Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Deep Space Homer With Maddie Copp

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

"You know, Homer, when I found out about this I went through a wide range of emotions. First I was nervous, then anxious, then wary, then apprehensive, then... kinda sleepy, then worried, and then concerned. But now I realize that being a spaceman is something you have to do." - Marge Simpson In a bid to win his family's respect, Homer enters a space program geared towards blue-collar slobs in search of Tang. But will his love of ruffled potato chips and hatred for inanimate carbon rods be his undoing? Our guest: Maddie Copp Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

Picture this. You're halfway through a DIY car fix, tools scattered everywhere, and boom, you realize you're missing a part. It's okay, because you know whatever it is, it's on eBay. They've got everything. Brakes, headlights, cold air intakes, whatever you need. And it's guaranteed to fit, which means no more crossing your fingers and hoping you ordered the right thing. All the parts you need, at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. eBay. Things. People. Love. This podcast is brought to you by Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon Movie Podcast, and tons more! I hardly endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons where we welcome our new insect overlords.

I'm one of your hosts, the bittersweet folk rocker Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today as always. It's Henry, let's crash the rocket into the White House and kill the President Gilbert! And who is our special guest on the line? Careful, I'm ruffled. It's Maddie Cop. And this week's episode is Deep Space Homer. I hate these worker of the week award ceremonies.

Who even cares anymore? Everyone that works here has already got one. Except for... Hello! This week's episode originally aired on February 24th, 1994, and as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh boy, Bobby! Luke Perry's eight seconds can't last against Ace Ventura at the box office, Dakota Fanning is born, and this episode gets killed in the ratings by the Winter Olympics figure skating competition. So Luke Perry's 8 Seconds, what is this?

It's a bull riding movie. I only remember the trailers for it and the poster. It is about professional bull riding. 8 Seconds as a bull rider is a very good time and it's about trying to hit that record and it's a biopic of a great bull rider. But it was really like, can Luke Perry be a movie star? The answer was no, he couldn't. He was a TV guy and he gets like knocked back down to television. They all made a go of it, all the 90210 stars, and one of them, Jason Priestley,

was in a movie now that's very hard to find called Cold-Blooded where he plays a hitman. That movie written and directed by Wally Walidarsky Whoa, I didn't know any of this Wow. Yes. Well, nobody does because no one has ever seen this damn movie You have to be a 90210 super fan like yourself Yes, here's the thing Henry. You didn't know and here's the reason you know box office returns $16,000 So it played in like three theaters for one day with that kind of number. If that. So yeah. Wally Walidarski would go on to be in like Wes Anderson movies and stuff.

He's fine. Oh yes. His professional job is Wes Anderson movies. I asked that of John Vede once of like, hey, why did Wally Walidarski appear in all these Wes Anderson things? And it really was like Wes Anderson had a Gracie Films production deal for Bottle Rocket. He was a favorite of Polly Platt, the producer at Gracie. And she, Polly Platt, you know, worked with Simpsons producers in general to see if they had ideas for movies.

And I believe she was the matchmaker of Wally and Wes. And that's why he's in a better place, I guess, Wally, than making and directing his own film starring teen soap opera actors. And Dakota Fanning is born. Has she been on The Simpsons yet? I'm getting no. I don't think so. I was checking out her. She still is in movies. I have seen that, but she was our big film debut was in the now quite parable. You know, it was problematic in 2001 movie. I am Sam, but also the Cat in the Hat, War of the World. She's in a bunch of Twilight She was a very successful child actress who I think is still doing pretty good by child actress who becomes an adult actress standards

I think she's doing all right. I'm not seeing a single Marvel movie in her IMDB so maybe she is doing good Oh, well, but then again financially though that means she doesn't matter if they don't want to cast her in Marvel things then clearly She's a failure Well, she was in the original MCU Twilight The Winter Olympics we've been talking about it a bunch in the timeline of this But you know the Tanya Harding versus Nancy Kerrigan thing But this is the day like I believe it's with this week And maybe even this night is when they air the Winter Olympics competition between

Tanya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan and others. This is where Tanya Harding's lace breaks And she has a poor performance but also Nancy Kerrigan who people thought was going to win the gold She wins the silver the gold is won by ukrainian Oksana Bayul who is only known to americans as The person who defeated the people we cared about in the media. Oh yeah, and this episode aired around the time the critic was airing and getting destroyed by the Winter Olympics.

Yeah, both this and a little devil, Dooya, were killed this week in the ratings. Dooya is actually the previous day. Well. It aired the day before this. Well then, that totally, like, that was portrayed as like the thing that killed the series almost, but lots of things killed the series on ABC

That was just one of them But that's everything that happened the week this episode of the Simpsons aired and joining us once again is friend of the show Maddie cop Maddie last joined us for 30 minutes over Tokyo over five years ago I've had Maddie on retronauts plenty of time since then so the beef is clearly between Maddie and Henry We're gonna bury the hatchet right here on this podcast. Is everything okay between us, Maddie? Why all the hate? I'm kidding, of course. This is turning into a Mark Maron makes up

with a comedian episode thing. Are we good? Are we okay? Are we okay? I was like, man, how long ago was that? So I looked it up and I was like, okay, it was January 2020. And I was like, what's happened since then?

And it's like, well, I got accepted for a job in Japan. And then I was delayed a year and a half for that job. And then I moved to Japan. And I lived there for three years. And then I moved back. And I've been back for almost a year. So it's been a bit. That's quite a lot.

Yeah, we recorded that right before you left the country. Well, right before I was supposed to. Or before you were going to leave the country. Right, right. Yeah. And then some things happened, and yeah. When we redo that one, now we can still redo it with you in the future, and you can have now resident opinions on the...

I don't know if that's very important. It's gonna do much, because it's like, wow, now I know how to pay taxes in Japan. Now I know how to look for an apartment in Japan. She's seen the giant basket of sumo thongs in person now. It's true. You know what? Worst things have happened to prime ministers in Japan and being thrown into that since then.

I was a teacher when that happened. And it was the most, I was reading the news and I was like in the office with the other teachers and I was like, why isn't anyone saying anything? There was just no recognition of it happening. No one ever talked about it. I was like, wow, if this had happened, like in America, it'd be like, everyone would be screaming and the building would be on fire or something. It was, um, that's wild. Wow. Figured that, uh, wow, not many people like that guy, and everyone was kind of like, I don't know, like, all right, kind of had it coming, maybe.

Well, most importantly, we know that Maddie had an alibi, so. That's true. I've seen many a post online saying, calling it the most successful assassination in history, because everything the person wanted has come to pass. Like, it really undid all of these things. But enough about political assassinations. Maddie, your art is awesome. How awesome is it?

It's a runway freight train. Thank you. But serious, I was trying to make a connection of like, oh, Maddie to this one and why I thought like Deep Space Homer would be a good match. And one of them is I think this is like some of the cutest Homer drawings are in this one I love, and you draw a very cute Homer. I love cute Homers. I love what the, and he has the big pupils. Yeah, he's got some really

good expressions in this episode, but so does Marge. Like, I don't know, everyone's, everyone's out there cutest. I'm going to say it's all thanks to Carlos Baez who left the show far too early But this is one of his best episodes although David Silverman did do the Floating through space segments much later in the episode. We'll cover it. Of course, you know to prepare for this episode I finally watched what's that stuff the right stuff. That's it. I finally I The new kids on the block documentary I heard it's great the right stuff, that's it. I finally, I had never seen it. The new kids on the block documentary, I heard it's great. The right stuff film, here's why I never watched it.

Every time I picked it up to think of watching it, I would see the runtime is 193 minutes and I would say, boy, that's a long movie. Oh, I was gonna say, I don't even know what it is. The thing that I can think of closest is the white stuff parody by Weird Al about Oreos. Yes, that's the new kids reference I guess we're talking about. I always had interest in that movie but I just watched Schindler's List which is three hours and 40 minutes and I thought I can't do this to myself again right now.

I've already watched enough movie content. You know on the blank check about Schindler's List they they talk about how homework movies are like, you know, watching class movies. That's definitely how the right stuff feels. But it was a really good, like very pretty movie. Like it probably looked amazing on the big screen. So the right stuff is about the American NASA program and the early NASA program and specifically about the Mercury seven group, who are the ones who did the first manned flights into space for America in competition with the cosmonauts in the USSR program and it basically takes

place from like 1953 to 1963. I always thought it was like oh this is a movie about the moon landing right because of this episode I was, no, it ends way before the moon landing. Well, I think more importantly, we care about the right stuff that is the anime retailer, not the movie about astronauts. Do they exist anymore? I don't think so. They no longer exist.

Obviously you didn't care hard enough. Just like space missions, we're not doing this anymore. I tell you, Bob, it was very hard for me. Every time I wrote down in my notes the name of the movie, to get that second F on the end of it was hard. My brain is trained to write it as stuf.com. Stoof. Stoof.

I would give it a thumbs up, it is cool if you have, but you do, it is a very long movie. I would love to see it in a theater, though also it was like a failure in a theater, though also it was like a failure of a movie apparently. Like it was a box office bomb as well. Like it did not do very well in theaters and it led to like the the ending of the studio that made it. But this is full of references to it. Now that I've seen the movie is like, oh, actually, there's even more scenes in this. I was like, no, that's a reference to

the movie too, that people don't mention as much and hey if you want to see Harry Shearer in a live-action role him and Jeff Goldblum play a couple of nerdy recruiters in it and they're very funny together for about 30 minutes of the movie. Now Henry do people walk together down a hallway in slow motion because I've heard that's not actually in the movie. Well they're not walking to a shuttle together, but there is a group of guys walking in slow motion, but not like, it's not as long as in this one, no.

But the Mercury 7 Group does. That's the Mandela Effect thing, because I've seen that shot parodied so many times of astronauts walking towards a shuttle in slow motion. That is actually not in the right stuff then, right? No, I think the closest to it is, there is like, the Mercury stuff then, right? No, I think the closest to it is there is like, the Mercury Seven group is kind of walking,

it might be like for a photo shoot scene I'm thinking of, or like one guy is walking in slow motion, but yes, I wonder if it's like people conflating together for this scene, like the reservoir dog slow motion walk and then thinking like, yeah, they had that with Spaceman in the right stuff, right? Clearly David murky was a fan of it. And also is totally like, when I think about the timeframe, it is such like boomer porn

of just like 20 years ago. It's all about stuff from 20 years ago. So if you were a little kid in 1963, this is like, oh, you know, it was really happening. These guys were arguing each other or this guy was cheating on his wife or Lyndon Johnson was an asshole to this guy. Like it's based on a Tom Wolf book adapts a lot of interesting stories about the characters. So though if you don't care about Chuck Yeager and him being the fastest man alive, like it might not be very interesting. Well, part of this episode is not just a parody, but it's also a reference to a real life program, and that is the Teachers in Space Project, where non-astronaut civilians would go into

space and then presumably they would later share their findings with students. Real hands-on astronaut experience. Unfortunately, there was a little thing called the Challenger Disaster, where a teacher was killed due to a spaceship exploding. That was Krista McAuliffe. She passed away in the Challenger Disaster. So they're like, let's not do this anymore. One tragedy is enough. So that ended in 1990. But there was this idea in the mid-80s, the Reagan optimism, we can send normal people to space, but then too many of them died. And that was one.

07.00 To think this episode is sort of parodying the Challenger mission or that like, well, what if Homer was on a space shuttle, then it go even worse. That kind of idea. And it sounds like Merkin is a big, like he is one of those kids who grew up loving space missions and astronauts and space movies. Like, I don't know. I never, again, we grew up when this episode is parodying that like, oh, NASA is boring. To be an astronaut is to be boring, even though going into space should be very exciting and dangerous. The boring space launch in this episode thing, that's how I felt back then.

