Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - A Streetcar Named Marge

Episode Date: September 14, 2016

Marge gets cast in a musical production and Homer can’t really deal with it. Meanwhile, Maggie battles against objectivism in this week’s podcast…

today's talking simpsons is brought to you by little bits the easy to use electronic building blocks talking simpsons listeners can go to try little bits.com slash laser time and get 20 off your first order Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons. This is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration on The Simpsons. And on this show, we always depend on the kindness of strangers. Me, me, my, my, my. Thank you.

I forgot to tune up before this show started. I'm your host, Bob Mackie. Who else is here today? Marlon Brando, Kristen. I don't know anything about this. My name is Henry. I'm playing Pablo. My name is Bob Mahasapimapetalon.

I'll be playing Steve. And yes, this episode today is A Streetcar Named Marge, which aired on October 1st, 1992. Chris, what happened on this magical day in history? Oh my God. Bobby, it's incredible. Ross Perot announces his presidential candidacy. Roseanne is at the top of the TV ratings. And Last of the Mohicans and Disney's Mighty Ducks duke it out at the box office.

Last of the Mohicans. There was a Ducks duke it out at the box office. Last of the Mohicans. There was a great Ben Stiller show sketch about that. The trailer for that where he just keeps running. Was that the joke? It's the poster. That movie, I saw it. I was way too young. The whole world seemed to be talking about it.

It has a great soundtrack. It's boring as fuck. It's a very slow movie to watch when you're like 12. The book was written like 8 million years ago. I read 8 million year old books, though. I know. What's the best 8 million year old book? I would say probably The Count of Monte Cristo.

Ah, yes. It's more like 300 years old. Alexander Dumbass. He was one of the first American novels, right? Yeah, I think so, yeah. I know Mark Twain made fun of the author a lot because he's like, this guy sucks. I will show how bad I am digging into deep cultural roots because this episode was and is still very lost on me. I'm pointing this out once and for all.

Ross Perot, I'll never talk about him again. He's in the news constantly throughout the rest of the year. Dude, did you remember, while The Simpsons was on, I think he ran a competing infomercial on NBC he spent 40 million dollars of his own money that's right and they're roughly over every chance all the three it's the most Bernsian thing I've ever heard of and it really happened with Ross there were 20 SNL sketches maybe 12 all that sketches about it well cuz he kept like no I got you here got these chart here you see this that's exactly it is. It's like all him pointing at charts

in like a pre-YouTube world. I saw a video of him debating someone. Like I said in my infomercial, what if no one saw that, Ross? What's their frame of reference? Poor Ross Perona. He can't go to his website yet. And he was able to buy those

thanks to graphing calculators. We all bought them from Texas Instr test texas instruments his company uh but this episode was also controversial in a way dean it was uh to the city of new orleans yeah i have a little clip here from the dvd the season four dvd uh jeff martin is talking about um getting in trouble hi this is jeff martin wrote this episode, and there was some controversy over this song I wrote about New Orleans. Home of pirates, trucks, and boys, New Orleans. When I started writing the song, I remembered the musical Sweeney Todd began with a song about what a lousy place London was. So I was just copying that, and that's all I was doing. I certainly wasn't setting out to insult New Orleans.

Yeah, so the funny thing that blew my mind because i do i actually have seen sweeney todd not streetcar named desire the musical or nor the film it's it's a little more complicated than this this controversy happened before the episode aired because uh they sent these episodes out i think probably screeners yeah for affiliates yeah homer the heretic and this one just to the press and stuff and somebody got a hold of this and they were offended by the song because they're stupid they didn't understand that there was a musical parody but because they only had print they transcribed the song and printed the song and said that was what it and so you have just the lyrics on their own removed from any context yeah you would think they're being pretty mean in new york and just if you need further

context it's on The Simpsons and all the songs are being sung by pieces of shit. Exactly. No position to judge. Fox had to issue an apology but they have the apology passed by the screen in that DVD extra we just listened to and it's like we regret that you misinterpreted the joke. They didn't say like, no, we screwed up.

They're like, no, you got it wrong and we're sorry if your feelings were hurt, but you still screwed up. That's a great non-apology yeah but also uh bart would later write on the chalkboard yeah no i didn't get that clip actually i think the fall there was some controversy it was an article in the paper and i think the affiliate pulled the show or threatened to pull the show jamie kellner who was then head of, sent out a statement apologizing for it and saying that we didn't mean to offend. But the whole story of it is just me imitating Stephen Sondheim.

Without a dime. Beautiful singing voice of Mars. Yeah. We'll get to that later. I think Al Jean even says they were pulled for maybe a few weeks from those affiliates, but then they eventually, everything was okay. That's crazy.

And look, if you're offended by something like that, it's probably because it's really true. You're probably a shitty city. Oh, don't. They hit the field early. I shouldn't kick them. It's gone through so much. It's been 10 years.

They're back. I don't think so. No, my friends go there all the time. Oh, really? Yeah. They're doing okay? It looks beautiful. I can't wait to go.

But this episode was written by Jeff Martin, who is a mega veteran of the show, one of the original cast type guys of it. And he wrote most of the great songs you know from the original run on The Simpsons, including well, even up to A Noble Spirit Embiggens the Smallest Man, that song from the season seven episode. It plays over the credits, right? Yeah, he came back to write that one. And he did this as well.

