A review of "22 Short Stories About Springfield (3F18)"
Benjamin Jay Robinson
1. This is one of only four episodes broadcast with its title. So
you don't go crazy wondering what the other three were, they're:
"The Telltale Head (7G07)," "Bart Gets Hit by a Car (7F10)," and,
"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular (3F31)."
2. My guess is that this episode got its start as a sort of
clearinghouse for funny ideas that wouldn't work in a larger
episode. Other long-running shows have used this same device.
"M*A*S*H" would have some character writing home to his or her
family. "Night Court" had two or three episodes in which Judge
Stone had to adjudicate about thirty cases within the show's half
hour. Going by Matthew Kurth's eighth season preview, it does not
seem as though the staff will repeat this stunt any time soon.
3. The writers artfully strung the stories together in this episode.
The bee's-eye transition between "Lisa's Bad Hair Day" and
"Smithers Gets Stung" ranks as the best one.
4. Before there was Martha Stewart, there was "Helpful Hints with
Heloise." As a women's columnist, Heloise offered simple, but
counter-intuitive, hints on how to keep that house looking great.
This is probably whom Marge is referring to when she says, "If I
remember my Heloise."
5. Of the stories, my favorite was "Skinner and the Superintendent."
It had the feel of those 1960's-era sitcoms, were mundane events
would escalate to improbable proportions.
6. Superintendent Chalmers was born in Utica, New York. This is
where I was born! Small world, eh? By the way, if memory serves,
we prosaically called hamburgers, "hamburgers."
7. I loved how Pedro the Bee Guy's home life resembled his work.
Luckily, I remembered just enough high school Spanish to get his
final quotation: "Where is my tequila?"
8. I was half-expecting to see Homer try using a blowtorch to extract
Maggie from her prison.
9. Maggie's babbling probably comes courtesy of Nancy Cartwright. I
was kind of hoping they'd hand this off to Yeardley Smith, since
the poor woman only has the one character (Lisa) to do. Speaking
of Maggie talking, notice that the writers created this "Maggie
Moment" without benefit of words. Recently, many people have
suggested that Maggie begin speaking a little. Perhaps this is
not as necessary as we first thought.
10. Personally, I didn't think that much of Cletus when I first saw
him. So I was surprised when the Cletus story turned out to be
purty dang good.
11. Although the stories were self-contained, I liked the way both
Lisa's tale and Wiggum's encounter with Herman were threaded
throughout the episode. It provided a sense of continuity, rather
than just being a random bunch of thoughts.
12. Once again, the show continued even though the credits began
rolling. I like this trend towards codas; it's like getting bonus
humor.
13. I counted the stories (c'mon, you knew <someone> was going to),
and ended up with eighteen. (That's counting the three parts of
Lisa's bad hair day as three stories, and including Prof. Frink's
abortive attempt at tale-spinning.) So someone slipped up, right?
Maybe not. In octal (base-8) numbering, 18 is 22. People with
four fingers per hand would most likely count in octal. So the
title could be a sly meta-reference! Or maybe someone just
miscounted, after all.
[The short of it]
Slightly uneven, but if you don't like one sketch you can wait thirty
seconds, and another will be right along. The best of these stories is
probably "Skinner and the Superintendent," which skewers the "wacky"
sitcom genre with aplomb. Other highlights: The Bee Guy's home life,
which eerily parallels his work life; Lisa's bad hair day; Maggie's
captivity in the newspaper box; and Nelson's comeuppance. The Cletus
story was also surprisingly good. (A-)
[References]
"1999"
- Apu's line ("party like it's $19.99") parallels the title of this
song by Prince
Ball Park Franks
- Apu's claim that the wieners will "plump in my stomach" refers to
Ball Park's claim that their hot dogs "plump when you cook 'em."
"E/R"
- This show features tales from an emergency room almost continually
beset with tense dramatic situations (cf. the man interrupting Dr.
Riviera's competence hearing)
- The background music is similar, too
"Pulp Fiction"
(Take this with a grain of salt. I've just seen clips from this
movie.)
- The burger-joint discussion (about how hamburgers are called
different things at different chains) based on a conversation in
this movie (In the movie, two hit men muse about what a "quarter-
pounder" is called in nations that use the metric system)
- I think the scene where Wiggum and Snake are trussed up is also
from this movie
"Pippi Longstocking"
- Looks like the barber had this Scandinavian children's story in
mind when he named his store
"Friends"
- Lisa's new hairstyle reminiscent of Monica Geller's (Courtney
Cox's character)
- Between this season of "Friends," and the one before, several
of the characters got new hairstyles. For some reason modern
science has yet to fathom, the entertainment press devoted a
lot of ink to this subject
- Monica's new hairstyle, like Lisa's, was the subject of mixed
reviews
[DYN]
... after his dalliance with the lady at the party, Apu's shirt is on
backwards?
... when Moe flicks the lights on and off, Barney looks up as if he
can't quite figure out what's going on?
... Snake listens to a "rockin'" version of our favorite theme song?
... Lisa did not appear to pay for her new haircut?
[FFF]
The writers for this episode:
- Richard Appel
- David S. Cohen
- John Collier
- Jennifer Crittenden
- Greg Daniels (also supervising writer)
- Brent Forrester
- Rachel Pulido
- Steve Tompkins
- Josh Weinstein
- Matt Groening
Pulido and Tompkins are new faces, so far as I know. Also, this is
Matt Groening's first writing credit since "Colonel Homer (8F19)." The
huge writing credit for this episode explains why most episodes credit
just one writer, even though most scripts are collaborations.
[Previous Episode Reference]
[1F05] Bart tries some of his patented spitting off the overpass
[1F08] Utica [my birthplace! -bjr] is mentioned
[Personal Comments & Observations]
>> Son of Car Watch
Unless you've just arrived here from Mars, you know that the tall man
at the end of the show drives a Volkswagen Beetle. These two stories
seem apropos:
- VW had an ad showing Wilt Chamberlain [sic] trying -- and
failing -- to get into a Beetle. The headline: "They said it
couldn't be done. It couldn't." The copy said, essentially,
"Even though Wilt the Stilt won't fit, you probably will."
- One basketball star -- I think it may have been Manute Bol --
drove a Beetle before he made the big time. To fit, he took out
the driver's seat, and drove from the back seat!
Snake, as usual, is driving one of his endless supply of 1969 Dodge
Chargers. He must get them from the same bottomless well that Maggie
gets her pacifiers.
-End of Line,
Benjamin Robinson
--
"Television made me what I am." -Talking Heads
My opinions don't represent, and are likely contrary to, those of my employer.
This message may or may not contain sarcastic content; your burden to decide.
"See? Because of me, now they have a warning." -Homer, 1F14
Barry
On 15 Apr 1996, Benjamin Jay Robinson wrote:
>
> Snake, as usual, is driving one of his endless supply of 1969 Dodge
> Chargers. He must get them from the same bottomless well that Maggie
> gets her pacifiers.
>
Perhaps Snake gets them from the same place Beau and Luke Duke get
their supply of them. Can you imagine the pile of wreckage that
accumulated during that show? They bent at least three of them in half
every episode!
Hey! The Charger and Cletus were in the same episode! I'm in Hazzard
Heaven. Whoa! Waylon (Jennings) Smithers even.
Yee-hah,
Barry "Just a good 'ol boy" Kleckler