Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Lisa's Pony With Mike Mitchell

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

This week's episode is a classic one which is why we got a big first-time guest, Mike Mitchell from the fantastic podcast Doughboys, not to mention hit TV and films! Mitch tells about his time working on Simpsons as well as appearing on the series, then we chat about Homer and Lisa's bond being severed in a way only a pony can repair. So grab your reed and your wacky sax for a fun podcast! Support this podcast and get hundreds of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the new official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

This podcast is brought to you by patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talking of the Hill, the What a Cartoon Movie podcast, and tons more. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where today's special is refried dog poop. I'm your host, the Stern petition, Bob Mackey, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today, as always. Hey, it's Henry Gilbert, and I call this podcast Wildfire. And who do we have on the line our special guest today? It's Mitch in pog form. And this week's episode is Lisa's Pony. This is a whole lot of nothing. I'd rather be watching a boilers. This week's episode originally aired on november 7th 1991 and as always henry will tell us what

happened on this mythical day in real world history oh my god oh boy bobby recent simpsons guest irving magic johnson announces his hiv positive status and retires from nba basketball prince's cream is at the top of the billboard charts and uh i wanted to have some fast food news in here so at mcdonald's the happy meal toys are actually one of my favorites ever the looney tunes justice league toy oh where it was like yeah it's like bugs bunny and then you could put a superman costume on top of them or like batman costume on top of them or like Batman costume on top of Daffy Duck. Those were those are some of my favorites of the Happy Meal. That is wild. I mean, the Magic Johnson news is this is a crazy.

It's a wild day. Yes. Yeah. I think his episode aired what? Maybe two weeks before this. Two, three weeks. Yes. Yeah.

In ironic timing, because that episode had Nick Weiger as a guest to talk about Magic Johnson's guest appearance. And now now for the week this aired, we as our guest to talk about Benji Johnson's guest appearance. And now for the week this aired, we have Mitch on to talk about it, his actual retirement. And yeah, that Prince song Cream, guys, would you be surprised to know that it has a lot of double entendres in it? Including the, you got the horn, so why don't you blow it? And Cream, get on top. I'm only familiar with his bat dances cream's a good song it's it's a quality quality print song and i think i heard mitch go uh when i said the day

this uh this episode aired because yes it has been over 30 years believe it or not that oh no that just it just that hurt my soul a little bit that's all yes these episodes get further and further back in time as we as we do this uh podcast but yes you've heard him earlier on the show joining us today is mike mitchell of the doughboys welcome to the show mike thank you for having me is is it's mitch and pog form has that been done too many times or oh no no no no it's uh it's been done a few times all right once all right i'll take it being the second instance. I'm fine with that. But no, Mitch, we've been wanting to have you on for such a long time.

It's so great to have you on the show for this because we know, Mitch, that you are so experienced with The Simpsons. We don't need to go over the fact that you were also born in 1982, so you have the same childhood love of The Simpsons we do. Yes. Yeah. you have the same childhood love of the simpsons we do yes yeah but but that's that's just the beginning of your simpsons history i yeah i i worked there that's that's the big that's i i ended up working there i worked at the simpsons that's my i loved it so much as a kid you know on like probably the reason that i am maybe out in hollywood at all or even tried to do comedy in any way is is

is from the simpsons and uh yeah just you know my favorite i still think you know the first eight seasons of the show are are maybe the best tv there ever will be you know i i should have gone with uh the dud when homer makes fun of millhouse for being a big time i'm sure i panicked and went with alf and pog form because i i just i feel like millhouse lines are so easy to recall i feel like that's like the easiest that's just like you can pull a millhouse line pretty easy well if you're on a podcast you likely are a millhouse type so they just float up in your brain and i assume mitch when you're watching the show you're thinking these jokes are so funny i wonder what food you have to eat to generate them

because uh you were a pa responsible for bringing a lot of the food into the writers that's right i was the writer's pa it started at the writer i got hired right around the writer's strike so 2007 i was working on a show called shark with j Woods. He was the star of the show. Also a great Simpsons guest star. Maybe not a great person. It's only compliment James Woods. Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, not much else to say about him.

Maybe not a great person in real life. He had good scenes with Apu. That's about it. Yes, yeah. He's complicated. Maybe not even complicated, just kind of an asshole. But I worked on that show on Shark. The writer's strike was coming up.

