The Simpsons 236-240

Little Big Mom

This episode premiered on January 9th, 2000. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by the pilot episode of Malcolm In The Middle. It ran opposite The W.W.O. Disney (George Of The Jungle), Touched By An Angel and Twenty-One (a reboot of the classic game show)

The title of the episode is based on the 1970 film Little Big Man

The chalkboard gag is "I will not create art from dung" and the couch gag is the family are all test dummies and when they sit on the couch it shoots forward and slams into the TV. Homer's head falls off.

While the family is watching the TV Marge sneaks out a box of old stuff to the Goodwill truck. She seals the family in the house but they manage to escape through the dog door. Homer jumps in the truck and retrieve the junk. Marge points out that Homer bought skis after the Winter Olympics but never went skiing once, so they go to Mt. Embolism. Marge doesn't want to ski so she hangs out at the lodge, Disco Stu hits on her until the kids show up. A clock fall off the wall and lands on Marge's leg and she winds up with a compound fracture and is stuck at the hospital. Lisa volunteers to run the house while Marge is out of commission, she creates a chore hat but Homer doesn't like any of the choices. Homer floods the house to play Marco Polo. Lisa gets frustrated, she has a vision that she's being visited by Lucy (Ball), Lisa comes up with a plan to make Homer and Bart think they have leprosy. Lisa tells Homer and Bart that the only cure is to clean the house except they go to Ned's instead, he sends them to Hawaii. Marge shows up and is happy the house is clean but is upset when she finds out they went to Molokai. Marge and Lisa travel to the island and Lisa confesses what she did, Homer and Bart say they know but they are on a great vacation, outside of the needles treatment. A Hawaiian version of the closing credits plays. 

The chalkboard gag is a joke about The Holy Virgin Mary painting by Chris Ofili. Instead of paint he used elephant droppings. It caused shock and outrage through the Christian community and even led to a lawsuit involving the then mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani. (The city lost the suit)

The Itchy And Scratchy Show The Tears Of A Clone. Scratchy is dead, with multiple knives, swords and axes coming out of him, and the characters are at his funeral. Itchy sees a story about cloning and gets an idea. He builds a cloning machine and kills the various reincarnations of Scratchy as they emerge on the conveyor belt. However they come to fast so he gets another idea and builds a shredder, they are killed as fast as they are created. Poochie the dog makes an appearance despite the guarantee from Krusty that he'd never be seen again. There hadn't been an Itchy And Scratchy cartoon on the series since The Treehouse Of Horror IX in 1998. There was a Butterfingers commercial in 1999. The conveyer belt speed is a spoof on the classic I Love Lucy episode Job Switching.

In 1997 the University of Edinburg successfully cloned Dolly The Sheep. 

Ski runs: the Widowmaker / Spinebuster / Colostomizer / Decapatator 

This episode features the "Stupid Sexy Flanders" gif.

Homer goes to the store and brings back Maple Soda, a toy cell phone full of candy, Astronaut Bread and Aerosmith cereal Sweet Emotions.

Twisted Joke: Homer and Bart are watching I Love Lucy: Ricky "Lucy!" (wack sound) Lucy "Waaaa!" Fred "You hit her pretty hard there Rick". 

Molokai Leper Colony Welcome Leprous Knights Of Columbus.

Although there is still a small population of people who live in Kalaupapa Hawaii the Molokai Leper Colony closed in 1969. 

Homer comments that while they are in Hawaii they can watch Gay guys get married. In 1993 the Hawaii Supreme Court legalized Gay marriage.

In the episode Mr. Plow the family watches The Carnival Of The Stars from Molokai island in Hawaii

This episode is one that goes off the tracks, it starts off with Marge cleaning the house, then jumps to the family skiing, then Marge in the hospital, then the house turning into a mess, Lisa tricking Bart and Homer into thinking they have leprosy in hopes they clean up but instead they wind up in Hawaii. It's all over the place story-wise. This will become common in future episodes, unfortunately. 

This was the first episode of the 21st century. Only 24 years to go, maybe.

Faith Off

This episode premiered on January 16th 2000. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O. Disney (The Loretta Claiborne Story), City Of Angels and Twenty-One.

