I have three things to say about tonight’s episode, “MoneyBART”:
- The only Lisa + Bart + sports rivalry episode that should exist, ever, is “Lisa on Ice.”
- The only episode in which Mike Scioscia matters is “Homer at the Bat.”
- This is the third episode of Season 22 and the third in a row with a guest star. Remember when guest voices were used sparingly?
That’s all. If you’re still reading, here’s the description from Simpsons Channel:
A visit by a Springfield Elementary alum-turned-Ivy-League student pushes Lisa to question her own go-getter attitude and reevaluate the scope of her extracurricular activities. Convinced that there is no such thing as having too many clubs or activities listed on her resume, Lisa jumps at the opportunity to coach Bart’s little league team. Despite having little understanding of baseball, Lisa coaches the team to a record winning streak by putting her book smarts in statistics and probability into play. But when Bart questions Lisa’s coaching tactics and confronts her for taking the fun out of baseball, Lisa benches him from the championship game. Hoping to lift his spirits, Marge spends the day with Bart at an amusement park where MLB manager and former catcher Mike Scioscia gives Bart sound advice and reminds him of his genuine love of the sport. Meanwhile, with one last chance to win the game, Lisa makes an unexpected call and learns that there is more to sports than winning.
Great blood job, I really don’t want to see this Mike Scioscia.
Since when do second graders coach little league teams?
Agreed on all three counts!
Speaking of Mike Scoscia, I didn’t see the episode yet, but did they ever explain how he survived radiation poisoning?!
Also, watch the couch gag. Totally amazing, and every week the show seems to be aware of its Zombie status. This week, gazing into the 20th Century Fox Korean sweatshop where children produce everything Simpsons in an incredibly morbid manner, courtesy of Banksy.
The opening could’ve been funny if it hadn’t taken an entire minute to do.
Never said it was funny, only morbid. And it kept getting more depressing as it went on. That MIGHT have been the gag, but Banksy is no comedian nor does he try to be one.
By the way, they DO bring up his radiation poisoning, but he just says it only gave him “Super Management Powers”…and the ability to demagnetize credit cards.
The title of this episode is a (neither subtle nor funny) reference to “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”, a book about the modern use of statistics in baseball – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball
(Being a Brazilian, I’m not much into baseball, but I think that’s a fair description of the book.)
So this is what Scioscia gets up to when his Angels have become non competitive? “Oh…man…”
“Remember when guest voices were used sparingly?”
No I don’t, because guest stars were prevalent even in the golden era. Proof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_guest_stars_on_The_Simpsons
Exactly. Prove the reasoning behind Dr. Joyce Brothers only showing up to say “I brought my own mic!”
Dr. Joyce Brothers was a yakkity-yak who seemed to be on every talkshow in the 80’s and early 90’s. The “I brought my own mic” was a joke on her being on every daytime talkshow at some point before “Last Exit to Springfield.” She was the Dr. Phill before there was a “Dr. Phill.”
As a little kid who watched little to no daytime tv in the 80’s knowing who she was pretty weird at that age.
Well I’ll be damned. Good job!
“…guest stars were prevalent even in the golden era.”
Yes, but in the golden era, on average only half the episodes per season featured guest stars. In the Zombie era, that ratio has increased to roughly 75% of the episodes per season. Here’s a list of how many episodes per season feature guest-stars (and for the record, I haven’t included Marcia Wallace or Phil Hartman):
Season 1: 7/13 (54%)
Season 2: 12/22 (54%)
Season 3: 13/24 (54%)
Season 4: 12/22 (54%)
Season 5: 13/22 (59%)
Season 6: 13/25 (52%)
Season 7: 16/25 (64%)
Season 8: 15/25 (60%)
Season 9: 14/25 (56%)
Season 10: 17/23 (74%)
Season 11: 18/22 (82%)
Season 12: 15/21 (71%)
Season 13: 19/22 (86%)
Season 14: 18/22 (82%)
Season 15: 14/22 (64%)
Season 16: 14/21 (67%)
Season 17: 11/22 (50%)
Season 18: 16/22 (73%)
Season 19: 15/20 (75%)
Season 20: 15/21 (71%)
Season 21: 16/23 (70%)
Season 22 (so far): 4/4 (100%)
To summarise all of that, seasons 1-9 had an average of 55% guest stars, and seasons 10-21 had an average of 72% guest stars. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that, in the golden age, many of the guest stars played actual characters and/or were germane to the plot, rather than just stiffly playing themselves and serving no real purpose other than to provide the show with some gimmicky publicity.
A lot of the early guest voices weren’t exactly “celebrity cameos” either – mainly just people that weren’t part of the permanent voice cast.
Exactly. Guest stars earlier on, for example, included Sam McMurray playing a power plant employee, and June Foray playing a babysitter service receptionist. That’s hardly akin to the judges from “American Idol” or Mark Zuckerberg showing up as themselves.