And it's such a... The music's so great, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I had that written down that UK's Channel 4 banned this episode over the chalkboard gag. Because in a post right after Katrina, I will not defame New Orleans. Someone took great offense and didn't read the context of like, this was relating to something very specific said 20 years ago. Homer the Heretic. Yeah, something like that. Not great timing on airing that episode.

It's just odd the UK is more sensitive to it than America. Well, airing this one after Katrina would be similar to airing the World Trade Center one even, well, I think even like seven years after 9-11, it still felt weird. I am, yes, I've made fun of 9-11 in two different pieces of content this year. I'm over it now. It is weird that we've passed 15 years now and like kids watching YouTube videos

are younger than 9-11. Like it's just, it's hard for me to get my head around that. Today's top YouTube influencers are younger than 9-11, so I don't know how to feel about that. But yes, this episode starts off with... Oh, wait. Isn't this the last episode, Klasky Chupo episode, period? We just hit that.

No, actually, this is the last one produced was... Camp Krusty. This is the last one we're going to see. The last one aired. This is the 18th episode of the third season's production run. But in our chronology, we'll never see another Klaski Chupo episode. This is the final time in the production series that we will see Klaski Chupo. I can't believe the jump in quality from this episode to the next.

I cannot. Down? Up? Way up. And, of course, on my never-ending quest to grab every single Phil Hartman line ever, this is how the episode starts. Live from beautiful Laughlin, Nevada, it's the miss american girl pageant brought to you by merrill streep's versatility smell like streep for cheap uh that was the cologne that uh i think homer gave marge

when he hit he got but yes it's a callback to versatility it's wow we are looking like non-experts on this episode i was like was it when you got money from lurleen or no no no it was lisa the greek thank you wow i'm rarely the person to come to the table with titles you know looking like non-experts on this episode. I was like, was it when you got money from Lurleen or no? No, no, it was... Lisa the Greek. Lisa the Greek, thank you. Wow. I'm rarely the person to come to the table with titles. You know you guys are out of shape right now. Jesus. All right.

It's our first record of the day. I just think it's odd that you can tell it's out of production order because in just two episodes, there's an entire episode about a beauty pageant? Yeah, they revisit this very soon, but literally 10 episodes later in production-wise. In years apart, I would imagine, in production. I wonder if that's why Troy McClure doesn't host the beauty pageant for Lisa, because we just did Troy hosting it. Let's get a local celebrity for this one.

I love their local celebrities. Let's take a minute to meet our distinguished panel of judges. Skincare consultant Rowena. Syndicated columnist William F. George. Token black panelist Dredrick Tatum. And Mr. Boswell, the man behind those infamous worst dressed lists. Mr. Boswell, can you give us a sneak peek at this year's list? Memo, the Goldie Hawn.

Cheerleading tryouts were 30 years ago. Let's grow up, shall we? He's such a bitch. That's very like gay thing for bart yeah yeah this and lisa beauty queen we're going to there's some really very gay bart things where he's actively interested in beauty pageants and knows a lot about them also i i thought that you have to be gay to like beauty pageants you couldn't really hear it it's beauty pageants are boring but uh but you couldn't really hear it in that clip, but I swear when I watched the DVD version

that when he says Dreddrick Tatum's name, it feels ADR'd. I think that was, my theory is that was originally Mike Tyson. They're like, no, no, no. Just call it Dreddrick Tatum. Okay. Was it Dreddrick Tatum's character design? Yeah, it was, but I mean it would be how they drew Mike Tyson were they to draw

him in that world. So you can't really say. Meanwhile, William F. George, I guess, it would be how they drew Mike Tyson, would they, to draw him in that world. So you can't really say. Meanwhile, William F. George, I guess, has to be William F. Buckley, right? Also, I love the, it was a great little bit that they're singing the Janice Ian song, I Love Was Meant for Beauty Queens, which is a song about how sad it is. It's against Beauty Queens. I did not know this. Yes. And so it's funny that there's, is. It's against Beauty Queens. I did not know this. Yes.

And so it's funny that there's the Beauty Queens are singing that song. They're celebrating this tragic message, I guess. Yeah. So this episode is a little, was a little hard for me to watch because I've said this in other ones and I'd say it again in this one that like, this reminds me too much of my parents' relationship because this is this is another one where like the kind of key message is like marge kind of shouldn't be with home yeah especially when they have to make him as worse as he's ever been it's a bad relationship and

just like in the uh the the catfish one yeah they they don't they don't i i think by the end they don't really fix it but the opening bit of Little by Little Henry, that's how it works with men like us The opening bit where Marge is telling them over and over again And where exactly are you going? I'm auditioning for a play Well this is the first I've heard about it

I told you several times It's a musical version of a street car named Excuse me Marge I think that if you told me, I would remember. I mean, I'm not an idiot. I thought I told you. Kids, back me up. He's right, Mom. Sorry. Match point.

Over. I'm sorry, honey. That's okay. We're none of us perfect. See, that kills me because that thing, I saw my dad do that 8 million times as a kid before I caught on to it. I've been able to do that to other girlfriends, not this one. She remembers everything. It's very realistic passive aggression.

