Apologies for the delay in content. Continuing where we left off...
Disc 2:
“Treehouse of Horror II”
Original Airdate: October 31, 1991
Bart, Lisa and Homer eat too much candy after trick-or-treating, setting up our three stories for this season’s Halloween special…
Lisa dreams about Homer buying a cursed monkey paw during a trip to Morocco that grants four wishes. Maggie makes the first wish, a new pacifier. Bart wishes for the Simpsons to be rich and famous. Lisa wishes for world peace. Of course each wish comes with a consequence, and it’s up to Homer to save the day with his wish.
Bart dreams about being an all-powerful being that can read minds and transform anyone who thinks negative thoughts into horrible creatures. After an incident with Homer, Marge forces Bart to go to therapy with Dr. Marvin Monroe, who suggests the family spend more time together.
Homer dreams that Mr. Burns develops a robot that is the perfect employee, and uses Homer’s brain to power it. However, the robot still has Homer’s brain, and isn’t exactly perfect.
These earlier Treehouse episodes are just there, as they were still working out the kinks of the three story model. Next season is where the fun begins, with the famous segments and title cards.
“Lisa’s Pony”
Original Airdate: November 7, 1991
Lisa stops loving Homer when he fails to bring her a new saxophone reed before a talent show. Intent on winning her back, Homer buys her a pony. Of course, in order to afford the pony and its stable fees, Homer has to take out a loan and pick up a second job at the Kwik-E-Mart working the graveyard shift. When Lisa finds out, she has to decide whether or not keeping her pony is worth seeing Homer struggle. This episode didn’t have much in terms of story but there were TONS of funny moments brought about by Homer falling asleep and causing physical damage to himself. And the continuation of the “Homer is the worst smelling human in the world” gag had me rolling for no particular reason.
“Saturdays of Thunder”
Original Airdate: November 14, 1991
Marge, Patty and Selma give Homer a parenting quiz from one of their salon magazines. It asks specific questions about his relationship with Bart, and he gets every question wrong. With the help of the National Fatherhood Institute, Homer and Bart work together on a soapbox derby race car until an injury to Martin Prince forces Bart to take his place in the race, nearly ruining the new relationship between Bart and Homer. Not much here, as it was another sappy parenting story. What is with this season and episodes based on bad parenting?
“Flaming Moe’s”
Original Airdate: November 21, 1991
Guest Starring Aerosmith as themselves
YES. The awesomeness begins here. Lisa’s sleepover drives Homer to Moe’s for a drink, but Moe’s is out of beer. Homer reminisces about a time when he created a drink with a secret ingredient: cough syrup. However, Moe takes credit for the drink, calling it a Flaming Moe rather than a Faming Homer. Moe’s becomes increasingly busy with Aerosmith playing every night, shunting Homer out. Seeing Moe everywhere he goes, Homer becomes increasingly depressed to the point where he exposes the secret ingredient. Oh man, there is SO much win here. First, the “Eye on Springfield” intro at the beginning is just pure awesomeness. More awesomeness is the Cheers parody. “Happiness is just a Flaming Moe away!” And then there are other little things like Homer’s sarcastic rant to Marge about making people happy. “Well, DUH.” Five stars, this episode rules.
“Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk”
Original Airdate: December 5, 1991
DEAR SWEET JESUS YES! Mr. Burns realizes that he isn’t happy anymore as he has everything. He decides to sell the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, causing stock prices to soar. Well, 25 cents per share. Homer cashes in for $25, which he spends on beer. Of course when he returns home he finds out that the stock has skyrocketed, allowing everyone else at the plant to get rich. D’oh! Anyway, while Homer is at Moe’s, he meets some Germans who are interested in purchasing the SNPP (and the Cleveland Browns). Burns sells for a cool 100K, and suddenly the employee’s jobs are at risk. After thorough discussions, Homer is the only one to find himself wished well in his future endeavors (that’s my internet joke for being fired). Meanwhile, during a trip to Moe’s, Mr. Burns realizes that the citizens of Springfield no longer fear him. At the same time, the Germans find running the Power Plant is difficult, and Burns lowballs the Germans to get the Plant back. Amazing stuff here. Homer’s daydream about the Land of Chocolate is hilarious, and then there’s the ending: “Ve Germans are not all sunshine und chocolate.” “Ooooh, the Germans are mad at me! They’re coming to get me!” Another classic episode, as this is where the show was really beginning to pick up steam.
