Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday and the last one for January 2020. This week on the birthday front, is a dude named Chris Ladesma. Chris who??? Chris Ladesma, without whom we wouldn’t have such briliant music editing. In fact, he has been a part of the staff since day 1, without going off wandering to other shows or even being on hiatus.
He has his own blog, about his job and he lets us in on some of what goes into editing the music for episodes. For example: if you have watched the Season 25 episode The Kid Is Alright, you will notice the opening is all music and no dialog. It is all there in the blog itself, in a post called Music Ville, which has music and or musical instruments for various characters. If you know each character’s background, you can probably figure it out a bit easier because, there really is no dialog. In fact, here is the post for you, to take a read through, then go and watch The Kid Is Alright and listen for the opening sequence, as you read it again. https://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/music-ville/
Oh by the way, Chris turns another year older on Tuesday and here is a link to his blog and not just a specific blog post here. https://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Okay, now we have to acknowledge the passing of the funny and talented Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, who passed away this past Tuesday at the age of 77. I probably don’t need to tell you that Monty Python was a huge influence on the Simpsons writing staff but all the same, if you go on the Wikisimpsons website, look for the link to Monty Python’s Flying Circus and you will find out how much of an influence they are, beyond Eric Idle. In fact, here is the link. https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Flying_Circus
Obviously, the 4 surviving fellow Pythons had also responded to the news on either Twitter or through websites for news publications.Here is what I had found, from all 4 of them.
From Eric Idle:
“I loved him the moment I saw him on stage at the Edinburgh Festival in 1963. So many laughs,moments of total hilarity onstage and off we have all shared with him. It’s too sad if you knew him,but if you didn’t you will always smile at the many wonderfully funny moments he gave us.”
From Sir Michael Palin:
“You will be very missed old friend. I feel very fortunate to have shared so much of my life with Terry.”
From John Cleese:
“Just heard about Terry J.. It feels strange that a man of so many talents and such endless enthusiasm, should have faded so gently away… Of his many achievements, for me the greatest gift he gave us all was his direction of ‘Life of Brian’. Perfection. Two down, four to go.”
This last one is from Terry Gilliam, who also had a huge part, along with the rest of the pythons in shaping the style of the TV show and, the groups humour in general.
“HE WAS A VERY NAUGHTY BOY!!…and we miss you. Terry was someone totally consumed with life.. a brilliant, constantly questioning, iconoclastic, righteously argumentative and angry but outrageously funny and generous and kind human being… and very often a complete pain in the ass.
One could never hope for a better friend. Goodbye, Tel.”
If you haven’t read Eric Idle’s autobiography, check out the story at the end of Chapter 8, talking about Terry Jones almost getting them both killed, in Germany. Hint, he probably would have taken all of his clothes off, if he wasn’t dragged off stage, with two German bands at one huge table, with older men waring Nazi insignia. If you wanna hear the story, just listen to the audiobook and hear Eric tell it and I think you will laugh as much as I did, when hearing it for the first time, in October 2018.
Let us not forget that Terry Jones was also: an author, actor, playwright, screenwriter, newspaper columnist, movie director and a historian. I wish I could comment more on his books and his historical research, but I don’t really know how deep he was into it. However, people have said that if you asked him about a wide range of subjects, he could floor you with his knowledge. Just do a Google search on Terry Jones and you will probably know more about his life, outside of Python than you did before.
Back to Monty Python, on their Contractual Obligations album, he sang a number of songs on it. These include: Never Be Rude to an Arab, I’m So Worried, Here Comes Another One, Muddy Knees, Traffic Lights and A Scottish Farewell, which is a brief coda to Here Comes Another One. Of course, he also participates in some of the sketches on the album, such as: Crocodile and Bealls, in which he is the wife of the agnostic husband (Graham Chapman).
When I heard that Terry had dementia, I thought to myself that it’s only a matter of time, because of his age at which he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Altho, I still had plenty of hope that he would be with us, for quite a while and when I heard that a member of Monty Python had died, I had a bad feeling of who it was, even before Terry Jones was revealed to be taking the dirt nap. I hope that there will be some sort of cure for all types of dementia and we can hear about people actually beating it, like cancer.
