The Simpsons: Simpsorama
November 10, 2014 9:17 AM - Season 26, Episode 6 - Subscribe

Bender Bending Rodriguez goes back in time to present-day Springfield to kill Homer Simpson, whose DNA has been detected in a species of leporine gremlins ravaging New New York.
posted by Small Dollar (18 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I think the line on the opening credits - "a show out of ideas teams up with a show out of episodes" - probably caught it the best. Nothing horrible, but nothing wonderful either - and given that both shows, when they were at their best - were capable of some truly amazing creative output, it made it just meh.

I wasn't disappointed, but that's largely because I have such low expectations whenever I do watch the Simpsons.
posted by nubs at 9:43 AM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


It suffered from what I didn't like about late era Futurama, which was a high concept to low joke ratio. As a post-10 Simpsons episode, it was actually a step up. Altogether a non-offensive half hour of television, which is more than I can say for the Family Guy crossover.
posted by codacorolla at 10:58 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ugh, so many crossovers... The Simpsons is really pulling out all the stops on late-era sitcom express... When will Ozmodiar finally be (re)introduced? Or Roy? Can't forget about Roy...
posted by entropicamericana at 11:18 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


The only disappointing thing for me was that the Family Guy crossover was earlier this season and stole some of its thunder. This was a fun episode and since J. Stewart Burns has written for both shows none of the the characters seemed out of place.

The Simpsons is really pulling out all the stops on late-era sitcom express.

Cousin Oliver was season 5. Fonzie jumped the shark in season 5. Scrappy Doo was introduced 10 years in. The Simpsons are in season 26. They aren't going to have a good notes day and suddenly churn out classic scripts again. We also don't need another episode where Lisa gets a new hobby Homer doesn't understand but they make up in the end. So they should do any crazy ideas they've had over the years because anything other than replacement actors is fine at this point.
posted by Gary at 11:59 AM on November 10, 2014


To put it another way, it's too late to cancel the show for quality reasons (and really, Fox will only replace it with a Seth MacFarlane show about an anthropomorphic fart). So they should keep taking victory laps with crossovers and wacky plots until Matt's solid gold house is finally complete.
posted by Gary at 12:07 PM on November 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


Scrappy Doo was introduced 10 years in.

Well it's not the same thing, because there weren't all that many seasons of Scooby-Doo before then. If my memory serves, before there was Scooby-Doo Where Are You (the original), the New Scooby Movies (the ones with the guest stars), and then the Saturday morning cartoon that introduced Scrappy. I think three years of episodes in all, although this is just off the top of my head.

My mother, by the way, loved Scrappy. She thought he was cute. My own opinion is less positive.
posted by JHarris at 1:20 PM on November 10, 2014


My only quibble with this episode was that it sounded like somebody needed to turn Bender's mic up.
posted by bleep at 2:53 PM on November 10, 2014


Semi-derailing: longtime showbiz blogger Mark Evanier wrote about the creation of Scrappy Doo and his involvement.

The tumblr FYSpringfield is my source for Simpsons screencaps (often saving me the need to watch new episodes), and it has already started posting extracts from "Simpsorama", including this early aside from Bart that really got my attention, as well as this very meta moment. (The creator of that also has FYNewNewYork which is still posting Futurama screencaps, but none from "Simpsorama")

The closing credit sequence has a lot of "Springfield+1000 Years" blink-and-you-miss-them references, but the one they lingered on the longest was a grave marker that said "RALPH WIGGUM 2006-2017". Uh oh.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:33 PM on November 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


This was pretty post-modern/self-referential even by Simpsons standards. Lisa complains that Bender's a lazy design because he looks just like Homer with an antenna, they lure the monsters-in-the-future to Madison Cube Gardens with the promise of Butterfinger bars, the rabbits all look like Binky... I'm surprised that Fry didn't say that the monsters made New New York like "Life In Hell". They could have squeezed Ackbar and Jeff in there too to round it out.
posted by GuyZero at 3:54 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Also did anybody else notice Panucci's pizza and Fry's dog Seymour waiting outside? Was that meant as balm for all of our broken hearts that they didn't recognize each other? And is Springfield actually New New York? Or Queens?
posted by bleep at 4:42 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


No, it means the writers are lazy and going for cheap sentimental references without any regard to an actual joke (which is basically the AV Club's analysis).
posted by GuyZero at 5:18 PM on November 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


Also from the AV Club's cogent observation:

Kang and Kodos’ last name is...Johnson? And they’re both female? Let’s stick that in the “questionably canon” file for now.
posted by GuyZero at 5:19 PM on November 10, 2014


so it sounds like, much like the Halloween episode, we're hitting a sort of consensus that the best modern Simpsons does is "nice homage without actual funny jokes," then?
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:28 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


The Simpsons is really pulling out all the stops on late-era sitcom express... When will Ozmodiar finally be (re)introduced?

Suppose they actually did this. Like, for an entire season. I'd be on board.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:44 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


I did feel let down when Bender was put in the basement next to some random boxes and not the Olmec Head.
posted by Gary at 10:29 PM on November 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


When the Family Guy crossover happened I was pretty amazed at how the juxtaposition of Griffins and Simpsons brought out just how awful of people the Griffins are. Sure Homer has a ton of throwaway one-liners about stupid Flanders but all the meanness in Simpsons pales in comparison to the crass disrespect Family Guy has for all it's characters.

That being said, man I hated the tacked on "romance" Homer had with Bender. It felt really odd, almost like a parody of Spielberg's happy endings.

It's not the first time in the last few seasons where I have felt like a Simpsons episode has ended on a weirdly forced bittersweet moment.
posted by M Edward at 3:47 PM on November 12, 2014


I think the Seymour cameo is best described as "twisting the knife". But it was completely stupid be Panucci's is in New York, not Springfield! Ugh.

I enjoyed all the Futurama parts and none of the Simpson's parts, though, which shows where my loyalties lie.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:45 AM on November 18, 2014


I think the Seymour cameo is best described as "twisting the knife". But it was completely stupid be Panucci's is in New York, not Springfield!

Also, Seymour should have been dead for two years by now.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:47 AM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


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