The Simpsons 216-220

Homer To The Max

This episode premiered on February 7th 1999. The lead in show was The World's Funniest! and it was followed by That 70's Show. It ran opposite the NFL Pro Bowl (AFC 23-NFC 10), Touched By An Angel and the NBC Sunday Night Movie (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls)

To The Max was a popular slang term of the 90's.

The chalkboard gag is "No one wants to hear about my sciatica" and the couch gag is a repeat of the clothes line.

Homer sees a show about a cool cop who just happens to be named Homer Simpson. He lets the fame by association go to his head, until the show changes the character to be a bungling idiot. Marge tries to cheer Homer up by saying the character is comic relief like Marlin Brando in Apocalypse Now. People start spying on Homer to see him do something stupid and hounding him to say the tv characters's catchphrase "Uh Oh Spaghettios". Homer tries to hide from the town but Marge convinces him to have a talk with the producers. Instead of changing the character they take the stuff Homer told them and work it into the show, for laughs, Bart says that now the character is unfunny and whiny. Homer tries to sue the producers for $20 million but the judge throws the case out, so Homer changes his name to Max Power, later Burns compliments him. Homer meets Trent Steel (a 90's pony tail wearing scumbag), he invites Homer to a fancy garden party, Woody Harrison is wearing Hemp pants (marijuana leaves). Ed Begley Jr. shows up to promote solar energy to Bill Clinton and George Stephanopulos, later Clinton tries to seduce Marge. Loren Michales tries to talk to Homer but he pretends he doesn't see him, Brian Grazer is also there. Trent wants the party guests to join his protest against deforestation by chaining themselves to trees. The police show up with swabs of mace. When Eddy tries to swab Homer he tries to run away, but since he's chained to the tree he can only go around it, the chain cuts through the tree causing a domino effect and knocking down the entire forest. When Homer celebrates being free he throws his chain in the air and kills a bald eagle. The falling trees crash into Wiggum's car, he says it was only two days away from retirement. Max decides to change his name back to Homer, but he had changed Marge's name to Chesty LaRue. 

Ed Begley Jr. does his voice in this episode.

Self Aware Joke: Fox is having a countdown to their mid season replacements (The Simpsons were a mid season replacement premiering in January). The new shows: America's Funniest Tornados / All In The Family 1999 (Archie is living with a Black guy, a Hassidic Jew and a Feminist) / The Laughter Family / Admiral Baby / Police Cops.  Homer makes a comment about animated series and how they don't have to pay actors squat, just then Ned walks by to say they can replace actors and nobody can tell the difference, in a different voice. Lisa is talking about how shows change or drop characters, or even push them into the background, just then Mr Largo and the Capitol City Goofball go by the window. (The joke would have been better if it had been Ruth Powers, who later appears in the mall crowd laughing at Homer)

At the end of Police Cop there is a message: Blood Provided by American Red Cross Give Blood Today

One of the subtle jokes in this episode is that Matt Groening named the Simpsons after his own family, except for Bart.

Springfield Shopper headline: It's War! With a photo of a mushroom cloud. (The only thing Carl is interested in is Homer's name in the paper.)

Banner at Moe's: TV Sensation Homer Simpson Drinks Here!

The show is produced by By The Numbers Productions. They were working on a show that was Titanic Meets Frasier but NBC was working on a similar show staring Annie Potts and Jeremy Piven. When Homer asks who Jeremy Piven is they said they don't know. (He's that guy from Entourage)

Homer's potential names: Hercules Rockefeller / Rembrandt Q. Einstein / Handsome B. Wonderful. Names for Marge: Chesty LaRue / Busty St. Claire / Hooty McBoob

Marge has Homer's name tattooed somewhere private. 

Homer sings a Max Power song to the tune of Goldfinger. 

The Larry David Trio plays the garden party, they've dropped the drummer.

Officer Eddy uses Mace, Hippy Strength. 

In the episode Bart After Dark the beach clean up supervisor drives an electric powered Begley 2000, in this episode Begley drives a buggy powered by his own sense of self satisfaction.

Brian Grazer appeared in the episode When You Dish Upon A Star but he doesn't have a speaking roll in this episode. 

I'm With Cupid

This episode premiered on February 14th 1999 (Valentine's Day). It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O. Disney (Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella), Touched By An Angel and Dateline NBC.

The title comes from the novelty t shirt "I'm With Stupid".  Rod Flanders wore one in the episode Hurricane Neddy.

The chalkboard gag is "Hillbillies are people too" and the couch gag is a repeat of the family under the hair driers.

