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For better or worse, I keep watching The Simpsons. Though the argument that the show is past its prime is everywhere, the show still makes me laugh, so I keep tuning in. There have been some episodes that didn’t work at all, like last week’s, but more often we get shows like this season finale, that have a good amount of jokes built around a stale premise.
Here’s an excerpt from my “All About Lisa” Review:
Here’s the thing about us Simpsons nerds – we remember what happened in every old episode, and we get upset when plots are reused. For example, there was an episode in Season Five called “Bart Gets Famous,” where Bart works as Krusty’s assistant but than accidentally becomes a star himself who goes on to outshine Krusty. In this “new” episode, Lisa gets a job as Krusty’s intern who then uses some scheming to become a star herself who quickly outshines Krusty. There are a few minor changes there, but you don’t have to look very hard to see the similarities. This episode adds a narration by Sideshow Mel which, while an interesting concept, doesn’t really add much to the episode.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHere’s the thing about this episode. The movie “All About Eve” starring Bette Davis (we love you) is about an actress (that’s what they called them before some dork a couple of years ago discovered that actor is the correct word for a male or female)…damn, I messed up my sentence with too many parentheses. Anyway the movie’s about an actress being replaced by a younger version of herself. Painful for anybody, but probably most painful for an aging female in show business. Great movie, I watched it based on reputation, and I would recommend it. A 21-year old Marylin Monroe is in it briefly if I remember right, “playing” a lousy actress getting by on just looks and who she’s in bed with. Also in there is the famous line, “fasten your seat belts, boys. We’re in for a bumpy ride.”
The Simpsons has parodied about every great work of literature or film, and has even done Lord of the Flies twice. Ugh. It’s hard to make 400+ episodes. So, they wind up repeating plot lines and looking for good, but lesser known movies and books to parody. Why? Why do they keep making new ones when they’ve already rounded the bases a steroid-free 800 times? Well, don’t forget the famous line from Troy McClure in the 138th episode special. (Paraphrasing) “Who knows what kind of hilarious things will happen between now and the time when the show becomes unprofitable.”
Given that the show’s ratings are down, and that the voice-talent just got a big bump in salary, that day of the show becoming unprofitable may be upon us soon.
As far as parodies go, you certainly have a point that they don’t need to do take offs of super-obscure movies, but that said, “The Debarted” episode was, I thought, one of the strongest this season.
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