The chalkboard gag is "I will stop phoning it in" and the couch gag is the family runs into the living room where a Sigmund Freud character is sitting in a chair, Homer lays down on the couch and says "Oh doctor, I'm crazy"

Homer gets invited to Springfield University homecoming. He runs into the nerds that helped him pass the class he had to take on nuclear science. The big game with Springfield A&M all depends on the placekicker Anton Lubchenko (this will become an important fact later in the episode). The alumni find out that the homecoming party was a scam to get funds for the football game. Homer decides to get revenge on the dean by putting a bucket of glue over his head, however when he opens the door he finds that the Kappa Gamma Tau fraternity already placed a bucket there and now it's stuck to Homer's head. While driving with the bucket stuck on his head they crash into Brother Faith's Revival. The reverend is a faith healer and cures Cletus and Krusty. Homer goes up but Faith can't get it off so he calls up Bart. He manages to pull of the bucket. With Faith's encouragement Bart becomes a faith healer, he cures Ralph by knocking loose the change he had jammed up his nose. Homer can't figure out what do for his homecoming float, Lisa suggest something about academia, Homer shows her a drawing of Superman fighting Godzilla. Bart gets bored in church and suggest that they liven things up with music and dancing. The kids steal a fumigation tent for Bart's revival. Homer steals all of Ned's flowers for his float, he also salted the flowerbeds so nothing else will grow. Lovejoy loses all his parishioners to Bart's show so he decides to fight back by playing Michael Row The Boat Ashore but he keeps messing up the cords. Bart "cures" Milhouse's vision but he walks into an oncoming truck. At the hospital Milhouse wants Bart to cure him again but it doesn't work so he gives up the faith healing. Homer gets drunk and rushes to get his homecoming float to the game. The team comes back after the half time but Homer drives on to the field with his salute to Fraternity Hazing. He runs into the punter, I told you it would come back. Fat Tony threatens Homer because he bet heavily on the kicker, Homer asks Bart to cure him. Bart tries is best to cure the kicker and he returns to the game. The kicker almost misses but then his detached leg hits the ball knocking it over the post and Springfield U wins. Drunk college kids run off with the leg but Hibbert says he'll get it back in the morning and sew it on. And that's where the episode ends.

Don Cheadle does the voice of Brother Faith.

Homer remembers his affair with Ali McGraw, however it's the plot of the 1970 movie Love Story.

Homer went to college in the episode Homer Goes To College, surprise there.

There is a poster for Space Mutants 5 hanging in the college dorm.

When Dr. Hibbert shows the victims of comedy pranks they include a guy who drinks water and it all comes pouring out of his bullet holes, a guy on a treadmill with a dog biting his butt and a guy with a swordfish though him. The last one is a spoof on the Jerry Lewis 1969 movie Hook, Line and Sinker.

First Church Of Springfield sign Today's Topic: Life In Hell (This is a reference to the comic strip Matt Groening started his career with)

Larry and Carl went to Springfield A&M. Homer calls it a Cow College, since it was founded by a cow.

The Mansion Family

This episode premiered on January 23rd, 2000. The lead in was the NFC Championship (St. Louis 11-Tampa Bay 6) and was followed by Malcolm In The Middle. It ran opposite The W.W.O. Disney (First Kid), Touched By An Angel and The Golden Globe Awards.

The name comes from the notorious Manson Family (dark humor there)

The chalkboard gag is "Class clown is not a paid position" and the couch gag is a repeat of the family reversed in age.