“I Married Marge”
Original Airdate: December 26, 1991
This is the second flashback episode but the first taking a look at Homer and Marge’s marriage. Marge might be pregnant, so Homer tells Bart and Lisa about how they got married. We go back to 1980 where Homer and Marge are dating and Homer spins the windmill at the Springfield mini-golf course. After a romantic evening inside the golf course, Marge becomes pregnant and Homer proposes to her. They get married at a sleazy Vegas style wedding chapel. Of course financial problems force Homer to apply for a job at the newly opened Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. This episode includes one of my all-time favorite Simpsons gags, when Homer spoils the ending of The Empire Strikes Back for an entire round of moviegoers. I always love these flashback episodes, although they’ve started to get really wacky in the newest seasons.
Disc 3:
“Radio Bart”
Original Airdate: January 9, 1992
Guest Starring Sting (the singer, not the wrestler) as himself
It’s Bart’s birthday, but the gifts he receives all stink. His favorite gift is a label maker from Patty and Selma. Homer eventually convinces Bart to use a radio mic that he purchased after seeing an ad for it on TV. After pulling several pranks with the device, Bart eventually throws it down a well pretending to be a trapped child named Timmy O’Toole. When Lisa brings it to Bart’s attention that he used the label maker to write “Property of Bart Simpson” on the device, Bart falls down the well himself while trying to recover it. The angry townspeople, knowing they were hoaxed, leave Bart to die, but the unusual team of Homer, Groundskeeper Willie and Sting combine their digging powers to rescue Bart. The awesomeness continues, with parodies of campy celebrity charity songs and the town paying more attention to a squirrel that looks like Abraham Lincoln rather than Bart.
“Lisa the Greek”
Original Airdate: January 23, 1992
Another parenting episode sees Homer using Lisa to pick winners for him during the NFL season. At the end of the season, Lisa is disappointed when she realizes Homer is going to ditch her to go bowling with Barney. Lisa tells Homer that the outcome of the Super Bowl will decide if she will ever love him again. Meanwhile, Bart and Marge use their Sundays to go clothes shopping. Awesome stuff here with one of the cute, emotional endings that only The Simpsons can pull off.
“Homer Alone”
Original Airdate: February 6, 1992
Marge cracks under the pressure of having to do everything for her family and takes a vacation to the Rancho Relaxo Spa (“You can’t spell ‘Relaxo’ without ‘Relax!’), leaving Patty and Selma to look after Bart and Lisa while Homer is forced to take care of Maggie. While Marge is relaxing, everyone else is miserable. Maggie runs away to search for Marge, and it’s up to Homer to find her before Marge comes back home. Another great episode with most of the hilarity involving Patty and Selma (“You think you know fear? I’ve seen them naked!” – Lisa) and Bart playing with their blackhead gun. Thumbs up.
“Bart the Lover”
Original Airdate: February 13, 1992
After a Yo-Yo group performs at Springfield Elementary, the kids become obsessed with yo-yos. Bart is a master, but accidentally kills the class fish after a mishap. In detention, Bart exposes the lonely life of Edna Krabappel, who has sent out a personal ad. Bart answers her ad with a fictional person called Woodrow, studying old movies and poems for letter inspiration. When Woodrow ditches Edna, Bart starts to feel bad (“I can’t help but feel this is partially my fault.”) and turns to his family for help letting Edna down easily. Homer’s tips on dumping women are hilarious. I’ve never tried dumping a girl by telling her Homer’s three simple words “I am gay” but I can’t see how it could fail, so if you’re reading this and need to get out of a relationship, why not give it a shot?
“Homer at the Bat”
Original Airdate: February 20, 1992
Guest Starring Various Baseball Players (see below)
OH LAWDY YES YES YES! The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant’s softball team has an incredible season, thanks to the unlikely star power of Homer and his homemade “Wonderbat.” SNPP only needs to beat Shelbyville to win the pennant, and when Mr. Burns bets a million dollars on his team, he guarantees victory by hiring nine players from Major League Baseball: Wade Boggs, Jose Canseco, Rodger Clemens, Ken Griffey, Jr., Don Mattingly, Steve Sax, Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Smith and Darryl Strawberry. Each are given token jobs at the Power Plant, such as “lunchroom cashier” and are strongly encouraged, almost forced, by Burns to join the softball team. Now, Burns realizes there will be a few mishaps to his MLB players. Three mishaps? Sure. Seven mishaps? There’s a chance. But NINE separate mishaps? What are the odds? Of course end the end it comes down to Homer to win the Plant the pennant. This one makes pretty much everybody’s “Top Ten Episodes” list, and I have to agree, and I don’t even LIKE baseball. The song at the end during the credits is glorious, so watch the video above.
“Separate Vocations”
Original Airdate: February 27, 1992
An aptitude test determines that Bart will be a cop while Lisa will be a homemaker. Bart takes a liking to his new future career, helping cops stop Snake from robbing the Kwik-E-Mart and being promoted to Hall Monitor of Springfield Elementary. In the meantime, a depressed Lisa goes bad, hanging out in the “bad girls” bathroom and egging Principal Skinner’s most prized possession, the school’s puma mascot statue. Lisa eventually steals all of the teacher’s “Teacher Edition” books, and everything goes to hell when they don’t have the answers. But fearing for his sister, Bart restores status quo and takes the blame. Great stuff.