In fact, it's so realistic that this was 25 years ago, so I don't remember the show, but a news magazine did a piece on passive aggression. It was a new idea. It's called passive aggression. You could experience it now. They used this clip to explain what it was. This is passive aggression and these are what bad relationships look like. I guess it was like a new concept gaslighting you yes exactly gaslighting

yeah yeah i saw that so many times where my mom would repeat things over and over again my dad wouldn't yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and then later he would call her a liar for saying like i told you this like no you didn't you never told me this. I'd remember. And it was just very hostile. Yes, it's not like comical asshole Homer. It's realistic asshole Homer, where it's like, you can see this reflected in real people. So they want, like, good... It's good observational stuff of Homer being a bad husband, but it also is, like, too real and kind of tells you, like, should you guys be together?

Like, this really doesn't seem to be great for march i don't know she's getting out of this march can never pursue her dreams she's always pulled back by homer uh she pursued my dreams which is to meet john love it yeah hello i am luellen sinclair i have directed three plays in my career and i have had three heart attacks maybe i should have taken a nice calligraphy class. Oh, forget about it. That Mr. Takahashi, the lunatic. Quiet! All right.

I am not an easy man to work for. While directing Hats Off to Hanukkah, I reduced more than one cast member to tears. Did I expect too much from fourth graders? The review review play enjoyed by all speaks for itself that's my line of the show play enjoyed by all

please don't look at my spelling of Llewellyn it's kind of impossible for me to get it's a hard word to spell I can't believe you didn't just get every Llewellyn line because it is I think could be his best character that he's done in the show. They also just drew John Lovitz. It's really John Lovitz, maybe plus 100 pounds, but still a little less hair.

A little fatter than he is. Is John Lovitz Jewish? Lovitz is a Jewish name or an Italian name? I don't know. I'll never tell. Because he hits every Jewish word as hard as he can when he does these characters. They make him Jewish so much in everything

they do. Even the critic, he was a Jew. Yeah, so it makes me think that he is Jewish, or it's just Mike Rees chewing up it. Lovitz is just old enough to hide both his Jewishness and homosexuality. Come on, he has a gorgeous wife. I love women! Yeah, that's the ticket.

They're the bee's niece. Well, that's the running joke, too, that Algie and Mike Reese have a long working relationship with Lovitz that began on Simpsons, went into The Critic, and he's even on the commentary for this episode, which is really good. I kind of find it tiresome after a bit. I want to hear about the show and he's like you're gay like two of the two head writers like were you in bed together writing this jeff martin's trying to say yeah so i was thinking of this he's like was mike kissing lg the whole time and he keeps going the stepford wives in theaters this may he was making that movie at the time yeah a terrible movie ticket uh but but he also but he also brought up uh the funny non-reference to uh

matt grady i want to thank you for having me here and also for for having me on the the critic on an episode of the simpsons which made everybody happy yes there's just a lot of knowing laughs and uh matt says we'll get to that but he was not on that commentary he didn't do that of The Simpsons, which made everybody happy. And then there's just a lot of knowing laughs in the room. And Matt says we'll get to that, but he was not on that commentary. He didn't do that commentary. He was conspicuously gone. No, he did not. No, really? Yeah, I kind of wish he was. Okay, after... Okay, never mind. I was going to say,

Simpsons Meets Family Guy makes that critic episode unimpeachable. Like, you can't say anything about it anymore. It's fine now. So, by the way, Jasper is doing his, like, stretches, his warm-ups. It's pretty impressive, especially for a guy who has one wooden leg. Yes, exactly.

I do. Again, I like Radio Bart a lot because it used Springfield as an ensemble. And just like the weird cherry-picking of characters from Springfield to be in and around the play. I don't know. It just didn't gel as well as Radio Bart to me. It was sort of bummed. I mean, we assume that Otto was dead, but he's all over this episode. In fact, he gets one of the last lines.

But it's still a season three episode. That's right. Oh, yeah. But by season four... This is pre-Otto Show, Otto, too. Yeah, but at least a beauty queen... I have the cast list, I believe. Well, first of all, Marge is playing Blanche.

I play an aging Southern beauty who's driven to insanity by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley. Wow, my mother the actress. I feel like Lucy Arnaz Luckenbale. Are there any jive-talking robots in this play? I don't think so. Marge, don't ask stupid questions. Is there any frontal nudity? No, Homer.

Lucille Arnaz? Lucille? I had to look it up. It's her daughter. Oh, really? Yeah, Luckenb look it up. It's her daughter. Oh, really? Yeah, Luck and Bale. Yeah, it's her daughter. And we just talked about it on 302010,

like Lucille Ball's 18th sitcom following I Love Lucy. Again, someday I want to do a big thing about Lucille Ball. That woman has done too many crazy things. The first real lady mogul of the movie. And you have her to thank for Star Trek and Andy Griffith's show and people shooting on film. Lucille Ball. And this is the rest of the movie. You have her to thank for Star Trek and Andy Griffith's show and people shooting on film. Lucille Ball. And this is the rest of the cast. Sorry, Hank.

My name is Helen Lovejoy, and I'll be playing Stella. I am Apu, the House of Prima Petulon. I play Steve. My name is Atu. I'm playing Pablo. Lionel Hatch's attorney at law. I'm filing a class action suit against the director on behalf of everyone who was cut from the play.

I also play Mitch. I'm Marge Simpson. I'll be playing Blanche. I made some peanut butter brownies for everyone. Well, would anyone else like a bite of banality? An important moment. We are luring up who's last name. Yeah, Nahasa Pima Petalon. I used to win a ton

of trivia contests. I was going to say, this tryout actually nets a lot of firsts but that's the biggest one the the setup of his name nahasa pima petalon which is that derived from anything somebody else's name bob why don't you tell um i think that is okay so jeff martin wrote this episode and there was an indian uh boy in his gym, I guess like an exchange student or something. And I think his name was Nahasa Pimapetilon. It was Pahasadi Nahasadi Pahasadi Nahasadi. Is that where Pete's Dragon is, Sam?

