Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons On Sundays post. So, what did you think of Bartless? That was an interesting episode and could you imagine if Bart was just another parentless child, who had just happened to be found by Homer and Marge Simpson? All this after a prank at school and Homer looking forward to punishing Bart as much as he can, maybe like with a certain episode from Season 4. Anyway, if you haven’t watched it yet, I encourage you to do so.
On the birthday front, voice actor Frank Welker turns another year older today. He is best known to The Simpsons as the voice of that stupid dog and other animals, including other dogs and cats. Altho, my favourite voice is Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget and, I could tell a story about a guy where I once lived, who thought another person was actually Dr. Claw. Maybe it was dementia, or something else, but it was really really funny. I’m not going to get into the whole story, because it’s too damn funny and not at all related to The Simpsons.
This week I’m going to do something which I would never normally even consider doing. I am going to redo a post I had done in this blog 5 years ago on the 25th anniversary of the Season 4 episode Last Exit to Springfield, but as an expanded version of the original post. I will even add some music to it and you can probably guess what it is anyway, but I don’t care. I’m gonna do it.
Last Exit to Springfield is simply the greatest Simpsons episode of all time and it was a part of Season 4, as the 17th episode in the season and episode 76 in the series. The episode production code is 9F15 and was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky and directed by Mark Kirkland, with Show Runner Al Jean and Mike Reiss. It’s guest star was Dr. Joyce Brothers as herself and she wasn’t the only one asked to provide their voices and I will have more on that later.
Mr. Burns is sitting in his office awaiting the union leader, who hasn’t been seen since he promised to clean up the union, so they can discuss the proposed union contract. He doesn’t show up and while overlooking the contract, Mr. Burns is disgusted with the demands and reminisces about simpler times. So, Mr. Burns decides to take on the greedy union and revoke their dental plan.
Meanwhile, at Painless Dentistry, the Simpson children and other Springfield kids are getting their teeth checked. It is discovered Lisa needs braces. When Marge informs Homer, he tells her not to worry about the cost, as the union had won a dental plan during the strike of 1988. Later, at a meeting of the local chapter of International Brotherhood of Jazz Dancers, Pastry Chefs and Nuclear Technicians, Carl announces the newest contract requires the union to give up their dental plan in exchange for a free keg of beer for their meeting. Homer slowly comprehends giving up their dental plan would require him to pay for Lisa’s braces and jumps into action, reminding everyone how their dental plan has helped them all, and how the new contract is an insult. Carl proposes Homer be the new union president and is promptly elected by a nearly unanimous vote.
Mr. Burns monitors Homer and is impressed, confusing his attempt to get a candy bar off his back with exercising. Burns invites Homer to his office to try to reach an agreement, but Mr. Burns’ sly innuendos are mistaken by Homer as sexual advances. Homer quickly gets to his feet, saying he doesn’t go for those “backdoor shenanigans” and promptly leaves.
Lisa is given her new braces, which are extremely noticeable, leading her to call herself a “monster”. Meanwhile, Mr. Burns sends hired goons to Homer’s in order to take him back to Burns’ manor to negotiate and once they sit to talk, Homer begins to need to use a bathroom, because of the beer, coffee and watermelon he had earlier. He asks where the bathroom is and immediately leaves, causing Burns to think Homer is unwilling to even hear him out. Homer finally becomes fed up with Mr. Burns and calls a meeting where the union immediately votes to strike. Actually, Homer says that he’s had enough and is probably about to say that he wants out of the union, but everyone wants to strike.
Mr. Burns is undeterred by the strike and he tries several methods of breaking it up, such as bringing in 30’s era strikebreakers, including Abe Simpson and getting loyal robot workers. On an edition of Kent Brockman’s talk show “Smartline”, Mr. Burns is allowed an opening tirade and he threatens dire events. Before Mr. Burns made his tirade, Homer was also on Smartline and screamed when Kent remarked that “Organize labor has become a lumbering dinosaur”. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Burns and Smithers march to a secret room in the Power Plant and turn off the power for the whole town. The strikers don’t lose hope and begin to sing, with Lisa and her “Union Strike folk song” “They have the plant but we have the power”. Burns, confident he has broken the union’s spirit, steps out of his balcony to hear their reaction, but is disarmed by their unity and optimism. Mr. Burns finally calls a meeting with Homer to concede to their demands on one condition: Homer must resign as union president. Homer celebrates by being Curly Howard, causing Mr. Burns to finally realize Homer is not a brilliant tactician.
With the Simpson family insured again, Lisa gets her perfect new braces and she, the Simpson family and the dentist gather and laugh as the episode comes to a close (as he had left the ‘laughing gas’ on).
Okay, let’s go deeper into some of my favourite moments of the episode. There are many classic moments and hallmarks of the early Simpsons episodes, which are in this one. First of all, homers brain is heard in many forms in this episode. For example: we hear Lenny saying “dental plan” and Marge saying “Lisa needs braces” a number of times, before Homer realizes that he will have to pay for her new braces without the dental plan. Also, Homer’s brain is heard as himself in the seen where he is at Mr. Burns’s place and has to use the bathroom.