I’ll miss the loud middle aged housewives he did so well, along with everything else which will be mentioned, in the next and final paragraph on Terry Jones. Of course, one of his finest characters outside the Pepperpots is Mr. Creosote, because he was so morbidly obese, also throwing up quite ridiculously. As for my favourite sketch he and Michael Palin had written together, is Spam, because it is so funny, with all the insertions of the word “spam” as a part of the menu, as well as the interruptions from the vikings, helping to provide more laughs, there by creating some sort of weird chaos in the sketch. Of course, the Vikings were voiced (if you will) by the Fred Tomlinson singers, who had done a lot of the vocals for Monty Python’s songs, including Eric Idle’s classic “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” and they sounded great too. I have always found that sketch to be one of my favourites, outside of most sketches written by Eric Idle and the writing partnership of John Cleese and Graham Chapman.
Finally, from a friend I had gone to school with, who had posted this on Facebook on Thursday. “Goodbye to naked pianists, Goodbye to naked writers,Goodbye to cross-dressing waitresses who serve SPAM, Goodbye to two Sheds, Goodbye to unfortunate mothers who are mistaken for the mother of the Christ Child, Goodbye to fat men who explode after eating a Wafer thin mint. Goodbye Terry Jones, and thank you for the years of unexpected laughter.”
This week it will be a look back at the Season 4 episode Marge vs. the Monorail, which aired Jan 14, 1993. You know? The episode with that fast-talking con man, Lyle Lanley, who sells the people of Springfield a monorail? I know, I could have done a post on it last week but, Def Leppard gave me the creative muse and so, I thought I would do my look back at this Conan O’Brien masterpiece and we’re going to talk about the whole thing, as we watch it on either the Disney plus app or (in my own case) from my TV library on my iPod touch from iTunes. Along the way, I will stop and talk a bit about a couple of things in here, that either I had learned, or found funny or cliche. Are you ready? All right, here we go so strap in.
The episode begins with a parody of the opening of The Flintstones, complete with the same music. However, Homer sings his own lyrics in a slightly lower key. If you have read earlier posts of this blog, you know how much I like both The Simpsons and The Flintstones, as I had done a post, comparing the two shows back in July 2016.
After we see Lenny and Carl wonder where the nuclear waste goes at night, Mr. Burns and Smithers are out playing their game of hide the ooze and decide not to do their dumping, at a playground because those bold children are arousing suspicion. So, they go to the city park and are caught dumping nuclear waste there,. Mr. Burns is fined three million dollars and, he pays it off, with obvious intentions of getting it back. However, we are getting ahead of ourselves.
A town meeting is immediately held so the citizens can decide how to spend the money. Mr. Snrub (who comes from somewhere far away) proposes that the money be invested in the nuclear plant and of course, Smithers unilaterally agrees with Mr. Burns in his disguise. Nice one Burnsy!
Marge suggests using the money to fix up Main Street, which is in extremely poor condition. The town shows enthusiasm for this idea and is about to vote for it when suddenly a smooth-talking stranger named Lyle Lanley suggests the town buy a new monorail, making his pitch in a song which convinces the town to buy the monorail. For those of us who may not know by now, this premise of a con man getting a town excited about something he sells but hardly knows anything about is borrowed from the musical The Music Man. To tell the truth, I didn’t know that before reading about this episode and even before hearing the song by itself, or as a part of the episode.
Marge is unhappy with the town’s purchase, believing they should have fixed Main Street and the monorail is unsafe. While watching TV, Homer sees an advertisement suggesting he become a monorail conductor, claiming it to be a lifelong dream. Okay, how many of these lifelong dreams has Homer had? Also, Homer was probably on his third beer and for the sake of this episode, why not?
Homer signs up for the monorail conductor training course and after a decidedly unintensive three weeks of training, Homer is named the monorail conductor. Of course, Homer doesn’t really have a clew about what the job intails, besides saying “all aboard” and that’s that. I don’t know that much about how trains work (from the inside either) and I would be just as unqualified to operate a monothingy as Homer is.
Meanwhile, Marge is still feeling uneasy about the monorail and is haunted by what she had heard, either in the song or from her husband. We hear Apu asking “is there a chance the track could bend?” during the song and Homer remark “I call the big one Bitey,” in reference to a Family of possums she had discovered, both from her brain, because of the vocal affects on their voices (similar to Homer having converrsations with his own brain). She decides to visit Lyle Lanley and discovers a notebook revealing Lanley’s true intentions: to have the monorail break down while he gets away with the town’s money. Lanley catches her, and Marge quickly says she was just browsing around. Believing her story, Lanley allows her to leave, not knowing she has read the notebook and is aware of his plans. My guess is that he takes the notebook with him too, as he says “I don’t know why I leave this lying around”, in reference to it.
