Cape Foure: The Simpsons Madness Goes On...

[Reply #480 on:]

Jezzzus, at this rate it really will be the shortest Season ever...

[Reply #481 on:]

They won't air another ep till the Super Bowl- What's happening?

[Reply #482 on:]

No, no, there's another one on the.....30th?  Its late right now.  But anyway, there is one this Sunday, "Mommie Beerest" (Marge ends up working at Moe's Tavern).

Still, I'm not sure.  Its been noted that #350 airs on May 1st, for the sake of May sweeps and to promote the return of "Family Guy", which would mean a somewhat limited number of episodes in the meantime.  Though, obviously at this point we can't put it past Fox to pull another "I could have sworn it was 302" thing here, but still.  I really have no idea what's going on.  I guess its possible they might air some over the summer, to hold true to their word on wanting to expand summer programming.  Or they might just air a few double features in May to make up for the lack of episodes earlier in the season.

Also, since people asked earlier, I would expect "Pranksta Rap" to air in February, though with this scheduling so far I'm not totally sure.  The Patty episode should also air in February.

[Reply #483 on:]

Although I don't watch the new eps at the moment, I do plan to in the future. One day I'd like to see every episode at least once. I like to keep track of what's going on (especially now with Futurama gone), it made me feel a bit empty, so keeping track of the new Simpsons helps fill the void a bit...

This is getting a bit stupid now though, I mean The Simpsons is the one show I thought Fox would always respect, but now they appear to be starting to treat it like they did Futurama. The thing which worries me more here though, is unlike Futurama, The Simpsons is categorized by airing season, and not production season like Futurama. With Futurama, when it was released Fox's erratic airing got fixed with the DVD boxsets. However the Simpsons Guide books and DVD Box sets are released by airing Seasons...

With the way things are gong with Season 16, it really will be the shortest Season ever. As a result it'll be complete rip-off as a Season to buy as part of an episode Guide book, or as a DVD Boxset. They only way they can fix this is by airing more episodes over the summer, or having some double bills. Even so, isn't this the worst treatment Fox has ever given to their beloved Simpsons?...

[Reply #484 on:]

Just in terms of scheduling it probably is.  The promotion of the show still seems okay though (I often hate the way its advertised, but always have anyway).  I'm not too concerned, but it is irritating.

Also, there's a news story going around a lot right now about the FCC throwing out some indecency complaints, including against The Simpsons:
 http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2005/01/24/fcc_rejects_indecen cy_complaints_over_friends_th e_simpsons/

"A complaint over "The Simpsons," which airs on Fox, included a scene in which students carried picket signs with the phrases "What would Jesus glue?" and "Don't cut off my pianissimo."  "

[Reply #485 on:]

According to SNPP.com, "Pranksta Rap" will air on February 13th.  That's probably subject to change, though....

So far, only six episodes have aired this season.  That's just terrible.  At this rate, there may only be 13 episodes this season.  It's such a shame, too, because this season has shown some real signs of promise. An "A" episode and a "B+" one.

[Reply #486 on:]

Ugh. I just saw the promo for "Mommie Beerest". It's horrible...

"This Sunday on Fox, it's the biggest breakup since Brad and Jennifer when Marge leaves Homer for Moe!"

Fuck! That's not what the episode's about! And the they showed a clip of Marge practicing getting rid of a drunk by throwing Homer out the door (At least, that's what I assume was happening. Marge was obviously not mad at him).
 

Originally posted by evan:
So far, only six episodes have aired this season.  That's just terrible.  At this rate, there may only be 13 episodes this season.

Eh, there's still plenty of time before the end of May. I wouldn't worry.

[Reply #487 on:]

I thought from the descripion that this 'Mommie Beerest' sounded ok. Sounds a little like that ep where Marge works at the fast food joint with the rollerblades, and a little like "Homer the Moe" reversed. Perhaps they could redeem themselves after the dreadful 'Homer the Moe' episode though, has potential at least...

[Reply #488 on:]

In case people are worried there have been least 16 episodes produced this season and there's no reason to think there won't be any more, Fox will probably just extend the run beyond May.

But they may not even have to, beerest on 30th, hail mary pass on the 6th, pranksta rap on 13th, Something about marrying on the 20th. and possibly an episode on the 27th, that'll mean 10 episodes have aired, with at least 12 weeks left.

Although I suppose fox have said the 350th episode on may 1st but its probably the 352nd
beerest is 341st ep so 11 episodes later will be the 17th episode of the season, and there will be at least 4 more weeks before the end of may.

