The Simpsons 306-310

C.E.D'oh

This episode premiered on March 16th, 2003. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by Oliver Beene. It ran opposite The W.W.O. Disney (The Emperor's New Groove), My Big Fat Greek Life and American Dreams. 

The title is a combination of CEO and Homer's catchphrase D'oh.

The couch gag is a repeat of the flip book.

It's Valentine's Day so Homer tells the kids to stay downstairs with the TV volume turned way up however Marge is tired and not in the mood. Homer accidentally plays Maggie's lullaby tape and Marge is out like a light so Homer goes for a walk. He goes to the Extension School and takes a class in stripping for your wife but gets kicked out when he uses all the body oil and slides into Successmanship 101. The first step is to live each day like it was your last, Homer ends up crying on the street (as if you wouldn't cry on your last day). Homer rushes home to "snuggle" with Marge but can't carry her up the stairs. He learns the best way to get a promotion at work is to report on the other employees. Instead of rewarding Homer Burns pushes his trap door and makes Homer jump into a pit of electric eels. Homer gets mad and drunk, Moe suggests they get revenge on Burns. Homer overhears that Burns dumped nuclear waste under Legoland, the sculptures come to life and attack the guests. In order to protect himself Burns has turned the leadership of the plant over to a canary. Homer comes up with a plan to get rid of the bird and then claims the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is there. Burns says he's looking for a patsy and decides to put Homer in charge, he in turns fires Burns. Lisa goes over the books and finds that the plant is losing money, meanwhile Burns goes to the Middle East to try drugs. Homer discovers that the plant is a mess and running the place is a pain. Burns comes back and takes Homer to the graveyard full of the people he abandon for the job, then shoots Homer with a dart and starts walling him up in the mausoleum. The next morning he's done a few feet and when Homer wakes up he turns the plant back to Burns and goes to play baseball with Bart. 

The Itchy And Scratchy Show: Bleeder of the Pack. It's the 50's and Scratchy is a motorcycle cop, Itchy chains his tail to a telephone pole and speeds by. When Scratchy hits the end of the chain his skin is peeled off and he crashes. Several mice show up and load him in an ambulance and take him to a waiting plane. The plane has Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valance on board, they expose their fangs and the plane crashes. The cop chained to the pole is a spoof on the 1973 movie American Graffiti.

Homer mentions the show 60 Minutes II. It ran from 1999 to 2005.

Billboards Homer passes on his walk: Suicide Hotline Call 1-555-No-Kill-U / Feeling Unattractive? Lose weight at Chub Med / Find the answers to your problems....at Springfield Extension School 

Extension School Orientation 7:30 / Graduation 9:30 / Classes at the Extension School: Releasing Your Inner Screenplay / Create An Online Kennel / Strip For Your Wife. 

Stark Richdale is teaching Successmanship is selling the book Megatroics The 48 Tips To Corporate Success. It's printed at Kinkos. 

The series regulars in the class: Otto / Homer / Lenny / Moleman (he gets thrown out a window) / Barney / Comic Book Guy / Carl / Zit Faced Teen / Kirk / Willy

Homer wears his Tom Landry hat. It first appeared in the episode You Only Move Twice. 

Homer has a poster of the Swedish Bikini Team on his wall. This was an advertising campaign for Old Milwaukee Beer in 1991. It was dropped because women's groups protested. Homer replaces his poster with the Swedish Efficiency Team, businesswomen in bikinis.

Lenny and Carl use proton rods to have a fight over which movie sucked more, Phantom Menace (1999) or Attack Of The Clones (2002). 

Burns has a chart of the leadership at the plant. Mindy Simmons (The Last Temptation Of Homer) is near the top, Lenny and Carl are near the bottom. Frank Grime's photo has a line drawn through it (Homer's Enemy) and Homer comes after a carbon rod (Homer In Space)

When Homer throws Burns out of the plant the employees sing Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye, from the song Kiss Him Goodbye. It is a popular chant when a player fouls out of a basketball game.

Homer Skypes with the family for dinner. Skype had just come to the internet in 2003.

Homer holds a Homer's 305th Everything Is Back To Normal BBQ (This was the 306th episode.)