Marge immediately drives to North Haverbrook, which Lanley mentioned was a previous purchaser of one of his monorails during his pitch. She finds the town to be run-down and nearly deserted. Marge asks around about the monorail, but no one is willing to talk about it. A woman working at a drive-in diner says there’s no monorail in North Haverbrook and never was, but then closes the doors, revealing the diner is called “MONORAIL CAFE”. Finally, Marge meets Sebastian Cobb, who explain Lanley cut costs everywhere while building North Haverbrook’s monorail, and the entire thing is a scam. Cobb shows her the remnants of the town’s monorail, which is now broken and in disrepair.
At the monorail’s maiden voyage, the entire town turns out, including celebrities such as: Krusty the clown, Lurleen Lumpkin and Leonard Nimoy. Lanley grabs his money and jumps in a taxi taking him to the airport, even after Lisa asks if he is going to ride the monorail. The monorail takes off just before Marge and Cobb arrive in Springfield. At first the monorail runs smoothly, but the controls malfunction, causing the monorail to speed up and travel at dangerous speeds. One of the most obviously audible signs of the malfunction is when Homer tries to get the breaks working and, they obviously don’t. We hear a female voice platform say “The lever you have pulled–brakes– Is not in service. Please make a note of it.” My guess is that it was supporting cast member Maggie Roswell, who provided the voice and she did a damn good job. Anyway, nobody can figure out how to stop the monorail (since it’s solar-powered) and although a solar eclipse briefly halts it, the eclipse ends and the monorail takes off again.
During Lyle Lanley’s flight, an announcement is made about making a brief unscheduled stop in North Haverbrook, where Lanley realizes he is in for it. He is immediately attacked by a group of angry pitchfork laden locals , who have been tipped off about his arrival. My guess is that perhaps it was Marge who tipped them off. Hmm!
Back in Springfield, Cobb tells Homer in order to stop the train, he needs to find an anchor. Homer grabs the giant “M” from the side of the monorail, ties it to a rope, and throws it out the window (just barely remembering at the last second he needs to also tie the rope to something inside the monorail). Eventually, the M latches onto a giant doughnut, stopping the monorail and saving its passengers. As the train stops, Homer: [says to himself] Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do?” As the passengers get off of the monorail, Leonard Nimoy says his work is done. Barney tells Nimoy he didn’t do anything. Nimoy asks, “Didn’t I?” and teleports out of Springfield.
The episode ends with Marge explaining the monorail was the last folly Springfield ever had … except for the popsicle-stick skyscraper … and the giant magnifying glass … and the escalator to nowhere.
Okay, even after all of that, I still can’t do the episode justice, because there’s so much happening and in some cases, not enough audio to give clues for me as to what is going on. For example: Dr. Hibbert and the Siamese twins speech? What is going on and how does this relate to the episode and where it is heard?
Something I had recently learned, while doing extra research on the episode, beyond the plot is that there was a reverse reference to this premise, which had occurred in 2002 when Seattle residents opposed to a proposed monorail project held a protest event called “Coming Out With Marge Simpson.” The event organizers planned to show the episode as part of the protest, but were ordered not to show it, because of copyright laws. Could you imagine if they were allowed to show the episode, as part of the protest?
Of course, we can’t talk about the episode, without acknowledging Phil Hartman voicing Lyle Lanley, that Smoove talking ConMan and being so wrapped up in his scheme, that he believes Marge. When she says that she saw nothing incriminating in his notebook. You couldn’t use the character in any other episode as he is, except for this one and of course, any episode with Phil Hartman voicing a character is a classic, 99.99999999 percent of the time. Right?One more thing about the episode and a repeated plot point, is that Homer is given a high demanding job, despite not being qualified to be at the helm. The only thing he does even passibly well at the helm is, behind the wheel of the family car and even that, he has neglected it on occasions. For example: a leaking exhaust pipe or banging the heater, to get it to work are not recommended things to have in a car.
I love the episode and of course, the Monorail song isn’t bad either. I wonder if at one point, Lyle Lanley was going to slip up and actually tell Lisa the truth about what his real intentions were, dew to her question and just because she is an 8-year-old girl. If he did, it would be interesting, to find out if Lisa and Marge team up to stop the monorail, before Marge would even think of going to Lyle’s house. Either way, the episode is fine as it is and nothing needs to be changed.
Simpsons on Sundays 