I actually worked in the post-production office of Shark. I delivered DVDs to producers and directors and stuff like that at the end of the day, dailies and things like that, and cuts of the show. So I was working there. The writer's strike was coming up. I wasn't super affected because i was in post so i actually had work for a while but i remember the show was just going to come to an end i think after the writers it was like you should try to figure something out so i

called i just called the simpsons i like found their number on the lot and like gave a call to the production offices and i was like hey are you guys like looking for work and colin contrari who worked in there for a while he worked at the simpsons i think he's who answered and he was leaving the job as pa and he was like actually like there are openings like and he was like so if you send your resume over and i was like all right sure thing so i sent my resume over and tim kelpakis made so tim kelpakas was a member of my sketch group the birthday boys he worked at gracie films at the time he got he had gotten a a pa job at gracie films he took my resume and put it on lorena adamson's desk i hope i'm getting her last name correctly and i got a call i went in to for an interview and she's, so Tim Long put your resume on my desk.

Tim Long is a writer at The Simpsons. It's much higher status than Tim Kalpakis at that time within the show. And still, it's much higher status within the show than Tim Kalpakis. And I was like, I didn't say a word. I just didn't say wrong. It was Tim Kalpakis and uh i was like i didn't say a word i just didn't say wrong it was tim kalpakis i just nodded along and i got the job right then like right right around uh the the like i think it was maybe still during the writer's strike and then i was the writer's pa so maybe when they came back like i was i was there or something and i and i went to the simpsons movie premiere too just right around that time all in 2007 so kind of an interesting time to be start working there because i think that there was um a bit of like hey the simpsons movie we're feeling

good again this is like you know like uh the the people are we're all excited about the movie and everyone you know people enjoyed the movie uh which I thought the movie was okay. I didn't love the movie, but I didn't think it was a complete failure or anything like that. I thought it had funny moments and stuff. But I was in there at that time, and it felt a little bit exciting. But one of the writers, I won't say who it was, but he's a great guy, was like, Hey, we're all waiting for the show to die. He told me that the first, I won't say who it was, but he's a great guy, was like, hey, we're just like, we've been like, we're all waiting for the show to die. He told me that the first day I was there.

And I was like, damn, that's interesting. I mean, especially when it felt like there was kind of more excitement with the movie and everything like that. But he told me that. Great writer. Still works there. Still works on a lot of different things. Yeah, that was my start over there. And I was there for

three and a half almost four years i i got a talk show pilot that's how that's that's how i left i'm sorry i've talked so long i've rambled on about my this is a great story my boring simpsons history but yeah i was i was the uh the writer's pa on my first day there ian maxton graham said uh you're like like he was like you're a comedian huh say something funny in front of the entire room and i like got out of it by being like a dummy i was like uh i'm not funny or you know i said something like that and they and that was like good enough to make them like give me a courtesy chuckle uh i love i like i love ian too he's he's he's a great guy i actually you know like most of the writers i kind of really got along with it was a crazy job in that you know i i had to get their their lunches

and you had to make scripts for the for the table reads and get coffees and stuff like that it's it's spread up the show is split up between two pas and i think that maybe that's how it always was i don't know if back in the day there was even more i think i think maybe in like the you know the heart of the show the first like first like eight seasons or so, there maybe was maybe another PA. And I'm sure there were later nights and those guys were staying later. And we did it. It was that weird thing for us is that we came off the writer's strike. So when I was there, they were doing like double time and they were staying till like midnight and stuff for a few months to get like back on course basically uh well so then did you ring the the famous uh cowbell that announces that

the food is here for lunch that they were still at practice then i certainly did almost every day if i was the lunch guy i was ringing that almost every day the cowbell which you know basically notifies the other there's because the rooms are split up there's the bungalow and then there's like the two level offices right across from the bungalow have you guys ever have you ever been you've been in there right you've you've you've seen we got to go to one uh table read once yeah so we've been on on the fox lot though not in the actual like writer's room yeah we've been outside the bungalow i think yeah but looking like creeps taking pictures in front of it jim brooks is in there now i think i think they they move their offices over over there i think

he's in the bungalow now that bungalow has like did they tell you that that bungalow has like a like like a lot of history to it supposedly is like marilyn monroe stayed in that bungalow and like it's in the writer's room there's supposedly like a tunnel where like JFK visited Marilyn Monroe like like that's like that's at least what they say about it but I think I think Marilyn Monroe I think that is legit that she did stay in that bungalow and it's like a cool old bungalow that's it's it's kind of comfy I was that that room was Al always had the the two al jean who was the showrunner uh while i was there always had the uh the two-story office building

he was always in the writer writer's room up there which was in the top if you're looking at the building the top left room um and then and then there would always be like ian maxton graham ran that room for a while and then selman ran it for a while in the bungalow which was like kind of like the room that was like i hope we get out early you know like that room that was like i hope the day ends sooner and stuff like that so uh some of me and bob's favorite doughboys episodes are when you have on like matt selman or bill oakley and you talk through like favorite lunches of simpsons writers or just like the practice of being like a uh a hollywood writer who you know one of the few perks you can get is just a free lunch every day this the selman stack was like a thing that i've

like a selman selman is great because selman also try i love selman genuinely he's an awesome guy he's always been good to me and he also like he like tries to be like in in a funny way tries to be like a villain of like he bought me like a peanut butter stirrer and was like, I need you to stir the peanut butter and stuff like that. It's like very, it's like trying to like, he's like trying to haze you in the dorkiest, funniest ways, which aren't serious.

