The Simpsons 161-165

Hurricane Neddy

This episode premiered on December 29th, 1996. The lead in show was The X-Files and it was followed by Ned And Stacey. It ran opposite the NBA, Heat vs. the Bucks (95-94), Touched By An Angel and Third Rock From The Sun

There wasn't a chalkboard gag and the couch gag was the family runs into the living room where there is a coin slot with a sign Vend-A Couch, Homer drops in a coin but nothing happens so he pounds on the wall and the couch drops on him. "D'oh!"

Homer is asleep in his hammock when the wind picks up. Lisa checks her window frame weather station and all readings point to a hurricane. Homer he says there is no record of a hurricane ever hitting Springfield, she points out that the records only go back to 1978 when the hall of records was mysteriously blown away. Once SLH warns him he goes into action. Marge goes to the Kwik-E-Mart while Homer secures the house, poorly. Ned has his house fully secured complete with a tarp tied down over the roof. Just as the prison is about to execute a man in the electric chair the storm carries him off, he shouts back "so long suckers" and hits a high power line. While hiding in the basement Marge finds a Rubik's cube but they all shout instructions at her "use your main finger", she tosses it. The storm hits the harmonica shop and it plays a jaunty sea tune, when it hits the harpsichord store is just sound like someone mashing on all the keys at once. The storm calms down so Homer goes outside despite being warned that it's the eye, he sees Barney's Bowl-O-Rama go flying by and the second half of the storm hits (the Bowl-O-Rama lands on top of a steep hill). The storm is over and the Simpson's house survived with no damage, however the Flanders' house is completely destroyed. The Flanders don't have insurance since Ned considers it a form of gambling. Meanwhile a mob hits the mall but the only store they loot is the Leftorium. When Ned asks if God is punishing him Reverend Lovejoy tells him he has pamphlet by Art Linkletter somewhere in his office. Ned goes to read the Bible but gives himself a paper cut. The next day Marge tells Ned that a miracle has happened, when he gets home he discovers the town turned out to rebuild his house. The people installed a toilet in the kitchen next to the refrigerator because they didn't want to lug it up the stairs. The door frames are all crooked, part of the floor is painted dirt, one room has an excess of electricity, one of the halls is an optical illusion. When they go back outside the whole place collapses. Ned starts talking in gibberish and then yells at them. Krusty is writing down all the insults and Ned tells him he's the only one that doesn't make him laugh. Ned hops in the car and drives to the Calmwood Mental Hospital. (This is a different place than where Homer went, New Bedlam Rest Home). Ned commits himself, one of the nurses recognizes him and calls Dr. Foster. The doctor had treated Ned for his childhood aggression and when he finished Ned would express his anger by saying nonsense like Doodly. The doctor wants to bring in the person who most makes Ned angry so they call Homer, he claims to not know Ned. The doctor has Homer read some insulting cards but they don't work. Homer tells Ned that he's too nice and he finally admits he hates his beatnik parents. They let Ned go and he promises to not suppress his rage and will tell people off, or run them over with his car. 

Lisa consults The How, Why, and Huh? Book of Weather.

Continuity error, Lisa says the hall of records mysteriously blew away in 1978 but in two separate episodes they visited the hall of records (not the good kind). In the episode Mother Simpson they have all of Homer's records including that his mother is still alive which goes further back than 78.

Springfield is hit by Hurricane Barbara. 

Apu crosses out Cat on the Cat Chow and writes in Hurricane. All that's left on the shelf are cans of creamed ell and wadded beef and a carton of corn nog. 

They do an opening but with The Hurricane instead of The Simpsons. 

Stuff in the Simpson's basement, Homer's golf clubs (Scenes from a class struggle in Springfield), stacks of old newspapers (Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodly), Christmas lights and Homer's Santa suit (Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire), the Aztec head (Blood Feud), two barrels of toxic waste.

First Church Of Springfield "God Welcomes His Victims." The only people there are the Flanders. The boys get clothes from the donation bin, Todd is wearing a Butthole Surfers shirt and Rod has an I'm With Stupid shirt. 