When Homer almost beans Bart with a baseball he rushes the mound and the theme from the 1963 tv show The Courtship Of Eddy's Father plays while they fight.

"Scuse Me While I Miss The Sky

This episode premiered on March 30th 2003. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O. Disney (The Kid), 60 Minutes and American Dreams.

The couch gag is a repeat of jumping the shark.

The title is a spoof on the lyrics from the Jimmi Hendrix song Purple Haze.

Declan has showed up to make a documentary about Springfield Elementary. Bart becomes the star of the film until Nelson pelts him with a mud clod. Skinner steers Declan to Lisa however he mocks her since she isn't focused on any single subject (she's 8 btw). Bart needs to regain his "cool", he sees Nelson with a stolen hood ornament so he plans to copy the bullies.  Lisa goes to the museum to try to pick a new career, most things look boring but then she goes into the planetarium and is inspired to become an astronomer. Homer buys her a telescope, however whenever she goes to look at the planets she can't see anything due to light pollution. She hikes to the top of a mountain but still can't see anything, Professor Frink tells her the problem is light pollution. Bart shows up with a spray painted pacifier claiming it was a hood ornament. Desmond asks Lisa what she's up to and mocks her for her light petition. Lisa is successful so Quimby turns off the city's lights and people can see the stars. Meanwhile the bullies go on a hood ornament stealing spree, Bart sees a fancy ornament on a car and plans on stealing however it belongs to Fat Tony. Bart pretends to be the valet at Luigis and cuts the ornament off. After complaints about the rise in crime Quimby plans to turn the lights back on and cranks it up to Perma-Noon. When the lights come back on Fat Tony can see Bart, he and Milhouse try to escape on the trolly but it's only going to the corner. Nobody can sleep and after a week they are all going crazy. Bart and Lisa plans to work together to shut down the lights by overloading the system at the power plant. The power surge knocks out the lights. An angry mob shows up because they shut the lights off but just then a meteor shower passes and everyone is too busy looking up to be angry. Bart manages to steal Fat Tony's car. A meteor crashes next to Professor Frink and an alien jumps out. The show ends with Declan's documentary about Springfield Elementary.

Eric Idle does the voice of Declan Desmond

Declan's documentaries: Lost Luggage: Shattered Lives / Upskirt Dreams / Do You Want Lies With That? (A spoof on Supersize Me) / American Boneheads: A Day In The Life Of Springfield Elementary

In Declan's documentary about Krusty Burger, Krusty is seen stapling half eaten sandwiches together and reserving them. This is a spoof on the internet rumor that Chuck E. Cheese would take unfinished pizzas, recut them and reserve them.

Marge serves Dinnerables. This is a spoof on Lunchables

Museum Of Natural History. Now With Multi-Ethnic Cavemen! (the early years of Woke)

Homer buys the telescope at Teenage Pasteland Springfield's #1 Hobby Shop. (This is a spoof on the lyrics of The Who's Baba O'Riley.) The store has a model of the Millennium Falcon and the Enterprise in the window.

Lisa reads Ed McMahon's Star Searcher to find the constellations. This is a spoof on the 1983 TV show Star Search.

The (surviving) Beach Boys perform Good Vibrations.

Hood ornaments worn by the bullies: BMW / Cadillac / Mercedes Benz / Hyundai 

Channel 6 news headline: Hoods Rob Hoods In 'Hoods. 

Springfield street lights settings: Low / Normal / Vegas / Perma-Noon

Moe has a wall of his Drink A Gallon Of Gin Challenge. All the pictures are of dead people on the floor of the bar.

When all the Springfield lights explode the song from the 1984 movie The Natural starts playing.

When the lights go out and Springfield can see the meteor show Vincent by Don McLean plays. 

Three Gays Of The Condo

This episode premiered on April 13th 2003. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O. Disney (Dr. Doolittle), My Big Fat Greek Life and American Dreams.

The title is based on the 1975 film Three Days Of The Condor

There isn't a chalkboard gag and the couch gag is a repeat of the deep frier.