Disc 4:
“Dog of Death”
Original Airdate: March 12, 1992
While Springfield is obsessed with the upcoming lottery, Santa’s Little Helper falls ill with a twisted stomach. The Simpson family struggles to pay for the operation, being forced to give up expensive food and beer, among other things. Everyone is upset at the dog, and he runs away, eventually being captured by Mr. Burns and converted into one of the evil hounds. Not as funny as the episodes preceding it but it has more of that Simpsons good vibrations/emotions I’ve been talking about. You know, the kind of stuff Family Guy tries to do but can’t?
“Colonel Homer”
Original Airdate: March 26, 1992
Guest Starring Beverley D’Angelo as Lurleen Lumpkin
Marge and Homer fight after Homer behaves badly at the movie theater. An upset Homer drives to an out of town bar where he is forced to drink Fudd instead of Duff. He also meets the singing waitress Lurleen Lumpkin. Touched by her music, Homer decides to become her manager, but Marge becomes enraged when she finds out, believing her husband to be having an affair. And of course, Lurleen’s lyrics contain subliminal messages hinting that she wants a little more from Homer than just career advice. People rag on this one but I enjoyed it.
“Back Widower”
Original Airdate: April 9, 1992
Guest Starring Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob
Selma brings her new boyfriend Sideshow Bob over to the Simpson house for dinner. Bob has been released from prison (for the first time, in a trivia note) after framing Krusty for robbing the Kwik-E-Mart way back in Season 1. Everyone is convinced that Bob has turned over a new leaf, except for Bart. Bob and Selma get married, but Bart realizes that Selma will die on their honeymoon, once she finishes watching her favorite show MacGuyver. Awesome stuff here once again, as you can never go wrong with Bob episodes (well, until recently). And there’s an awesome shot at that old TV show Dinosaurs at the beginning of the episode that basically takes them to task for ripping off the successful formula of The Simpsons.
“The Otto Show”
Original Airdate: April 23, 1992
Bart and Milhouse attend a Spinal Tap concert, which ends in a riot after various arena malfunctions cause Spinal Tap to cancel the show after 20 minutes. Bart decides to learn to play guitar, which somehow leads to Otto losing his license and getting fired from driving the school bus. This is the first episode where a minor character moves in with the Simpsons, as Otto does after he gets fired. Despite not learning a single thing from his firing, he is still able to get his license back after telling embarrassing Homer stories to DMV employees Patty and Selma. Kind of a weak episode here that has few funny moments.
“Bart’s Friend Falls in Love”
Original Airdate: May 7, 1992
A new girl named Samantha Stanky moves to Springfield and falls in love with Milhouse. Milhouse starts ditching Bart to kiss Samantha in the treehouse, and Bart decides to be a big cockblock in order to win his friend back. Meanwhile, Lisa orders Homer some of those subliminal message tapes you listen to while you sleep in order to help him lose weight. Of course the company is out of weight loss tapes, so Homer gets the vocabulary building tapes, and nobody can figure out what the hell he’s saying (thanks for that quote, Bart!). This one is average but jumps to the “awesome” category due to Bart’s class watching “Fuzzy Bunny’s Guide to You-Know-What” which is hosted by, who else, Troy McClure.
“Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?”
Original Airdate: August 27, 1992
Guest Starring Danny DeVito as Herb Powell
YES! A plethora of tragedy strikes the Simpson house when a SNPP physical exam determines that Homer is sterile down in the crotch area. Meanwhile, Bart breaks the family couch during a pole vaulting mishap, a couch which Homer has used to sit through Hands Across America, the revelation of who shot J.R. and flipping channels when the fall of the Berlin Wall was too boring. Anyway, Homer receives a cash settlement in the form of $2000 and winning the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence (the biggest farce since The Emmys). This brings Homer’s broke half-brother Herb out from the ranks of the homeless, who has an idea for a machine that deciphers what babies are trying to say. All he needs is $2000 to get his idea off the ground. Homer is forced to choose between supporting his blood or buying a new vibrating recliner chair, the Spinemelter 2000. More amazing stuff to end a great season. And the best part is that we’re still like three or four seasons away from the show’s peak!
So God Bless You, 20th Century Fox DVD division for releasing this glorious piece of DVD so that I may relive the glory anytime I want. And go to Hell, Fox 7 in Austin for reducing Simpsons syndication and only showing episodes made after the year 2008.
Coming Soon: The Simpsons Season 4!
No comments:
Post a Comment