Dr. Foster shows Ned the films they made of him as a boy, Juvenile Aggression Study Sponsored by Swanson's Angry Man Dinners (a spoof on Hungry Man Dinners) The Doctor uses the University Of Minnesota's Spankalogical Protocol, he spanks Ned for eight months.

According to the doctor Ned was treated 30 years earlier so that puts him somewhere between 35 and 42.

Characters at the Mental Hospital, Lucille Botzcowski (The Baby Sitter Bandit), John Swartzwelder, Jay Sherman (aka The Critic who appeared in the episode A Star Is Burns)

In the episode Boy Scouts In The Hood Ned gets angry at Homer and starts blathering saying Diddly repeatedly. Was this foreshadowing? In Seymour Skinner's Badasssss Song Ned first mentions his beatnik parents. 

This was the last episode of 1996. Only 27 more years to go. (28 now that they've started a new season)

El Viaje de Nuestro Homer (The Mysterious Voyage Of Homer)

This episode premiered on January 5th, 1997. The lead in show was RSVP: Funniest Party Disasters and it was followed by Ned and Stacey. It ran opposite America's Funniest Home Videos, Touched By An Angel and Third Rock From The Sun.

There is no chalkboard gag and the couch gag is a repeat of the parachutes.

Marge tries to hide the annual chili cookoff, she cuts a section out of the paper, unplugs the phone when Lenny calls and smokes so Homer can't smell the chili, she doesn't want Homer to get drunk and make a fool of himself like last year. After Homer promises to not drink they go to the cook off, Homer goes to each of the booths and tests the chili, criticizing them along the way. When he tries Wiggum's chili he burns his tongue on the insanity pepper. In order to beat Wiggum Homer coats his mouth in wax and returns. Homer swallows multiple peppers whole and walks off however it starts to cause him stomach problems. He starts hallucinating and runs off, Helen Lovejoy tells Marge that Homer made a fool of himself. In Homer's hallucination he sees a tortoise and follows it to a pyramid. He sees a faceless Marge, then a coyote shows up to tell him to go on a spiritual journey to find his soul mate. Homer wakes up in a sand trap at the golf course, the pyramid was the pro shop and the coyote was a talking dog. After a fight with Marge Homer deicides he needs to go out and find his soulmate. Homer calls an ad in the personal column from G.B.M., the guy describes what he likes to do so Homer hangs up on him. After wandering around Homer heads to the lighthouse to find Earl, however Earl stands for Electronic Automatic Robotic Lighthouse. He sees a ship coming so he breaks the light so they'll crash into the rocks and he'll have friends, that's when Marge shows up. She finds him because she knows him so well. Homer realizes that he and Marge have a deeper connection. Even though Marge replaces the bulb the ship still crashes into the shore dumping out its cargo of hot pants. Everyone shows up and starts singing Who Wears Short Shorts by the Royal Teens. 

Johnny Cash does the voice of the coyote spirit guide. 

The Springfield Shopper Sunday edition: Kickin' Back, Fifty Ways to Waste Your Weekend.

When Homer is digging his chili boots out of the closet you can see Marge's bowling ball (Life On The Fast Lane) and Homer's fishing hat (The Call Of The Simpsons). 

Springfield Chili Cook-Off "Please Lick Spoons Clean After Each Use." 

Lenny is running a booth, A Little Bit Of Lenny.

Continuity error, Marge is confused by the 8 spices on Lenny's spice rack even though in the episode Itchy And Scratchy And Marge she uses most of them to make pork chops. 

Ferl Dixon and the Second Helping Boys play the cook-off. They first appeared in the episode Bart On The Road at Branson MO. 

Chili booths: Muntz Family Chili "It Takes Weeks To Make Muntz", Old Elihu's Yale Style Saltpeter Chili (run by Burns), Professor Frink's Virtual Chili, Firehouse Ned's Five Alarm Chili (Ned admits his chili is really 2 alarm), Moe's Chili Bar, Wiggum adds the merciless peppers of Quetzlzacatenango to his chili. Joe's Spoons "Hand Carved"

Smithers shows up at the dance in a flashy cowboy costume complete with a light up "Hot Nashville Nights" on the back. 