[Reply #489 on:]

I have a question about the Simpsons DVD's. Here in the UK on Season 4 (it might be Season 3 as well) but no doubt it is on Season 4, for EVERY episode there's a 10 second warning before you watch it. On previous DVD sets (take Season 1 and 2 for example) there was only a warning when you put the disc in, but never when you select an actual episode. But with Season 4, it's SO frustrating that every episode has it's own warning, it just seems totally unnecessary. It means to watch the whole Season you have to waste over 2 minutes of your life looking at some stupid warning screen...

Anyway, my question is, do you have this problem in the US or not? I want to know because if not, then I might be tempted to buy Season 5 from the US as to avoid these pathetic warning screens for every damn episode...

[Reply #490 on:]

My U.S s5 dvd doesn't have the problem, its just 2 warnings before the main menu (special exciting american ones, with an FBI anti piracy warning and international agreement)
Don't know about season 4 u.s release however yeah it does suck on the U.K ones, its almost quicker to press extras, skip the animation, go to to scene selction skip the animation select scene 2 and go back. (which I like to do just so I can't read the warning)

You know what's a brilliant irony about dvd warnings, you cant skip them like you can on a vhs, but you can't pause them either, and the warning pass before its humanly possible to read it all.

[Reply #491 on:]

You can skip the warnings by pressing "next" on the US dvds, the Futurama ones too. At least I can on my DVD player.

[Reply #492 on:]

Well Otis, if you needed any more incentive to purchase the season 5 dvd, here it is:

Season 6 DVD announced for 6/14 (14th June) http://www.foxhome.com/tvdvd/ 

Bit of a struggle to find it, click "Show all titles", then "coming soon" and scroll down until you see it"

But it is still Just an announcment at this point no other details on special features so it could just be speculatory.

But even so at this rate they'll be releasing season 7 in the U.S at about the same time they release season 6 in the U.K.

[Reply #493 on:]

Thanx for all the help and information, it's appreciated. I'm happy to hear the US DVD's don't have this problem, it's just a bit of a shame the UK ones started doing it (thank god all the Futurama Seasons were released before they did this…)

I may well consider buying US Seasons from now on then, and possibly sell my UK Season 4 set in favor of a US version without the warnings. I'll have to wait until I get my multi-region DVD recorder, but I'm thinking about getting that pretty snoon hopefully…

And newhook_1, I can skip all the Futurama warnings on my DVD player too, the ones at the start where you put the DVD in are fine. It's just the ones before each episode on the Simpsons Season 4 which I can't skip...

And wow, I hope that the Season 6 date holds true. It makes this whole thing that much more tempting again. If I got that as a UK version, with 25 episodes and a 10 second warning on each that works out as 4 minutes and 10 seconds worth of warnings just to watch the season through once. No thanx...

[Reply #494 on:]

That Dreamworks thing was South Park's forte, I don't care what you say. South Park's forte I say!

That doesn't mean I'm saying they ripped South Park off or anything like that.
 

Seriously though, "Rob Schinder is, a Carrot!"

[Reply #495 on:]

That was pretty clever.  I was pleasantly surprised they didn't remove the scene with Moe getting clobbered with the big wave, in view of the tsunami catastrophe.  Guess it shows how FOX will respond only to perceived complaints from offended FIRST-worlders.

[Reply #496 on:]

Oh yeah, it was funny. Just goes back to what I was talking about a few pages ago. I laughed at it.

[Reply #497 on:]

Great episode. I'll write a fuller review once I've gotten my thoughts together. In the meantime, a few scenes that I thought were especially great...

- Barney's singing voice. A callback to "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"
- The "Jerkass Homer" comment.
- The CARDS preview (Great animation, too)
- Homer nearly getting sucked out of the plane (for a second, I was worried that it was going to be one of those life-or-death situation endings that seem to be so common these days)
- The scene over the credits

Anyway, yeah. Another winner from Michael Price.

A-

[Reply #498 on:]

This seems like another one I'll want to give an extra viewing too. But for now here's my reaction.

Story wise, I thought this wasn't as strong as it could have been, but still solid. The character writing was all good (no "jerkass Homer" here, heh), but I just feld the Moe angle could have been done slightly better, same as the Homer/Marge angle. I never got especcially involved in the story, which I think was the intention. It was pretty well written, and the scene on the plane was sorta sweet, but all I'm saying is that it could have been more involving. It definitely wasn't a "Life on the Fast Lane" or "Colonel Homer" in that sense, though maybe that's sort of a given.