That's a dumb joke from me only. So the gym teacher would be going down the line, and he'd be saying people's names, and when he got to that, he'd be like, hey, there's my buddy, because he didn't want to say the kid's name. So this is his tribute to that kid. No one would say his name. So that set up his last name. But the other first in this, too, were getting their shirts set up

that Ned has an incredible physique, which he still does. And then that Apu has bullet wounds all over his body, like you can see the bullet wounds. Well, meanwhile, Otto had this big tattoo on his chest that he does not have in the Otto show when he's shirtless so he must have got it right after temporary tattoo henry happy so if you want to see jive talking robots see transformers 2 but this episode was originally going to be a straight up performance of a streetcar named desire it's i didn't even capture it's real long with the song it is yeah the reason. The reason they made it into a musical, not just because it was funnier,

it's because they couldn't get the rights to say all but a few words to that play. Wow, really? So they're like, we'll make it a musical, it'll be funnier. And they got a lot more mileage out of it. Making this into a Hello Dolly-style musical is the silliest idea if you know the source material. I didn't when I was 10. Yeah, I don't either. I know I'm not getting all the reference material from this. Well, at least you've seen a Tennessee Williams play.

No. Our town? No, that's not him. Tennessee Williams was like a drunk gay dude in the 30s in the South. He had a lot of depression and family issues. And most of his plays have to do with very put-upon women that are getting destroyed by society or the men in their lives. And Streetcar Named Desire is just another one of those ones. And I think Tennessee was working through a lot of issues in those.

But they were beautiful. The one I saw first, I saw The Glass Menagerie. I liked that one a lot. I think I did read that. It's a nice one. You're a dame and I'm a fella. Stanley, stop or I'll tell Stella. That's not from Streetcar Named Desire at all, which I still haven't seen.

I mean, that moment is that Stanley is threatening to rape Blanche. It's just that I assume by now, because I have gone back and revisited a ton of Brando's work, and I still have not somehow seen this. I didn't love this episode growing up because I just assumed I've never seen the musical Streetcar Named Desire. I don't know why this is funny. My parents had to explain it. Yeah, I didn't know it wasn't a musical until, I would say, the last 10 years. I'd never thought about it before.

But the biggest Streetcar Named named desire reference happens outside of the theater yeah and it yes at the simpsons house yeah i've got to go rehearse with ned but march what about dessert for god's sake you can pull the lid off your own can of pudding fine i will no my pudding is trapped forever no i can open my own can of pudding, can't I? Show us what you know, Marge. Marge! Hi, Marge! Keep yelling, you big ape.

Love that. Have you ever... I've never had pudding in a can like that. That's... I was going to point that out as probably a dated thing. Yeah, as a kid in summer camp, always. Like, all my pudding had pull-up cat food lids. No way. I only had...

And your Vienna sausages didn't have... Well, I mean, I had those. I'd definitely seen things in cans before, but not... All I could think of is the Ranking Off My Pudding Can. Yeah, they really got into pudding cans in this one. But no, I had the snack packs and other... Snack packs? But wait, let's go back.

Let's go back. So Marge got cast as Blanche because she was so sad. And Llewellyn could see how sad she was because Homer was crushing her spirit. That scene is so great, I couldn't cap him dive-kicking the fucking vending machine.

But her sadness reminds me of a recent tweet that went viral by the creator of BoJack Horseman. I don't know if you guys saw this. Raphael Weisberg whatever. He tweeted about how Marge has no friends. Oh yeah. I did see that story.

Was she sad when Maude died? It's not really talked about on the show but she had almost no friends and Maude was maybe the only woman she could ever even talk to. Oh wow. And then he used images of Marge crying from other episodes. no friends and Maude was maybe the only woman she could ever even talk to oh wow and then he used images of like

Marge crying from other episodes just to bring it out and so seeing yourself sad here I was like it really made me think back to the empty life that he painted for her look at those tweets guys it really makes you think about the shittiness of Marge's life

yeah I don't even know how to feel about that now. But I was talking to somebody about it, but the modern concept of the stay-at-home mother is pathetic to men. And there are certain people who do aspire to that. And we look down on it. And it's like, I don't know. And we've demonized it. Well, there's that joke about Marge reading a letter from school. It's like, no, a homemaker is not a real job because if it was, you'd get paid on it. And it's like, I don't know. And we've demonized it. Well, there's that joke about Marjorie in the letter from school. It's like, no, a homemaker is not a real job because if it was, you get paid for it.

But it's like, it's totally a fucking job. It's the only job where if you fuck up, you'll go to jail. That you also need as much time as college to prepare for and then follow through with it like a career. Keep these things alive. That's your job. And I think society spent so long shitting on it. Well, I think it's this, let me, as a man, talk about

feminism. Please do. I just never heard that argument before. I'm not saying... I think it's a tough balance because there were definitely, like, you know, in classic feminism or in, like, 70s feminism, which we saw in the Way We Was episode, the idea that they were throwing off housewife

as the idea of like women aren't just this women can be more than this but now they're having to balance that back with the idea of like but you can be that if you want to don't judge a woman if she chooses to like you you shouldn't judge them for that too you shouldn't act like oh you chose not to be an executive you chose to throw your life away by raising children. It's stupid to compare humans to animals unless you're talking about children who suck. And if you think of them as animals, animals constantly have to supervise their young to keep them from being eaten and dying. And this has to happen to human children for fucking decades. For decades.