Homer's hallucinations are done in the Ralph Bakshi style combining real and cartoon images. The hallucination sequence is based on the writings of Carlos Castaneda. 

Between the floors of the Simpson's house are mic bugs from the NSA, FBI, ATF, CIA, KGB and MCI. 

The record shelf in the Simpson house is a DisCabineTion 2000. Homer's record collection includes Jim Nabors, Glen Campbell and The Dootletown Pipers. 

Homer goes to Bob's All-Night Furniture Store. 

"Your Best Friend In Government, Re-Elect Mayor Quimby" 

Homer says it's like Marge is from Venus and she says Homer is from Mars "Sure, give me the one with all the monsters". This is from the 1992 book Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars. 

The Lighthouse uses a Sylvania 40,000 Watt Energy-Miser Lighthouse Bulb.

Just after the light house goes back on the Sea Captain shouts Jonathan Livingston Seagull! This is from the 1970 book of the same name.

When Homer enters the chili cook-off the opening notes from The Good The Bad and The Ugly play, later as he is wandering around looking for a soul mate At Seventeen by Janis Ian plays. Short Shorts by The Royal Teens play over the closing credits.

In the episode Homer The Heretic, Homer dances to Short Shorts as a spoof of the 1983 movie Risky Business. 

This was another "Marge and Homer's marriage is in trouble" episode, I'm not a big fan of them. It also felt like something was off in this episode, and I wasn't sure what it was. Perhaps it was the way they just kind of came to an end or that half the episode seemed to be Homer running around and didn't involve a lot of the other characters or building on the overall story. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the hallucination stuff but everything else felt like someone said "Now what?" and nobody had an answer. Plus we knew the conclusion would be "Marge is Homer's soulmate". Either way I was glad it was a rare miss and not a sign of things to come....

The Springfield Files

This episode premiered on January 12th, 1997. The lead in show was The World's Greatest Animal Outtakes and it was followed by the pilot episode of King Of The Hill. It ran opposite the regular programs.

The title of the episode came from The X Files which ran on the same network and had been the lead in or followed The Simpsons on several occasions.

The chalkboard gag is "The Truth Is Not Out There" and the couch gag is the family flies in on jet packs

Leonard Nimoy introduces the story. To take off early on Friday Homer puts an old tape in the security camera and it loops the same scene over and over. When Burns sees it he realizes it's Friday and asks Smithers if he'll be doing something gay for the weekend, Smithers gets flustered because "you know". Jasper takes the wrong pills because he thinks it's Wednesday and turns into a goat man. Homer goes to Moe's and gets drunk but he fails a Breathalyzer test and has to walk home. X Files Music starts to play and Homer gets scared, he sees a billboard that says Die and screams but then the wind blows revealing that it really says Diet and he screams even louder. Homer hears the music from Psycho but it turns out to be the Springfield Philharmonic bus dropping off musicians on their way home. Homer runs into the woods where he finds Grandpa who has been lost however Homer leaves him there. While in the woods Homer encounters a glowing figure who tells him to not be afraid so he runs off. Marge doesn't believe Homer since he came home drunk. Bart comes in wearing a helmet with antenna taped to it, googly eye glasses and a squirt gun, he claims to be The Thing From Uranus. Homer tells the story of being on a cold metal table while they probed him but then remembers that it was his plant physical. Homer goes to the police but Wiggum mocks him, the next guy is an arsonist who is also mocked. Mulder and Skully show up to talk to Homer about seeing a UFO. The agents want Homer to recreate his night so he claims he was at the gentleman's club discussing Wittgenstein over a game of backgammon. They tell him it's a felony to lie to the FBI so he tells the true story. When Moe finds out Mulder and Skully are from the FBI he goes to the back room and tells a group of guys to return Shamu to SeaWorld. Mulder and Skully get tired of waiting and take off. Marge begs Homer to let it go. Homer and Bart camp out in the woods, when the alien shows up Homer goes to greet it but sets his shoe on fire and scares it off. However Bart was recording it. Leonard Nimoy wraps up the story but then finds out he has 10 minutes left so he runs off. Homer's video appears on the news, pessimist Lisa says the people aren't going to be won over by three seconds of video tape but just then the doorbell rings and a mob has formed to ask Homer questions. Nimoy shows up on the next Friday night to see the alien. When it shows up the mob is about to attack the alien but Lisa pulls out a flashlight and shows them that its Burns. After he explains why he looks like an alien Dr Nick shows up to give him an injection of pain killer and everyone sings Good Morning Starshine The pimple faced kid finishes out Nimoy's narration by saying Keep Watching The Skies!