And the only buzz I care about is Buzz Lightyear. What? Because every, it was just sending people back and forth between like ISS, is that mostly what they were doing? It seemed like it, or the Hubble telescope to fix that. You'd hear about that too. Yeah. Maddie, did you grow up with any interest in the space program or NASA or any stuff

like that? It's just a general interest. Nothing super crazy. I think space is cool. For me, I think the big one was the Mars rover. That was what I remember being, but that was, it was probably in my late teens, early twenties when that happened. But as far as like big space events, that's what I can remember the most.

For my brain, the Mars Rover first thought is like, I remember when they named rocks after Scooby Doo and Space Ghost. I remember that. You know, to mention the Merkin and what he was inspired by, this also definitely, they talk about it a little on the commentary, but this was an issue like internally this episode they talk about. Yes, this is an idea that David Merkin brought with him when he joined the show and the staff was very resistant to do this because they felt

like if Homer goes to space, we have broken the show irreparably there's nowhere to go from here no one will take their problem seriously anymore if there is this moment in the show they very carefully broached the subject and give him enough of a reason to actually go into space so it's not a crazy idea and I feel like a modern episode act one he just be in space there'd be no to act build up to that moment. So I feel like that is the Simpsons then compared to the Simpsons now.

They feel like they need way more careful negotiating of these crazy premises. But yes, there are some things in this episode that Matt Groening is still, it makes his blood turn cold, but that's another story for later in this episode. Yeah, it sounded like when it was presented to them that Groening like just didn't want it to happen And even on the commentary where they're all being nice and Graning and Merkin are pals and seem to have a good working relationship

I hear Merkin even say on there like that James L. Brooks supported his vision I do think it sounded like that ultimately it went up the chain to like Matt Graning is the creator David Merkin is the showrunner, who does James Elbrook side with? He sides with the showrunner and tells him, well, this is your show, and if you wanna make it, then do it. And I think Groening has,

they also mentioned unnamed writers on the staff also didn't like it. And I think you can see that expressed in later seasons that make fun of Homer Went to Space. You went to space, you. Yep. There's that one and in Wizard of Evergreen Terrace where they're just like, remember dad, you're an astronaut.

And then Homer just says like, yeah, all we did was sabotage Mir and grow tomatoes. And I guess it was fun to hear about these stories when they first emerged on the commentary because watching this as a kid, I never thought like, wow, the show has really gone too far or this is too crazy. I just felt the way they built up to it feels like they have earned it

by the time it actually happens. It never bothered me as a kid. If I had seen it first when I was like 18, I would have been more pedantic about it or like Homer can't be an astronaut. This makes him like a national figure. Like this is too ridiculous of a change for Homer to do. I do think though, they had a great staff to rewrite this script too, and, and help on it as well as all episodes of this time have great staff members who

can help with rewriting it, but this is the time when they got, you know, Bill and Josh and I guess Conan was gone by this point, but Damograf, Greg Daniels, guys like that. I think to this episode, yeah, like you said, Bob, Carl Speys and David Silverman like this, without this animation, this would not be as good without the perfect execution. Yeah, I mean, not to be weird about this, but they're literally going where the show has never gone before. So they need to go to that level animation wise to really sell it. And they did for sure.

As the title is a reference to the then very new Star Trek, deep space nine, it had debuted fall of 93, so I think they named this like based on the table draft. Uh, that I found online from July 22nd, 1993, they named it this one. The show had only been announced and not even airing Hmm. I just went to a theme park recreation of Quarks Cantina or Quarks Cafe from Deep Space Nine And I'll say it was fun in how chintzy it was but it was hardly a one-to-one recreation of Quarks Cantina How many quat lose was the average entree? See, that's the exact type of thing. they did not even ask for it in like fake money

They just said like well these are dollars I like couldn't you at least pretend that this is like a space like gold press latinum equals seven dollars I was gonna say latinum would be the currency although Star Wars is a perfect communist utopia. You shouldn't have to pay for your food there You're allowed to steal in corks cantina only when you go to Universal you called it Star Wars is a perfect communist utopia. You shouldn't have to pay for your food there. You're allowed to steal in Cork's Cantina only when you go to Universal. You called it Star Wars again though. God damn it, I'm sorry. There's some wars in Star Trek, it's fine.

I have done it too, it's hard, it's hard. Especially, we're recording this right after May the 4th, so I'm sure you've been thinking about Star Wars the whole time, Bob. Oh yeah, it's my favorite day of the year. Maddie, what did you do on May the 4th? It's a very average day. Okay, so this episode begins not with a Star Trek reference,

though, but with a Total Recall reference as they walk through the next remachine. A movie that's been kind of forgotten, even though it was remade. I think it's up there with Robocop as a great Verhoeven movie. Yeah, the original Total Recall is so good, and honestly the

even more forgettable is that remake like what Colin Farrell was in that right? Like that one I completely forgot happened. Yeah yeah it was I mean they remade Robocop as well around the same time and people were like don't do this. At best they're mid but you don't need to do it. What's weird is that the guards don't even they register a pistol an Uzi but they don't do anything about it. Why are they running this thing? What's really great that the guards don't even, they register a pistol an Uzi, but they don't do anything about it. Why are they running this thing? What's really great though, is if you pause,

they had to create a character design for the two children posing as an adult before they go into the machine. And you can only see that design for like two seconds, but someone had to create that, had to be approved. It's really great. I was looking for that this time. They have like a little mustache taped on.

You can also see Homer like slouched over before he walks into. His entire body posture is great and they know him on site. I'm like, Hey Homer, you look like an uninvolved man. Yeah. The two kids on top of each other, that is such a great design for nothing. Like for an unseen thing. And we appreciate it. So that's what matters. Well, then here we're appreciating all this hard work. such a great design for nothing, like for an unseen thing. And as we get- Hey, we appreciate it, so that's what matters.

Well then here we're appreciating all this hard work. Meanwhile, at the start of the commentary, Groening's like, boy, those background guys could be moving more, those are wonky. I was like, god damn, Groening. It's only because he pointed it out that I noticed that they're just kind of frozen, but I mean, that's a lot of people.

That's a lot of animation to do if you're gonna make them all talk. For a standard episode, asking's a lot of animation to do if you're gonna make them all talk for a standard episode asking for a crowd scene to be animated is Probably not worth it, especially if it's only a couple seconds later Homer is going to spin around a ruffled potato chip in perspective allow them to have a less perfect background for one It's a decade later. They're recording the commentary, but I think graining is still like a little annoyed by this episode Yeah, I think that's coming through like a little annoyed by this episode.

Yeah, I think that's coming through on it. Yeah. And then we have the intro clip I played earlier of Homer running in. Now as a kid, I didn't get it as an adult. I get that it is a joke about Lenny and squeaky style. Hello jokes. You hear like Carl has to wait for Homer to come in and you hear Homer run in off-screen. It's great.

Everybody is getting a trophy at the Employee of the Week award, but Homer is feeling left out. Well, today's the day for Homer J. I know I'm going to win this time. Yeah, how come? Union Rule 26. Every employee must win Worker of the week at least once, regardless of gross incompetence, obesity, or rank odor. He-he-he-he-he.

Attention, everyone. Let's have an odd hush, please, for Mr. Burns. Oh! Compadres, it is imperative that we crush the freedom fighters before the start of the rainy season. And remember, a shiny new donkey for whoever brings me the head of Colonel Montoya. Hmm? What? And by that I mean, of course, it's time for the Worker of the Week Award.

I can't believe we've overlooked this week's winner for so very, very long. We simply could not function without his tireless efforts. So, a round of applause for... This inanimate carbon rod! Yeah! Yeah! Inanimate, huh? I'll show him inanimate! Die!

And then we should just hold still as we wait for a minute as we listen to that. I'm glad they resisted the urge to make that joke go on any longer. They could have easily cut to nighttime, but I think it's the perfect amount of inanimate-ness from Homer. I feel like it's kind of impressive that he actually knows what he's saying when he says, I'll show you inanimate. That's true. For a guy who in the next scene will be spinning around in place trying to see the back of his head. It's actually pretty smart

He'll know that word. I love the rod I love how this is one of like the best uses of the show About as late a callback as you can have setting it up right here Like I think every time I watch it just as a normal episode I do forget about the rod it from here to the end of the episode. And it, cause it's funny enough on its own, especially I love how Burns is struggling like when the metal is put onto the rod. Yeah. Yeah.

And I guess the stuff about Homer wanting dignity, Homer wanting to have, have the esteem of his family that came in later. Merkin just thought let's send him to space. And then the more emotional connection to something that was added to sell it as a better story. No, it's great. Homer wants respect and wants like his peers to think he's good at things. And also like the way I feel like the animation does so much for him here of like Homer's sad little not his, his pitiful hopeful look of like, Oh boy,

they're going to give it to me today. That's for sure. Like the look on his face that makes it hurt so much more for him When the burns would give it to a carbon rod before they would give it to Homer which apparently is an employee I think in last year season 14 We covered the when Homer takes over for burns like there is an org chart joke of that and the rod is on there I think I think they've got rod callbacks. That's great. I guess the rod is in the Union.

Oh, that's true, for him to get it, he has to be a unionized rod. That's true. Yeah, also, if you listen, only isolated can I tell, Smithers is whispering like audible words there to Burns. I don't know if you guys could hear it on the thing, too. No, did you make them out? They're like, we're not at war with, we don't have a,

I think that's what he's saying to him. As Burns seems to think, he's like, talking to Sandinistas, I guess, or something. It's hard to tell. People say it's a reference to the title of this Peckinpah movie, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. I could see that.

I only know because of this reference. I haven't seen that one either. I could have watched it probably twice in the time it took to watch the right stuff, I think. So Homer is feeling horrible. Bart is just excited that they got to see the Rod and nobody respects him. And the way Homer is trying to see the back of his head, like that is, again, perfect animation in this episode. Whereas Matt Grayden, compliment that animation if you're gonna knock the animation of background character. That's a lot of rotating of a character. And in a position you never see him in,

on the floor, sort of at like an angle, but you have to draw every angle. It must have taken a long time to figure that out because he's doing the curly floor run, but it's such a perfect, nothing feels off in the rotation of the Homer character. It's really, really well done. And it's another like Merkin standard thing

that I welcome every time where characters in a sitcom have to observe a joke, but if a joke goes on too long, then they're all very troubled by it. Just the whole family like, oh God, is he going to stop? Like they're all very troubled by it. Just the whole family like, oh god, is he going to stop? Like they're, they're all so uncomfortable. This was one of the first big script changes from the original script. I have the biggest ones and it's that instead of the looking at the back of his head, it's that Marge wants to refinance the mortgage of the house and she goes to Bart and Lisa for suggestions and then patronizingly asks Homer for one.

He's like, wait, you didn't ask for my thoughts on it. And she's like, okay, Homer, what do you think? And he has nothing to add to it. Yeah, that's much better change. And here's another change they have in the script. Before the TV points and laughs at Homer, he's seeing an ad for the army and he almost goes like, you know what, I should join the army and it's like it's pitching a

different episode and then the TV talks back to him with a very 1994 joke. Today's army is rapidly downsizing. There are no more jobs available. Until the next war, you are all you can be. Then Homer replies with, uh, peace as hell. I mean that's funny and I like the jokes about the military from this era, but I like just the out of context shot of a man pointing and laughing at the viewer. It's so good because, you know, they could have easily tried to explain it or make it, you know, whatever, but instead it's just like this nonsensical clip. And it's so funny.

You stupid. Actually, I think I have the clip in the next one here, but yes, Homer is trying to find something on TV and this is when he gets trapped in a space launch. Uh, TV respects me. It laughs with me, not at me. You stupid! D'oh! It's a lovely day for a launch here, live at Cape Canaveral, at the lower end of the Florida peninsula, and the purpose of today's mission is truly, really electrifying.

That's correct, Tom. The lion's share of this flight will be devoted to the study of the effects of weightlessness on tiny screws. Unbelievable. And just imagine the logistics of weightlessness. And of course, this could have literally millions of applications here on Earth, and everything from watchmaking to watch repair. Boring!

