a call from a cordless phone with an antenna and since there is no caller ID it's a prank on Skinner. Bart reads Bad Boy's Life magazine with an advertisement for Laramie Jr's Cigarettes on the back. It's a spoof of the Boy Scouts magazine Boy's Life.

Marge is reading Love In The Time Of Scurvy. This is a spoof on the Harlequin Romances which were popular in the day and the book Love In The Time Of Cholera. (I thought that book title was just made up for the movie Serendipity but was surprised to discover it's a real thing)

Bumper sticker on the back of Moleman's sugar truck "How Am I Driving? 1-800 555-3872" He's removing it from the crashed truck.

Homer has drawn Farmer Homer's Sweet Sweet Sugar on a paper bag.

At the school try outs for the band Uter plays the Alpine horn, Jimbo plays the Tamborine, Martin plays the lute. 

Lisa imagines herself in the second most popular band sponsored by Avis Rent-A-Car (second biggest car rental agency behind Hertz) The band's members are Garfunkel, Messina, Oats and Lisa. Their number two hit is Born To Runner Up. The audience boos them. This is a spoof on when Bob Dylan went electric and people would show up at his concert just to boo him. 

Bart got Milhouse on America's Most Wanted. He is trapped in a dam's runoff tunnel and jumps like in The Fugitive. 

While trying to protect his stolen sugar Homer says "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women". It's a paraphrasing of Tony Montana's speech in Scarface. 

When it rains on Homer's sugar pile he paraphrases the Wicked Witch of the West and says "my pile is melting, melting, what a world"

The school holds Diorama-Rama. Nelson does The Grapes Of Wrath, he squishes a pile of grapes with a hammer in a Gallagher spoof. Kids even hold up plastic like the audience at a Gallagher show. Uter does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but eats it before the judges get there. 

I've reached the 105 episode mark of The Simpsons. I'm almost 1/7th the way through. Wish me continued luck.