Kent Brockman and Brittany Spears are hosting the Springfield Pride Awards. Everyone gets an award except Homer. Cornelius Chapman wins the award for the oldest resident of Springfield, Spears kisses him and he drops dead. They ask for people to stand up based on their age, Homer pretends to be old but Marge makes him sit down. Burns turns out to be the newest oldest person and is given the award. Homer steals the award decoration from the set. Burns decided that since he's the oldest person he needs to go to the MAYO clinic for a check up, he has Homer watch his house even though Homer has a track record of screwing up, Burns figures Homer is due for getting something right for once. Bart finds Burns' safe but all that is inside is a Beefeater from the Tower of London. Lisa explores the library and finds the controversial Nancy Drew: The Clue In The Clock "So many swears". Since Burns is coming back the next day Homer decides to throw a party but Moe can't sell him any beer until after 2 PM. Moe suggests sailing out 12 miles into international waters so Homer steals Burns' yacht. Burns finds out that he's got every disease on the chart and some new ones, but they are all cancelling each other out, Burns thinks it makes him indestructible. The Coast Guard tells the yacht to come closer so they can party, Bart knows they just want to arrest everyone. Pirates see the party and raid the yacht. Homer tries to fight the pirates but just ends up hurting himself. The guests are forced into a net and Homer is happy that they float, except for the people on the bottom. Burns isn't upset that the pirates took his yacht but is angry that Furious George, his monkey, is cut up (after a monkey knife fight) and wants Smithers to donate skin grafts. Homer ends up crying about not being rich and complains that the people in the closing credits are all rich, he threatens to turn them in to the IRS and then shouts Save me Jeebus!"

Brittany Spears does her own voice. Her handlers were a pain to the recording staff including insisting on changing several lines. 

Springfield Pride Awards. Please, No Rioting. This is another "Simpsons Predicted It" thing, in August 2000 a riot would break out at the Source Hip Hop Awards causing the audience to flee the show and the police shutting it down. The event was banned from Pasadena. 

Cornelius Chapman's accomplishments, built first log cabin, introduced the tooth brush, only player on the basketeball team, helped people jump out the window on Black Tuesday, took a bullet for Huey Long, after Long was shot four times. Huey Long was the governor of Louisiana and was assassinated on Sept. 10th, 1935. There is a continuity error since multiple episodes featured Jebediah Springfield's log cabin built long before Chapman was alive. 

Homer complains about not winning any awards so Lisa reminds him he won a Grammy (in the episode Homer's Barbershop Quartet). He says he hasn't won any awards that matter. There is a quick disclaimer across the bottom of the screen "LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Mr. Simpsons opinions do not reflect those of the producers, who do not consider the Grammy an award at all". 

Artwork in the mansion: Burns in Dogs Playing Poker. Nude Burns from the episode Brush With Greatness. Burns in still life by Cezanne

MAYO clinic. Got Tumor? A spoof on the Got Milk? campaign. Bart and Lisa appeared in a print Got Milk? ad in 1996.

Best line of the episode: Burns is filling out a medical report and when it asks Cause of Parents Death? He writes "Got in my way". 

Marge mispronounces several comedians names, Bill Crosby and David Letterson. 

Tyson vs. Secretariat In International Waters "Slaughter In The Water"

Burns' yacht is called Gone Fission. In the episode The Old Man And The C Student, Burns is on another yacht Gone Fission II

Homer's party guests. Bart, Moe, Lenny, Carl, Barney, Apu, Krusty, Sideshow Mel, Wiggum, and the rest.

Boats beyond the 12 mile limit, bikini girls party, Old West shootout, bullfighting, rebroadcasting MLB with implied oral consent, guy marrying a cow.

Marge cleans a lab room and finds a row of Burns clones, and one of Smithers. 

The Coast Guard sailor sings a version of China Grove by The Doobie Brothers.

Saddlesore Galactica

This episode premiered on February 6th 2000. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by Malcolm In The Middle. It ran opposite The NFL Pro Bowl (NFC 51 - AFC 31), Touched By An Angel and The NBC Sunday Night Movie (Face/Off)

The title is a spoof on the show Battlestar Galactica. (The original 1978 series since the new one wouldn't premier until 2004)

The chalkboard gag is "Substitute teachers are not scabs" and the couch gag is the family rushes into the living room in Karate robes and hand chop up the couch while Homer grabs the remote and turns on the TV.