Oh no! The batteries! Now let's look at the crew a little. They're a colorful bunch. They've been dubbed the Three Musketeers. And we laugh legitimately. There's a mathematician, a different kind of mathematician, and a statistician. Make it stop! No, not another boring space launch. Change the channel! Change the channel! I can't! I can't! Only on hearing the commentary did I catch that they put in the Tom Brokaw mouth so many L's,

like all the L words, like, let's look at the cruel little, waste his little. That's so. Yeah. I mean, this is a very John Swartzwell to retake on the space program where they're spending all this money for just these programs that have no application for, to make your life better. Yeah.

Watch making, watch repair, and they're just sending nerds into space, a different kind of mathematician, and that it's just boring television. It's funny to how times have changed. Like, not that NASA does nothing, but they've definitely pared back since then and they, the actual like shuttle launch program ended in 2011 and many more space shuttle launches have been done by other countries or privatized by a bunch of a-holes out there as well, which is a depressing thing to think about.

Are you calling Lord British an a-hole, Henry? The man who created the ultimate video game series. He's all right. It's like, oh yeah, I remember when we used to send mathematicians and scientists into space instead of celebrities and billionaires. Yes. Well, the good thing is now when you go to send mathematicians and scientists into space instead of celebrities and billionaires. Well, the good thing is now when you go to space, everybody hates you. Yes, that's true. The one I'm thinking about recently with the Katy Perry thing,

I do feel like part of it when she went up in the Jeff Bezos rocket, right? Like I think part of it was people like, oh, how long are you in space? And it was like, well, not like eight, it was like seconds or something, right? Like it was, yeah. That's like the commercial space where it's like you're not in space space, but you get to experience weightlessness. You get far enough and then come back.

Which like, is it nothing, but I mean, it feels, it also, people push against it because obviously it's just advertising. It's advertising for a billionaire to pretend he's building rockets. Yeah, I'm sure Katy Perry went up into space. She looked at the big blue marble underneath her and she thought, wow, I really was married to Russell Brand, huh? Since we're talking about Katy Perry as well, I always now think of her with the fact that I was alerted to by Drew Mackey of Gayest Episode Ever, which

is she pretty much killed a nun. Look it up, Katy Perry kills none. It happened. Again, apologize to listeners that when we first cover this one, I think I mistakenly characterized NASA or its money as like wasteful spending in any way. I deeply regret that. I was extremely wrong then.

Even then I would have said it's not the priority of the most wasteful thing the government can do. Government waste, complaining about it in general is like a highly conservative idea that I hate. I even said that. And if ever I wanted to touch NASA's budget, it would only be after the entire US military budget was erased completely. Then you could touch NASA's budget, I would say. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like people forget that we have a bunch of satellites in space, and it kind of is essential to our current everyday life.

And not just for sorting screws. Yeah. Many more applications. And this is where we go over to NASA and we see how poorly things are going. Here's another helpful thing from the script. The names of the characters here, I can tell you now. I was going to say thank you because I love these characters. They're so great. In my notes I just have NASA Dan, NASA Harry. So the senior scientist is Dr. Babcock and the NASA executive is Jack Stillwater. So that's officially their names

and at least that table draft script from 93. So Jack Stillwater is the Dan Castellaneta guy, right? The gruff sounding guy? I believe so, yes. Okay. And the scientist is Dr. Babcock, the guy with the glasses, yeah. Which they don't not look like characters

from the right stuff, but they're not exactly the right stuff guys. It would be funny if there's a scene in here, the way they present recruiting astronauts, Harry Shearer kind of does that scene in the right stuff with Jeff Goldblum where they try to recruit astronauts, but it's not instead of showing a TV, they just show clips of like, oh, these are lame losers who shouldn't be. Basically, Harry Shearer and Jeff Goldblum in the movie are the Donnie Don'ts who are just like these nerds

who prevent the awesome Chuck Yeager from being the first astronaut when he really should be. Well, this Jack Stilwater guy, I love the designs of these two because he looks like somebody who was in the military, probably fought in World War II, then entered the space program right after and he was sort of around for all of the big stuff, which is why he looks like he who was in the military, probably fought in World War II, then entered the space program right after, and he was sort of around for all of the big stuff,

which is why he looks like he's in his 70s or something in this episode. Yeah, yeah, and why he calls James Taylor an unkempt youngster later. It totally fits, yeah. He was part of the Red Scare. You're right, he was part of Operation Paperclip. I'm surprised with all of the Nazi jokes

David Merkut loves to make. There's no Nazi scientist jokes in here, which like that also is in the right stuff. Several like German scientists who are jerks in it that nobody calls a Nazi, but you just go like, okay, where these German scientists in 1963 come from? Here is something from the script that I noted because it's a better joke. A Connie Chung Christmas. I always saw this kind of a eh, it's okay. Yeah. A Connie Chung Christmas I always saw this kind of a eh it's okay. Yeah for the sake of explaining this there there never was a Connie Chung Christmas special ever. Right and she was a you know relatively popular like a Barbara Walter style

interviewer for the news but instead the original joke is they got beat by an infomercial for aquarium gravel which I like that more that's a good boring thing it's it's more specific and more boring so I do appreciate that more and it's less time related like I didn't know who Connie Chung was so oh man did these see this is what our podcast is for then to explain and I think she's still married to Maury Povich, right, I'm gonna assume this. I should have moved it.

Yeah, I believe they're still together. Yeah, yep, still together. Hey, they are so happy together. Yeah. 40 years, celebrating 40 years. That's sweet. So they try to find a way to make NASA more popular. They consider telling people about the apes

they send into space. Sending the apes into space is also a major plot point of the movie too in the right stuff. Not that I'm saying this is like a reference. This is more like me trying to find every possible connection to the right stuff since I just watched it. I'm very right stuff brained. In an episode where they send Homer to space the first thing they show you is that apes can talk. Yes, I can see why. You know, in the original script, instead of that, there was a Martian. They said Martians existed. So this is actually scaling it back to less crazy.

And this is where David Merkin gets to do what he really loves, making fun of other television shows. And you might think, wait, rule of threes would say there should be three of these. And yes, there is a third they cut from the script that I that I can get to but okay I really want to know what that is because these are all perfect these are things I reference whenever the discussion comes to these shows I always think of oh no I've killed Wilson or no pig we get to see a second of home improvement where Tim the tool man

Taylor kills Wilson and when he says, looks like it's back to jail for me, totally flew over my head as a little kid as an 11 year old. I did not know that Tim Allen had spent three years in prison for drug trafficking charges. That was not a... A pound and a half of cocaine. I looked into this and it wasn't like a dirty secret. I remember when Home Improvement was really getting big,

and he was in movies and everything around this time, whenever there'd be a special about him, or like a new segment about like, Tim Allen is so funny and so popular, but he has this tragic past that he overcame, it's a happy story. So they're being a little mean-spirited about something that's been in the public

for a while at this point. They meanwhile are married with children, it does feel like they don't have respect for Married with Children, that they think that their jokes are just like a flushing toilet counts as a joke on Married with Children, which is, that show is smarter than that. It's kind of mean.

It had a lot of Harvard people on it, but I do love how the toilet is next to the couch for no reason, just so he can lean over and flush it. And the third joke that's in the script is actually even meaner and mean spirited. It's a Roseanne joke. They turn the channel to Roseanne. I'll just read the script page to you guys of the description of what happens. The Roseanne theme music plays as the cameras circle dollies around obese parents, shoveling huge amounts of food into their mouths and laughing.

Children sit in front of empty plates and watch in fear and horror. Roseanne notices the camera, eyes it hungrily, and apparently swallows it. Wow. That's like, that would become a family guy joke, basically. Did they? There's a family guy joke.

He's like eating all this food and he's like shoveling it all into his mouth and no one else is allowed to eat anything. I think asking animators to replicate the opening of Roseanne is a lot of work for a not great joke. A turntable camera movement around the whole group and the joke is Roseanne's a big fatty who eats too much food.

That's good job cutting that one. Yeah. I wonder if they tried to put it in an animatic. It was cut on those purposes or just taste. I don't know. So they cut all that, but we get to them deciding they're gonna use taxpayer money to find an average person to do it.

And it is great sitcom writing, crazy tell like this is a get a life episode. That's also what I always feel in a Merkin one. But like, you know, Chris Elliot's character and get a life totally would have been an astronaut if they had been in a third season. Yeah, that'd be a season two episode if they got more of a bigger order. And a bigger budget too. This would have been an expensive episode in live action. But Homer somehow, unmentioned, has the phone number for NASA

and you can call them directly to complain. Yeah, it's a great screw you to the audience, which David Merkin loves. Like, how did you get this number? Shut up! But also shut up is just a not funny response. There's a few shut ups in this that are very funny because it's like, we're not gonna write a joke.

Homer is not smart enough to be clever. He's just gonna scream shut up at somebody. And it's a great callback when he says shut up again. It's like, you just know that President Clinton asked him, how did you get this number? You know the other side of it later. This is where their long search is over as they approach Homer at Moe's Tavern.

Hello, is this Nassau? Yes. Good. Listen, I'm sick of your boring space launches. Now I'm just an ordinary blue collar slob, but I know what I likes on TV. How did you get this number? Shut up! And another thing, how come I can't get no Tang around here?

And also, hold on a second. People, our long search is over. Hello, is this President Clinton? Good. I figured if anyone knew where to get some Tang, it'd be you. Shut up! Excuse me. Ah! Are you the person that called NASA yesterday? No! It wasn't me, I swear! It was... him!

Sir, how would you like to get higher than you've ever been in your life? Be an astronaut? Sure! Well, welcome aboard. I think you'll find that this will win you the respect of your family and friends. Respect? No! It was me! I made the crank call! I do it all the time! Check with the FBI! I have a file! I have a file! Hey, I better take both of them. I don't really think that was necessary. They wanted to be astronauts. I know.

Underappreciated, I think, is how inarticulate Homer is because he calls it NASA, and then he says, like, how come I can't get no tang around here? He suddenly becomes, like, veering into Cletus territory a bit. I know what I likes on TV, that's another good one. I love saying that. Do you think it is something Riebald, they're sneaking in there, saying that if anybody knew where to get some tang,

it would be President Clinton? Do you think that's dirty? Absolutely, that is the joke. Okay. Here I thought it was just Homer literally thought that Bill Clinton would know where to find the fruit flavoring substance of water, Tang. I feel like that's what he thinks.

Yes. But the joke for the audience is different. And that Homer not only sells out Barney, but also then demands to come back. To create, I mean it's a clever idea too, it creates any kind of competition for the middle of the episode There is if Homer just goes then the second act is just Homer training And it's not as interesting as a competition between the two characters Yeah, I love the anti-comedy of shut up

We've mentioned that earlier But I also love the anti-comedy of like how would you like to get higher than you ever been in your life? Go join the space broker. I'm sure you're avoiding an obvious funny plot where Barney thinks he is going to be doing something else and he realizes like I'm in the space program, oh no! It's so good, it's so quick and it just cuts that. It's a great shift of expectation. I was gonna ask, do you guys have Tang experience? Oh, I grew up with Tang.

It was very cheap and you didn't actually need to add sugar. it was a very easy thing for me to make as a kid. Yeah I don't know I don't know if it's still around I remember because you could just get like the little barrels of it of the powder at the grocery store. I'd like that the commercials had like chimpanzees in them or something. Orangutans I think. Oh the orangutans okay yeah because I guess they're orange-ish. Well, I mean Tang, orangutan. Oh, orangutan. Okay, I got it. Though, yeah, looking apparently Tang is still plentiful. Okay. Homer would be happy. You don't need to call a president to find out where Tang is. Like, oh, I was more of a Kool-Aid kid.

That was the one that captured me. I had brand love for Kool-Aid and would never betray Kool-Aid man by having Tang. He would be disappointed in me. Well Tang was the promise of the space age future. Everything would be in powder form or pill form. There'd be no real preparation needed. But then it just became slop for children eventually. Though it seemed like it was a difference in our childhoods of like you either wanted like a pre-made Tang or it was like juice boxes versus Capri Sun.