It's family Wednesday and Marge has selected a jigsaw puzzle, Bart is going to take off but Milhouse just got his rock tumbler fixed so he stick around. The next day at school Bart brings part of the puzzle to lunch, the family is obsessed with finishing it. Homer goes nuts and tries to force Lenny's head into part of the puzzle. After spending a week working on the puzzle they discover one of the pieces is missing so they tear the house apart. While searching for the missing piece Homer finds Marge's memory box. He finds a flier from Moe's grand opening and flashes back to the night. However he finds a note Marge wrote calling it the worst night of her life, Homer had gotten alcohol poisoning and they had to drive him to the hospital. Afterwords Marge planned on breaking up with him. Two days later she found out she was pregnant and stayed with Homer. He confronts Marge and she says she loves him but some of the things he does annoys her, so he sleeps with Bart. Homer moves out and stays with Kirk at the divorced apartments however he can't sleep because of all the crying men. Homer goes to check out an apartment on the Gay side of town, he runs into Smithers. Homer moves in with a couple of Gay guys. Marge hires Weird Al to serenade Homer and he agrees to go out on a date with her. Homer gets nervous and gets drunk on margaritas instead of going out on the date. He shows up late and drunk so Marge walks out on him. Grady, one of the Gay roommates, kisses Homer and he runs away, he starts to think that alcohol is his problem so Moe gets him super drunk and then drops him off at the emergency room. Hibbert has a tape of Homer's first alcohol poisoning, he sees Marge standing by him and then she shows up at the hospital. They reunite and then they flash forward to an older Hibbert watching the reconcile tape, where he sees a nurse stealing sponges. Weird Al sings a song about the episode over the closing credits. 

Weird Al Yankovic does his own voice and Scott Thompson voices Grady.

The family Wednesday activity is a jigsaw puzzle, Oprah's Puzzle Club Concert In Golden Gate Park.

Marge walks by the clock and it reads 4:20. This was around the time the numbers had entered the lexicon as a reference to "you know what" (The bots on this blog don't like drug references so....). Anyhow it appears the Simpsons snuck in some slang before it became popular.

When Bart finds the dead gerbil in the couch he makes the sign of the cross. This will mean something different in a future episode.

When Homer looks in the closet he has his Mr. Plow jacket and Pin Pals shirt. This is a bit of a continuity error because in the episode Homer's Phobia John had bought the bowling shirt from Goodwill after Marge gave it away. 

Homer says "Oh puzzle piece, come out and plaaa-ay" This is a reference to the 1979 film The Warriors.

Stuff in Marge's memory box: Homer's fake business card (Homer Simpson, Quarterback) / T shirt from their first rock concert (Rolling Stones Last Tour Ever '89) / a flier from Meaux's Tavern Grand Opening (and a goodbye message written to Homer on the back) / Her diagnosis of her first pregnancy.

Homer plays Asteroids at Moe's grand opening. The game came out in 1979.

When Marge finds the missing puzzle piece it's an image of James Taylor. He did a guest voice on the episode Homer In Space.

Patty and Selma pay for a billboard : Homer Out Of Springfield Vote Yes On 104

Outside of the Simpson's house is a news box from Apartment Finder, a paper with rental listings. 

Bachelor Arms. 3 Days Without A Suicide (after a gunshot the sign changes to 0)

Stores on the Gay side of town: Alternative Knifestyles / Armistead's Mopeds / Fab Abs / Sconewall Bakery (a spoof on the Stonewall bar that started the Gay Rights movement in New York) / Victor Victoria's An Upscale Men's Clothing Store (This is both a spoof on the 1982 movie and Victoria's Secret) / One Night Stans

Smithers is shopping on the Gay side of town and wearing roller blades, just another "wink wink"about his sexuality.

Homer says he's a member of a club where if he eats one more sub sandwich he gets a free sub sandwich and the spokesperson is a guy who use to be fat but now he's just ugly. Boy, that joke didn't age well. If you don't get it Google Jared and Subway.

Springfield Shopper headline: Bumblebee Man Caught In A Sting. This is also a self aware joke when Julio says "all the headlines are jokes".

Lisa reads Nancy Drew: The Clue In The Clock. This was the first Nancy Drew book and has appeared on the show several times before.

Weird Al sings a song to Homer and Marge to the tune of Jack and Diane.

Medieval Times Jousting Contest: Henry VI versus Spider-Man

At the jousting contest Comic Book Guy is drug off with a spear in his stomach.