This episode had a rare full introduction including a chalkboard gag, Homer and Marge driving, Bart on his skateboard and an overall shot of the people in Springfield. They would do this when the episode came up a little short of the run time.

The chalkboard gag is a take on the X Files slogan The Truth Is Out There.

Leonard Nimoy's opening is a take on his In Search Of series. He does his own voice acting, he also appeared in the episode Marge vs. The Monorail

David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson do their own voices playing their characters from The X Files, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. 

Homer changes out the security tape like in that movie about a bus that has to "speed" all over town, he thinks the name is "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down". The video has Homer wearing a Sit On It t shirt (a catchphrase from Happy Days), Lenny in a disco outfit and Carl has a large afro and peace symbol necklace. (this is a continuity error since Homer has worked for the power plant for 10 years and the pop culture references are from the late 70's, at least 20 years before this episode aired)

Noiseland Arcade: Friday Meet Donkey Kong In Person. A tired looking ape is sitting outside smoking a cigarette, he throws a barrel at his handler. Milhouse plays Kevin Costner's Water World, it takes 40 quarters or $10 dollars. The character moves a few inches and the machine announces Game Over.

Dr. Hibbert leaves his office for the weekend even though Moleman is still in the x-ray machine. 

Marge is reading Better Homes Than Yours magazine. 

Dated reference, Lisa is excited about the ABC TGIF lineup. Bart tells her it's just another day between NBC's Must See Thursday and CBS's Saturday Night Craparama. 

Red Tick Beer "Suck One Dry". The secret ingredient is they let dogs swim around in the vat. 

Brethalyzer test levels: Tipsy, Soused, Stinkin', Boris Yeltsin (Boris Yeltsin was the President of the new Russian Republic). When Homer hits the top level it plays The Song Of The Volga Boatman, creator unknown.

This episode has one of the best visual gags, Homer runs through a field spelling out Yahhh! he even goes back to dot the exclamation point. This is a take on crop circles.

Lisa reads Junior Skeptic Magazine (of course)

Homer says the alien appears every Friday night, like Urkel. (a character on the show Family Matters for all the Century Kids out there)

FBI Divising of Paranormal Activities Washington D.C.

On his office wall Muller has a photo of J. Edgar Hoover in a dress. The story about Hoover came out in 1993.

Springfield Shopper headline: Human Blimp Sees Flying Saucer, with a photo of Homer. 

When Mulder shows Marge his FBI badge it contains a centerfold photo of him.

FBI Springfield Branch, Invading Your Privacy For 60 Years.

Aliens at the FBI lineup, Marvin The Martian, Gort (The Day The Earth Stood Still), Chewbacca, ALF, Kodos. 

The Cigarette Smoking Man from The X Files is in the background at the FBI office. 

Moe's Bar, 3:02 PM, temperature 72, All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy (repeated)

When Homer gets drunk he says "Blue M&M, Red M&M, they all wind up the same color in the end". In 1995 M&Ms was retiring the tan color and had a contest to replace it with either Blue, Pink or Purple. They had also brought back the red M&Ms after they stopped production during the Red Dye #2 cancer scare.

Self aware joke, Homer plans to go back to the woods and find the alien and if he doesn't he'll fake it and sell it to the Fox Network, Bart says they'll buy anything. Homer says they do a lot of quality programming too and they both break into laughter.

In the woods three frogs say Bud Wise Err and then an alligator comes along, eats them and says Coors. The Frog Budweiser commercial was a big hit during the 1995 Super Bowl.

All of Homer's camping gear is labeled "Property Of Ned Flanders"

A guy who has been in a coma for 23 years wakes up, he asks if Sonny and Cher still have that stupid show, when Kent Brockman tells him Sonny is in congress and Cher won the Oscar the guy drops dead. 