Also that was a big thing. I heard there's some change in Capri Sun now or something. That's not, Capri Sun's not like how it used to be in some way. Yeah, everything's healthier. They have to put real fruit in things. Boo. to put real fruit and things. Boo! Welcome to the break. It's Henry Gilbert and our guest this week, Maddie cop had the right.

What's that stuff to be on this week's podcast? We love having Maddie on. It's been a while since we had her and it won't be that long again because we love all the great cartoons and art. She does. If you're not following Maddie on Twitter or blue sky, let alone on her Patreon for tons of cool stickers and other great art. You should be doing that. Maddie Kopp, check it out. There's links

in the description for this episode. She knows her Simpsons for sure. It's always great to have Maddie back on. Thanks again! And if you would like to support this podcast, you should know it's only possible because of the listeners who sign up at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. If you don't like ads like these, you get ad-free podcasts at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. If you don't like ads like these, you get ad free podcasts at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Five bucks a month also gets you access to the upcoming podcasts a week early and over 200 exclusive podcasts with two new ones each month.

I'm referring to Talk King of the Hill and Talking Futurama, where we cover both of those shows as in depth as we do an episode like Deep Space Homer. We're in season four of King of the Hill and the Comedy Central years of Futurama where we cover both of those shows as in-depth as we do an episode like Deep Space Homer We're in season 4 of King of the Hill and the Comedy Central years of Futurama And we're having so much fun talking about both of those great series if you signed up you'd get new ones each month plus all Of our previous episodes covering all of the Futurama King of the Hill series up to now as well as every episode of the critic And every episode of Mission Hill have been discussed plus many many of our favorite episodes of Batman, the animated series. Sign up today at Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons for all those ad-free and bonus podcasts. And if you want something that feels even better than horrible, horrible freedom for ants, you should sign up at the $10 level at our premium Patreon level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons.

All those ad-free bonuses you get also come with it, and you get our monthly What a Cartoon Movie Podcast, which is really like three podcasts in one, us covering an animated feature film as in-depth as we do an episode of The Simpsons. Last month we covered an extremely goofy movie, the very 2000 core film that is a sequel to a goofy movie which we covered years ago. And this month, well we continue our summer of Disney 2000s by talking about Lilo and Stitch the original of course. And we go super in depth into the history of that production too.

And those are just the most recent of over seven years of what a cartoon movie podcasts. We've covered all of the Disney Renaissance. We've covered many Studio Ghibli films. We've covered every Toy Story film plus other Pixar movies too. We've covered Shrek. We've covered Cool World. We've done a six and a half hour long podcast

about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But really if you include our talk about all of the sequels and shorts for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it's more like a 10 hour podcast for real. And that's all at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons if you're a subscriber there for all the ad free goodies you can listen to. Please sign up today at patreon.com slash talking simpsons. I also love that the scientist just wants to knock people unconscious and he wants to

like just take them away even if they want to go someplace. It is a great runner in all three acts of him using what I would assume is a blackjack I think it's called. So the entire family moves to Florida for this with here with all these other space movie references. There's so many in it. We also get a Beverly Hillbillies opening theme reference too. Yeah.

And it seems like they're even confused about this Cape Arbuckle joke on the commentary. Yeah, I would guess it's just a joke about naming like, oh, it's been renamed multiple times, not just twice. Like it, because the real life history is that in 1963, it was Cape Canaveral. And then they changed it to Cape Kennedy in, you know, observance of the just slain president. And then by 1973, they reverted to the name because that's what the locals wanted. They preferred it being called Cape Canaveral and not Cape Kennedy So but it yeah, it was never Cape Arbuckle that seems random, right? It seems to imply that the space program had gone back all the way to when fatty Arbuckle was around. Oh

Okay, I Go ahead. Sorry. No, that makes sense. I get our now I get that connection to it feels like a total non sequitur though I mean I was looking this up I was like who understands this joke not to spend too long on this but I guess the idea is like it was named after Fatty Arbuckle he disgraced himself. It was named after Kennedy the Kennedy's have disgraced themselves. And now it is this current thing Okay, that fits well and also because the show would Especially this time they love to mock the Kennedys. They would say the Kennedys shamed themselves.

Yes, and Fetty Arbuckle, silent movie star, died in 1933. There's a big scandal about things he was up to, but that's essentially what I think the joke is. Though in the real world, while it is now, it reverted to Cape Canaveral over 50 years ago, it still is the Kennedy Space Center. That's still the name of it. That's also in the movie is about moving to Florida in the scripts, in the right stuff, moving to Florida is a big part of the story, but in the script, they have a

couple extra jokes about the Simpsons live in Florida, which totally cut from the episode. I mean, there's no time for it. So this is where we have a big press conference and they introduce the common man to the media and not everybody understands. Ladies and gentlemen and members of the press, I'd like to present the new generation of NASA astronaut, the average American. Jim Wallace, Associated Press. Is this a joke? Far from it, Jim. One of these men will prove space travel is within the reach of the common man. Toby Hunter, Minneapolis Star. No, really, is this a joke?

No, Toby. And no more questions about whether this is a joke. No more questions about whether this is a joke. No. Question for the barbecue chef. Don't you think there is an inherent danger in sending under-qualified civilians into space? I'll field this one. The only danger is if they send us to that terrible planet of the apes. Wait a minute. Statue of Liberty.

That was our planet! You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell! Thank you, I'm afraid that's all we have time for The screaming so good they say it on the commentary you can hear the echo the room It's a lot. I love the line read of no Toby Yeah, I always use that Toby Hunter picture when it comes to reacting to news. That's very strange usually from our government No, seriously, is this a joke like Like, this has to, it just can't not be, right? I also, I just love the guy who also just says question for the barbecue chef. Like, that's just how he addresses him.

Homer is dressed as a chef with a hail to the chef apron, and Barney is dressed in very garish golf clothing. That's the best outfit Barney owns, is a golf uniform. So this sequence is based on the press conference. There's a big press conference in The Right Stuff. Some of my favorite stuff in the movie is that they talk about the media's coverage of it and them being marketed. There is a huge press conference scene in it where NASA executive executive like this guy

introduces the Mercury seven crew to the audience and in the script during this they even say still Jack Stillwater is introducing them as saying they have the correct stuff is what he says in the script the correct stuff that was them getting even more clear on the right stuff parody there. And also that Barney has to be like dragged away in front of everybody as well. Like they can close the the curtain on him but they can't hide him entirely. No like the hand just slips underneath the curtain as he's dragged in. This is where the family is talking about all of their feelings about it and this is another one, a line that comes back to me

now and then too. Wow, my father an astronaut. I feel so full of, what's the opposite of shame? Pride? No, not that far from shame. Less shame? Yeah. You know Homer, when I found out about this,

I went through a wide range of emotions. First I was nervous, then anxious, then wary, then apprehensive, then kind of sleepy, then worried, and then concerned. But now I realize that being a spaceman is something you have to do. Who's doing what now? That whole scene, like there's so many. I always forget about Marge's list of emotions because Bart's line is so funny, but I love Julie's reading. And I'm kind of sleepy.

Yeah, she's kind of smiling. She kind of likes that part of it. But I also love how just her being a spaceman is something you have to do. It's just like such a funny turn of phrase. But yeah, just like some of the greatest writing in, you know, 20 seconds. And the animators too, in the posing on Marge, they could tell in the way Kavner delivered, like kind of sleepy. Like they're like, oh, she should feel like a little happy about that too. It's so cute. And also I love how the less shame thing, it's funny but it's also kind of tender. Like Bart and Homer,

like Homer even makes like a little hmm. Like it's like yeah. I mean also like not that far from, like Ivy's not that far from blank. Yeah. No, I don't not feel that. Yeah, you're right. The Dan's delivery of just his very

guarded less shame. Homer's like about to cry even that he's like, could you at least say less shame? Yeah. They cut a bit. Lisa had a line in the script here at the dinner table where she's telling Homer like, you know, it is a competition. Barney might beat you and Homer, Homer drives home more of that. Like, well, Barney might beat you, and Homer drives home more of that, well, Barney's a drunk, I can easily beat him. They only have that one little line of him whispering to the guy, to one of the officials, that he has a drinking problem

that might embarrass the mission. Unlike Homer, who does not have a drinking problem. Yes. Well, next to Barney, Homer is sober as a judge. Yeah, actually, Homer should have the same, though Homer should have a similar problem with not being able to drink this entire time too. In the right stuff, this is also,

there's a huge training montage that this is referencing here with all the guys and they do argue about like, there is a scene of Ed Harris who plays John Glenn. Ed Harris is the straight arrow guy who's telling the other guys stop drinking, stop cheating on your wives here, like we're here to train to be astronauts. So they get up to some bawdy adventures in the right stuff as well. In the right stuff, they go through the centrifuge though nobody's

face changes. Well, I guess their face shakes a little bit. They don't turn into famous characters or former presidents now I like the Popeye one more than the other one because they go to the trouble of animating the state like his transformation there's levels to it you can see how his face becomes pop it's true I didn't think anything of this joke as a kid but I can understand why granny hates it now because it doesn't make sense even with the weird logic of how it could make sense, because when you're getting pulled back by G-Force, your face won't protrude in a new way.

You know what I mean? He turns into two characters whose faces famously protrude in interesting ways. I feel like the animators did a good job trying to make a completely illogical thing. Because it's like the wind kind of pushes his chin up, so you get kind of the Popeye chin. So I can at least credit the animators for taking a kind of not well thought out joke and at least animating it well. Yes, I'm with both of you. I buy the Popeye want a little more, but he just kind of fades to Nixon. Yeah, the Nixon was just kind of cheap. Yeah. Now that was my problem. Yeah, they do that instead. And also the blowing into the air thing, that's like a five

minute scene in the movie, like where it's basically all of the astronauts, they're the first astronauts, they're all of like these fighter pilots of different pilots from different parts of the military. So they're all very competitive. And it's like, who can last the longest? Who can keep the ball in the air the longest on pure, you know, lung power? And like 90 seconds is the record everybody's trying to break. But nobody gets it backwards and thinks you're supposed to drink the water, which medicine-y. That's one of my favorite mm's. That Homer probably poisoned himself in some way by drinking that. So here's two big cuts from the script here too.

One, while Homer is doing tests, Bart and Lisa are enjoying walking around Florida until they are then attacked by an alligator, then attacked by a flock of mosquitoes, and then in a very ambitious to animate I'm sure it would have been section flamingos start chasing them and it is described as like That one herd of running dinosaurs that chase after people in Jurassic Park. Oh wow, like a very early Jurassic Park rough, then Yes. Yeah, it would have been that but with flamingos and again

I think like boy There's so much they got to do in the space stuff to have to imitate a very complicated shop from Jurassic but with flamingos. And again, I think like, boy, there's so much they gotta do in the space stuff. To have to imitate a very complicated shop from Jurassic Park with flamingos sounds tough. And also they cut another joke with Barney, where after he gets out of the gyro chair, he says like, oh, are you getting dizzy? And he says, no, he's not getting dizzy

because my bed used to spin more than that, says Barney. That's good, that's good. It's a good drunk joke. Now we talked about the pop a reference to Star Trek reference. I feel like they are conflating a muck time with the GameStars of Triskelion. Aren't they Henry? Absolutely. It's posed like I always thought these were the same episode because I didn't watch. Me too. Yeah. I thought, oh yeah, Kirk and Spock fight each other while people are betting on them. But you're right. Yeah. The Gamesters of Triskelion,

which is where people gamble on them, competing with Kwat Lus. But Kirk and Spock fight like this in a mock time. So yeah, they're definitely jamming it together. And the script specifically calls for Star Trek fight music. So Merkin was thinking of that the whole time, which he says he used on Get a Life 2.

