Review: Laboratory of Terror I [2ACV16]
Eric S.
Anthology of Interest I [2ACV16]:
Capsule Review:
A promising new Simpsons-esque tradition, this fun episode has a little of
everything. Bender's fairly simpleminded segment has pop culture references
old and new, and lots of original sight gags. (A-) Leela's story has a
great, creepy horror mood, but like some Halloween Special segments, it
suffers from too much buildup without a strong ending. (B+) Fry's fantasy
is the best, building off of the series' canon, and integrating compelling
sci-fi concepts with terrifically effective, very funny guest star
appearances. Stephen Hawking's copyright infringement, the D&D guy's dice,
Uhura's insult to Trek fans, and the simple presence of Al Gore make up an
incredible four classic celebrity bits in one show. (A) (Overall: A-)
Alternate titles:
King Bender vs. Crabzilla - Dial "L" for Murder - Shut Your Fryhole
Past episode refs:
[1ACV10], [1ACV11] Someone considers Fry ugly or unattractive.
[1ACV12], [2ACV06] Amy insults Leela's femininity.
[1ACV12] Uhura mentioned when Fry expresses excitement at the opportunity to
be a science fiction hero.
[2ACV03] Bender travels across the floor via a car with wheels.
[2ACV04] The professor is nude in public. Nudity is implied to be a cultural
norm, but here the professor has suffered legal consequences for it.
[2ACV05], [2ACV12] The possibility of Zoidberg being cooked is mentioned.
[2ACV10] Zoidberg mentions bombing on stage at the Apollo Theatre.
[2ACV10] Video of an event from moments ago has surprisingly been recorded
and played back through an unexplained method.
[2ACV13] Bender gets a limb cut in two.
[?] Leela calls Fry an idiot.
[?] Al Gore mentioned when his picture appears on currency.
[?] Zoidberg eats an object made of wood.
Pop culture refs:
Wizard of Oz: Like the Wicked Witch when doused with water, Zoidberg appears
to melt when thrown in the stadium full of hot water.
Sherlock Holmes: Zoidberg sports the famous fictional detective's hat and
pipe.
Poltergeist: A house is built on an ancient Indian burial ground.
Simpsons: [2F03] A house is built on an ancient Indian burial ground.
Simpsons: [1F08] Homer uses glasses he found in a toilet like Fry uses the
party favor he found in a toilet.
Newsradio: Like Bender, Bill McNeal writes letters to the staff to be read
after his death.
Newsradio: "Action Rangers" similar to "Rockin' Rangers of the Junior Jimmy
Brigade".
Newsradio: Like the "+1 mace," Matthew mentions a "+2 sword" in his
Hobbit-inspired song about deceased office accountant Ted.
Did you notice:
A new writer, Eric Rogers, is credited. He is the third writer named Eric to
work on the show, after Eric Horsted and Eric Kaplan.
Al Gore may be the first politician in a Matt Groening cartoon series who is
voiced by himself rather than an impersonator.
Goofs:
Fry easily takes a bite out of the cooked Zoidberg's claw, revealing white
meat inside, but in 2ACV14 Zoidberg's claw is solid enough to cut through a
metal can.
-Eric Sansoni (eas...@psu.edu)
"What I'm trying to communicate is that I'm willing to do nudity,
no extra charge!" -Bill McNeal, Newsradio, 1998
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Kat
Eric S. <sn...@geocities.com> wrote in message
news:8gamsq$q...@r02n01.cac.psu.edu...
> Poltergeist: A house is built on an ancient Indian burial ground.
Actually, it was The Amityville Horror that was built on the ancient Indian
burial ground. The house in Poltergeist was just built on a normal
graveyard. :-)
Kat
Dartheodore Maximillian Arada III
Fry easily takes a bite out of the cooked Zoidberg's claw, revealing white
meat inside, but in 2ACV14 Zoidberg's claw is solid enough to cut through a
metal can.>
And to stop a Titanium airtight door in 1AVC10.
