The Simpsons List Discussion and Suggestions

[barryconvex]

Though he also wasted one of those slots on the Shary Bobbins episode...

Man, am i the only one here who thinks that's a great episode? Maybe not top 50 great but still...

[domino harvey]

Things we've learned from the last couple posts:
dustybooks = Matt Groening
swo17 = Shaq

barryconvex = voice actress of Shary Bobbins

[barryconvex]

SpoilerShow

"A Streetcar Named Marge" and "Mr Plow"... "Streetcar" is pretty good, "Mr Plow" is one of the weakest episode of the season, and not even in my wildest of imaginations would either be anyone's sane pick for best of the season that brought us "Last Exit to Springfield," "Marge vs the Monorail," "Krusty Gets Kancelled," "Homer the Heretic," "Itchy and Scratchy: the Movie," "Lisa's First Word," "Duffless," "I Love Lisa," "Kamp Krusty," and and and and...

SpoilerShow

"Streetcar" is a classic because of Lovitz, and Mr. Plow has one of the greatest guest stars ever in Linda Ronstadt. Her Mr. Plow dis-jingle sung in spanish is ringing in my ears right now...There are no bad episodes in season four but the weakest ones for me are Homer The Heretic, Marge Vs. The Monorail, and I Love Lisa.

[barryconvex]

barryconvex = voice actress of Shary Bobbins

Yeah, well...I can't think of anything witty...

[mfunk9786]

OK, OK, OK we can stop spoiler tagging in this thread please. It's starting to become a mess. Damnit, Domino!

but the weakest ones for me are Homer The Heretic, Marge Vs. The Monorail, and I Love Lisa.

I can't even wrap my head around this. Homer the Heretic might be in my top 5 all time, and while I'm not as huge on Marge vs. the Monorail as some here, it'll definitely make my list.

[domino harvey]

I just rewatched Homer the Heretic the other day, it wasn't as funny as I remembered it (still a good episode though, and the first act is classic-- it'll still make my list). Surprise MVP of the season four rewatch so far is Lisa the Beauty Queen, which is the best distillation of the always dependable Lisa and Homer pairings, and also a great example of how to depict Lisa's self-righteousness without the episode itself becoming self-righteous (a real problem in later episodes). Incredibly funny episode too, of course ("Coming up, a new fad that's sweeping the nation-- wasting food!")

[colinr0380]

That's one of the few times I've really found Krusty funny too, for having to press on regardless with what seems like an ill thought out interminable musical number! (Plus of course the Amber Dempsey rival with illegal eyelash implants and an ironic fate which I sometimes wonder whether Drop Dead Gorgeous took inspiration from!)

The Mr Plow episode is fantastic if just for the dig at artily pretentious commercials that say little about the product! (I love that they threw in yet another reference to Citizen Kane in there, along with the Koyaanisqatsi one!)

I suppose though it could be argued that it anticipates Barney's arthouse film from A Star Is Burns!

[barryconvex]

Surprise MVP of the season four rewatch so far is Lisa the Beauty Queen...

Classic episode. Also love the Tony Randall reference and Lisa channeling Tina Turner...

That's one of the few times I've really found Krusty funny too..

"I heartily endorse this event or product" is one of my favorite Krusty moments. I agree he can be hit or miss with the misses piling up in later seasons but when he's on it's tough to top KK...

[Ribs]

I dearly, dearly love The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase, S08E24. It's one of those episodes people point to as an example of the show on it's way downhill, but it's really astoundingly funny and really very adventurous in basically totally forgoing the format of the show, in many ways the following year's successor to 22 Short Films About Springfield but taking it in a whole other, crazy direction. It's, beat-for-beat, in my opinion, one of the funniest episodes of the entire show, despite not really amounting to a hill of beans. It might require a certain degree of love for outdated TV formats that I don't know if most people can muster.

I don't really know if it'll make my list (condensing everything I've shortlisted down to 50 is proving practically impossible) but this episode is so fantastic I hope some people around here are willing to give it a rewatch despite its unsavory reputation.