That Star Trek fight music is great music. I love the... The Cable Guy, like two years after this, has the same joke in it, too. Except Jim Carrey's character is singing the song out loud while he's about to fight somebody. Yeah. I believe at Medieval Times. Yeah, yeah. The Cable Guy loves Medieval Times. So this is where we go to the locker room. And I think it's sweet that Homer has a picture of Mar to the locker room and I think it's sweet that Homer has a picture of Marge in his locker. I think that's adorable. And hey what a glow up from Barney, am I right? Oh yeah I was like they I mean they

basically give him a brand new character model because they change his entire body shape. What period of time this has been after but it's quite impressive. It's very tragic when Barney is undone by non-alcoholic champagne. This is almost as mean as showing that he's like a perfect genius who could have gone to Harvard if he didn't drink when Homer told him to try it. So then again, when Barney gets sober later, I mean, yeah, he does all right, but he does not turn into his Superman basically like he does here I'm looking at the picture and because they just kind of erase his girth

He's now just very wide so he looks super bulky like strong. His chest is like massive You're right. He's like a Bruce Tim character in like a Batman cartoon And he's even like combing his hair back now, too He's doing great. This is where we get our first of two big guest stars in the episode. Gentlemen, I'd like you to meet the two experienced astronauts who will accompany the winner into space. Ray Spanion and Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. Second comes right after first. So Barney, we hear you're kickin' ass. Ahem.

I don't think this contest is over yet, Buzz, if that is your real name. I believe there is still a little something called the swimsuit competition. There's no swimsuit competition, Homer. You mean I shaved my bikini zone for nothing? You know, Homer, manscaping is always important. I wish we had a manscaping ad to throw to after that joke.

I'd gladly talk about it. Now, I don't normally talk about syndication cuts, but there's one notable one here, and that is the silence, the huge beat of silence that is taken out from... Second comes right after first. That's what Buzz Aldrin says. There's a huge beat of silence. They cut that out because it's like seven to nine seconds. Dang.

That's such a bummer because that really sells the joke. I forget how long it is too. I mean, I feel like Buzz Aldrin's guest appearances are usually pretty good because he's willing to poke fun at himself. I love his appearance on 30 Rock where he yells at the moon with Liz Lemon and he's like, I walked on your face. That's really good. He's, he's adorably flat in this and I love all of his very not great, but still

charming line rings like careful, they're ruffled, things like that. That's one of my favorites. I think it does. It's one of those things where sometimes that just kind of amateur nature works, but it seems like he puts effort into it and enjoys doing it. Well, it brings me no joy to say that he has recently come out of the closet as a Trump supporter, but that is because he has been a Fox News grandpa for like 30 years.

So you understand that when you're 95, you decide to say crazy things. Now, if I ever reach the age of 90, I want to be placed in an opinion echo-proof chamber where nothing can escape. Only show me Simpsons all of the time if I make it to 90. For all I know, it's not because of like border or immigration or anything like that. It's because Trump started Space Force and that's like, wow, somebody started a space program, hooray. And so he's not really looking beyond that.

So it could be worse. So that man, Edwin Eugene Aldrin, I'm disappointed in you, which is his real name that Homer's asking for. I was going to congratulate him on his fourth marriage in 2023, but now that feels wrong. How nice for him. Well, I guess his original line was first to take a soil sample. Yes. Yeah, though he doesn't even have that line in the script there. I think in the script they do a little less with Buzz. It's written as Buzz. I don't think they had secured Buzz yet when they wrote that script though. So while there is a Buzz in there,

I think there's fewer jokes about him being literally Buzz Aldrin. So yeah. I don't- Yeah. Second Comes Right After First is just such a great like pathetic line where it's like he's trying to convince himself and no one else is convinced.

I've often used that when not winning. And later line I also use the other thing. In a way you're both winners, but in another way... more accurate way. You know I also love that in that silence, and it makes me sad to learn it got cut like that because even the NASA official who is excited to introduce Buzz Aldrin, even he is uncomfortable in this and isn't supporting him. Like even he's like, like he is like converting his eyes. Also, I love that they clearly drew the character Race Bannon from Johnny Quest and then colored his hair black and then said his name is Race

Banyan instead of Bannon to get it in a way. Is there a specific reason why they're putting the Johnny Quest character in there? It's crazy to think about. I mean, not only does Homer go to space and monkeys can talk, but now Race Bannon is real and he's friends with Homer briefly. It just seems so Random but also I never watched Johnny quest so all my race banning knowledge is from Harvey Birdman and adventure brothers I

only watched the classic Johnny quest because I Needed to get jokes in other things like that's why I wanted, well, I better get more jokes about these guys after watching it. But the race, I mean, I could see in a Dave Merkin brain, him as a youngster in the 60s would have been seeing news about the Mercury 7 crew at the same time he's watching Johnny Quest on television in the mid 60s. Yeah, I didn't know this was a reference until I started watching the real adventures of Johnny Quest, take that original series in the mid-90s, which started airing a few years later,

then I realized, oh, Ray Spannon is a reference to this guy, or Ray Spanion, I'm sorry. What that real adventures of Johnny Quest has some very reboot-style CGI in it, doesn't it? Yeah, there's these cyberverse sections where they go into the internet or I don't know it was a big draw for 1996 some CGI, light CGI. My knowledge of it is only from doing research on the Scooby-Doo Zombie Island movie because a lot of the writers on that first worked on the real adventures of Johnny Quest Homer he's feeling like the fix is in

and this is where he finds out he has come up short. You've both worked very hard and in a way you're both winners. But in another more accurate way, Barney is the winner. Congratulations Barney. It's very gracious of you Homer. Please join us in a toast... To the mission! It begins!

Give me that! Stop him! Barney, no! No! Ta-la-la-la-la-pa-doo! Ah! Uh-oh! I don't understand it. That was non-alcoholic champagne. Well Homer, I guess you're the winner by default. Default?

Woohoo! The two sweetest words in the English language. Default! Default! Where'd you get that anyway? Sunaway? Yeah, going back to that winner's line, I love it because it is a way to be inclusive and thoughtful and then immediately cool. It's like, you all won, but actually it's that guy. In another, more accurate way, that's right up there with the best kind of correct.

Like you're technically correct. The best kind of correct. And I don't know if we covered this last time, but there is a misheard line in this. It's sort of like sleep that's where I'm a Viking or have you ever seen a guy say goodbye to a shoe before or whatever. It is the final line of this act break. It's the guy saying sent away because he means he ordered it from a catalog. We don't use that term anymore.

I ordered it from Amazon, or I got it on Amazon, or I got it online. So I see people online confused, like, what's sent away? Is that like a store? Oh, wow. Yeah, because he says it so quickly. Yeah, yeah. So that might be lost of time now that that's not longer

a phrase we use when we talk about ordering things. Wow, that's funny that I had forgotten that that's another of those ones that people don't understand. When I did Doughboys recently, they actually quizzed me on the shoe question, on the Scorpio shoe question as well. And we all were in agreement of like, we think we all always heard it as, yes, at some previous time, not just right then, Homer had seen a man say goodbye to his shoot. I feel like most of these, the simplest first thought answer is usually the correct one. And then people just think about it too hard.

Though, hey, I learned to have more humility with this too, because I've been caught in those things, like until that was in our live show with Bill Oakley when we talked about the Freddy Krueger parody like I had missed a joke with Martin talking about his stats I think it was like I had missed a joke in there too. Will he was calling him Maurice? That's right yes that was the one I thought he was calling him Maurice not using the Latin phrase to kill that was the one I missed in there. So hey, it could happen to even the most pedantic of us.

And folks, we call that an egg corn. E-G-G-C-O-R-N. Oh, I've not heard of this. Linguistic terminology. I have two degrees behind me. This is all I can do with it. As Barney flies away to, they do say that the pillow factory he smashes on is the drawing of the old Klaski Chupo building, which they're calling it that in 2003. So I have to assume they don't mean the one that me and you, Bob, have seen and stayed near once when we visited Hollywood. Yeah, much small. They did some downsizing, let's say. I can tell you, I was just in Los Angeles in April and drove by it as on a trip somewhere

and in the Lyft. It still has all of your favorite characters on it. Ickus and Doblin, all the rest. No Duckman. Yes, no Duckman. Who has inherited Duckman now, I wonder, from the late Everett Peck. The widow Peck. The state of Everett Peck, yeah, the widow Peck.

We've seen this building in the show before. They have included it in the show before. It's just a big, boring building. And also Barney, talk about how things that MacRainey could complain about. Barney is flattened like a cartoon character. Like he is squished flat when he is run over and then pops back into normal shape.

Well, it was just a marshmallow truck, so it wasn't very heavy. Ha ha ha. And then Homer's like, my mom loved the default dance and Homer treating default as two words. That's so great. So we take a break, we come back. In the script, this is where they cut one other thing that would have been a major reference to the right stuff, which is the right stuff also has a lot about the astronaut wives and

how it's hard to be the spouse of an astronaut, all the stress of hearing them risking their lives and also your loneliness and how you only have other astronaut wives to talk to. Marge has a scene hanging out with the astronaut wives where they're making very 60s desserts where Marge is serving them icebox cake and then she's given a recipe for mayonnaise pie. Nice. I like their little house they're in that we barely see. It's just a very 60s house. Yeah, it's like tract housing that was just built.

Yeah, I mean, this is, some of it feels like the flavor of Bill and Josh, of their kind of like jokes about things built in the 60s and still there. And there is another Total Recall reference in this episode, and it happens in the Itchy and still there. And there is another Total Recall reference in this episode and it happens in the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Yeah, the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon is like

seven references on top of each other or something. There's a lot going on here. Like the music, I was trying to take account and I feel like first the title is a Star Trek title. Then I feel like the music coming into the scene is a Lost in Space music reference, don't you think? It sounds kind of like that.

And then we have Alien and then a Space Odyssey. And then the one I never catch as a reference until they mentioned it in the commentary, which is when Scratchy's helmet is removed and his head expands, that's Total Recall again, right? Yeah, so this is the most Total Recall was ever referenced by anything. It's a great movie. I guess it was a pretty new movie

when they did this in 94, right? Like less than five years old. It was 1990. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is great. The cruelty done to Scratchy is also one of the most extreme. Like Itchy does everything to him. Once he's

cut in half too, that's not enough for him. He also has to expand his head and then he has to pop it like a balloon. That's not even enough for him. And it's also a great Merkin joke about having the content warning come after all of the violence too. The drawing of Homer afterwards, like all sweaty and like clutching the couch that's one of just the most stellar Homers. You rarely get to see Homer sweat and I like that you get to stick with it so long because they're doing the joke that Bart and Lisa I sometimes forget this is a runner in the old days that itchy and scratchy is so funny to Bart and Lisa that they will laugh for like 10 seconds straight in the show.

And that gives you a long time to look at Homer being incredibly nervous. And so that works because Homer had no nerves in act two about being an astronaut. And it's funny that the only thing that makes him nervous or that indicates he's nervous is watching a children's cartoon. It's like watching it. He and scratchy was the first time he realized there is a risk involved in being an astronaut and he's scared. So Homer is so nervous that we get the slow-mo thing and you mentioned Bob, yeah, I do think that it is more of a like spiritual expectation of a right stuff reference than any one shot

in the right stuff. I mean, there are many scenes in which people are walking towards something in a row in slow motion and I think one of the times said oh it's the right stuff and then a commenter said well this is not the right stuff actually that never happens in the movie. The walk to the space shuttle maybe it was like Toy Story or something I forget. I mean with all the other right stuff references in here too I think they were thinking this is a right stuff reference just in their minds and they couldn't unlike other scenes there's no one-to-one in there but I love that it's great slow motion and then Homer's scariness is so anxious about it his screaming goes from slow-mo to real time and

pops out of it and runs away like just the no and just comes into real time. There's a little sound effect too to signify the change to normal speed. Yeah, a little pop. Here's another change from the script. There could have been even more references to other movies because when Homer runs away in the script, he is chased by scientists with flashlights in the woods. He's found by kids and tells them he needs to phone home to talk to Marge. So Okay, that's the connective tissue. That's why it's suddenly night and he is by a payphone I wonder if they animated any of it because there was no deleted scenes on the DVD for this episode

Which you would think there would be but yeah, at least in the script There was an extended ET section before Homer calls Marge too. This phone call with Marge and Homer is adorable. It's so great. Marge, I don't really want to go through with this, but being an astronaut is how I got you to respect me. Homer, when I met you, you weren't an astronaut. You didn't even know how to use a touch tone. But I still respected you and I always will, no matter what.