But he was great. He always, you know, he always treated you like a human being, which is all you're looking for, you know, because when you're just delivering food all the time you're like oh god i'm like a food delivering mechanism basically uh that's why like the scripts and stuff would lead to longer nights when they would have table reads we'd have to you know wait till the script was done and then make copies of the table reads and then have them couriered to all the actors so things like that where you just those would be longer nights but that was kind of more interesting stuff and then going to the table reads and phoning the actors in it was more high

pressure situation and i remember i was there for like a big table read when it was uh like this i think it was like seth rogan and he called in and jim brooks was there and then like the phone lines just went out it wasn't even our fault and i was like oh dear god this is a huge mess that was that sort of stuff was scary but you know for for for the for the most part like that stuff is all fun and then delivering food and coffee is just that's the every day of the job is like feeding you know like 30 plus people on staff which is you know it's it's it's it's crazy it's a lot to do and there was yeah there was a selman stack where he would stack his would go from the counter to the

cabinets above this would call it the selman stack uh he loves food he would try a lot to do and there was yeah there was a selman stack where he would stack his would go from the counter to the cabinets above this would call it the selman stack uh he loves food he would try a lot of different things i was there when we like got in trouble for ordering too much food the simpsons made so much money in the past that like i think it's a thing that they fought for and then i think on one side we you know people probably order too much food at one point and then they pushed back on that and stuff like that but we i would go to a lot of different restaurants and try to you know you try to make the writers happy and and if they were happy you were happy you know that was that was that was kind of a part of the big part of the job i wonder how much disney is giving more or less with food budgets

lunch budgets than uh than fox was i want my guess is that disney is worse you know what i mean like i think that disney i mean like look fox is also a bad company for other reasons of course fox news is awful and everything like that but i think disney is maybe worse with with with money and the way things go over there i mean i know for a fact that they had to like get rid of some consulting producers and stuff once once disney took over so we had a feeling that the credits on the start of episodes was going to get a little shorter in the yeah yeah i think disney is just dropping off crates of soylent to the writer's office now it's a

on this pouch yeah it's a possibility i mean i think a lot of those guys know it's like a good job there's so many funny talented people there it's like you know i was doing my own stuff too so it was like this especially after i was a couple years in it would you know it would be a pain in the ass a lot of the time and you know when you had to go do a show and you were staying late it would it would sometimes be chaotic and then later uh eliza hooper eventually worked with me and she is awesome and she would help cover for me she also does comedy she's a director and a writer she's great and joe saunders who's a a comedian writer and comedian and he would help me out sometimes too joe had the cushy job of he worked he worked in post he was like the post pa and that was that and he had and he had been a pa on the movie and there was a bunch of pas on the

movie and then he was the post post pa and then once joe left i was the post i went from the writer's pa to the post pa for like a short stretch of time and it was the easiest job and i came in at like noon a bunch and left at three like it was in fact i think they have now gotten rid of that job after i was done with it yeah like i after i did the job they got rid of it basically you know it's that sort of thing with any of those types of jobs where like there's a lot of great things that can come from it and then after a while you shouldn't do it anymore you know what I mean and I was at that state I say that for any I mean like if someone is you know if someone's a producer on the on my podcast dough boys I'm like if there comes a time where you're like I'm done with this you should you get get out of here you know I mean you shouldn't I don't mean that in a mean way I'm like yeah if there comes a time where you're like, I'm done with this, you should get out of here. You know what I mean? I don't mean that in a mean way.

I'm like, yeah, of course. Get the hell out of here. You're not supposed to do this forever. And that's the same with that job. It's a lot. I didn't have any real, first of all, the writer's assistants while I was there were Jacqueline Atkins, who had been there for a long period of time since kind of the early days of the show. And she's great. And somebody else.

Matt Marshall was the writer's assistant. He went on to write for Last Man on Earth and a few other things. He was great. And he had been there for a long time. And I remember talking to him. I was going to leave. And he's like, hey, man, I'm leaving too.

He's like, you kind of inspired me to get out of here and I was like oh wow never inspired anyone to do anything ever uh and and he left no Mitch you inspire podcasters every day it's true a person who can't talk who does podcasting but uh uh Matt Marshall was was great and he got and he got it yeah he got a he got a great job he's still writing super nice super funny guy and he had been in that right as the writer for a long time i think at one point i had wanted to be like hey maybe my course like you know maybe i'll and this is like early on and because i see you know i started in 2007 and i was i was on stage and performing again at that point, but I didn't know if I wanted to be a writer or actor or what.

