Another Simpsons Clip Show

"Another Simpsons Clip Show"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no. 106
Directed by David Silverman[1]
Written by Penny Wise[1]
Showrunner(s) David Mirkin
Production code 2F33
Original air date September 25, 1994
Chalkboard gag "I will not use abbrev."[1]
Couch gag The Simpsons sit on the couch and get crushed by the paper cut-out foot from Monty Python's Flying Circus.[2]
Guest actors Albert Brooks as Jacques
Sara Gilbert as Laura Powers
Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob
Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff
Michelle Pfeiffer as Mindy Simmons
Phil Hartman as Troy McClure
(all in clips only)
Commentary Matt Groening
David Mirkin
David Silverman

"Another Simpsons Clip Show" is the third episode of The Simpsons' sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 25, 1994. In the episode, Marge reads a romance novel in bed, and it prompts her to have a family meeting, where the Simpson family recall their past loves in form of clips from previous episodes.

The episode was written by Jon Vitti (credited as "Penny Wise") and directed by David Silverman. It is the second Simpsons episode featuring a clip show format and uses clips from all the previous five seasons. The episode features cultural references to the 1992 book The Bridges of Madison County and the 1967 film The Graduate. The episode has received rather negative reviews, since clip shows tend to be the least favorite episodes among fans.[3] It acquired a Nielsen rating of 8.7 and was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network that week.

Plot

Marge is reading The Bridges of Madison County one night and wakes up Homer to ask if he thinks the romance has gone out of their marriage. He grumbles, saying that he was working all day, but Marge points out that it is actually Saturday night at 9PM; Homer ignores her and tosses the book into the newly built fireplace in their bedroom. Marge groans and falls asleep.

In the morning, Marge gets the family together to discuss romance, but they can only come up with vignettes from their failed relationships (and in the parents' case, near-extramarital affairs) in the form of clips from previous episodes. Homer, however, saves the day when he brings up how he and Marge got together (in clips from the second season episode "The Way We Was"). Ultimately, the kids do not care for this one and wind up watching Itchy & Scratchy while Homer and Marge share another special moment.

Production

A man with a cowboy hat on his back.
David Silverman directed the episode.

As the title of the episode suggests, it is second clip show episode of The Simpsons after "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", the 18th episode of the fourth season. It was written by Jon Vitti, who used the pseudonym Penny Wise in the closing credits because he did not want to be credited for writing a clip show, and it was directed by David Silverman.[3] The episode also includes contributions from John Swartzwelder, Frank Mula, David Richardson, Jeff Martin, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Matt Groening, Sam Simon, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky, Nell Scovell, David M. Stern, George Meyer, Conan O'Brien, Robert Cohen, Bill Canterbury, and Dan McGrath.[4]

During the early years of the show, the staff was forced by the Fox network into doing clip shows to save money.[5] There was originally intense pressure on the producers of the show to create extra episodes in each season, and the plan was to make four clip shows per season to meet that limit. Writers and producers, however, felt that this many clip shows would alienate fans of the series.[3] The Fox network's reasoning was that clip shows cost half of what a normal episode cost to produce, but they could sell syndication rights at full price.[6]

Referenced clips

This flashback episode uses clips from episodes released during the first five seasons:[1][7]

Episode Season Description
"New Kid on the Block" 4 Homer searches for his hot dog while lounging in a wading pool.
"Dog of Death" 3 Homer tosses Marge's book into the fireplace (in the original, the book was The Lottery).
"Krusty Gets Busted" 1 The children watch an Itchy & Scratchy episode.
"Homer the Heretic" 4 The Itchy & Scratchy episode "Flay Me to the Moon".
"Bart's Friend Falls in Love" 3 The students in Bart's class watch Fuzzy Bunny's Guide to You-Know-What.
"I Love Lisa" 4 Ned serenading Maude with his G-rated version of Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?".
"Marge Gets a Job" 4 Smithers dreams about Mr. Burns flying in through the window.
Montage sequence 1 – 4 Prank calls to Moe.
Montage sequence 3 – 5 Homer's "Mmm..." lines.
"Homer Loves Flanders" 5 Homer kissing Ned repeatedly at a local football game.
"Life on the Fast Lane" 1 Marge tells her story of how she almost fell in love with a French bowler.
"The Last Temptation of Homer" 5 Homer tells the story of how he almost cheated on Marge with Mindy Simmons.
"I Love Lisa" 4 Lisa tells the story of Ralph Wiggum's crush on her which ended in him being heartbroken.
"New Kid on the Block" 4 Bart tells the story of how he fell for Laura Powers, the only girl he ever loved.
"Black Widower" 3 Marge recalls Selma's marriage to Sideshow Bob.
"Lady Bouvier's Lover" 5 Marge recalls the love triangle between Grampa Simpson, Jacqueline Bouvier and Mr. Burns.
"The Way We Was" 2 Homer finds a love story that does not end in heartbreak: his relationship with Marge.
Montage sequence 1 – 5 Homer and Marge kissing.