Homer, you already dialed. But on the other hand, when you don't take advantage of an opportunity, you can end up regretting it for the rest of your life. You're right, Marge. Just like the time I could have met Mr. T at the mall. The entire day I kept saying, I'll go a little later. I'll go a little later. I'll go a little later.

And then when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked the mall guy if he would ever come back again, he said he didn't know. Well, I'm never gonna let something like that happen again. I'm going into space right now. Oh, I am so proud of you.

And I know it's going to go just fine. Well I have bad news for all of our listeners. If you're hearing this when it goes live, you just missed Mr. T. He was at the Robo Toy Fest in Burbank, California and you missed it. Oh no! Oh man, it's in every day you don't meet Mr. T. You're increasing your risk of never being able to see mr. T And if you'll ever come back to the burbank robo toy fest, oh, I think he's got a slot there for life. I Love that I'll go a little later the guy in the mall just said he said he didn't know like just Homer's so broken about I mean, it's also like a childlike love of seeing mr. T as well is beautiful

Yeah, and he acted like he was hearing tragic information I know it's the joke, but I'm just imagining the scene the guy just going I don't know and he just really takes that person like He's been dwelling on it forever. My mom loves to tell me the story if she hears mr. T come up She tells me the story about how that I actually don't remember But she says, when I was like three or four, we went on a family trip to California. And in the airport, we were in that Mr. T was there. And she remembered like getting to say hello to him because everybody's

like, Whoa, it's Mr. T. But also, and this would make it like 1986 or 87, I think. So, you know, at height of Mr. T popularity. And my mom said that what she remembers most is that I recognized him and said, Mr. T, and like shouted my excitement about it at meeting him. At some point you shared space with Mr. T and I'm sure you locked eyes with that man. I would think so, yeah. I think so, hey, I'm saying I have one better than Homer here.

I don't remember it, but I have met Mr. T and also in the script there's again I will say in the right stuff there are scenes where the Media has to cover for a flight delay which happens in real life too, and they have to go like well. It's live Oh, there's delay and lift off. Well, you know and they have to cover for time There's a joke in the script that Kent Brockman is having to cover for Homer and just fill time with and who knows why he's missing And he's like having to make stuff up. So there's one more Feels like right stuff line that was in the script. So it's about launch time Homer is there Race wants to sedate Homer to shut him up for the entire trip

Calling him the cargo like he has race Banyan has no respect at all for homer actually maddie you're a big venture brothers fan do you like race more or less when you think of him as a brock samson type of guy he has such a minor role in venture brothers but brock loves him i don't know i feel transitive properties of bro Brock's love for him I feel like his the Harvey Birdman appearance has more of a hold over me the one where they're like in custody battles They're a couple of guys and then he's like a robot and the janitor plugs him in and he dances That's like that's probably the little image of him dancing is probably my number one Freak is late parody character, Dash O'Pepper. Right!

From Toby Danger. Let me throw a barrel at him. Another of my favorites. Yes. So Homer is going to launch into space. Do these also feel like Dwarf Swaldery jokes to you too? The IRS satellite? Oh, absolutely. But Children's Elders to God was a newer book that came out in 1991, so current reference. Oh wow! I didn't even realize that was a reference. You get a very quick moment to read where it says

Children's Letters to God to Jettison, which is great. So they're just gonna go up into space and just like throw them and NASA So God must be out here somewhere. You can intercept these. Yeah, he's everywhere. Yeah, that is great They're not gonna like destroy the letters They will spend the money to put in and you know in a rocket ship every like gram Counts like you have to like think of that with the fuel you put in there So putting it in there is not nothing, but they'd rather than just destroy it and pretend they took it into space, they will take it into space to jettison it

and hope that God gets it at some point. So they make the rocket go now. This is where Homer fades into Nixon. The fade into Nixon. In the script, they have little moments of Moe's Tavern and Burns and Smithers watching it go off. The Burns and Smithers one is a better joke. It's an all right joke where Burns is like, oh, who is that guy that's going into space? And Smithers still has to tell him that.

That's Homer Simpson, one of your employees. There's a few references to the ship. Okay, the shuttle they're on is called the Corvair, and apparently that is a reference to a notoriously crash prone vehicle from the 60s. And that is the basis of the Ralph Nader book, Unsafe at Any Speed. So the rocket is named after a famously crashing kind of car. Oh, that's great. That is great. Wow.

We're mixing in all of these 60s things in here then too, because I would assume that was also when Ralph Nader was going against the core of air. Yeah, like his book was 65. So right around the time all this space stuff is coming together. Now we learn that we don't need those things at all. That all those safety things, Nader was wrong, and that, wait, let the market decide. I'm destroying my freedoms.

And Lisa's poem is an original, by the way. It's a problem to try to look that up, because even if it was based on a real poem, when you search for it on Google, it's just gonna be links to Lisa talking about it, right? So it's hard to know. And I like how too that everybody just stares at her, like it's a nice light Lisa joke of,

Lisa does not fit in with her family and is too smart for that. Has to dumb it back down again to go dad, go. Oh, also it feels like it breaks a graining rule because the pets both look at Lisa too. When everybody's looking at Lisa is weird, the pets do it too. I forgot about that aspect.

Yeah, even the pets are just like, what? Shut up, nerd. The launch is a success in that lots of people watched it on TV and all of the equipment there is only to measure TV ratings. I think they do a good, graining also said another problem we had with the script originally was that NASA scientists were too wacky. They do a good graining also said another problem he had with the script originally was that it NASA scientists were too wacky

They do a good job of making them funny But still not terrible at their jobs And then we also get some amazing shots of the ship spinning around these like these great outer spacey shots that they say they got Help with an Amiga computer help them like trace it moving in perspective Yeah, one of the early, I guess, computer assisted shots on The Simpsons. There's a few of them before they move over to digital. I can think of the Bart on the Road shot

where they're like tracking the car with the camera and also the bridge shot at the end of I think it is, which one is that Henry? Is it the New York episode? Oh that's Homer versus New York City, isn't it? I think, yeah. Or the city of New York, yeah. I think that that's one of those early early camera ones for for

Assist in you know, even in the great mouse detective like well technically like that's the the clockwork stuff is like CGI It's like drawn over the CGI. Yeah, it's just the computer telling you here's the lines you need to draw We're not doing it for you. We're just giving you instructions and This is where that Homer seemingly his pontificating about outer space is actually him saying how cool he thinks potato chips are because as he's saying it, he's looking down at his bag of potato chips the whole time. Extra salted. That's great. Him opening it, they're ruffled. I love that line. It's hard.

I prefer more straight potato chips. When I was a kid, my brother liked ruffled. I would say watch out there, ruffle. Now, Henry, are you a chip man? I've never seen you eat a potato chip. I've really pulled back on it. In my snacking, I do prefer the sweet over the salty. But I mean, there was in my childhood lunchtime for me wouldn't feel right if I didn't have

a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with plain Lay's potato chips like that usually was the combo. So I was more of a plain Lay's guy. I have grown to like more flavored nacho chips. I liked regular tortilla chips with stuff on them, but like flavored Doritos. I actually, despite the gamer stereotype, I was not much of a Dorito kid until later in life. No Doritos, no soda. Are you sure you're a nerd? I'm such a nerd it was that the bubbles texture upset my mouth and so I couldn't eat. The drink is fighting back! Though the way that Abe Simpson reacts to Buzz Cola, that was me when the episode was airing too.

Now I can take bubbled drinks and even enjoy a hard seltzer, but it took a lot of time. It does sound like Mr. Burns terminology is just used there, Henry. I will have one bubbled drink, please. Well, same with ruffle the chips. Like those still seem new to me as well, the ruffling of chips.

I don't really understand the purpose of that. Is that to hold the dip on? So the dip has more of a like grooves to fit into? Is that what's going on with the ruffling of chips. I don't I don't really understand the the purpose of that is that to hold the dip on so the dip has more of a like grooves to fit into is that what's going on with the ruffles? I can see that that makes sense like how the tortilla scoops also can hold things better, right? Yeah, I Mean Maddie your chip opinions. Do you have a chip ranking ruffle versus not? I'm pretty good with anything. I think recently I

Found like a jalapeno sour cream chip. It might be a ruffle, but it's good. Ruffle vs. Nones isn't really a big concern of mine. I just like potato chips. In the script they are not ruffled, and I think it's a vast improvement to make them ruffled. Yeah. Except the only thing is I feel bad for the animators, because drawing a normal potato chip, you can just kind of draw an oval shape, but all those rotating potato chips, they

had to rotate all the grooves on them with it now, so it made much more impressive animation. Oh yeah. Especially when they have to draw the shadows on every ruffle as it rotates it's really phenomenal and you mentioned it at the start Bob but yeah the Carlos Baeza this is according to David Silverman on the commentary that Baeza came to him and said like you know this episode is so demanding and this thing is so hard like he could really use some help and I think the way Silverman puts it on the commentary, it sounds like that.

Silverman was like, it would take too long to explain how to do this. So I will just draw like, especially that Homer spinning, like you have to know Homer from every angle to spin him correctly. When I say cute Homer, and I was saying like, Maddie, you draw such great cute Homer, the shot of Homer face on looking at the ruffled chip, like his smile with his like curved teeth is one of the cutest Homers I can think of. It's pretty impressive to have a front facing Simpson

be so good, because usually when it happens, it's kind of like, ugh. But it's very adorable and he's having a great time. Yeah, three things are rotating at different speeds. The chip, the Homer body, the background, it all sells it very well. And yeah, it's hard to read them as anything front-facing, but the entire shot is front-facing. And I feel like this is probably in the top five

visual moments of the first decade of the show, possibly the entire run of the show, which is why this is included in the, I think, Homer gets stupider every year segment of the 138th episode spectacular. Even though it's not an example of Homer being stupid, they just wanted an excuse to trot this footage out again and to show it off like, wow, look at how good this looks.

This is an animation peak of the series for sure. And it is because like Silverman drew everything himself kind of feel to it. Like not just the great spinning thing, but like when he's doing crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, like those are such Silverman-y drawings too. And that even in that 138th spectacular, like, based on their jokes, Bill and Josh do not like, I definitely don't think that Bill Oakley liked this episode. And yet, in their clip show, they include that because it's so perfect. Like it's such a great shot.

I would think David Silverman, like, includes this in all of his, you know, college speaking events and in clip packages. This is an all-timer animation moment of the series and this is Silverman honestly showing off. I wonder if when he sees this description in the script of, this is 2001, we're using the Blue Danube. This is about like in 2001 when they use it to show You know spinning in on the ship and like it's full of amazing special effects Especially for its time to show off, you know asynchronous orbit and how that looks like it takes a spectacular animator and team to

Make that work on a TV budget and Silverman is showing that he can do it. And it's, I mean, it's, it's worth that. That is like unforgettable, like iconic moment in the series. Yeah. Well, and I just, I can't imagine any studio doing this by hand ever again. Like they're just going to CG it every time. It's like how cars are all just CG now, like in any cartoon series, like, like, which I am calling all animators lazy. If they use a CGI car, draw every wheel in front of me right now. Also, like I would bet every animator today, even though I am sure was overworked for David Silverman back then,

I bet every animator in America today wishes they had the kind of timetable David Silverman had to work on The Simpsons in 1993. So yes, this amazing section of Homer eating the chips ends with, again, perfect animation. Homer trying to slow himself down by like swimming in air, like God, I love that. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh yeah. You can't just talk about enough how incredible I love that. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, yeah. You can't just talk about enough how incredible the animation is. All his expressions, all his arm waves,

while he's slowly zooming in. Yeah, it's great because a lot of him is obscured by the ants in the foreground, but so much attention is still being paid to how he's moving towards them. It's not just like an animation cycle. He's doing all kinds of different things as he gets closer.

