Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons On Sundays post. First of all, happy Easter to everybody and I hope you had a good Good Friday and will also have a good Easter Sunday and if you’re not working tomorrow, great. Well, have you watched Clan of the Cave Mom yet? I won’t give too much away, but Milhouse calls back to Homer Defined, when he paraphrases what Marge had pointed out to Luann Van Houten that they are all each other has got. Bart is certainly a bad influence, but without each other they are lost. I will leave what had happened before then for you to watch on yur own.
On the birthday front, Eric Idle turned 81 years old on Friday. He has guest starred 4 times as documentarian Declan Desmond. Singer Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Better known as Lady Gaga) turned 38 years old on Thursday. She of course guest starred as her self in the season 23 finale Lisa Goes Gaga. I had talked about this episode in past posts so, if you wish to know more about how I feel about it, go to the archives for August 2022. By the way, I understand how people feel and yes, I seem rather kind to this episode, but I agree with how people feel about it and especially those, who are Youtubers who do the best and or worst lists of just about anything. https://youtu.be/_idynX4JK74?si=TmUEhxEDR8WGX_tE
Classic Simpsons writer George Meyer had turned 67 on Monday. He has had a hand in writing such classic episodes as: Mr. Lisa Goes To Washington and Bart VS Thanksgiving, among others. He left the show in 2006 but co-wrote The Simpsons Movie in 2007. He has also worked with David Letterman and on Saturday Night Live, before being hired by Sam Simon in 1989 to write for The Simpsons. Also, former Simpsons music writer Alf Clausen turned another year older on Thursday. One more birthday which I am really sorry I had overlooked is fellow Canadian Simpsons guest star Maurice LaMarche, who had turned another year older yesterday. I will do a deeper dive into him, with this year’s Simpsons Canadian Connections post and again, I am very sorry for the oversight.
This week let’s go back to Season 15 and the episode The Wandering Juvie, with guest star Sarah Michelle Geller as Gina Vendetti, whom I will talk more about in a moment. Basically, Bart pulls a wedding prank and because of this, he is sentenced juvenile hall. He is shackled to Gina, who turned out to be a very tough girl and even worse than Bart. She has no family and she got attention by pushing snow White over the parapet at Disneyland. She lives, but as Gina says “it wasn’t a good life” anyway, Bart and Gina did dance to Colour My World by Chicago which features the late guitarist Terry Kath on lead vocals and is mostly piano, bass and drums in either a waltz, or a similar Time signature. Anyway, Bart and Gina escape and are both caught. However, Gina does have enough of a heart to admit that this was her plan all along and not his, so he was free to go home. Oddly enough, Bart and The Simpson family returned to give Gina a meal, thanking her for saving the 10-year-old brat.
Because Bart pulled a wedding prank, the obvious song was White Wedding by Billy Idol, whose actual title is White Wedding, Pt. 1, according to the track listings on any best of or greatest hits albums I have found. I have heard this song since 1982 when I was 9 and I always liked it. I love the work he did with guitarist Steve Stevens, who has also done work with Robert Palmer in 1990, among other musicians. As for Billy Idol, some of us know that he was in a punk band called Generation X and the song we know by them is Dancing With Myself, by both Billy Idol and Generation X, but listed differently according to albums, EPs and compilations. Billy is still active and the latest album is The Cage in 2022. There are a number of compilations you can check out if you are interested in classic Billy Idol so, have at it with Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube music or whichever digital or streaming platform you use to get your music fix like me.
As for Gina, she is voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is known for horror rolls and is thus, a scream Queen. No wonder she voiced a character like Gina, who is no nice girl next door and could never be anyway. Altho, maybe she could have a redeemable side as she did confess to the idea for the escape from the juvenile hall. Years ago, there was a fanfiction story on Bart redeeming himself and getting back at those who had made his life what it is now, including his parents and Lisa. Gina may have been a character in the story, who was set to be adopted by The Simpsons family and she was quite different from what she was in the episode or the series. Gina was good, in that she never hurt Bart physically or otherwise and cared about him deeply, when everyone in the story was looking for him. She was even nice to Lisa and never raised a hand to hurt her either. I forget the name of the story, but it was a good one with twists and turns and it all centres around Bart and his change in outlook on life toward everybody and everything.
Oh yes, I can’t forget about that classic Chicago ballad I had mentioned earlier and if you haven’t heard it, this is what it sounds like. Remember that the man who sings lead was the original guitarist and unfortunately, offed himself at a young age. By the way, this was also the B-side to the Make Me Smile single, with both songs sung by Terry Kath. https://youtu.be/cWkXmx-0phc?si=RNH8eMndOcBDT5hX
Gina did show up in the episode Moonshine River, punching bart as usual and that is the last we have heard from her, other than maybe the same character in the fanfiction story I had talked about earlier. I hope that it gets reinstated somehow, or the author still has it around as I would like to read it again. I wish I could remember the title, but I remember that it had something to do with Bart. One of the chapters was called “Bart Attacks” and unfortunately, he attacks people who should have known better to pay more attention to him and not smother, tease or strangle him. Nobody died, but Bart nearly did and that brought Springfield together, or at least the characters in the story.
Anyway, I enjoyed this episode and if you are the author of the Simpsons fanfiction story I had been going on about, please let me know in the comments if you have it. I would really like to read it again in full.
Simpsons on Sundays 