~DarthArada~
"Snuh!" Homer Simpson
"We have all the time in the world..." ~George Lazenby/James Bond "On Her
Majesty's Secret Service"
MUSSOLINI TO EMBARK ON CHEST EXPANSION CAMPAIGN ~The Onion
Larry F
wrote:
In Poltergeist VII or VIII or something like that, there was something
about Indian sacred ground. I don't remember the details because the
sequels were pretty lame and I didn't sit through the whole thing.
Also, South Park made a reference to indian burial grounds in the
episode with the evil parallel universe. The evil pets all came form
the Indian Burial Grounds Pet Shop.
--Larry
Dave
> Goofs:
>
> Fry easily takes a bite out of the cooked Zoidberg's claw, revealing white
> meat inside, but in 2ACV14 Zoidberg's claw is solid enough to cut through a
> metal can.
Being boiled alive softened his shell, so that's not a goof.
But Fry has probably never had shellfish before, as he just took a bite
out of the claw tip.
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Lyle McDonald
> Pop culture refs:
> Wizard of Oz: Like the Wicked Witch when doused with water, Zoidberg appears
> to melt when thrown in the stadium full of hot water.
To me, this looked a lot more like a ref to T2, when Ahnold lowers
himself into the molten metal with his hand, in a thumbs up position the
last thing to sink under.
Lyle
Lyle McDonald
As an aside, a DYN I don't recall seeing mentioned was the sign outside
of the stadium that Bender filled with water to cook Zoidberg in. It
was a breif shot of a marquis which said something to the effect of
NY Mets (or was it cubs) World Champions: 1969 and 1989.
something like that.
Lyle
Lyfwork
>As an aside, a DYN I don't recall seeing mentioned was the sign outside
>of the stadium that Bender filled with water to cook Zoidberg in. It
>was a breif shot of a marquis which said something to the effect of
>
>NY Mets (or was it cubs) World Champions: 1969 and 1989.
>
1969 and 1986. Which indicates that a) the Mets are still playing in
3000 and b) they've had a REAL long stretch without a World Series
win... :-)
Andrew Ryan Chang
Pop Culture
There were a couple of Iron Giant riffs in the first segment. At
least, the part where Fry runs in front of the soldiers to protect his
giant metal buddy was one.
--
"_Johann Sebastian Flathead:_ [...] His Symphony #981, the so-called Infinite
Symphony, contained over 60,000 movements; over the course of its only perfor-
mance, several members of the orchestra retired and were replaced by their
children or grandchildren." -Encyclopedia Frobozzica.
Mike Zaite
> [2ACV04] The professor is nude in public. Nudity is implied to be a cultural
> norm, but here the professor has suffered legal consequences for it.
I got that right off the bat and all my friends were confused as to why I found
it so funny untill I had to explain it to them.
> Newsradio: "Action Rangers" similar to "Rockin' Rangers of the Junior Jimmy
> Brigade".
I just had to repeat this part because Jimmy James was such a cool character. Oh
how I wish I could grow up to be an Eccentric Media Tycoon just like "Dooby
Keebler".
--
Mike Zaite ICQ:25758172
"Last week I had a dream that I was a bird with a candy bar head. And all the
other birds were trying to eat my candy bar head..."-Stanley Spadowski UHF
Dave
>
> Pop Culture
> There were a couple of Iron Giant riffs in the first segment. At
> least, the part where Fry runs in front of the soldiers to protect his
> giant metal buddy was one.
I seem to recall a music video, I think it may have been Pete Townsend's
"A Friend is a Friend", that featured a child and his huge robot.
Dave
>
> In article <39299317...@onr.com>, Lyle McDonald <lyl...@onr.com> writes:
>
> >As an aside, a DYN I don't recall seeing mentioned was the sign outside
> >of the stadium that Bender filled with water to cook Zoidberg in. It
> >was a breif shot of a marquis which said something to the effect of
> >
> >NY Mets (or was it cubs) World Champions: 1969 and 1989.
> >
>
> 1969 and 1986. Which indicates that a) the Mets are still playing in
> 3000
And the community *still* hasn't ponied up for a new stadium!