The news file photo of Homer is him with his tongue stuck to a frozen lamppost. 

Lovejoy mentions ET in his sermon. The school band plays the 5 notes from Close Encounters. 

Jimbo shows up with a sign that says "Alien-Dude: Need Two Tickets To Pearl Jam"

T shirts at the alien waiting party: Homer Was Right, No Fat Alien Chicks. Homer tells Lisa "You don't see any 'Homer is a dope' T shirts", the guy running the stand says they sold out of those in 5 minutes. Marge bought one for herself and Maggie. 

Burns weekly medical treatment, chiropractors, eye drops, pain killers and a vocal cord scraping (from Dr. Nick). The glow comes from being exposed to a nuclear reactor for his whole life. 

At the end when Dr. Nick gives Burns another injection of pain killers and everyone sing Good Morning Starshine (from the musical Hair)

The phrase "Keep watching the skies" comes from the 1951 movie The Thing From Another World. Martin also used it in his class president speech in the episode Lisa's Substitute.

After the last episode this one came off as really good and a classic Simpsons. I figured the previous one was just a temporary stumble and the show was going to continue to produce quality stories for years to come. 

The Twisted World Of Marge Simpson

This episode premiered on January 19th, 1997. The lead in show was World's Funniest Outtakes and it was followed by King Of The Hill. It ran opposite America's Funniest Videos, Touched By An Angel and The Golden Globes. 

The chalkboard gag is "I am not licensed to do anything" and the couch gag is the family is a Whack-A-Mole game and Homer gets hit on the head. "D'ho!"

Marge is a member of an investors group but she complains that they are getting too risky for her so they decide to kick her out. She goes to a franchise expo but isn't sure about buying into a business until she runs into her former investment group. When they buy into Pita franchise she decides to invest in a pretzel company. To spread around fliers the Simpsons hold a fake parade with Lisa posing as an astronaut, Wiggum says "welcome back Space Girl". Marge goes to the power plant and Homer convinces everyone to go buy a pretzel but then the Investorettes show up in their Pita wagon and steals all her customers. Marge gets waved over by Cleetus who happened to have 300 coupons for free pretzels (from the parade) and uses them to feed his family. She gives away free pretzels at the ball game however Mr. Burns wins the 1997 Pontiac Astrowagon and the crowd pelts him with the pretzels instead of eating them. Whitey Ford tries to calm down the crowd and gets buried by the pretzels. Marge decides to give up so Homer goes to see the owner of the pretzel franchise company, however Frank Ormond is dead. Homer then turns to his last hope, Fat Tony. The next morning Marge starts getting large orders for pretzels, the first one is from the Meat Packers Union Hall in Batavia NY.  The mob goes around knocking over rival businesses such as Moleman's hot dog cart. They go to Luigi's and squash a delivery pizza spraying sauce on a nearby table. The mob forces the cookie selling Girl Scouts out of town. Skinner is forced to buy pretzels for the school lunch. Wiggum holds up a shipment of pita fixings for the Investorettes, as they are complaining the mob blows up their Pita wagon. Fat Tony shows up at Moe's and asks Homer for the pretzel money. Tony then lures Marge out to 11905 Dead Weasel Road, he tells her that he wants the profits from the pretzels business and she has 12 hours to come up with it. The next day there is a knock on the door and it's grandpa, but they shut it in his face, then Fat Tony shows up. However the Investorettes show up with their new partners, the Yakuza. A mob war breaks out on the Simpsons lawn. Homer wants to watch because the little guy hasn't done anything yet but Marge insists they go inside to breakfast. The little guy crashes through the window, asks for forgiveness and then goes back out to the fight. 

Jack Lemon does the voice of Frank Ormand.

Municipal House of Pancakes (A spoof of IHOP). Meeting: Springfield Investorettes 9:00 AM. The investor members, Mrs. Krabappal, Maude Flanders, Agnes Skinner, Helen Lovejoy and Luanne Van Houten. They have invested in Dynaflux Unimatics. The Invesorettes give Marge a $500 check, the date is 12-01-96 

Franchise Expo: Where you can make your nonsexual dreams come true. Franchise companies: Picture Perfect (picture straightening company). Disco Stu's Can't Stop The Learnin' Disco Academies. (Disco Stu first appeared in the episode Two Bad Neighbors) Fleet-A-PIta (the Investorettes buy into this one) Pretzel Wagon. 