We will be eaten in the wild. Marge could have hung out with Sinclair's sister. Maggie is allergic to strained pears, and she likes a bottle of warm milk before nap time. A bottle? Mrs. Simpson, do you know what a baby's saying when she reaches for a bottle? Baba? She's saying, I am a leech. Our aim here is to develop the bottle within.

That sounds awfully harsh. The Ayn Rand daycare is like one of those great high concept Simpsons jokes that just comes out of nowhere and is so smart you need to take time to think about it. It would be a decade before I got this joke. I don't think I get it. Same here. I don't get it. Well, you played Bioshock. You know what objectivism is. Yes.

The Ayn Rand school. Ayn Rand. Fountainhead. I even read part of Fountainhead. Yeah. We have to school. Anne Ryan. Fountainhead. I've even read part of Fountainhead. Yeah. It's like, we have to nurture the bottle within. I mean, a Fountainhead is at least the easiest one to read because it's about, it's not about business.

It's about the art of architecture. Please don't read any of these books, by the way. No, no. You've got lots of time, but you've only got so much time in your life. Don't spend it reading Anne Ryan. Watch the three-part Atlas Shrug movie and you'll have a lot of fun. I'll say read the books, but don't do it when you're in college, because you'll be annoying. I'd say the Fountainhead movie with Gregory Peck.

That's all right. Oh, Gregory Peck is great. I remember Fountainhead. But anyway, these Ayn Rand jokes about, you know, that I am a leech. There's signs up on the wall that say A is A. Didn't get those at all by the way, wouldn't it kill a baby to not drink from a bottle

how do the babies drink anything they gotta find their own titties man, let them forge the strongest baby will win Henry, the rest are all leeches who will die, not drag down capitalism and I didn't even know A is A was an objectivist quote, I still don't until a few years

until about seven years ago when I really I decided to read the later works of Steve Ditko which Steve Ditko is a comic book artist who most famously co-created Spider-Man pretty much sole creator on Doctor Strange. A bunch of other heroes

but in the set but he was also a big time Randian. And when he quit corporate comics and started doing his own comics, he went hardcore. Just like, it's time to make a comic book that will explain objectivism to children. They'll understand. And so he created the character, Mr. A, who, if you like Rorschach and Watchmen, that's Mr. A. Alamor is very clear that Rorschach is Mr. A. Wow.

And so Mr. A is just a guy in a mask and a suit who goes around and tells people the world is black and white. You're either good or you're evil. You choose one of those. To make this really easy to categorize. And he's like, I'm Mr. A, and A is A. There's no grade of this. A is A. And so that is where I'm Mr. A, and A is A. There's no gray to this. A is A. And so that is where I first heard that.

Is the Maggie's Daycare, was this the same daycare she went to in the one and only theatrical short film? The longest daycare in 2012, Oscar nominated? Oscar nominated. No, it was not the same one, because it was just about Gerald. I read some trivia, scrubbed through looking for it, but the sequences in the daycare are so good. They are great. They're also a Rugrats episode.

It's a parody of The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen. That's a great movie. It's an awesome movie. Though it's weird that it's like it's The Great Escape and then it's The Bird. It's not a clear through line. The Bird's joke is worth it, though. Oh, it is.

The Bird's joke is worth it, the birds joke is but like have they ever done that before they're doing a Hitchcock joke and again as a kid absolutely don't get it and then Hitchcock walks by like I've never seen them do that before it's a great caricature too but like if you don't know because like I think at the time I was watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents but I hadn't

seen the birds and I'm like why did Hitchcock just walk by it didn't make any sense to me but again most kids will not be like me watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I was watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Nick at Night as well. Because it was one of those things that kind of, you know, you could keep watching Nickelodeon into Nick at Night and it'd be one of your first things. And Alfred Hitchcock is such an interesting guy.

And then I'd watch for 10 minutes of the plot of the episode like, this is boring me now a murder mystery the only reason to watch presents is his intros they're fantastic he's like he's hilarious like he's like the Crypt Keeper on ambient kind of like hello and then you watch Twilight Zone like I'll never go back

yeah the Simpsons will be right back. new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our Net Zero Hub at electricireland.ie. Hello, Talking Simpsons listeners. Unky Herb is really on to something, don't you think? That baby translator? Who knows how that's going to pan out? That could change the world. Do you have an inventor in your life? Good, because this episode of Talking Simpsons is brought to you by Little