[Lemmy Caution]

"I heartily endorse this event or product" is one of my favorite Krusty moments. I agree he can be hit or miss with the misses piling up in later seasons but when he's on it's tough to top KK...

My favorite Krusty shoddy product moment:

Krusty is inspecting a bunch of products with his likeness.
He touches a Krusty electric clock, and screams in pain.
Blue-haired lawyer: "That clock gets incredibly hot if you leave it plugged in."

Of course Krusty approves all the defective junk anyway.
But that "if you leave it plugged in" line just kills me.

[barryconvex]

Of course Krusty approves all the defective junk anyway. But that "if you leave it plugged in" line just kills me.

Love that one too...Another Krusty favorite is from the episode "The Front". Another classic from season four where grandpa (actually Bart & Lisa are doing all the work hence the title) gets a job writing for Itchy & Scratchy. Grandpa is nominated for an Emmy and at the ceremony Krusty presents the award for best writing in a cartoon series with Brooke Shields. The writer (Adam I. Lapidus-apparently his only Simpsons credit) brilliantly skewers the usual lame "playful" award show banter with this gem:

Krusty - Here we are, the star of The Blue Lagoon and me...The Blue Haired Goon! What the...? That's terrible!! First of all my hair is green, not blue...I got nothin' to work with here. (Storms off)

The other nominated fictional cartoon episodes are hilarious too: Strongdar Master Of Acom: "The Wedding Episode", Action Figure Man-"How To Buy Action Figure Man" and then a dig at Ren & Stimpy. I kneel before the genius of The Simpsons circa '91-'93...

[swo17]

That's part of what I'm going to say is the show's greatest consecutive run of episodes, starting with, oh, let's say Brother from the Same Planet and going through Treehouse of Horror IV.

[dustybooks]

I dearly, dearly love The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase, S08E24. It's one of those episodes people point to as an example of the show on it's way downhill, but it's really astoundingly funny and really very adventurous in basically totally forgoing the format of the show, in many ways the following year's successor to 22 Short Films About Springfield but taking it in a whole other, crazy direction. It's, beat-for-beat, in my opinion, one of the funniest episodes of the entire show, despite not really amounting to a hill of beans. It might require a certain degree of love for outdated TV formats that I don't know if most people can muster.

I don't really know if it'll make my list (condensing everything I've shortlisted down to 50 is proving practically impossible) but this episode is so fantastic I hope some people around here are willing to give it a rewatch despite its unsavory reputation.

Totally agree -- the variety show sequence is kind of a marvel of "funny because it's not funny"* and a deadly accurate treatment of the stuff it's making fun of, which my parents were very into.

* Speaking of this, in rewatching some third season episodes lately I'm surprised by how inherently amusing I now find Itchy & Scratchy. I always realized it was meant to be strange that everyone on the show found it hilarious but now it strikes me as so blunt-force and stupid that my reactions are more similar to Bart and Lisa's than not.

[colinr0380]

By the way, if anyone ever wondered how well the world of The Simpsons would translate into an adaptation of Akira, the answer is surprisingly well!

[dustybooks]

I watched Bart the Murderer a few nights ago. To call back to something I think mfunk said earlier in the thread (though I'm having trouble finding it right now), this episode exemplifies a lot of elements that are popularly seen as leading to the show's decline: the story is incredibly far-fetched and silly, the first act has almost nothing to do with the rest of the episode and the rest never refers back to it meaningfully, and the whole thing ends on an anticlimactic note. Yet it's hilarious and completely engaging, and even finds time for a strikingly designed dream sequence. I guess the writers were just a lot stronger and more inspired then, or maybe every single episode not following this kind of structure balanced things out.

Also I love the Simpsons writers' weird obsession with making fun of MacGyver.

[swo17]

Friendly reminder that lists are due one month from today. I suppose you can start sending them to me at any time.

[mfunk9786]

Pleased with my list, though there was much less room than I anticipated. The Joy of Sect was the most recent episode that made it onto my list, and it barely made the cut.