Yeah. And right before he crashes, his head like tilts forward, too So it's like cuz you're seeing his expressions a bunch and then right before you're just seeing the top of his head Yeah, it's truly gorgeous And for a zero G spit take then all of the chips that he spits out to yell have to keep floating By him as well like having all of these like floating by him as well. Like having all of these like particles floating around him at the same time. Like that is that's an extra level of effects animation making it that much harder. And then now ants have to be floating around in every scene after this for a while in the episode 2. And another all-timer line

freedom, horrible, horrible freedom. They credited to George Meyer. And a perfect George Meyer joke to view freedom as horrible, horrible freedom. That is George Meyer so, so much. We may never know if ants can be trained to sort tiny screws in space. This is where we get our second guest star of the episode visiting to help out some pals to let them know they have a colleague. Mr. Control wish you well and play you a little of his own brand of laid-back adult contemporary music. Wow, former President James Taylor. How you doing, fellas? With all due respect, Mr. Taylor, this isn't the best time for your unique brand of bittersweet folk rock.

We have a potentially critical situation here. I'm sure you'll understand. Listen, Aldrin, I'm not as laid-back as people think. Now here's the deal. I'm gonna play and you're gonna float there and like it. When you're down and troubled and you need a helping hand. The extra bit of them floating around, him saying such an unfriendly thing if you're gonna float there and like it,

then he's singing a song about how you've got a friend and I'll help you. 1971's You've Got a Friend and he was not on the show to promote any new album, but I looked up to see what was his latest album. It was 1991's New Moonshine and the second I saw that album, the cover art, I thought my parents played this constantly. I looked up the track listing, just looking at the names of the songs, I could hum a few bars from everything and give you some lyrics from most of them My mom liked James Taylor enough like of like oh I love hearing these songs on the radio if she owned the greatest hits album that would have been the limit of her James

Taylor thing so why I would guess then in your home there was a lot of excitement at seeing James Taylor's I know my parents lit up. They were still we were still watching the show together at this point I want to say like up through maybe season six or seven and they were excited to see him. And you know what he's still touring at 77 years young just like Mr. T. He's out there. Will he be at Robo Toy Con. You know see he has a home on Martha's Vineyard unlike Mr. T. So I I'm gonna assume he doesn't need to go to Robotoicon this thing. I'm looking up tour dates. I think everybody, you missed him too. I think his tour is over now.

I'm sorry. And it ended in May. No! Yeah. Oh, I missed out. Man, he was only 46 when he recorded this, by the way. Which again, it's like, boy, every time I'm getting closer to the age of people

who I thought were old men when I first watched this, it's sobering. And I'm learning to be better at taking that than just being upset by it I'm not super familiar with James Taylor, but the way he's drawn with an extremely receding hairline isn't It's an honest drawing of him Yeah, yeah, he was never shy about hiding that aspect of his head. Good news for everybody He is touring throughout the summer of 2025, so my original information was misleading. There's still a chance, I can still.

I mean, James Taylor is one of those guys that you're like, he couldn't have been a star in the 80s because he was not an attractive person. He's handsome, I know what it says, but a guy with his hairline would not be a star in the MTV era of music. I'm starting to think, Henry, that if you're a rocker in your 70s and Henry Gilbert shows up at your concert,

you are going to die. No. Wait, who did I kill? I mean, it feels like you're going to their pre-funeral. Cyndi Lauper, Elton John, all the greats. Well, I mean, yes, I did go to those. When they promote them as this is the last one, I go like, well, then that's, I mean,

that wrenches the money out of you. And even Paul McCartney doesn't tour saying I'm calling a retirement thing. It's more just the idea of like, this is a singer in his early eighties. And even though he's seeming great, it's like, you know, it's a gamble. It's a gamble every time. I think that David Merkin mainly did this just to meet one of his favorite musicians. That's why he's a guest on here. Though having Buzz Aldrin have lines

in an exchange with James Taylor is pretty great. And this is where while he's playing the music and they're floating there with, again, great drawings, the looks on their faces as they are like listening to the music like pissed off, as they're like, I love all their faces in that too. And this is where Kent gives us an update from the mission. We're just about to get our first pictures from inside the spacecraft with average not Homer Simpson.

And we'd like to... Ladies and gentlemen, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The core of air spacecraft has apparently been taken over, conquered, if you will, by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them.

The ants will soon be here. And I, for one one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves. Don't worry kids, I'm sure your father's alright. What are you basing that on, Mom? Who wants ginger snaps? You know, this really validates a long-held

conspiracy theory that Kent Brockman had because he has a graphic ready you're right he's been waiting for the ants to take over finally they're here he's imagined their sugar caves I mean though this mercantil era is full of so many great the news media satire moments but, I think we've seen a lot that the news is ready to welcome insect overlords at all times when they think one has showed up. They're all very ready to welcome them and impress people into the sugar caves. Yeah, this is definitely one of the most long-standing memes out of this episode, though I feel like

maybe 10, 15 years ago, it was a lot more prevalent. Yeah, I think this one, this episode is stuffed with memes, but you see them come and go in popularity, and I guess it's not not quite as common. I for one welcome our new insect overlords is like you can put that up whenever you need to quote tweet away with that one or quote post away on blue sky of course I mean I love the shot of the entire every family member screaming with the same crazy scream a mouth of reacting to the ant that's great too another cute little animation bit Marge turns Maggie's head away from the TV very very and so this is where we get

another bit with James Taylor which I'll'll play the clip from the episode here, and then there's a fun story behind it too. Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground. Sweet dreams and flying machines flying safely through the air. I've seen fire through the air. I've seen fire in the... Oh my God, the ants are shorting out our navigation system!

Ants, huh? We had quite a severe ant problem at the vineyard this year. I had Art Garfunkel come by with his compressor, and we created a total vacuum outside the house, and we blew the ants out the front door. But I'm sure you high-tech NASA people could care less about our resort townways. Quiet, you! Wait a minute!

This unkempt youngster just might be on to something. Okay, everybody grab onto something. All right, here we go. Three, two, one. Make hatch blow now. And that is death. No! Oh my god!

This is a disaster! Gotta go. I think Merkin even talks about like that the guitar is based on his real guitar so adding a joke that he would just drop it and it would break like that's how much of a coward he is it's a great addition. It sounds like he was reluctant to sing this parody because the song is a tribute to a friend of his who took their own life. Yes yeah the Fire and Rain from 1970 there's the line, Suzanne the plans we made put an end to you is about how his friend Suzanne

died while Taylor was in London working on his first album after being signed to Apple Records. Friends at home concerned that it might distract Taylor from his big break, kept the tragic news from him, and he found out six months later. That's from the Wiki. And also the reference to Flying Machines, he was in a band called the James Taylor and the Flying Machine that wasn't successful and so when he sang flying machines and pieces on the ground it's also about how his previous band had ended too though this

I guess my mom must have been at least a somewhat James Taylor fan because this joke was explained to me by her about why because you have to know the line is in pieces on the ground. If you don't know that's the next lyric, then this joke makes little sense to you. I'd say it's probably like the top three James Taylor popular songs. I think so. Yeah. I think, I mean, it's such a beautiful song. On the commentary, David Merkin tells the story about pitching the joke to him as that James Taylor didn't know that this was it. But why impart that story when there's

Easter eggs on DVDs that have the original audio of it? It's an entire four-minute thing, and I'm not going to play the whole thing because most of it's listening to him play the song. I forgot this is on that season five DVD. That's great. Here is the raw recording of James Taylor. And listen closely, you hear Merkin have to explain the joke because prefaced before the recording starts, Merkin assumed that Taylor had read the

script and knew the joke was sing your song differently and Taylor didn't know this and you know to tell a singer to sing their song differently is kind of a big ask in some cases so here's the clip that's the wrong one oh that was perfect we have to leave that in god damn yes you're right okay well hey you'll be Here's the clip. Oh, those golden scrams. That's the wrong one. Oh, that was perfect. We had to leave that in. God damn, yes, you're right. Okay, well hey, you'll be surprised by that later. Anyway, here's the original one.

The section where you retake the lyric. You know, wanna try that now? Oh sure, yeah, I wasn't aware of that change. Oh, is that, okay, so all right. Oh, sorry, I just't aware of that change. Oh, is that? Okay, so, alright. Oh, sorry, I just thought I had to do the song. Let me see, I always wondered what your reaction would be to this. I wrote a joke where you say, where you were, see, I'm screwing with your lyrics, when you say, a flying machine is in pieces on the ground.

And because you're seeing the people up in a spacecraft that's in some trouble, you go, oh, oops, I mean mean flying machines flying safely through the air. Okay. Alright. Does that appeal to you? Sure, I can, yeah, that's fine. Do you want me to do the whole song and do that or just the... No, I think all you need to do is pick it up right before the third verse.

Okay. You know, I've been walking my mind through an easy time. I think... Wow. I like how soft spoken he is and he's willing to just do the whole song with the one lyric change. It's like, Oh, you want the whole song then? What a nice guy.

Like, Oh, I'll just play the whole song. It's, it's also great. It listened to the whole thing. It's also on YouTube. You guys can look it up. You don't need to hit right on your control pad while having the DVD menu open and in it he sings the line in peace like he does the joke and then he sings the rest of the

song and I think nobody wants to tell him to stop. I think they're just enjoying a free James Taylor concert. Now I'm living in a glass house now but David Merkin spends a lot of time on commentaries explaining jokes so I like that he as part of his career is having to explain the joke to Taylor, former president James Taylor. That is, and him having to go like, well, I'm screwing with you. Like he is a little nervous. And I would be too. I'm not like shaming him for that, no.

I have felt that nervous trying to explain a joke to a Simpsons writer when asking a question. Like, so your joke was this, wasn't it? Here's another just clarifying thing from the script that I never caught as a joke beforehand. When the ants get into the instruments and the problems are happening on the ship, Homer, this is from the script. For some reason, Homer is flung in the opposite direction of the others. And that's there in the animation. They go one way and Homer goes the other. And it's a for some reason joke.

Like it never really registered before, but instead of saying something like release the hatch, he says make hatch blow now, which is a really silly line. I mean, earlier we had three, two, one, make rocket go now. Okay. It's a runner without a third joke. That's the space term.

Yeah. And also a third callback, he almost knocks out James Taylor as well, which I also love. It is the folksy musician who comes up with the scientific idea of using a vacuum like they did at Martha's Vineyard. It's a very MacGyver solution.

Also, this was a runner back then too. Homer did it when he thought he got rid of the Tramapeline. Dusting his hands, except this time the dusting of hands is what causes him to fly out of the rocket ship. Which also he has gloves on, there's no reason to dust his hands here. So, Homer's pulled out and he's able to be pulled back in but he destroys the handle on the door.

And this is where race is just given up and he's going to kill Homer. Homer then pulls out something and while trying to smash Ray Spanien's face in, it gets stuck and it never registers as it's so good. It never registers as the call back to the rod yet, even though it's right there and it is the same rod. You don't think of it as this is like the rod at the start of the episode you never think of it and that Homer he's told Homer we might survive if it stays there and he still is trying to put I'll bash you good

Homer is that stupid that he's had time to think about it and he still would rather pull it out and die than to kill him than to live and survive. And so this is where Kent Brockman has to make his apology that it may not be perfect but it's still the best government we have for now. He's got plans. Kent has plans too. This is my last time. In The Right Stuff, there is a bit where Ed Harris's John Glenn character might burn up in reentry. There is a malfunction and it's like, well, when you come back, you might burn up in reentry.