This was a Homer and Marge's marriage is in trouble episode. There hadn't been one in a while but it's still annoying.

Dude Where's My Ranch?

This Episode premiered on April 27th 2003. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by a Simpsons rerun (Barting Over). It ran opposite The W.W.O. Disney (Eloise At The Plaza), Touched By An Angel and American Dreams

The title comes from the 2000 film Dude, Where's My Car?

Thee couch gag is the family is dressed as mimes and sit on a pretend couch.

The Simpsons go out caroling, Snake is robbing a house, Burns releases the hounds on them, they sing "have a nice Christmas" to the tune of Hava Nagila and I'm Dreaming Of a Whitefish Christmas for Krusty and his Rabbi father. The lawyer shows up and tells them they are violating copyrights so Homer decides to write a Christmas carol. Ned offers to help but Homer throws him out, however he's inspired to writes Everybody Hates Ned Flanders. David Byrne shows up at Moe's when Homer is singing and offers to produce it. The song becomes a huge hit but soon Homer is sick of it and decides to take the family on vacation, they decide to go to a Dude Ranch. Lisa complains about the ranch's treatment of animals and exploitation of the Native Americans. Lisa meets Luke Stetson who encourages to ride a pony to go hang No Hunting and Free Tibet signs. The Native Americans show up and tell the Simpsons they make money selling junk to tourists since the river was dammed by the beavers. Homer promises to get rid of the dam if the Indians promise to build a casino and only use four decks in their Blackjack shoe. Homer tries to kick down the dam but the beavers attack him and try to make him part of the dam, Bart pulls him out but the rope breaks and the beavers attack him again. Luke tries to impress Lisa but everything on the ranch is about killing animals. Marge starts to worry about Lisa's relationship with Luke. Lisa overhears Luke talking on the phone to Clara about the dance and gets jealous. When she runs into Clara she sends her up the wrong trail. Homer baits the beavers with wooden furniture, including the hotel mini bar, he and Bart pull out the master log and the dam collapses, revealing the Native American's tents that had been submerged. Luke starts to worry about Clara and Lisa finds out it's his sister, she recruits Bart to help her search for the missing girl. It turns out Clara got trapped in the new river when the dam collapsed, Bart taunts the beavers and runs up a tree, they gnaw it down and it falls over the river saving Clara. Luke comes to say goodbye to Lisa but she confesses what she did, he tells her off and she suffers her first heart break. On the way home they hear The Moe Szyslack Connection, produced by David Byrne, it's Moe singing Moe Moe Moe to the tune of More More More, the family decides to go back to the ranch for another week.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas does the voice of Luke Stetson, Andy Serkis does Cleany and David Byrne does his own voice.

Homer tries to write a Christmas Carol. He wrote the hit song Baby On Board for the Be Sharps in the episode Homer's Barbershop Quartet.

Billboard For Kidz: Flan Slam Is #1 Jam

William Shatner does a version of Everyone Hates Ned. This is a spoof on his version of Rocket Man. 

Vacation brochures: Balloon ride / Wax Museum (Michael Jackson and Mr. T are on the cover) / The Denzel Washington Monument / Colonial Phoenix / Lazy I Dude Ranch (peace, quiet, chili) / Walter Gropius's Bauhaus Village.

Cookie, the ranch cook is a spoof on Gabby Hays. 

When David Byrne is trying to promote the salsa version of the song he dances on his car but slips and falls into Moe's. He asks to go to the hospital but Moe asks if he ever saw Misery and tells Byrne that it will all be new to him. Misery came out in 1990.

Lazy I Dude Ranch. Formerly Wandering I Nudest Colony. The Yee Haw Texan runs the dude ranch. He has to close because he shot a Texas Ranger when firing his guns into the air, however he'll be back in 6 months.

Lisa reads Lets Go Home when she doesn't want to be at the ranch.

Cleany crawls out of the chuckwagon and gathers up the dirty dishes, he calls them "My Precious". The character is a spoof on Gollum and the movie Return of the King had come out in 2003 as the conclusion to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Maggie dances to Oops I Did It Again by Brittany Spears, the song came out in 2000. She holds out a can of Buzz Cola and winks in a spoof on the 2002 Pepsi Super Bowl commercial.