And so at one point I was like, maybe I'll do the writer's assistant route and get into the room that way and keep working from there. And I think pretty early on I knew that I didn't want to do that. And I had sat in the room enough that I was like, I had seen what to do. And I just was like, I don't want to have those long hours and days. And then you might get a script, and maybe at some point you'll get staffed, but that's a long shot. You know what I mean? So pretty early on, I was like, oh, this is just a job. And it's cool to have experience here and meet super funny people.

And Pamela Hayden, who's the voice of millhouse calls me every year on the anniversary of my dad's death and i love her she's like so sweet yeah i made i made i made uh you know i made good friends with her got emotional there for a second but it's the truth she calls she calls every she calls me every every year on the day that my dad passed away and and and we'll talk and she's awesome honestly all the all the all the voice voice cast i met there you know there's like people i feel like everyone at the job who i wanted to like i did like which is which is made me happy that's great you know yeah yeah well well and also mitch you've you've been on the show twice haven't you i have yes i was i was

i did a voice at one point which selman uh hooked me up with uh like i said i love that guy he's the man and i got to and it was and it was a it was a funny episode it was a selman episode based in boston i was like a boss i was like at moe's bar and i gave homer i gave homer some shit and then wags and i are in a podcasting episode also a very funny episode which i don't did nangle write it or did nangle have a part of it i'm not sure but christine i think she did write that i think well it's called the podcast news you know podcast news yes here podcast news which i used to that was the other one too is like i you know i watched like the first like 10 to 12 seasons of the show.

And then I fell off on new episodes by the time I got to college. So I was still kind of watching in high school, I would say, towards the end. So 1989. So I graduated. Oh, yeah. Because that's season 12 when I was graduating high school. Season 12, 13, around there. So college, I would try to watch a

little bit and and that's probably where i fell off and then being there you just you know people call and ask for their episodes you just you know kabf 07 is you know whatever i can't remember specifically now but like uh you you just when when you're there you especially since i was there for three and a half years you would just kind of know everything. And it would be great just working there for three years when you just knew every – you could just open a script and you just knew every – when you had a highlight for someone, when we carried off the scripts for Tabories, you just knew every character they played. Which now – I've gotten rid of some of that information in my head. But on Doughboys, on my podcast, I've talked about Al Jean's coffee order, which I still know by heart. which now wouldn't be i've gotten rid of some of that information in my head but on dough boys on my podcast i have talked about al jean's coffee order which i still know by heart oh what is it

it's a large decaf non-fat sugar-free iced vanilla latte that's his that's his uh that's that was his coffee order so if you see al jean in a starbucks have your spec script on hand and get him that drink yes large decaf non-fat sugar-free iced vanilla latte he will he'll be happy i don't know if he's changed it up he loved diet sign sun kiss when i was there too yeah you go like grocery shopping and stuff too but like record days you'd have to set up for record days that were annoying like there was like annoying stuff that you had to do with it for it but like that was always fun seeing guest stars was always fun table reads were always fun and you know as someone who loves like simpsons lore and behind the scenes stuff like late night like when they're working on a script late night or there's like writers meetings or retreats which they did at the in the room

basically by the time i was there those were always kind of fun like the book came out when i was there and like al gene had me go buy a copy of the book for him in Graining and in James L Brooks and then all the writers were mad at me the next day because I had mentioned that the book came out and Al was like oh it did I was like yeah and he's like go get it for me I went and got it and brought it to them and then they those guys were just like looking at the book for a lot of the night. And they stayed there super late. So it was my fault. My fault that they stayed super late. But I love all that stuff.

And huge late night fan with Conan. And Conan came in one time. And Ian Maxton Graham called me up to the writer's room. He wouldn't tell me what it was about. He was like, will you come up and take my lunch order and i was like i just got it you want to like i just and i just got in the lunch orders and this is like an annoying thing that would happen where a writer would be like hey can you come over and get your lunch or after you just got all of them and you're sitting down the computer to type them up and you're like okay and i was like i was like

i just got them all do you want to just tell me what you want and he was like no no come up and it was ian being nice trying to like surprise me and i and i walked up the want and he was like no no come up and it was ian being nice trying to like surprise me and i and i walked up the stairs and i was like walking up and i was like holy shit that's conan and conan was in the room and all the writers were like excited to see him and he was like they were like hey mike's from quincy it was it was like another moment where i felt like i was in the front of the room talking to like the guy who i think is the funniest in the world and he was like quincy he's like people like you used to beat me up growing up. So he's like, thanks a lot, asshole.