The school band is accepted in to the State Fair competition, Lisa complains about playing Sousa songs. Everyone has suggestions but they all come from the 1800's. BTO is performing at the bandstand, Homer insists that they don't play any new crap but Takin' Care Of Business. Then they play You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet. The school band plays Living In America. The Ogdinville band shows up and plays Stars and Stripes complete with glow sticks and wins the competition. Lisa is mad because glow sticks aren't allowed. A show at the fair is Duncan The Incredible Diving Horse, which is basically forced off the platform into a bucket of water. Wiggum shows up and demands a permit for animal cruelty, the horse owner goes to his car "to get it" and takes off. The police plan to ship the horse off to the dog food factory but Bart wants to take him home. Comic Book Guy reminds them that they already did a horse story in the episode Lisa's Pony. Homer teaches Duncan to punt a ball but Bart suggests they turn him into a race horse instead. Lisa plans on writing a letter to President Clinton to complain about the band contest. Homer shows up at the track with the number 5 painted on the horse and Bart in his Krusty PJs as the jockey. Duncan doesn't start running until the race is over. Lisa calls the White House to complain. To toughen up Duncan they change his name to Furious D, give him a hat and leather coat, rainbow tail, skull and bones tattoo and a nose ring. The horse rams all the other riders and then attacks a photographer. (This would be a disqualification in a real race). Duncan starts winning but becomes a jerk in the process. A jockey asks Homer to join him in the lounge but finds out that they are really trolls. A Willie Wonka song  breaks out and the jockeys threaten Homer unless Duncan loses the next race. Duncan attacks the other jockeys and wins the race. The jockeys try to shoot Homer with a cannon and then chase him down the street with swords. When they get to the house Marge sprays them with a hose and Homer stuffs them into a trash bag. Clinton shows up to tell Lisa that he overturned the results of the State Fair band contest. 

Randy Bachman and C.F Turner, of BTO do their own voices. Horse racing announcer Trevor Denman does his voice too.

State Fair. Veterans Admitted Free. The joke here is Homer claims to be a Vietnam Veteran to get in free. He claims he fought at La Choy and Chun King. These were brands of prepackaged Chinese food in the 70's. He claims he was also at Margaret Cho, a famous comedian. 

When Homer is teaching Duncan to punt footballs he wears his Tom Landry hat from the episode You Only Move Twice. It's also a spoof on the Disney movie Gus The Field Goal Kicking Mule and all the Air Bud films. 

Marge buys a fire extinguisher endorsed by Linda Carter (Wonder Woman) and George Forman (boxer and entrepreneur)

When training Duncan Homer mentions the 1998 movie The Horse Whisperer.

Springfield Downs Now With E-Z Tear-Up Tickets

Moe meets a beautiful woman but his heart starts beating out of his chest in the Tex Avery style so he rushes to the hospital.

Horses in the race: Chock Full o' Drugs / (followed closely by) Stalker / Old Levis (fading fast) 

Marge can't decide which horse to bet on so they send her to the Wuss Bets line. Continuity Error, Marge was a gambling addict in the episode $pringfield. When Lisa says Marge might be developing a gambling problem Comic Book Guy says "I'm watching you!". He's wearing a Worst Episode Ever t shirt.

The show makes a joke that Clinton is a lousy President. If only they really could predict the future and see Bush jr and Trump. IOW, this joke isn't funny in the modern world. It wasn't that funny then.

This episode got really strange with the jockey trolls and the bit about Lisa's constant complaining over the band contest was really annoying. The whole Duncan winning the race after bullying the other horses is one of those "suspension of disbelief" that is hard to get past. This is an episode I'd normally skip. 

Alone Again Natura-Diddley

This episode premiered on February 13th, 2000. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O. Disney (101 Dalmatians), Touched By An Angel and the NBA All Star Game (West 137 - East 126)

The title comes from the Gilbert O'Sullivan song Alone Again (Naturally)

The chalkboard gag is "My suspension was not Mutual" and the couch gag is the family comes into the living room in bumper cars, they all team up on Homer bashing him into the wall.