This is going to be tough. And they lose contact with him. And while John Glenn is, you know, himself worried I might burn up on reentry, he is humming this song that the two astronauts here are humming. So that's another right stuff specific. That is the battle hymn of the Republic. Well meanwhile Homer has a different song that's important to him. It's the old them Golden Grahams jingle from the 70s which hey you got to hear a second of it there but let me play it for real now. Here's the real jingle and not only that but also here's the real jingle, and not only that, but also here's the song they stole the Golden

Grahams theme from as well. Oh, those golden grahams, oh, those golden grahams, crispy, crunchy graham cereal family breakfast treat. Oh, those golden grahams, oh, those golden grahams, golden honey, just attached with graham's golden wheat. I see, I thought they were ripping off the carpenters or something with that. golden slippers golden slippers I'm gonna wear because you look so neat. I see I thought they're ripping off the Carpenters or something with that. The original song Oh Dem Golden Slippers goes back to 1879 though that is not a recording of course. Well it is rip-offable according to the laws of the United States government. And that when Homer sang in the episode as a kid

I was just confounded because obviously I loved cereal commercials and thought I memorized every, even though I was not a Golden Grahams eater as a kid, I knew the commercials and those were not the commercials for Golden Grahams when we were kids. Either of you guys Golden Grahams eaters? I think my sister liked them so we had them around the house. I remember enjoying them. They have like they're like honey Flavored or something so they're good. They were bought occasionally at my household

I just remember the the milk leftover afterwards was not particularly good. I always enjoyed like the milky Soup you got afterwards. It's like the opposite of cinnamon toast crunch, which has some of the best leftover milk That's about as good as leftover milk can be I'd say cinnamon toast crunch which has some of the best leftover milk. That's about as good as leftover milk can be I'd say. It tastes, I remember when I had horchata for the first time and I was like wow it tastes like cinnamon toast crunch milk. And that Homer is young enough to, or like, well that commercial I got was from the mid 70s and if we're sticking with current, like Homer was like 20 when that commercial came out. So yeah golden Grahams are weird cuz I'm like looking I'm like who is The mascot and they never really had one. They just put the cereal on the box

It's hard to compare to the honeycomb many mascots the competing honeycomb Monster the honeycomb monster and before that the honeycomb hideout with the the robot and apparently golden grams invented in 1976 So Homer was out of high school when this food product hit the market Wow So the lyric is true. It is a brand new breakfast treat like with not a meal. It's a breakfast treat But but you can see that the the government is forcing them to say it's part of a complete breakfast at this point at that end of the commercial. I also love the cut to Abe works so great because one, it is Merkin shitting on the audience for caring about the plot.

Because of course it's a TV show, Homer's not going to die, it's a TV show. But it also works great as a joke that Abe is that heartless to his own son or that he is now so senile that he thinks he's watching a TV show, not the news about his son. A little column A, little column B. They crash into a pile of news reporters to speed up the plot because they don't have much time left here. Tom Brokaw is there once more asking a bunch of L letter words to him and this is where Homer explains how they survive actually

Buzz Aldrin being a good guy gives Homer all the credit and yet the news doesn't care the lying news media. How'd you solve the door dilemma? Homer Simpson was the real hero here he jury-rigged the door close using this. Hey, what is that? It's an inanimate carbon rod! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Oh, they were just about to show some close-ups of the rod. Oh, stupid rod. I got gypped. Oh, Homie, you should be proud. Only a handful of people have done what you've done. Yeah, Dad. How many people have seen the ice caps in the deserts all at once, or the majesty of the northern lights from 100 miles above?

Yeah, maybe I do have the right. What's that stuff? Anyway, thanks, Marge. Lisa. Bar, do you have something nice to say to your father? Eh, thanks Marge. Lisa. Bart, do you have something nice to say to your father? Eh, he knows how I feel. And then Bart throws the marker into the air. A great series of callbacks here.

It all comes together. That's a great script. One of many 2001 A Space Odyssey references that mystified me until I actually watched the movie. Or could just watch the clips before I saw the movie. The weird Homer baby especially, I'm sure it was like what? I think it was either this or you know what? It would be 96 when the Comedy Central MST3K finale happens, right, Bob? Which also ends on a space baby reference. But one of those two was this tipping point for yes, like Dr.

Forrester becomes a space baby. Yeah. And one of those two was the tipping point for me to finally watch it as a youth. And I also recall it because my dad bet me that I could not stay awake for both tapes of it because he said it was too boring. And I showed him, I showed him.

Yeah, I mean, this is why I took the movie Barbie to joke court because you can't open your movie with a 2001 parody, I'm sorry folks. It may be in 1993, 2023, you're too late. So it a 2001 parody. I'm sorry, folks. It may be in 1993. 2023, you're too late. So it's still tied up in the courts, but I expect the huge payout pretty soon. You know, when they made it the teaser trailer,

I thought, well, if it's just gonna be the teaser trailer, that's fine. It's fine enough for a promotional trailer, but it was the first scene of the movie too. It's not a joke at Barbie's expense. It's telling you Barbie is awesome and you love it. Do you know how the monolith changes the course of human history? That's Barbie guys Yeah, you love I love they use also sprok as our Thustra like a perfect like song

It's a great in in 2001 It is a bone flies into space and and then it goes to a satellite, it's a great match cut. And the Fox satellite, that won't bother Homer Simpson anymore. Now it's only friendly things at the Disney corporation that would never bother Homer at all, and he loves them. They're just soft, cushy satellites. I also like that this is a change from the script.

In the script script no 2001 ending instead it cuts back to ants on the satellite and they're chewing on cords hit with electrical wires and start growing large implying that their ant takeover of earth actually is coming very soon you know I like that too because we already had a lot of 2001 references in The Simpsons and in this episode. I like that as an alternate ending. Yeah, it feels a little like the Australia koala ending almost.

The same, probably, maybe we even would have had the same kind of dramatic sting zoom in. Bum, bum, bum, bum. You know, both are good, but maybe it would have been better to have a callback to the ants instead of just another scene from 2001 that they've hit so much here. But yeah, a perfect, a gorgeous episode to know that it started with contention that it was not a right direction to take the series, that it would ruin the series.

I do think that ever since they have had to deal with and like joking about how Homer went to space and that's a ridiculous thing that this man, it makes him no longer an approachable person. But I think they've only used it, you never think about it until they make it a good joke in the show. So I don't see it as a show ruiner. And Homer often forgets this fact about his life. Like many things, Homer only remembers it as a joke. Like, yeah, and though in Wizard of Evergreen Terrace I did love that. I just pulled it

back up to remember like how do they joke on it in that episode? Homer thinks it's not a big deal, but then when he's asked remember when you boxed for the heavyweight championship? He goes, no. Like that one is just brain damage he doesn't remember. This episode's great, especially I would say A minus script that when you can read the original script I think you can see a lot of good improvements they made and A plus animation in this episode. Yeah, it could have been a disaster.

It could have been too much too soon for the show in mid-season five, Homer Going to Space. But again, they justify it and they fill it with so many great timeless jokes that even if you are cranky about the premise, you can't deny that it's so funny and so well animated. Yeah, Manny, any final thoughts? Nope, you just said it all. It's yeah, it's just a great episode, you know. There's no B plot, it's paced well, it's animated well, and yeah, just so many

inanimate carbon rod, ant overlords, less shame, like so many really extraordinary jokes come out of this episode. And I should have asked this in the beginning, May, but you've drawn so many great, like, Simpsons stickers and Simpsons doodles and stuff. Do you recall any specific ones you've done, like, from this episode? Did I? When I did, I did all the little homers. I feel like he's included in that. I think you're right.

Yeah. I think Spaceman is, Dream To Be A Spaceman homer is there. Yeah. Because it was, it was just iconic episode outfits of Homer up through like season seven. And I know Super Seven had the Simpsons license before. They didn't do very well with a lot of obscure figures. This Outer Space Homer was one of the figures. Oh, yeah, that is a great, you know, I had to choose between Outer Space Homer

and Moo Moo Homer and I went with Moo Moo, but Outer Space, it's full of including the Animate Carbon Rod is one of his accessories. Yes. And the bag of chips and individual chips. Oh, man. Yeah, I own Moou Homer and I own Poochie. They're both over there. You probably can't see them too well, but they're on there. Those are the same ones I have. Oh, and I have Radioactive Man.

I had to get Radioactive Man. Those were the three. No, and I guess Bart Man as well. Okay, four, but that's it. Keep count. Four. Keep count. Keep count.

But thank you so much for coming back to the show, Mattie. We promise we will have you back again in less than six years. But until then then let us know where we can find you. And by the way, if you want to see Maddie at PAX East, you missed that too! You missed Mr. T, you missed Maddie. You need to keep track of what's going on in the world because we can't help you. Maddie, what's going on with you? Yeah, so you can find me on socials and website Patreon, Blue Sky, at Oh That's Raspberry, it's the letter O, that's

raspberry. I mostly do video game stuff, so if you're more interested in that, feel free to follow me, I do lots of video game comics, and I also run a Patreon that has a video game themed postcard and sticker sheet every month, so you're welcome to check that out. And I also do social media for the game company Grasshopper Manufacture, so follow us there as well. I love your art, Maddie. You have some art on our Patreon even, not just the Futurama, our heads and jars, but

also the in case listeners didn't know that, Maddie also drew, if you go to our Patreon, then now I'm promoting our Patreon. But if you were to go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, the two levels, the art for our patron levels for five and $10, those are also done by Matt. Yeah, Matt, you did the art for the podcast templates. What a Cartoon, King of the Hill, Futurama, Batman. That's all of our work too. I also love you mention your social media profiles.

I feel like it's like every six months you will mention that your handle is a Simpsons reference and people it's illuminating to your followers every time, every time a new follower learns. Yeah well anytime like one of the big Simpsons accounts or something posts that quote or it's like people are like where'd your handle come from or what Simpsons cell animation cell would you want to have? It's always just an excuse for me to post though that's Raspberry. No, now I can't remember if Moomoo Homer comes with a Raspberry. Oh, he does. He does.

He has. That's one of the reasons why I had to have that one because he does come with the Raspberry ice cream cup. Just like us, yes. Support Maddie on her Patreon and also all her great art too. It's great. Thank you so much, Maddie. Thank you, Maddie on her Patreon and also all our great art too. It's great. Thank you so much Maddie Thank you

Thanks so much to Maddie cop for being on the show Please check out all the cool stuff she's doing online But as for us you want to check out more of what we're doing and get these episodes ad free and one week at a Time and then access to over 200 miniseries episodes go to patreon.com Talking Simpsons and sign up at the five dollar level and when you do you'll get access to all the Things I mentioned before but specifically the ad free podcast and then the huge back catalog of all of our patreon content We've covered shows like Futurama King of the Hill the critic Batman the animated series of Mission Hill and like I said earlier there Are over 200 full-length miniseries episodes dating back to 2017

So there's a huge catalog of things that you'll love to hear if you're only familiar with the free feed and that's happening at patreon.com talking simpsons but there is a $10 level as well when you sign up for that you get all the $5 stuff naturally but you can also access one very long podcast once a month only for patrons of that level or higher and what is that Henry? Bob is talking about our what a cartoonoon movie podcast, our premium podcast. It's really like three podcasts in one, where each month we delve into an animated feature film as in depth as we do an episode like Deep Space Homer. And it's a great time to join right now because you're entering our summer of the Disney 2000s

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And I'm also on things like Letterboxd and all that good stuff as Bob Servo. My other podcast is a classic gaming podcast all about old video games that is called RetroNauts. And you can find that wherever you find podcasts or you can go to patreon.com slash RetroNauts, sign up there, support it and get two full length bonus episodes every month. And Henry, What about you? I still post a little on h-e-n-e-r-e-y-g on Twitter, but of course you can follow me for more updates on Blue Sky and Instagram where I am talking. Henry, look for me there. And if you're following both me and Bob to get all those updates, you should definitely be following on all your social medias. At Talk Simpsons Pod is the official social media accounts of this podcast.

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Are we there yet? I'm thirsty. Ugh. Mission Control, request permission to sedate Corgo ahead of schedule Payload checklist IRS surveillance satellite check ant farm check children's letters to God check three two one Make rocket go now