And then he kept calling me asshole the entire time he was there. He saw me later in the other bungalow, and he was like, hey, asshole. He kept doing it the entire time. I'm just thinking, Ian Maxton Graham and Conan O'Brien in the same room, you're just in front of two giants, two very tall men. Super tall. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they are.

Ian is very tall man is based on Ian. And it makes right. I believe so. That's true. Yeah. And Ian is just is very tall. And Conan is also tall. And a giant in comedy. And I was just trying to keep up with him and not feel unfunny.

And he was so great. So that was one of the highlights for me working there. Oh, I'll tell you what I told him. I was like, hey, I was supposed to come in and do a sketch for The Tonight Show. This is real. I was like, I was supposed to come in and do a sketch for The Tonight show this is real i was like i was supposed to come and do a sketch for tonight show and i went out to take lunch orders and i left my cell phone when i got back from the lunch orders i i was at the simpsons i i i saw the call i called back and i i didn't get the sketch because i was just they had cast someone else in

that 20 minutes and conan was like oh yeah he's like he's like what was it i was like a lumberjack sketch or whatever like america's next top lumberjack or something and he's like he's like i remember that sketch he's like the nbc executives were watching that day and that sketch went so poorly that they decided decided to fire me so thanks a lot asshole and he called me an asshole again uh which was very funny and not true of course but uh it was i mean it made it made my day because i and i had always wanted to be on conan the conan was like the other thing besides the simpsons which kind of made me want to go into comedy so oh yeah us too Yeah. We're we we have so many similarities, Mitch. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you talked about a lot a lot of long nights writing comedy.

This episode is inspired by those long nights because the production history behind this episode is Al Jean and Mike Reese are running the show. Mike Reese describes this episode as being, quote unquote, dumped on them in that they were running a show and also having to write this script. So they're working 12 hour days on the show. And then between the hours of 10 and one writing the script. So everything happening to Homer towards the back half, that is the life, the lives they're living. Like I think Al Jean is a new father at the time too.

Yeah. Yeah. So, and I think this is what really pushed Mike Reese out of being a showrunner. This and his experience with the critic and teen angel, just, he had a lot of rough experiences in the nineties. Now he likes one day a week. that i don't blame him the homer falling asleep driving

and just like this is you you hear about the very late nights especially at the in season three of it for and like uh mike reese's book i i just was rereading the sections about this time in it though he doesn't speak specifically about this episode, but yeah, he's like season three, they're in their late twenties. They, you know,

they're like, this is the first time they've ever show run anything. And they're also worried like Sam, Simon's gone. Are we going to crater the show? Are we going to be known as the guys who killed the Simpsons? Because we're these two untested show runners put in charge of it. It's like,

Oh, it's 3am. Now it's time to write the episode we have assigned to us after doing everything else all day and uh reese also it's funny he kind of has an ax to grind in one page where he talks about he's he says like other he's like other writers were complaining of how hard they were working i was working four more hours than them every day and reese mentions too that he gained 80 pounds working on the series. And he worked it all off and has stayed in good shape since.

But, yeah, he's. Yeah, you see all the pictures of him. He looks thick. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the Mr. Bergstrom caricature of Reese is much thinner than the season four caricature of Reese. You can see his weight gain throughout the cartoon version of him as well. Now it's,

uh, and he, he mentions, uh, one episode, uh, one bit from this episode that ruined his day, which was like,

he said they were both working a hundred hour weeks that Al Jean like had walking pneumonia on it, uh, and passed out briefly while editing an episode and then like got up and he's like no okay back to back to the editing uh and reese said that he never took a day off but one day he's like okay i have to take a day off this day i'm just gonna sleep all day no one call me and then he said that it's 7 a.m or 8 a.m then next day he was got a phone call about this episode of somebody saying like so you want that uh the guy who runs this uh music store to look like wally cox do you mean this wally cox

and he's like so yeah i mean despite being written under duress it's it's one of the best episodes and i think they credit um james l brooks for filling in a lot of the gaps that they couldn't fill like a lot of the great comedic lines and speeches are up are his uh contributions to this episode well you also the crazy thing about all this too is like they're show running in their late 20s they are like now that i've been in hollywood for whatever 17 years or whatever i'm like that's just insane to me that these young guys were running the show when they were when they were 29 years old like and i and i know that it was a young show but when you think of just what that job is and and and and what it takes and everything like that and what it and what it takes out of

you just it's crazy to me that someone a decade younger is doing than i am now is doing something like that now it's it's crazy. It's wild. Wonder Kids, yeah. The Simpsons will be right back. Thursday, Homer tries to buy Lisa's love with a pony. I know you love me, so you don't get squashed. On an all-new Simpsons. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. On an all-new Simpsons. and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier,