Grandpa Simpson prattling on about Shelbyville being called Morganville, and on and on. Let’s face it, it’s funny when Abe tells his impossible and improbable stories or just goes on and on, like all old people. Right?
Speaking of old coots, Mr. Burns not remembering Homer is another running gag which is heard in this episode, when he is impressed by um… um… “Simpson”. He says he’ll remember that name but he never does!
Back to Homer for a moment, let’s not forget that being hired for a job he is quite unqualified to do, is another classic trait of early Simpsons episodes. Operating a monorail, being a church deacon, manager of a country singer and even working in the nuclear plant are things at Homer should never be doing because of his incompetence. Being the head of the union is right up there, with jobs Homer should stay away from but in this episode, he is in fact The plants union king pin. He succeeds because of the will of the people, to be optimistic, despite Mr. Burns turning off the power in Springfield. Of course, Homer resigns as the head of the union at the end of the episode.
This brings me to the cultural references and there are some which are easy to pick out. For example: when Lisa is in some sort of a dream after looking at herself with her new noticeably ugly braces, there’s reference to the movie Yellow Submarine and further to that, a musical reference to the classic Beatles song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Even The Beatles themselves (voiced by Simpson’s cast members) appear and speak. At some point I may one day, do a post on all The Beatles references in The Simpsons. However, I would probably have to take a long winters nap after that.
Another obvious one is to the TV special How The Grinch Stole Christmas, where Lisa leads the people of Springfield in her song, which she plays on acoustic guitar. Don’t forget, in the movie all the who’s in Whoville are singing even after the Grinch has stolen all the Christmas gifts. In the case of this episode, all the people in Springfield are singing, even after Mr. Burns turns off the power and he expects everyone to be frightened. This is where Mr. Burns delivers his classic rhyme:
“Look at them all, through the darkness I’m bringing.
They’re not sad at all.
They’re actually singing! They sing without juicers.
They sing without blenders.
They sing without flunjers, capdabblers and smendlers”! Okay, what the hell are flunjers, capdabblers and smendlers? I’m just asking because I have never heard of them, unless they are a part of the reference to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, with its own possibly made up words for everything the whos have. Then again, this was written by dr. Seuss and it Has to be rhythmic in how it is written. Just read Green Eggs And Ham as another example of how much care, he had put into how the story had come together, as something which children would be either reading or hearing read to them. Oh yes, what about that song? Well, here. https://youtu.be/5R5u45-FyZc
For me, another classic moment is when Mr. Burns is giving Homer the tour and he takes him into a room, where an infinite number of monkeys are typing out the greatest novel, known to man. He reads one draft which says “It was the best of times, it was the “blurst’ of times””? I love that reference to “”It was the best of times, it was the worst’ of times” and hearing that makes me heave with laughter. https://youtu.be/no_elVGGgW8
About the guest stars, we have Dr. Joyce Brothers, but did you know that both Anthony Hopkins and Clint Eastwood were also asked to be the voice of Dr. Wolfe? Apparently so and they had both turned it down and Anthony Perkins was supposed to do it, but he passed on before recording had started. So, it was down to regular cast member Hank Azaria to do the voice and you know what? It was good and now I can’t imagine anyone else as the good dentist.
This episode was ranked no. 1 in a couple of books I have as audiobooks, namely Planet Simpson: How A Cartoon Masterpiece Defined A Generation, by Chris Turner and We Put The Spring In Springfield: Chronicling The Golden Era Of The Simpsons, by Justin Sedgwick. Both books go into the episode, but Planet Simpson goes into every detail, including the voices and characters, like the old man, whose name is Gummy Joe. Remember him? What about the guy who always says “me” and nothing else? I believe that both characters are voiced by Dan Castellaneta. Either way, I remember listening to this episode for the first time, just before Christmas 2004 on a discman with TV channels and I had heard it on CBC, at 5:00 PM on Wednesday December 22nd 2004. I also remember it because I had just purchased the player for myself, for Christmas that year and I wish I had more time and patience, to learn how to adjust the EQ. It simply didn’t have enough bass for me and I had ditched it somewhere, where you could get used items. I wish I hadn’t because it took 2 AA batteries and others I had found later, only took 1. Ah well!
All and all, this episode has everything you would want in a classic Simpsons episode except for Sideshow Bob or Krusty. However, it’s impossible to fit every single character into it, much like The Simpsons Movie, 14 years later. We probably won’t see another episode like it again, because everything fell into place in it and with how episodes are structured these days, it wouldn’t do it justice, audibly. Visually, there are a lot of other things going on, which we have to have someone tell us or we read about it in a book or on the web. This is a classic by which it is impossible to repeat. Well, tonight the episode Hostile Kirk Place will air and Kerry Washington guest stars as Rayshelle Peyton. I wonder how much of a roll she will have in this episode, compared to her previous appearance, or during last season in the episode My Octopus and a Teacher. I’m looking forward to the episode anyway, to see how much of a villain Kirk Van Houten will be in this episode, or if he isn’t.
Simpsons on Sundays 