The ranch is holding a Western Dance. The Stooped-Over Fiddler Is Back.

The Native Americans get a copy of Peace Pipe Aficionado "What Your End Feather Says About You"

It turns out Luke is from Central Park West.

Oh man, the Native American jokes did not age well, but lets be honest, they weren't that good the first time around.

Old Yeller-Belly

This episode premiered on May 4th, 2003. It ran in its regular time slot (The Simpsons rerun was I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can). It ran opposite Tim Allen presents: A Users Guide To Home Improvement, the CBS Sunday Movie (Lucy) and American Dreams.

The title is a reference to the 1957 Disney film Old Yeller.

The chalkboard gag is "My Pen Is Not A Booger Launcher" and the couch gag is a repeat of the workers eating lunch on the steel girder.

Bart's treehouse club is spying on Lisa's tea party thought a can phone. The girls try to pull it in, the boys pull back and the treehouse collapses. Homer vows to build a new treehouse and steals railroad tracks to get the wood. A train comes along and manages to jump over the missing rails and land upright. Homer draws blueprints but they are for a go-cart track. Homer and Bart screw around so Marge rings a cowbell and the Amish show up, they build a great treehouse. Homer holds a lavash warming party however the Amish wired the place wrong and it catches on fire. Homer gets trapped but is saved by Snowball II. Quimby renames the dog park the "Snowball II Muncipal Cat Park sponsored by Buzz Cola with Lemon. The local dogs are mad at SLH because he failed to rescue Homer. Lisa shows SLH a Rin Tin Tin movie where he attacks Hitler, so SLH attacks the Hitler looking mailman. SLH balances a can on his nose just as Dave Shutton, the photographer shows up, the photo winds up on the front page of the Springfield Shopper. The president of Duff sees the photo and wants to hire SNL to be their new spokesman, and fires Duffman. The first commercial has SLH showing up on the ISS in a beer shaped rocket. Just as the family is cashing in the original owner shows up and claims ownership of SLH. Regis interviews SLH and he also appears on The $100,000 Pyramid as the celebrity contestant, they actually win. Homer vows to get SLH back. The family tracks down Duffman, aka Barry Duffman, at the homeless shelter. The plan is to have Homer fake drowning, SLH won't save him but Duffman will. Homer's antics attract a shark and Duffman hides with SLH. The shark attacks the giant can of beer Homer was swimming on, gets drunk and becomes the new Duff mascot. The beer company fires SLH, the original owner gives him back to the Simpsons. 

Stacey Keach returns to do the voice of Howard K. Duff VII. In his first appearance he played Don Bookner, the general manager of the Springfield Isotopes in the episode Hungry Hungry Homer.

There hadn't been a chalkboard gag since February 16, 2003.

Bart has a sign on his treehouse "The Hole In The Underwear Gang. No Girls!" Bart's club members, Data, Martin, Milhouse and Nelson (who plays the banjo)

Springfield Shopper Lifeways headline: Ale Of The Pup

To work for Duff Santa's Little Helper has to change his name to Suds McDuff. This is a spoof on Spuds MacKenzie, the Budweiser dog. 

When Krusty gets attacked by the toxic prickle snake they put up a We'll Be Right Back card with a picture of Krusty sticking out of an ambulance being driven by Mr. Teenie. 

Posters at Duff, SLH on a surfboard / with Wolfcastle (Share a cold one with your best friend) / Got Duff? /  !Me Gusta Duff Cerveza tambien! (with Bumblebee Man) / Drink Duff, Man's other best friend / Get your paws on some 40's

SLH's original owner was seen in the first regular series episode Simpson's Roasting On an Open Fire.

SNL appears on Live With Regis and Kelly. The real Regis once appeared as himself on the episode Treehouse Of Horror IX.

Springfield Men's Mission. We Add God To Your Misery. Gil is being tossed out because he spent the last 6 months living there. 

Cash For Your Eyes Springfield Organ Bank 

Duff Beach Volleyball. It's Something To Do.

We've reached the end of another five episodes. I am inching closer to the ultimate end, depending on how much longer they make episodes. I'm also deep into the shows I never saw before. This is actually getting kind of interesting. We are also getting closer to the movie, although that is still 5 years off.