and your world brighter. Find our net zero hub at electricireland.ie. Hey everybody, it's Henry. Welcome to the break, and we hope you enjoy this one, even if we didn't get you a moped. And a big thank you to our guests this week, mitchell we've been wanting to have him on for such a long time and it was awesome to finally get him on you know mike mitchell from the very popular podcast

the doughboys plus tons of tv shows and movies he's such an awesome guy and i hope you guys enjoy him sharing his simpsons experiences with us please check out all the cool stuff mike mitchell does thanks so much mitch and a big thank you as well to our many supporters at patreon because me and bob can only do this as our full-time job because of the support of those folks on patreon for five bucks a month those people let me and bob do this as our real ass jobs and they also get so many perks like next week's episode of talking simpsons a week ahead of time and ad free you can hear it right now if you signed up plus a ton of exclusive podcasts over a hundred of them each month you get to hear a new episode of talking

futurama and talking of the hill where we go through both of those series super in depth just like we do the simpsons and there's a giant back catalog of us covering every episode of the critic of mission hill our 10 favorite episodes of batman the animated series and lots and lots more go to patreon.com slash talking simpsons to check out all you're missing out on at that five dollar level but if you want something even nicer than a scottish deer hound then you should check out the premium level at patreon.com slash talking simpsons because there you get access to all of the five dollar things i just mentioned and also our monthly what a cartoon movie podcast where me and bob talk about an animated feature film super super duper in-depth, sometimes over five or even over six hours long. Right now, when you're listening to this, we are deep into the summer of Disney Renaissance,

where we are covering a bunch of the Disney classics of the 80s and 90s. Last month, we covered The Little Mermaid. This month, you're going to hear us talk about Beauty and the Beast. And there's a gigantic back catalog, almost four of what a cartoon movies at your disposal of us covering things like south park bigger longer and uncut who framed roger rabbit spider-man into the spider-verse kiki's delivery service a goofy movie akira and so so much more we really cover the gamut of so many different animated feature films and you can only hear me and Bob chat about those and all the other $5 stuff if you're at the $10 level at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. and yeah it's uh it's funny to hear your stories of of you know back in your time there that they

were still having late nights at times though i would think aljean probably did finally got the workflow good enough that he's not working 100 hour days or weeks oh no not i mean when i came back from the writer's strike that it was it was basically like double session of scripts so like they were doing two table reads a week you know what i mean it at first they were just catching up and that and so it had that vibe and the movie had that vibe too you know the because they were they were in production while the movie was going on too there was a room for the movie but they would go they would have late nights with the movie and stuff like that, there was a room for the movie, but they would go, they would have late nights with the movie

and stuff like that too. And you were there when the ride was being worked on too, right? I was there when the ride was being worked on. Matt Warburton did a ton of work on that ride. I was there when they started having the holiday party up at the ride and everything like that, the premiere party rather. I think they still maybe do it. Well, not since COVID, but Simpsons, like Simpsons Land at Universal is where they would have all the staff because it's huge.

You know, it's like all of film Roman and everything like that. That's the other thing I didn't think of. The holiday gift was one of the worst things ever when I worked there. And when I worked there, it was there was something called it was it was the gift was the marju vac which was like an eureka vacuum and then we'd cut it open and like put in this like thing that was like it's the marju vac and then we'd put in a a blue wig and then i just remember how and like they were they were huge and i had to deliver these marju vacs to like people at universal because of the i was like walking around universal i was walking around

city walk in universal with like three vacuums like two and under like one under one arm and then holding two in my hands and it was just like it was the closest i got to crying at that job there was another moment there was another moment there was there was there was a there was juniors deli which whenever al got that for dinner i would always be like fuck i hate juniors was just the worst it just meant like it's gonna be a super late night and it was a night where i had a meet up with my sketch group and it was like there was things that had to be done and they got juniors deli and i came back and every and they had dismissed the rooms and i like started to like weep and then mark wilmore was there and Mark came and got his meal

and he's like they just left sorry buddy rest in peace to Mark Wilmore he's passed away uh since then but and Jacqueline Atkins Jacqueline was still there Jacqueline would always stay late and write stuff up and she felt awful for me too and so I brought like 20 meals to the my sketch group the birthday boys house and they lived off these meals for like two weeks like uh like just like food like probably way past like a week would have been good i think they lived off of them for like 10 days to two weeks of like homer's like brown sandwich which was a real thing based on al as you guys know i'm sure yeah that's right yeah yeah there there there would there would still be long there would still be some long nights, but not like it used to be.