Homer is telling a fairy tale but it's about how he went to the alley at Moe's to "use the bathroom" and  passed out, eventually being woken by a raccoon. Bart is suppose to make a working model of the digestive system that is due tomorrow, Marge ends up doing it for him. Marge goes to the Kwik-E-Mart for craft supplies, she says she wants to invite Apu and his wife to dinner but Apu says it's his turn since the Simpsons hosted his wedding. On the bus Nelson wrecks Bart's project. At dinner Apu and his wife get into a huge fight when she finds out Americans don't work 18 hours a day/7 days a week. To make up to Manjula Apu puts a poem in the Sunday paper and then does 7 days of Valentine's stuff. The rest of the women in town get jealous of Apu's romantic gestures. Homer tries to stir up the crowd at the bar, they all say they only have themselves to blame but Homer convinces them it's Apu's fault. Homer and the bar crowd follow Apu around town to find out what his Valentine's Day gesture will be but mostly they can't figure it out, until he goes to the airport. Elton John shows up at the airport and the guys think Apu hired him so they kidnap him. It turns out that Apu's plan was to have a skywriter put a message in the sky. Homer jumps into the plane and kicks the smoke canister loose and all the women think the message is for them. Apu saves Elton John and then pulls a bunch of puns about his name. The pilot tries to kill Homer by flying low through a rose patch and then kicking him out over his house. Marge thinks coming from the sky covered in roses is Homer's grand gesture. Elton John plays for Apu and Manjula in the secret rooftop garden at the Kwik-E-Mart. 

Elton John does his voice and singing in this episode.

This show has a lot of culturally insensitive stereotypes of Indians. I can see why there were complaints. 

Apu has a Duff calendar with Surly driving a car.

Apu gets a parrot to sing a version of I Love The Nightlife by Alicia Bridges.

The candy delivery truck is Baron Von's Munch House. A spoof on Barron Von Munchausen.

Best line of the episode: Homer is talking about all the other marriages that are falling apart "The problem is communication, too much communication"

Apu goes to Tiffany's but comes out with a croissant. Wiggum says they have breakfast now and Homer comments "only until 11:00". This was a spoof on the movie Breakfast At Tiffanys but in 2017 Tiffany and Co opened The Blue Box Cafe and you can actually get breakfast there.

Homer, Moe, Wiggum, Dr. Hibbert and Ned follow Apu. 

When Ned starts talking about all the things they could do for their wives Moe throws him out of the car, but Ned gets a hunk of his chest hair. This is a spoof on the scene in the 1972 movie The Way Of The Dragon when Bruce Lee pulls out some of Chuck Norris' chest hair. 

The skywriter is Fantastic Dan. He first appeared in the episode Bart Carney as the guy living in the Wack-A-Mole game.

Apu's secret garden on top of the Kwik-E-Mart first appeared in the episode Lisa The Vegetarian. Paul and Linda McCartney hung out there. 

This episode has a Drop The Cow moment. The premise is set up by Bart needing a working model of the human digestive system and Marge staying up all night to do the actual work. Later Nelson causes it to blow up on the bus and....that's the end of that story. It just didn't go anywhere or have any real effect upon the rest of the episode. This is a problem that will start to happen a lot more.

Marge Simpson In: "Screaming Yellow Honkers"

This episode premiered on February 21st 1999. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O. Disney (Mr. Holland's Opus), Touched By An Angel and NBA Basketball.

The title of the episode was suppose to be the title of the road rage movie Wiggum shows the class.

The chalkboard gag is "Grammar is not a time of waste" (get it?) and the couch gag is a repeat of the roller coaster.

The teachers are putting on a talent show, Willie does Scottish jokes but nobody laughs, when he starts telling them off they laugh. Mrs Krabappal does a ballon dance. Seymour and Chalmers do a version of Who's On First, Skinner messes it up. At intermission the audience flees. Marge is driving but can't get out of the parking lot, Krusty comes up behind them in the Canyonero and drives across the playground. The next day Homer goes to car dealership, he's about to buy one from Gil but Stan comes along and steals the sale. Homer leases a Canyonero but then finds out that the F series is for women. Homer steals Marge's car and leaves her with the Canyonero so she takes it shopping. She gets stuck in traffic and the kids start fighting in the back seat so she shifts into FWD and drives home across a field. Homer finds a three chambered peanut but Marge is too busy playing with the car to pay attention to them. Marge becomes a road rage driver and gets pulled over by Wiggum and has to go to driver's school. Eddy shows up as Curtis E. Bear, Wiggum allows the aggressive drivers to beat him up. After the road rage class everyone is too polite to pull out of the parking lot. Marge decides to push her way-out of the parking lot and crashes into the prison fence, Wiggum revokes her license. Homer takes the family to the animal park but sets off a chain of events that results in the rhinos escaping. Wiggum goes to Marge to try to get her help but she refuses, until she sees the family trapped on their car. Marge herds the rhinos but one takes off with Homer, he gets trapped in a porta potty but the rhino keeps attacking him. Marge shows up but rolls the Canyonero so it bursts into flames, which the rhino tries to stomp out until the park warden shows up and darts the rhino. 