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Lasertime's weekly bonus show exclusively on patreon.com slash lazertime. Here's a taste of what you've been missing. I don't know if you guys have additional 9-11 stories. I don't. I do have a center. I mean, you know, I lived in New York at the time, and just like the aftermath of things that day, like I remember I worked at GameStop at the time,

and I'm just like, I've got to be with people. I'm going to just hang out with my coworkers. And we did have that kind of like we gotta get them vibe that whole day one of the weirdest like i don't think this is enough this is a thing i've never said out loud but like after i'd gotten home from game stop just walking around the house and like looked out the window and i saw my across the street and like one door over neighbor getting home from work his wife runs out and it's like such a hollywood thing where like they just embrace for like you know like a good like two minutes and now here i am like staring out at them like a creep this is your stand by me dear moment kind of

i was just like this is so nice it's a shame that i have to masturbate to this get bonus time laser times weekly full-length uncensored and ad-free patreon exclusive podcast as well as weekly full-length movie commentaries, and ad-free Patreon-exclusive podcasts, as well as weekly full-length movie commentaries, wrestling and cartoon video commentaries, physical rewards, the first season of Talking Simpson, and more at patreon.com slash LazerTime, starting at just five bucks. You'll help us live, and we'll do our best to help

you never be bored again. So, The Great Escape escape real quick i mean maggie is playing the steve mcqueen role the cooler king it's a great movie my recommendation is watch the movie turn it off when they escape because the whole movie two hours of it is like they're getting ready all these lovely characters they're planning their escape they do it the last half hour is them all getting killed murdered and like this sucks like i love these characters just ended after they escape it's great but the movie the movie holds up it's awesome by the way yeah please life is life is about the mixture of success and failure do you know world war ii ended so i i did this is the last episode uh made by claskey chupo

and they are in the process of making rugrats at this point in the simpsons production and there is in the trivia i make my own great escape that you can see you can see tomm this point in the Simpsons production. And there is, in the trivia, I make my own great escape, Chris. You can see Tommy Pickles in the nursery. I tried my best. And no, you can't. There might have been a baby with a blue shirt and a diaper. I mean, I guess. But like, Tommy Pickles is way too distinctive

to pop up in that group of babies. I am positive Rugrats was being produced at the time of this episode. Me too. Because this was 92, Rugrats premiered a year earlier rather and then yeah it had to be in production at the same time. First season, second season probably. So that's the rumor and like again all man all

all the depressing transfers of these episodes it's so ugly. Wait I thought oh no you're right yeah it was a year earlier. Rugrats premiered it was 91. August 91 with Ryan Simian. Just turned 25. The Great Escape stuff, it is fun, but there's no good quotes from it.

There's no quotes from it. If I break, buy a new one. That's good music. But Homer's, I don't know, I haven't, Homer would. So what time does this play start? This is also too real. Are you going? No, I gotta go, don't I?

I'm sure you won't enjoy it. There's nothing about bowling in the play. Oh, wait, there is. Probably not much of it. Why can't you be a little more supportive? Because I don't care, okay? I can't fake an interest in this, and I'm an expert at faking an interest in your kooky project.

What kooky project? You know, the painting class, the first eight course, the whole the Maz thing. Why didn't you tell me you felt this way? You know I would never do anything to hurt your feelings. I think I've got to give that one to the show. It's really harsh, but just perfect. It's like so insidiously cruel, just like twisting the knife in poor Marge. See, again, that's too real for me.

My dad didn't say that specific things but he didn't make it clear like as a favor to you i'll go to these things that i'll that i really make sure you know i hate like yeah well because my mom was really is really big into a community band like playing in playing in bands with with other band geeks self-declared band geeks like her who love who just love playing they could they don't do it professionally, but they loved, they learned it in high school, they still love playing music today. And so, you know, she

joined those and started doing concerts, and none of us would really go to it because we'd get bored, we were kids. But my dad made it clear, like, he didn't even like her going off to practice, and he didn't like her not being there. can see the parallels here henry and so this episode so yeah and this was happening at this time in my life like so he was very much like why are you

going off to do this thing you should be here uh this thing's stupid i guess i'll go like so i don't know this is really hard this episode is harder for me no you're right henry i mean i don't i wasn't there during your childhood but like homer's cruelty feels less like visceral and less like a reaction to something and more like calculated and like he's thinking about ways to hurt her yeah i mean stupid insensitivity like that thing was the closest to it of just like i never do anything to hurt your feelings yes but it does show that he really like his him saying like i just don't care like that's just mean I mean it's effective

it reminds me of the scene in Lisa Substitute when he's saying like pretty much the same thing just cause I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand that is

like the meanest thing he's ever said to his daughter now I do love him playing Gameboy in bed what the fuck that was great observation a talking Gameboy no less

yeah 7, 10 split we just did we did a season three recap episode for our Patreon people who got the show started at Patreon. At Patreon.com slash LazerTime. Yeah, I've been there. We discussed how weird it was. There's a commercial for games, the games of this period.

We actually did a stream of that on YouTube, the 1992 games, of crusty name-checking consoles. And The Simpsons was never specific with its video game consoles. But this is very specifically a Game Boy. If you had a device that could display an image in 1992, you could play Krusty's Funhouse. If your toaster had a screen, you could boot it up on there. Ross Perot's Texas Instruments could have emulated it.

And also, another line that just kind of hurt me instead of made me laugh was when Marge said she didn't understand stabbing Stanley. And she's like, couldn't she just take his abuse with gentle, good humor? I wrote that line down. It's like, ooh, ouch.

And what finally puts her over the edge is when she can see Ned as Stanley as Homer and then stab him and actually overpower him. She's so full of rage. You're supposed to overpower her, Ned. I'm trying. I love the words on him later. Yeah, they should be using sugar glass and not real glass.

So one thing I wanted to point out, this is a streetcar named Desire Parody. I feel like in the early 90s, there were lots of streetcar references. There's probably some in like Tiny Toons. There's one in Seinfeld I can think of when Elena's hopped up on back pain. Sorry, back pain pills. There's another one of these. Smithers. Wow.