BUT, with that said this episode had one major thing going for it, which was very good humor, better then usual for modern episodes I would say, and with lots of good character humor despite the story not quite sucking me in. Really the one joke that I thought didn't work well was the trombone, so literally everything else worked for me on some level, with lots of highlights and even nice background touches (like Ralph hanging from his underwear at Itchy and Scratchy Land-a nice callback in itself, and hilarious scene). The musical number was nice, and I loved things like the bar "funeral", Wiggum's behvaior in general (the "nobody saw anything" scene was just classic Wiggum), "You know, I may have dodged a bullet here", the CGI movies spoof, etc. And of course the "that's me, Jerkass Homer" line was great; yet another hilarious reference to the internet community and one that would have made Ondre Lombard proud (or viciously angry; take your pick). Though for the record I think anyone that thinks this was a specific jab at or aknowledgement of the Scully years is deluding themselves; it just seemed like purely a reference to us to me.

Also liked a lot of the animation and character acting. Seems like one of Mark Kirkland's best ones in a while.

For now, I'm giving this a B+

[Reply #499 on:]

The Super Bowl episode just finished, and it wasn't too bad. I missed about half of the first act (my family was watching America's Funniest Home Videos... yeesh), and a chunk of Ned's movie when the feeds from Fox and Global messed up, but the rest was pretty good.  I liked the use of the guest stars, and a lot of the jokes were great (another Homer Jerkass joke this week...)  I thought it ended fairly abruptly, and didn't spend nearly as much time on the "people outraged by half-time show" as  I expected. Not as good as Lisa the Greek, but it blows Sunday Cruddy Sunday out of the water. B+/A-, though it may change when I see what I missed.

[Reply #500 on:]

Bad story, but it gets 4/5 in my books just on the jokes. I laughed a lot this week.

[Reply #501 on:]

They named Comic Book Guy, anyone catch that?

Otherwise, it was alright, though next weeks show doesn't look very promising.

[Reply #502 on:]

Yes, it's Jeff Albertson. I wonder how long that'll stick...like Dr. Marvin Monroe being back from the dead.

Review for Homer and Ned's Hail-Mary Pass:

Good stuff: the musical about J.Giles Band, Pac-Man wedding, Yao Ming pretending not being able to speak English, the staduim being built and destroyed in a few weeks, Tom Brady on a Segway carrying a banner, "your pain is my inspiration"

Bad stuff: the guy's face through Marge's hair, really dated humor*

As far as football episodes go, this episode is between the good "Lisa the Greek" and the awful "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday." Not like that's saying much. IMO, this was closer to the latter than it was to the former. There wasn't a huge reliance on guest stars, which is a plus.

*As for "dated" episodes, this episode seemed waay too similar to other weak episodes dealing with specific events rather than broad satire. The references to Michael Moore, the Passion of the Christ, the Summer Olympics opening ceremony, and the whole Super Bowl halftime shows are all jokes done to death in 2004. Its been almost a year since most of those events occured, and most of the cutting edge humor has been drained from them. Leave that stuff to South Park.

Um..can't say much about characterization, because most of the show was Homer & guest stars (used properly). Most of the athletes did their jobs pretty well, although they could have cut down on the number used to give more screen time to the few funny ones.

This season's been one good episode to one weak episode. This is the weak episode of the cycle.

Grade: C

[Reply #503 on:]

I'll watch this soon, but really, what can you expect from a show that sounds Scully just by the title?

Edit: Watched it. Didn't really enjoy it. C-

[Reply #504 on:]

I liked the return of Cat Lady, wonder when they'll name her (if they didn't already)

Is it true that Ned and Comic Book guy have never met before?

[Reply #505 on:]

What was his name again? I forgot it.

[Reply #506 on:]

I saw most of the episode it was ok, not that great.Homer focusing a whole half timeshow on god?

[Reply #507 on:]

I'll give the post Super Bowl Simpsons episode a C.  It was like bits of good humor sprinkled in a matrix of blah.  The good bits were Flander's violent biblical movies (plus there's always something funny about Flanders ripped abs), the Pac Man wedding, and some of the endzone dances. 

The bad bits mostly involved the guest stars.  Too many of them at once and they weren't particularly funny either.  It seems like they were kind of just shoved in there as a favor to the celebrities rather than really helping out the story. 

My final peeve is the fact that I thought the celebration dance that Homer did at the beginning of the episode went on way too long.  A little bit was funny, but it just kept going, probably to kill some time.  This seems to be an unfortunate feature of some of the newer episodes as I felt the writers did the same thing with the duck, duck, goose joke involving Ralph a couple of weeks ago.