The Simpsons go on a nature hike, Lisa complains about people taking out what they bring in. They hear what they think is bees but discover that a race track has been built around the bird sanctuary. Clay Babcock almost crashes into the family, Bart asks if he can go for a ride along, despite standing next to the flaming wreckage of his A car Marge agrees to let Bart go in the B car. Babcock gives the family tickets to the race, Lisa complains that she wanted to go hiking. Homer drives the family car into the pit to get new tires and causes a crash. The Fan-demonium girls show up and offer free t shirts from their t shirt cannon. Homer calls for a shirt from way up at the top of the stadium while Maude Flanders goes for hot dogs. The cheerleaders aim at Homer but he ducks and Maude gets knocked over the wall, which kills her. Homer promises to not be a jerk at the funeral. Lovejoy's sermon is about how Maude was mostly a background character and then he does a recap about Apu's eight children and the Van Houten's divorce. Fan-Demonium does a 21 t shirt gun salute and the coffin is covered in logos from racing sponsors. Homer gets a t shirt at the funeral. Ned can't sleep so he comes over to talk to Homer, he decides to put Ned on a dating site, the end of the video is Marge giving birth to Maggie. Ned decides to send the tape in, Homer is hiding in the mail box but can't get out. When they go to the dating service to see the response videos Comic Book Guy is cleaning out the One Nighter bin. When Ned is complaining that women don't like him Homer says "those floozies we married in Vegas were crazy about you" but he never told Marge about it so he has to change the subject back to Ned. Ned decides to give up religion, his kids are shocked, five minutes later he rushes to church, he's shocked to hear a rock band playing. Ned falls for the lead singer. He helps Rachel load up her van. The end. Yes, this episode will eventually lead to a future episode. A song about the death of Maude plays during the credits.

Shawn Colvin does the voice of Rachel Jordan.

A quick note on the chalkboard gag, Bart actually finishes writing out the last word when the bell rings. Was this also a joke about the firing of Maggie Roswell?

Springfield Nature Reserve / Outdoor Sex By Permit Only

When Homer thinks they might get attacked by bees he pulls out his repellant Bee-Gone African Strength. 

When Lisa complains about people carving their names in the tree "Written by Ian Maxtone-Graham pops up on the screen.

Clay Babcock is sponsored by Duff and Kwik-E-Mart. He drive the #42 car. Race sponsors KBBL radio / Duff Beer / Krusty Burger / Buzz Cola / Laramie Cigarettes / Kwik-E-Mart

At the cemetery are the gravestones of Bleeding Gums Murphy and Dr. Marvin Monroe, the other two regulars that died during the series, although we don't know what happened to Monroe. Beatrice Simmons headstone is there too, along with the inscription (Grandpa's Girlfriend) in case you forgot who she was. (she was in the episode Old Money). Frank "Grimey" Grimes headstone is there too but it's cracked and dilapidated, his grave is overgrown with weeds (Homer's Enemy).

Racing sponsors on Maude's coffin: SPT /AC DEECEE / Quakker State / Tirestone / Duff / Gudwrench / Laramie Cup / Swapon / Penzoil and something else I didn't see.

Rod and Todd's video game is Billy Graham's Bible Blaster. 

Lisa uses My 1st Video Editor to make the dating tape of Flanders. Dated reference, all the videos are shot on VHS tapes. 

Ned's ATM code is 5316

Ned plays Scrabble by himself. The words on the board are Alone / Solitary / Flandswered / Forever / Horny.

Video Matchmaking. Yes, we have desperate immigrants. 

Videos from the dating site Lindsey Nagel / Edna Krabappal (she has Skinner on the phone) / Diane (a slightly crazy woman)

Krabappal serves Chateau Maison wine at her dinner date with Ned, this was the place Bart went to as an exchange student in the episode The Crepes of Wrath. 

The band Kovenant plays at the church. There is an actual band with that name but they play industrial metal not Jesus Pop.

Rachel's bumper sticker: If this van's a-swayin, I'm in here a-prayin'

Maggie Roswell who did the voice of Maude wanted a pay raise equivalent to the rest of the cast since she had moved to Denver and had to fly in to L.A. to do the various voices for the show. The producers refused so she quit, or was fired based on who you are listening to. Since she was the voice of Maude they decided to kill off the character. It was an odd way to handle things but did create the opportunity for future story lines featuring Ned.

We've reached episode 240, and I have ventured into the dark years of The Simpsons. Troll jockeys, a character being killed off, jokes about leprosy. The show was all over the place and seemed to have lost touch with its roots. Fans were beginning to say that perhaps the show should wrap it up while it was still popular. However, it's still going 24 years later. And I, I venture further into the episodes I may have never seen before, or at least didn't pay attention to when they were on in reruns. Wish me luck on my journey into the unknown.