“This is where we store Ann Landers and Dear Abby for their twenty-three hours of daily sleep.” – Tour Guide “My advice is to free us or let us die.” – Ann Landers
Month: January 2013
DVD Commentary: Bart the Genius
Be gentle, it’s my first one of these. Four guys on this commentary, David Silverman, Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Jon Vitti. David Silverman talks about the popularity of the show after the Christmas Special Matt Groening talks about the development of the now classic “Simpsons” main titles music Blackboard and main titles were originally a way to pad the show length, but as the show got more sophisticated the writers didn’t want to cut anything This episode was Jon Vitti’s first 30-minute script, and David Silverman’s first full-length directorial debut Koreans don’t have bananas, hence the miscoloring KWYJIBO was also later used…
Quote of the Day
“Bart, I’d like you to read this copy of Johnny Tremain, it’s a book I read as a girl.” – Marge Simpson “A book? Pfft.” – Bart Simpson “I think you might like this. It’s about a boy who goes to war, his hand is deformed in an accident.” – Marge Simpson “Deformed? Why didn’t you say so? They should call this book Johnny Deformed.” – Bart Simpson
Animation Alley: Bart the Genius
[Note: Mike Amato of Me Blog Write Good is going to be writing about the animation for the Yellow Jubilee.] If we’re gonna talk about the animation from the first season, then we must start with the first cut of the very first episode, “Some Enchanted Evening” (feel free to mute the video, it’s just the schmucky uploader doing “commentary.”) The brunt of the animation for the show, and a sizable amount of all American animation, is done overseas, and because of how long the animation process is, and with the speed and the technology back then, a whole season…
Quote of the Day
“Tonight on Eye on Springfield, just miles from your doorstep, hundreds of men are given weapons and trained to kill. The government calls it “The Army”, but a more alarmist name would be: The Kill-Bot Factory.” – Kent Brockman
Quote of the Day
“I still think we should’ve spent the money to fix Main Street.” – Marge Simpson “Well, you should’ve written a song like that guy.” – Homer Simpson
Permanent Record: Dr. J. Loren Pryor
“Ah, finished already? Principal Skinner will be very interested to . . . oh. . . . You know, you misspelled ‘confession’.” – Dr. J. Loren Pryor Even at its earliest stages, The Simpsons was always careful not to pass up comedy opportunities. Whether it was minor characters, secondary locations, television shows, or anything else, the show made sure to populate the universe of Springfield with people, places and ideas that were just as delightfully twisted as the main family. A school psychologist evaluating troublemaking Bart could easily have been portrayed as a straight ahead public servant, a caring individual…
The Simpsons 23rd Anniversary Yellow Jubilee
“Push out the jive. Bring in the love.” – C.M. Burns If there is one persistent misperception about this blog on the wider plains of the internet, it is that we simply hate Zombie Simpsons and that’s it. Beneath that strong and oft expressed dislike, however, is the real reason we’re all here: love. We love The Simpsons. It was a show beyond even the most enthusiastic superlatives, and it remains so more than two decades after it took America and the world by storm. Its creation was a once in a lifetime alignment of immensely improbable coincidences that came…
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Before we begin, is anyone here an investigative reporter?” – Lyle Lanley “I am, and she is.” – Investigative Reporter “Well, I’d like you to please leave.” – Lyle Lanley “Should we take our hidden camera?” – Investigative Reporter “Would you?” – Lyle Lanley “Let’s go, Phil.” – Investigative Reporter Happy 20th Anniversary to “Marge vs. the Monorail”! Original airdate 14 January 1993.
Quote of the Day
“Bart, there are students in this class with a chance to do well. Will you stop bothering them?” – Mrs. Krabappel
Sunday Preview: A Test Before Trying
When Springfield Elementary is threatened with closure because of low standardized test scores, the fate of the school rests on one student who missed the test, and who must raise the average above the minimum threshold: Bart Simpson. Meanwhile, Homer finds a parking meter at a local dump, and starts deploying it around Springfield to fleece unwitting parkers of their quarters. Maybe we’ll get to see the Comptroller again, or maybe we’ll just get to see Bart motivated to do the proper thing because of the guilt trumpets that are bound to sound off every 20 seconds in this new episode. …
Quote of the Day
“Ooh, the gum with the cracker center.” – Homer Simpson
Quote of the Day
“Is this how you imagined your life, Edna?” – Principal Skinner “Well, yes, but then I was a very depressed child.” – Mrs. Krabappel “To poor decisions.” – Principal Skinner “Hear, hear.” – Mrs. Krabappel
Reading Digest: Joining the Club Edition
“But we’ve already bought five Golden Globe awards!” – Studio Executive “I don’t make movies to win awards! Especially now that I have two Oscars.” – Mel Gibson As has been reported widely on Twitter and lesser outfits like British newspapers (synergy!), “The Longest Daycare” was nominated for one of those twinkly statues respectable celebrities are always holding. I have no idea whether it will win or not, though David Silverman would be foolish not to already be working on a speech. Regardless, it’s a great short, and if it’s going to get a phony accolade, why not the one…
Quote of the Day
“If you feel so bad about yourself, there’s always things you can do to feel better.” – Marge Simpson “Take another bath in malt liquor?” – Homer Simpson “There’s that.” – Marge Simpson
Compare & Contrast: Twist Nuclear Endings
“Do your worst, you filthy, pretentious savages!” – Mayor Quimby For evidence that Zombie Simpsons is utterly bereft of ideas that can even be called creative, much less original, one need look no further than the fact that for the second time in a year they made an episode where the family departs Springfield to go live in the wilderness with survivalist nutbars. But that isn’t the most damning thing about “Homer Goes to Prep School”, because the closest thing to this episode isn’t even another episode, it’s a post-apocalyptic Halloween segment from a decade and a half ago. The…
Quote of the Day
“Today, we wash Beulah. You know what that is?” – Mrs. Glick “Some old lady thing nobody’s heard about for fifty years?” – Bart Simpson “No. It was my wedding dress. But then I dyed it black and it became my mourning dress.” – Mrs. Glick
Quote of the Day
“You may not remember me. I’m Homer Simpson, I mooned for rebuttal.” – Homer Simpson “Yes, I remember.” – Marge Bouvier Happy birthday Al Jean!
Quote of the Day
“With my bills paid off I can finally quit this lousy job!” – Homer Simpson “But, Homer, how are you going to make a living?” – Lenny “Don’t worry about Homer J., I’ve got a plan . . . a plan that’ll fix you good.” – Homer Simpson “Hey, what did we do?” – Carl “Sorry, that just slipped out. I’ll miss you.” – Homer Simpson
Quote of the Day
“You put that sticker on your car so you won’t get any tickets, and this other one keeps paramedics from stealing your wallet while they’re working on you.” – Lenny “Oh, and don’t bother calling 9-1-1 any more. Here’s the real number.” – Carl