Well, also, Mitch, right before we came on, me and Bob recorded a quick Director's Corner to profile first-time director of this week's episode. So let's drop that in here. So we have a Director's Corner for this episode. It's all about Carlos Baeza, who directed eight total episodes through the end of season five. This is his first, of course.

And he performed multiple roles in the show as early as season one's homer's odyssey and started assisting directing in um season two yeah he's uh he is assistant directing was all on wes archer episodes i noted so that was who was who is training him to be the future guy on the show yeah and notably this is something we don't talk about at all really he was the first non-white simpsons director yeah as far from what i know about him based on things david silverman has said because by the way he's kind of a mystery he was a cuban american right like a cuban immigrant i believe yeah he never appears on any commentary there's rare photos of him out there there's a deleted scene on the season four dvds there's deleted scenes from the episode the front this one i'm really sad they deleted it because the simpsons writers all get drawn into the show for their joke in the writer's room but there's a deleted scene where bart and lisa go to

the artist room and the artists uh like stick a piece of dynamite in a cat's mouth to write a joke i can name every director in there except there's one like handsome darker complexioned man with a ponytail i was like oh i bet that has to be carlos paeza that's the only season four director he missed his not there misses one on-screen appearance yeah uh so according to imdb in our own research his first credit is animator on the roger rabbit short tummy trouble go back to our june what a cartoon episode to learn more about that yeah you know i wonder now with the uh this is a question if we ever talk to wes archer david silverman again i wonder if it is like a networking connection thing like if he's a great a great animator who the connection would be of the networking would be bill cop is one of the

head guys on tummy trouble bill cop is good friends with wes archer and david silverman which is how they all came together to do the simpsons animation so maybe after tummy trouble and the entire roger rabbit group fell apart in like 90 early 91 that uh baez is like i had enough of this disney bullshit i'm gonna i i've heard my friends at simpsons actually want to hire me i think it was a cop connection yeah and i have to say this up front his episodes look so good and i'm so sad the show lost him although he was there for two years so to name some of the ones he directed that look amazing radio bart bart the lover selma's choice deep space homer that's like

half his episodes they are astounding looking and i associate his episodes with the simpsons having like more rounded muzzles like yeah more rounded lips like slightly off model but in a very charming biaza ish way yes i love how the simpsons look in his episodes like there is there's a sphericalness to them that he really does well and and i think too i wonder there's a bit in here that is redrawn from bart the general lisa with the blow dryer in her face. And Baeza was an animator on that episode. So I wonder if he even animated that section, you know. Could be.

It's oddly fluid. That's why the joke works so well in that first episode and in this one. So this is all I know about him based on things David Silverman has said. David Silverman said on a commentary, he returned to Cuba. So that's all I know. That's all I know about the fate of Carlos. Because it seems like he did that in the early aughts because there are some scattered credits after The Simpsons. So he co-directs one Futurama episode and that's Fear of a Bot Planet. So he co-directs that.

He does storyboards for one episode of The Proud Family and character designs for one episode of quack pack and also he returned to the simpsons very briefly to work on storyboards for uh episode sorry season 11 the episode little big mom that is the uh the leprosy episode right right man or hansen's disease whatever you call it now yeah that's hey that's what marge says too it's named after that disgusting soda yes yeah no i it yeah from the sound of that it looks like he was just taking random freelance gigs and then eventually just said nah i'm heading back to cuba no no more america for me i don't know i i it's such a mystery did like did a marriage fall apart did did a job not come did did family call him back to cuba what did he see where america was headed yes yeah after 9 11 he's

like i'm in the fuck out of here, man. Yeah. But yeah. So in the early 2000s, a few more things. A handful of storyboard credits on something called Puccini's Yard. And I believe that was produced way before 2000. So I assume he left like in the very early 2000s. And then the last thing he has is an Argentinian production.

The last credit he has is on an argentinian production called city hunters not city hunter the anime but city hunters which was produced for the latin american market it's a mix of cgi and 2d animation it's incredibly horny there are clips of it on youtube uh it's a lot of bodacious babes in uh 3d settings so it reminds me of the very horny Cyber 6 Argentinian comics that I paged through for research purposes. Man, it's just really too bad. Baeza is so good. I feel like he'd, well, I mean, if he's now at retirement age,

he doesn't have to come back, but he's the type of guy that I wish they'd have gotten him back for the movie. He would have been a perfect part of that movie. Or, you know, if Archer could get him back just to direct Rick and Morty, I'm sure it'd be gorgeous. Like, yeah. I mean, who knows? Maybe he left the animation industry. Maybe he's like painting murals in Cuba.