Springfield Elementary School banner: Faculty Talent Show Two-Milk Minimum

Talent show meddly Pomp and Circumstance, Fame, Shave and a Haircut. Willie plays My Bonnie on the bagpipes. Krabappal sings Fever.

When Skinner screws up the Abbot and Costello routine Chalmers calls him "a sexless freak". This is a reference to the episode Grade School Confidential when Skinner confesses he's still a virgin.

Homer goes to the OK Car-ral

Gil was a car salesman in the episode Natural Born Kissers.

The Canyonero first appeared in the episode The Last Temptation of Krusty. He drives it in this episode. 

Gil has a rotary dial cell phone. 

Series regulars at driver's school: Marge, Krusty, Agnes, Kearny, Moe

Court Ordered Productions (COP) Presents Road Rage: Death Flips The Finger. 

When Marge crashes through the fence Wiggum says the escaping prisoners were one day away from being fully rehabilitated. 

Wild Animal Kingdom "Born Free, Then Caged"

The park warden is based on the character Robert Muldoon from Jurassic Park

When the park warden accidentally shoots a sloth with a tranq dart it does the Snoopy dance before passing out. 

Homer tries to stop the rhinos by shouting Jumanji. This was the title of the 1995 movie about the jungle game. 

Self Aware Joke: Marge says she learned all she knows about rhinos from Stone Phillips and then praise NBC and all its fine programming. However during the closing credits Homer reads a statement that NBC sucks and all the programs on Fox are great, then adds that CBS rocks and you hear the sound of a gunshot and a thumping body. At the time Stone Phillips was hosting Dateline that ran opposite The Simpsons.

Make Room For Lisa

This episode premiered on February 28th 1999. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O Disney (The Little Mermaid), Touched By An Angel and the NBA game.

The title of this episode comes from the 1950's show Make Room For Daddy, later changed to The Danny Thomas Show.

The chalkboard gag is "I do not have diplomatic immunity" and the couch gag is a repeat of the firemen.

Homer is listening to a classic radio station and thinks he's travelled back in time. Lenny changes the station to The Safety Dance and Homer is glad to have returned to the present. KBBL is doing a live broadcast from P.J. O'Harrigan's. Homer sneaks out of work and wakes up the next day in the middle of the street, he won the Sir Drinks-A-Lot contest. Homer finds out that he was suppose to do Saturday with the kids, he's happy because it's Bart's turn to pick however he traded it off to Lisa for her dessert. After Homer complains about all her choices she picks the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit, sponsored by Omnitouch, a flip cell phone. Homer damages the Bill of Rights and it would cost $10,000 to repair, to cut a deal Homer lets the phone company put a tower in the middle of their house, and it takes over Lisa's room with it's main electronics. Lisa's forced to move into Bart's room. The cell tower starts broadcasting the town's phone calls on Marge's baby monitor. Lisa starts getting highly stressed and causes her stomach problems. Dr. Hibbert subscribes herbal tea but Homer wants to use harsh antacids. Lisa tells Homer off and that they will drift apart as time goes by, so he takes her to the herbal store. The new age guru suggest sensory deprivation tanks, Lisa signs them up for two hours. She has an out of body experience and finds herself in Snowball II. Bart gets the other baby monitor and pretends to be a bank robber breaking into the house. He gets Milhouse to open the front door and Marge bashes him in the head with the baby monitor. The Repo Depot shows up at the new age store and take Homer's deprivation tank but it falls off the truck, it lands in front of the Flanders and they think it's a coffin so they bury Homer. His tank crashes through a water pipe and he plunges into the ocean and washes up on the beach. Wiggum finds it and returns it to the store. Meanwhile Lisa has an out of body experience with Homer and has to see the world from his point of view where she constantly puts him down. After their trip to the herbal store Lisa agrees to go to the Demolition Derby with Homer. 

The radio station plays Benny Goodman's Sing Sing Sing, Lenny changes the station to Men Without Hats' Safety Dance. 

P.J. O'Harrigan's is based on Bennigan's

Smithsonian's traveling exhibit: the Mercury Space Capsule / the Spirit of St. Louis / Sammy Davis Jr's Eye. (I'm hoping it's the fake one) / Liberty Bell / Lou Gehrig's jersey / 18 star flag / Howdy Doody Doll / 1911 High Wheeler car / Don't Tread On Me flag / Civil War mortar canon / Soldier on horse statue (possibly the one from the episode The Secret War Of Lisa Simpson) / Lincoln's hat / Fonzie's jacket (which is under glass, surrounded by lasers and has two armed guards with attack dogs) / MASH tent / The Bill Of Rights / Archie Bunker's chair (Homer sits in it reading the Bill of Rights) 

Homer lays on the couch like Andy Capp.

La-Z-Mom Baby Monitor. 