Cultural references

At the beginning of the episode Marge is reading "The Bridges of Madison County", also when Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are watching Itchy & Scratchy, Marge says they watch the same shows all the time, while Lisa says that the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons are just pasted together from pieces of old episodes (and pointing out that Ren and Stimpy do it all the time). This comment is a sly joke about the construction of this episode; the blackboard and couch gags are taken from other episodes, there are clips from past episodes, and the interstitials are actually clips from past episodes that feature the family members talking in the kitchen. These three aspects support the idea of this episode being a clip show to the extreme.[8]

In the clip from "Lady Bouvier's Lover", Grampa tries to stop the wedding between Jacqueline Bouvier and Mr. Burns by banging on the window while shouting "Mrs. Bouvier!", which is a reference to the 1967 film The Graduate.[9][10] Marge is seen reading the 1992 book The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller.[2]

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Another Simpsons Clip Show" finished 68th in the ratings for the week of September 19 to September 25, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 8.7.[11] The episode was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network that week, beaten only by Beverly Hills, 90210, The X-Files, and Married... With Children.[11]

The episode has received rather negative reviews, since clip shows tend to be the least favorite episodes among fans.[3] Nevertheless, it is considered one of the better clip show episodes of The Simpsons. The episode has been described as "framed in such a way as to still make [it] worth watching,[...] like a slideshow that's not quite so boring,"[12] "another clip show, although not the worst of them,"[13] or as "the episode title pretty much says it all".[14] Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide said in a review: "The romance related storyline fizzles. That leaves us with a good collection of clips, but since we can already watch them in their original episodes, why bother with this cheap excuse for product?"[15]

Lisa's comments — "romance is dead, it was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece-by-piece" — have been used in case studies of the cultural representations of organizations.[16][17]

Scottish indie-rock band Arab Strap referred to this episode in the lyrics of their debut single "The First Big Weekend" ("Sunday afternoon we go up to John's with a lot of beer in time to watch The Simpsons - it was a really good episode about love always ending in tragedy except, of course, for Marge and Homer. It was quite moving at the end and to tell you the truth my eyes were a bit damp").[18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Richmond & Coffman 1997, p. 151.
  2. 1 2 Martyn, Warren; Adrian Wood (2000). I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide. Virgin Books.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Groening, Matt (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Another Simpsons Clip Show" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. ↑ Alberti (2004), pp 316.
  5. ↑ Mirkin, David (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Another Simpsons Clip Show" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. ↑ Groening, Matt (2004). The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD commentary for the episode "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  7. ↑ Martyn (2000)
  8. ↑ Turner 2004, pp. 69–70, 416.
  9. ↑ Groening, Matt (2007). The Trivial Simpsons 2008 366-Day Calendar. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-123130-4.
  10. ↑ J Floyd King (2005-12-10). "A Special Simpsons Season Six Clip Show". Entertainment Magazine. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  11. 1 2 "How They Rate". St. Petersburg Times. September 30, 1994. p. 11. Retrieved on December 10, 2008.
  12. ↑ Jun, Posted (2006-06-15). "The Simpsons: Another Simpsons Clip Show". Tvsquad.com. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  13. ↑ "DVD Review: Simpsons — Season 6". Currentfilm.com. Archived from the original on 22 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  14. ↑ Ian Jane (2005-09-09). "The Simpsons — The Complete Sixth Season : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  15. ↑ Jacobson, Colin (2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season (1994)". DVD Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
  16. ↑ Benshoff, H. M. (1992). "Heigh-ho, heigh=ho, is Disney high or low? From silly postmodern politics". Animation Journal (Fall): 62–85.
  17. ↑ Clegg, Stewart (2002). "6". Management and Organization Paradoxes. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 119. ISBN 90-272-3307-1.
  18. ↑ DeGroot, Joey (22 August 2014). "7 Artists Influenced By The Simpsons: Fall Out Boy, Les Claypool, And More". Music Times. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
Bibliography

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