You think that's all a streetcar reference? yeah it's a streetcar that flashback actually starts as a cat on a hot tin roof exactly yeah and then becomes which is another Tennessee Williams it's all over the Williams oeuvre and in that one

in the play it's much more obvious in the cat on a hot tin roof that Paul Newman is gay but in the film they kind of lighten it up a little bit. Yeah, I think they censor a lot of the stuff from the plays. Yeah, well, then again, in the play, too, they censored some in the film that you can infer that Stanley assaults Blanche,

but they make it a bit more clear in the stage. There ought to be a law. Yeah, but so, yeah, the build-up to it was great, and then when you finally get the play... Oh, we get the pre-play speech, though. Perhaps we are all a little mad, we who don the cap and bells and tread beneath the proscenium arch.

But tonight, you will all be transformed from dead-eyed suburbanites into white-hot grease fires of pure entertainment except you you're not working out i'll be playing your part drag he is dressed like pablo so you can tell i mean he is wearing like the bandana and everything in the earrings so like jeff martin wrote this episode uh this this play is called oh streetcar he wanted to call it hello trolley which i like more yeah it is more in the style of older musicals like Hello Dolly,

not the more modern Sondheim. Which you might know from WALL-E. Yes, I know Hello Dolly because Freakazoid did an eight-minute parody of it. Because they threw all this money at something that no one could possibly get, and that's why I love it. It was so beautiful. Yes, Hello Lobie, I think it was called. Hello Lobie?

The scene keeps going. He turns into Louis Armstrong. It can'tbey, I think it was called. Hello, Lobey. Like, the scene keeps going. He turns into Louis Armstrong. It's like, it can't keep going, can it? Nope, keeps going, keeps going. Using, like, Ghibli animators. Again, you guys, we talked earlier that, like, I really didn't like this episode, even on re-watching it now,

because I don't get this. These musical numbers don't make any sense to me. So I didn't even capture them, except the Needs song. Stella! Yes yes i love it can't you hear me yell uh you're putting me through hell uh stella stella so henry you're a big musical head right yeah this Yeah. This is more of an Android Lloyd Webber kind of sounding piece, right? I mean, it's all over the place. It's like a 70s-ish. That bit there felt very like Jesus Christ Superstar to me, like a rock opera kind of thing.

And then also the special effects of Blanche flying around with the lasers. That's very, that felt like... Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Raincoat. It did feel like an andrew lloyd weber type thing well but the opening song is very song timey and then the end song is very hello dolly uh and although the paperboy song that's my favorite one because it's just a quick aside this is okay i have to talk about this it's so great they waste 90 seconds on this inconsequential character and his inconsequential song, Apu. And it's done with a very complicated animation

technique where Apu is not moving, but it is literally a minute plus shot. So the more a shot lasts in animation, the more risk there is in there being a mistake. So it's just one shot of a slow zoom on Apu as he's singing for that entire song. It's pretty amazing if you watch it. They pulled it off.

Big ups to Class Kichupo and their Korean partners there. Rough Draft? No, Rough Draft wasn't open at that point. They put so much work into this episode, they got their own pilot idea. But, you know, as a kid, I objected to hearing Ned sing Hell, because I was like, no, the Ned Flanders I know would not sing Hell, even in character. Well, we learned that he cross-dressed in his boys' school.

So he went to an all-boys' school, but why would a Christian all-boys' school do a Tennessee Williams play unless their drama teacher was like a closeted gay man who snuck it on there? I love your headcanon, Henry. This is great. Hey, I should be a writer. And did you guys catch the very under-the-radar Citizen Kane reference yes sequence to only now which one was it I know I can't I'll be dealing during uh during Charles Foster

Kane's during his wife's opera opera yeah when he's tearing up the door part of the playbill and uh and flip it over so specific I just had goes off to whoever did that yeah it's like Homer does it during the play he tears up the program and is flipping it over which is why marge is bored and not paying because they're referencing a scene where a character is bored yeah uh so it confuses the audience and i

love that it was something that only hit me when i finally when i like the second time i saw citizen kane and then this this episode was was like, oh, that Homer thing! I now watch Citizen Kane like once a year, so it hit me really hard now. And then it all leads to the final, the ending confrontation between Marge and Homer at the end, because Marge is looking out and thinking Homer is bored to tears, not interested in her extracurricular activities.

Let me tell you guys, by the way, the message of Streetcar Named Desire is not that a stranger is a friend you haven't met. That's not the actual theme of the movie. No, no, no. The song is so counter to the actual ending where she's carried away and put in a loony bin. Now here's a tip from Blanche you won't regret.

Do we know who wrote the music? Was it just Jeff Martin? Jeff Martin, yeah. I'm sorry. He did the lyrics. I mean, Clausen worked on it. He did the orchestration too. But it all leads up to the end,

which I thought, I don't know. I understand you not liking it. The ending is a little beautiful but i love i get it i get it but hey look at me i'm blanche that's that i think that was supposed to be my line of the show hey look at me i'm blanche dubois i like that that's what bart got out of the play like she can fly it's like no bart's a symbol for her madness that's such a good show that's what you know kids do when they come out of stuff that excites them. Like, look at me. Let's see that best line jingle.

All right, all right. Hey, look at me. I'm Blanche Dubois. All right, there we got it. Yeah, it's official. But I did think this was kind of sweet. I mean, I'm not from Marge's perspective, but that Homer is capable of some kind of growth and empathy.