Homer watches When Animals Attack Magicians. This is a spoof on the shows that use to lead the Simspons on Sunday Nights.

Marge's notes about the people in Springfield: Otto-Drugs? Mayor Quimby-Interns? Burn-Greedy? Krusty-Gay?

The new age store is Karma-Ceuticals 

The new age store has a Pink Floyd Hammer flag. 

In the deprivation tank Homer sings Witch Doctor by David Seville

Maximum Homerdrive

This episode premiered on March 28th 1999. The lead in show was The World's Funniest! and it was followed by Futurama. It ran opposite The W.W.O. Disney (Balloon Farm), Touched By An Angel and NBA basketball.

The title comes from the Stephen King novel and 1986 movie Maximum Overdrive

The chalkboard gag is "It does not suck to be you" and the couch gag is the family appears as different ages, Bart and Lisa are now the adults while Homer and Marge are kids, Maggie is a doll. 

The family is eating dinner when Lisa comes in to complain about a new steakhouse restaurant (what a surprise), The Slaughterhouse. Homer insists on taking the family to dinner, the restaurant kills the cows in front of you. Homer takes the Sir Loin-A-Lot challenge, 16 pounds of meat. The champion Red tells Homer to not to do it, Homer gets insulted so they hold a race. Homer can't finish the challenge but Red does, but then drops dead. Homer decides to finish Red's semi truck delivery and Bart comes along. When a kid signals Homer to blow his horn he accidentally disconnects the trailer. To enjoy their own adventure Marge takes Lisa doorbell shopping. At the shop Nelson lights a bag of dog poo on fire and rings the bell at the demo door, Gil comes out and stomps on it. When they get home Marge won't ring the bell, she wants someone to use it first, the Jehovah's Witnesses show up but just before they ring the bell they rethink their religion and run away. Marge gets desperate and calls Luigi's delivery but the guy knocks. Marge won't open the door until the guy rings the bell so he drives away. Lisa gives up and pushes the button however the bell gets stuck and keeps ringing. Homer has to make his delivery in 10 hours so he buys a bottle of Stimu-Crank, and balances it out with sleeping pills so one minute he's wide awake and the next sound asleep. Homer falls asleep on a hill but the auto pilot kicks in and gets them to the next truck stop. Homer brags about getting to the station while asleep but the other truck drivers tell him about the auto pilot. Homer shows off the auto pilot to Bart by sitting on the hood of the truck, just as a tour bus goes by, he tells them all about the auto pilot. A truck driver sees Homer and calls all the other trucks. Marge goes to dismantle the doorbell but Homer traded his tools for M&Ms and she accidentally makes it play faster and louder. The truck drivers try to stop Homer, when he plans on running the road block the autopilot ejects itself. Homer tries to stop at the roadblock but accidentally flips over the trucks and continues on. Homer makes the delivery on time, artichokes and migrant workers. Homer needs to figure out how to get home when an engineer quits rather than haul a trainload of napalm to Springfield. The entire town turns out to complain about Marge's doorbell, Wiggum is just about to shoot it when Senior Ding Dong shows up and shuts the doorbell off with his whip. He plans on a dramatic exit but his van battery dies. 

Marge says she heard about the new steakhouse on The Red Grocer, this is a spoof on Joe Carcione, The Green Grocer who appeared in syndication.

Only two people finished the Sir Loin-A-Lot challenge, Red Barclay and Tony Randall, the challenge is based on The Big Texan challenge of eating a 72 oz steak with all the sides in less than an hour.

Red's body bag says I Died At The Slaughterhouse. 

Red's truck says Red Rascal on the door and has the image of the Tex Avery wolf. 

Homer's trucking music is Wannabe by The Spice Girls

Marge buys a doorbell at Senior Ding-Dong's Doorbell Fiesta. The new doorbell plays Close To You by The Carpenters, her and Homer's song.

Joe's Diner Now Aware Of Camp Value! (I don't get that joke)

The post card Homer sends Marge has a picture of Betty Page, the classic pin up girl.

Homer takes the semi to the Stardust Drive In movie, they see The Monster That Ate Everybody, all the other people are pissed because they can't see past the truck.

Truck stop name: The Gassy Knoll. A spoof on the conspiracy theory about the assassination of JFK.

The truckers jumping on the trailer while trying to stop Homer is a spoof on the Road Warrior scene. 

When Homer tries to run the trucker roadblock the auto pilot tells him the risk is unacceptable in a spoof on 2001: A Space Odyssey computer HAL 9000

Welcome To Atlanta: Home Of Ted Turner's Mood Swings. A little known story, when the Braves lost to the Yankees in 1996 Ted Turner hid out in his ranch in New Mexico for a week. 

On a note, Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa, appears in the film Maximum Overdrive.

Woo Hoo! I've reached episode 220, just six more to finish up Season 10.