When explaining where Marge's territory is Frank Ormand does a version of the "I'll be there" speech from The Grapes Of Wrath. 

Homer drives a 1952 Chrysler Imperial in the phony parade. This is a take on the parade held for the crew of Apollo 11 after their return from the Moon.

Springfield War Memorial Stadium "Free Pretzel Day.

There wasn't a Pontiac Astrowagon, this was made up for the show. Also Pontiac ended production in 2010.

First Church Of Springfield "Open"

The squashed pizza sauce hitting the customers at Luigi's is a take on Michale shooting Sollozzo and the Captain McCluskey in The Godfather.

When the mob is eliminating competition for the pretzel business Man, Go Man (The Lineman) by Ralph Dollimore plays.

Best line of the episode: Moe "Ahh Homer, you know your moneys no good here. Wait a minute, this is real money!"

Mountain Of Madness (The Most Excellent Snowy Mountain Adventure)

This episode premiered on February 2nd 1997. The lead in program was World's Scariest Police Chases and it was followed by King Of The Hill. It ran opposite the regular programs. 

The title of the Episode comes from the novel At The Mountains Of Madness by HP Lovecraft and the movie Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure.

There isn't a chalkboard gag and the couch gag is Grandpa is asleep on the hide away bed, they fold him into the couch and sit on it.

Mr Burns is bored at work so he holds a fire drill. When the alarm goes off Carl thinks it microwave popcorn is done and Lenny won't leave the building until his coffee is ready. Homer saves his photo of himself as an Old Timey Cowboy, he is the first one out of the building and blocks the door so nobody else can escape. After the disaster Burns decides to hold a teamwork retreat, Homer is the only one to bring his family. Burns tells the employees that they will form into two man teams and have to work their way to a cabin that can only be found on a map. The second to last time to arrive will win a "Worlds Worst Employee" cup and the last team will be fired. Lenny and Carl get teamed up. Homer gets teamed up with Burns, at first he'd disappointed but then realized Burns can't be fired. Smithers ends up solo. After everyone else runs off Burns reveals that he has a hidden snowmobile. Bart hits Smithers with snow, the kids offer to help him find the cabin, Bart says he has a watch with a minute hand and the time is 12:80. When Marge can't find the kids the ranger suggests they take the chair lift however they have to go all the way to the top of the mountain. Bart and Burns reach the cabin first so they start eating and drinking however the clinking of their glasses causes an avalanche. The cabin has a telegraph but it's attached to the Springfield Museum display. Burns and Homer dig their way out but their loud celebration results in another avalanche. Everyone else shows up at the wrong cabin. To fend off boredom Homer and Burns build snowmen but they start to get cabin fever, they soon turn on each other. Burn's tries to hit Homer with with a poker but manages to rupture the propane tank that launches them like a rocket. The house stops right next to the rangers station, Burns announces that the competition is still on and since Lenny is the last one in Burns fires him, but changes his mind, just then Lenny falls down a crevasse. 

Power plant drills: Meltdown Alert, Mad Dog Drill, Blimp Attack, Fire Drill.

Mr. Burns mentions The Ritz Brothers. They made movies from the 30's to the 50's and had a regular stage show. They were overshadowed by The Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges.

Mt. Useful Strategic Granite Reserve.

The last team will be fired is a take on the Glengary Glen Ross competition.

Smithers calls Bart and Lisa The Bobbsey Twins. These were a series of popular adventure books written for children and published between 1904 to 1979.

Homer's imaginary army: Mao, Lincoln, Roosevelt, King Tut, Gandhi. 

This episode was good but felt like it was missing something. The pop culture references were few and pretty direct. To me it felt like a slight bump but hopefully there are better episodes coming. 

We've reached episode 165. There were three good episodes, one questionable (Mountain Of Madness) and one that had a great first act and the didn't have anything for the second act or conclusion (Voyage Of Homer). Without realizing it at the time we had started to slip into the dark years of The Simpsons.