Yeah, he does get it but he can't do it in his own life my dad didn't do this this part wait the car i want to talk to your mother about this play thing looking for a spot to fun with the mrs a governor shut up boy you were terrific oh come on homer by the end you were so bored You could barely keep your selfish head up I wasn't bored, I was sad It really got to me how that lady here Um You know which one I mean, you played her Blanche

Yeah, how Blanche was sad How that guy Stanley should have been nice to her Yeah, go on I mean it made me feel bad The poor thing ends up being hauled to the nut house when all she needed was for that big slob to show her some respect. At least that's what I thought. I have a history of missing a point at stuff like this.

No, Homer, you got it just right. You really hear Dan Castaneda's Chicago accent come out. With sincere hope, like, that's sad. It's bad. That's true, yeah. You know, I think the moral my dad would have come to at the end of that is that everybody misunderstands Stanley. I told you I wouldn't like it.

And then everybody else is wrong. It's kind of tragic, though, that Homer can only get this message through entertainment and not through listening to his wife and having other people talk to him about what's happening. Every year I come closer to not being exactly that. And that's why I love movies and stories, because I can realize things that I can't see that are right in front of me played out in real time. You can hold a twisted mirror up to your life and say, take a look at this. No, I think it's – I've always thought that is the point of media.

That's why I do all this stuff is that it's just this consolidated state of empathy when you see things in story formation. I love the Roger Ebert quote. It says that films are a machine for empathy yeah it doesn't it doesn't always have to be escapism it's just it's answers that you can't you just can't see true but still homer will be back to being an asshole with the next episode that's also why i feel like it's under it's like and homer learned his lesson next episode fuck everybody i'm the most selfish guy in the world i feel like a merkin era show would have that message in it like what was that again what was that play about again i forgot like on

the way home or something like that yeah or well i mean in the merkin era they would have the flash forward to homer and flanders being enemies again next week on the simpsons yeah so they weren't yet at that level of menace of knowing that they'd undercut their own message that's true so yes that was talking simpsons, everybody. That was A Streetcar Named Marge, a great episode with some great songs. I love that last song. It's always in my head. Let's close out with it. Oh, let's do that. Yes, I've been your host, Bob Mack. You can find me on Twitter

as Bob Servo. You can listen to my other podcast, Retronauts. It's a classic gaming podcast. It comes out every Monday. It's great, and I also write for USGamer.net and SomethingAwful.com. Henry, where can we find you? I'm H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter. Follow me there, everybody. But also you should follow my work on fandom.com,

where I'm a senior games editor, but I write about tons of stuff there. And also I'm part still of the Lazer Time podcasting family. Yes, you are. Both of you are on a rare two-part Lazer Time. Wow, that one's been in the fridge for a little while. No need to pull the curtain back, Henry. I forgot all my hilarious jokes

I said. It'll be brand new. You can hear them at LazerTimePodcast.com where both of these fools, Bob Mackie and Henry Gilbert, they share a Twitter. I don't know what it is. We talk about the live cartoon adaptations of live action movies. There are so many. You don't know most of them, I'm going to say.

I didn't. Yeah, and also, again, patreon.com slash LazerTime. It's where you're going to find the entire first season of Talking Simpsons and our most recent season three wrap-up. Season three wrap-up, and we taught what we... Spoiler, if you haven't heard it, what we talked about. I brought up this amazing clip of the Simpsons meeting Oprah. Oprah coming to the Simpsons' house.

It's fully animated, written, and voiced. And I want to say animated, but I can't be sure about that it's not reused animation. It doesn't look reused. Oh, it's whole original, yeah. I think it's entirely new. And the world has never been on Simpsons DVDs. Oprah has never had any DVDs, as far as I know. And it's from the Oprah show.

And it's crazy. You can hear 30 seconds of the Simpsons on Sesame Street. It's crazy. You can hear 30 seconds of The Simpsons on Sesame Street. It's true. You can see it on our YouTube channel. In honor of the season 3 wrap-up we just decided to stream all of The Simpsons 1992 games. And all

terrible, abysmal, I cannot believe there's a situation where Krusty's Super Funhouse stands aloft as the best game. I don't like that reality. I do love the Barbers of the Juggernaut soundtrack. It's the best game. I don't like that reality. I do love the Bar vs. the Juggernaut soundtrack. It's the worst, dude.

Let me ride that dunkin' dunkin'. Oh, it's so awful. It's on our YouTube channel. As I made a reference to, I worked really hard on Adam Sandler

Loves Food, a salute to product placement. If you like making fun of Adam Sandler and Little Nicky and calling out products, you will love the video, which is just

all the sizzle every time he's held up a product, eaten it, and recommended it in one of his films it's really a smoking gun chris yeah we're gonna bring down big sandler well it's it's odd that it's you know it's on our you we're using it to promote ourselves i'm making fun of adam take him down and all it did was make me love adam sandler as a businessman no as like those early movies man real fun real he has not been on the simpsons yet has he no no No, no, he has not. Man, that is weird.

Yeah. Well, that's it for us this week, everybody. We'll be back next week when Homer loses his faith. See you then. Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. You can always depend on the kindness of strangers to fuck up your spirits and shoot you from dangers Now here's a tip from Blanche you won't regret

A stranger's just a friend you haven't met You haven't met SIGAR!