I must state that my judgement may have been partially tainted because I watched Deep Space Homer and Homer Loves Flanders earlier in the afternoon.  Even with this prejudice, I can say with certainty that there have been much better episodes this season than this newest one.

[Reply #508 on:]

I'm kinda glad they finally gave Comic Book Guy a name.  Now, of course, I'm wondering why they chose "Jeff Albertson".

The only thing that really irritated me about this episode was that the fact that the sports figures were chomping their dialogue pretty painfully.  It's as though the producers don't care how bad the non-actor guest stars sound (and how much that detracts from the episode); they just want to attach the stars' names to the show.

[Reply #509 on:]

Pranksta Rap, the episode that everyone is looking forward to, is airing next week, and according to my guide software, "Dave Chappelle plays a rapper and 50 Cent has a cameo as Bart fakes his own kidnapping..." blah blah blah. A comedian playing a new character and 50 Cent only has a "cameo"?  I think my expectations just increased... slightly.

[Reply #510 on:]

Dave Chappelle is in the episode? I've got to watch this one!

[Reply #511 on:]

Yeah, guest star after guest star, who's next Carson Daly?  Maybe he can play God in the upcoming Doomsday episode, that will be cool, *chokes on the sarcasim*, man my doctor told me not to do that anymore.

Dave Chappelle is ok, he's very funny, but 50 Cent is terrible, he can't act, just another name to staple to the ongoing list of pointless celebrity cameos.  My expectations just lowered.  (and let me tell you, they weren't that high to begin with)

Who is looking forward to this episode?  Is it you? *points at Ranadok*

A wise man once said "Guest stars are like rat poison, once in awhile it's ok, but every week will kill you."

[Reply #512 on:]

 

Originally posted by Lrrr_2004:
Yeah, guest star after guest star, who's next Carson Daly?  Maybe he can play God in the upcoming Doomsday episode, that will be cool, *chokes on the sarcasim*, man my doctor told me not to do that anymore.

 

 

Dave Chappelle is ok, he's very funny, but 50 Cent is terrible, he can't act,

Where has he acted before?

 

just another name to staple to the ongoing list of pointless celebrity cameos.

Yes because futurama never had pointless guest stars.

 

My expectations just lowered.  (and let me tell you, they weren't that high to begin with)

The fact that 50 cent would star in the episode was revealed before anything else about it, and has been known for a long time
So I'd like to know where you saw an episode description that didn't mention 50 cent.


 

A wise man once said "Guest stars are like rat poison, once in awhile it's ok, but every week will kill you."

That's alright then because the Simpsons doesn't have guest stars every week.
and who is this wise man, I'd like to see some more credientials before I decide if he's wise.

[Reply #513 on:]

My review on NHC is in two pieces essentially (I gave it an initial review with the disclaimer that I was going to watch it again) and I don't want to write a whole extra review.  So I'll just say I thought C+ on first viewing, but updated that to about B-/B on second viewing.

[Reply #514 on:]

 

Originally posted by Lrrr_2004:
Who is looking forward to this episode?  Is it you? *points at Ranadok*

i·ro·ny (ī'rə-nē, ī'ər-) pronunciation
n., pl. -nies.

         1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
         2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.

u_n_s did a fairly good job at responding to the rest of your post, so I'll just add a "what he said" here.

Also, I re-watched the last episode, and am downgrading it a grade, to B- range. Still funny and watchable, but... had lots of problems.

[Reply #515 on:]

I never said Futurama didn't have pointless guest stars.

And trust me, 50 Cent can't act, it'll just be another Yao Ming fiasco.

 

Originally posted by Otis P Jivefunk:
Jezzzus, at this rate it really will be the shortest Season ever...

Except for the First season.

[Reply #516 on:]

 

Originally posted by Lrrr_2004:
I never said Futurama didn't have pointless guest stars.

And trust me, 50 Cent can't act, it'll just be another Yao Ming fiasco.

Yeah, cause the baseball stars in "Homer at the Bat" were such phenomenonally better actors.

[Reply #517 on:]

That was a classic episode! 

Is it that you hate me? Or do you just love Yao Ming and 50 Cent that much?

[Reply #518 on:]

I'm not saying it isn't a classic.  I'm just saying that they were no better actors then the current guests.  And they had a prominent role.

50 Cent will have a cameo and likely not much else.  Dave Chappelle's character (he's NOT playing himself) should have a bigger role.  The Simpsons has always had small cameos from people that can't act.  Get over it.

[Reply #519 on:]

Dave Chappelle: I'm yellow, biatch!