[barryconvex]

On my first pass at this thing my list was full before even getting to season 5. I made some changes but i still don't have room for about ten episodes that i consider to be grade A, top of the heap episodes...

[domino harvey]

Did we ever get a go ahead on whether we'd be voting for individual Treehouse of Horror segments in a supplemental mini-list? Even if not, it's worth mentioning that the last great segment, paired with two awful ones, was in Season Eleven's Treehouse of Horror X, I Know What You Diddily-Iddly-Did, which is not only one of the best entries but also came after years of sub par segments (the Halloween episodes after V were the first early indication that the show was in a tailspin, even in solid seasons) that it, like the food critic episode, gave false hope that the show could still hit classic era highs. The other two segments are so awful that there's no way I could vote for the whole episode, but it's worth a revisit of what, Seven minutes of your time?

[Lemmy Caution]

TofH VII (8th Season) is terrific -- Bart's evil, ex-Siamese twin Hugo: Lisa creates a mini-world
TofH VIII (9th Season) is terrific -- The Homega Man; The Teleporter so bart becomes The Fly, and a weak episode with Marge as a witch.

For those not delving much past the first half dozen seasons, other Treehouse faves of mine:
Season 12 -- Night of The Dolphins is one of my all time favorite Simpson episodes/mini-episodes
Season 13 -- Hex and the City, where Homer gets hit with a gypsy curse is great
Season 14 -- Send in the Clones is another all-time great ep/mini-ep. A Horde or Homers.
While Season 16 has two very strong entries: The Ned Zone & Jack the Ripper

Those would be my Top 6 Halloween Specials.
In order: S12; S14; S8; S13; S16; S9
1. TofH XI S12: Ghost Dad; Fairy-tale Forest; Night of the Dolphins
2. TofH XIII S14: Send in the Clones; BillytheKid Guns; Island of Dr. Hibbert
3. TofH VII S8: The Thing and I (Hugo); The Genesis Tub; Citizen Kang
4. TofH XII S13: Hex and the City (Gypsy); House of Whacks; Wiz Kids
5. TofH XV S16: The Ned Zone; Jack the Ripper; Belly of the Boss
6. TofH VIII S9: The HΩmega Man; Fly Vs. Fly; Easy-Bake Coven

[swo17]

Did we ever get a go ahead on whether we'd be voting for individual Treehouse of Horror segments in a supplemental mini-list?

I put the idea out there but no one ever responded. If anyone wants to submit a top 10 Treehouse list I'd be happy to tabulate that.

[colinr0380]

"And the real Homer?"
"First over cliff"

I like the way that the Send In The Clones segment is sort of riffing on The Matrix Reloaded's exponentially growing number of Agent Smith's, and then becomes almost absurdistly strange in the images of hundreds of Homers falling down Springfield Gorge in perhaps the ultimate homage to Bart The Daredevil's climax! (Though I don't think this would change domino's mind on the show having been long reduced to eating its own tail in recycling its original imagery, albeit to the extreme in this case!)

On these side shows, I'm probably going to try and find room for some of the re-tellings of story episodes. I'll probably leave out Simpsons Bible Stories, but I quite like Tales From The Public Doman and its Hamlet ("Someone shout out a location" "This castle!". "And an occupation" "Usurper of the throne!". "And an object?" "Ear poison!". Lisa as Ophelia: "Oh great Hamlet's gone crazy. Well two can play at that game!") and Joan of Arc sections (with Marge's comment on eating the last page of Joan of Arc's story that "at least it was easier to chew than that Bambi video") or the Simpsons Tall Tales episode, if only for the Connie Appleseed vs her Bufflekill family!

Margical Mystery Tour is good too, just for the Henry VIII episode ("Hmmm...I wonder if I could canonise a child?")

[swo17]

It's "no one outcrazies Ophelia."

[colinr0380]

I knew it was a better line than the one I thought up!

[mfunk9786]

I think it makes a lot more sense to vote for full ToH episodes - that's what I did (though only one made my list), but does liking one segment more than another create a more unique issue than, say, thinking an episode goes too far off the rails in its final act?