> and b) they've had a REAL long stretch without a World Series
> win... :-)
<monty_burns>
Excellent.
</monty_burns>
Eric S.
>"Eric S." wrote:
>
>> Pop culture refs:
>> Wizard of Oz: Like the Wicked Witch when doused with water, Zoidberg appears
>> to melt when thrown in the stadium full of hot water.
>
>To me, this looked a lot more like a ref to T2, when Ahnold lowers
>himself into the molten metal with his hand, in a thumbs up position the
>last thing to sink under.
At the end with the hand, perhaps, but the defeated melting thing wasn't the
same for Arnold. Weren't there also similar scenes with the hand sticking
out in Batman when Nicholson fell in the tub of acid, and in The Naked Gun,
when Leslie Nielsen knocks the hired goon into a similar vat?
Eric S.
Simpsons: [2F03] One star character goes bad and tries to kill all the
others.
Simpsons: [3F18] Characters spit off of a highway overpass onto cars.
Simpsons: [3F13] Al Gore's voice at times bears some resemblance to Donald
Sutherland's (Hollis Hurlbut) in this episode.
King Kong: People gawking, some crying on the street after the giant monster
suffers a fatal accident involving a city skyscraper.
Rich Bunnell
Dave wrote:
>
> Andrew Ryan Chang wrote:
> >
> > Pop Culture
> > There were a couple of Iron Giant riffs in the first segment. At
> > least, the part where Fry runs in front of the soldiers to protect his
> > giant metal buddy was one.
>
> I seem to recall a music video, I think it may have been Pete Townsend's
> "A Friend is a Friend", that featured a child and his huge robot.
Wasn't that the theme of his "Psychoderelict" album?
Joe Klemm
>> Pop Culture
>> There were a couple of Iron Giant riffs in the first segment. At
>> least, the part where Fry runs in front of the soldiers to protect his
>> giant metal buddy was one.
>
>I seem to recall a music video, I think it may have been Pete Townsend's
>"A Friend is a Friend", that featured a child and his huge robot.
Well, Townsend did do an album that was inspired by the Iron Giant (note that
this was before the Warner Bros. movie, thus the film is based on an existing
story), so that song you mentioned could be from that album.
Joe Klemm
Dave
Ahh.
That makes perfect sense.
Daniel L. Dreibelbis
tna...@aol.com (Joe Klemm) wrote:
> >>
> >> Pop Culture
> >> There were a couple of Iron Giant riffs in the first segment.
> >> At
> >> least, the part where Fry runs in front of the soldiers to protect his
> >> giant metal buddy was one.
> >
> >I seem to recall a music video, I think it may have been Pete Townsend's
> >"A Friend is a Friend", that featured a child and his huge robot.
>
> Well, Townsend did do an album that was inspired by the Iron Giant (note
> that
> this was before the Warner Bros. movie, thus the film is based on an
> existing
> story), so that song you mentioned could be from that album.
>
you must, of course, be referencing the album THE IRON MAN, which was
of course based on the same story THE IRON GIANT was based on, and which
"A Friend Is A Friend" is found.
What's even more interesting: Pete Townshend is listed as one of the
producers of the film.
Benjamin Robinson
Eric S. wrote:
>Simpsons: [2F03] A house is built on an ancient Indian burial ground.
Also "Treehouse of Horror (7F04)," in the "Bad Dream House" segment. From
the episode capsule at <http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F04.html>:
% Homer angrily dials the phone.
Mr. Bloot? Homer Simpson here. When you sold me this house, you forgot to
mention one little thing: YOU DIDN'T TELL ME IT WAS BUILT ON AN INDIAN
BURIAL GROUND! ... NO YOU DIDN'T! ... Well, that's not <my>
recollection. ... Yeah? Well, all right, goodbye! [angrily hangs up] He
said he mentioned it five or six times.
-- Homer, ``Bad Dream House'' in ``Treehouse of Horror''
--
Benjamin Robinson bj...@freenet.tlh.fl.us
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