Like who knows what he's doing, but enjoying that wonderful health care there. Yes. I hear it's pretty nice. But yeah, like no interviews. One photo of him on the internet that i could find uh nothing else about him so he's a total mystery who kind of dropped off the face of the earth 20 years ago i assume he's still around and still thriving but just not in the animation industry but when he was on the show he was doing some of his best work yes yeah the the

animation speaks for itself it's it's crazy to think that he was in the disney theatrical group with roger rabbit and after that he's like now i'm out of here like a guy of his skill you would think disney would want to keep but it also maybe he was a kind of a free spirit and didn't want to work in the disney machinery especially after listen to our roger rabbit shorts podcast on on what a cartoon if you want the full story but it sounded like they had a whole lot of freedom on those first two shorts and then when spielberg pulled out they're like all right you guys freedom's over like bill kopp said it to himself here's a script here's a script you're not boarding this this here's the script in the script side i mean who knows maybe tv production uh ground him down like i did with david silverman like david silverman left for

pixar and then came back maybe he's like the animation is not for me at all anymore just it's it's too taxing and i want to do other things so that is the story of carlos baeza carlos if you're out there we'll talk to you we love you yes yes yes yes well this episode begins actually with a bit about homer it's it's one of their many film parodies i think too this is you know al and mike it's not surprising that they would go on to do the critic right after this because they would start so many episodes with lengthy film parodies this 2001 one i think it's one of those many things where i as a kid only would watch these classic films because i had to get the joke in the simpsons like i never it wasn't from this one though i think it was finally after deep space homer had so many i was like all, I have to rent the VHS of this movie.

For me, I think I finally saw 2001 in 4K screening of it five years ago. And as I was watching it, I was enjoying it. But I was thinking, there's that reference. There's that reference. There's that reference. And I get them all now. It's great. Yeah.

I mean, when I was a kid, I mean, that's the great part about The Simpsons 2ons too is like you're like i have no idea what the hell any of this means but later on you're like oh i and you when you can still find it funny even though you don't get the reference i think that's like a part of the genius of it is a little kid is laughing at the 2001 reference and not having never seen the movie and then later you like it more when you actually appreciate it it's just funny monkey smashing stuff when you're yeah exactly that's which is good homer as a as a monkey back in the day is is it is great in prehistoric times it's awesome i was actually misremembering this joke because there's a critic opening joke where it's the opening it stinks movie clip and in that clip the monkeys are hitting the monolith and it's like a soda machine right and i i thought that was going to happen here but i was misremembering but written by the same people so it's fair it's

supposed to be read the joke is that homer the ape is inventing goofing off after meeting the uh the monolith that's the that's the extra level to the joke that i never really got until hearing them explain it on the commentary but yeah they even make it widescreen to copy the 70mm style of 2001. And so Homer is awoken with monkey noises by a phone call from Lisa, and Lisa needs some help get me a new one. Uh, isn't this the kind of thing your mother's better at? I called her. She's not home. I also tried Mr. Flanders, Aunt Patty, Aunt Selma, Dr. Hibbert, Reverend Lovejoy, and that nice man who caught the snake in our basement.

Wow, and after them, out of all the people in the world, you chose me. Uh-huh. Yeah? Number four and a half reed. Got it. Well, you're in for a whale of a show tonight uh i'd like to point out that the doors are now locked so you parents can't sneak out of the show after your own child has performed oh and let me caution the people in the first five rows you will get wet even lisa knows like yeah you are useless dad but i have literally no other options like you have to it's got to be you or nobody the nice man who caught the snake in the basement is so funny she doesn't even know his name the person she called the nice guy she just called the nice man

who caught the snake in the basement or tried to call him is that what it was i guess yeah yeah he wasn't answering either like yeah i guess you know this is before cell phones this is how it works they uh that marge uh marge is must be driving on the way to the talent show but uh yeah and the the by the way the little gardenia and lisa's hair that's supposed to make her look like billy holiday that's the uh the reference there so like the design of miss atomic pile on that on the calendar there that was great suggestive rod and this is the debut of king toots and because of this episode it has to be next to mo unless there's it needs to be gone for a joke but yes uh this is the debut of king

uh toots and the the proprietor as well who i don't think we see very often no no he's pretty great though homer homer wrote that info on his shoe too correct when we were hearing him write and the proprietor as well, who I don't think we see very often. No, no. He's pretty great, though. Homer wrote that info on his shoe, too, correct, when we were hearing him write it down? Yeah, it's pretty amazing he writes it on his shoe while, like, but he has to, and he also already had written down over a hole in his shoe, like, fix this, which shows you how much he reads his shoes. But, yeah, and also, you know, four and a half read,

Al Jean, his brother, is a professional sax player and so he had asked him for the tip on that okay like what's the read lisa would use on on her uh on her wacky saxes but i love that they'll also uh several things in this episode feel like gene and reese like doing sequel jokes to like season one or two things for for instance the this talent show setup it pretty much is like season one or two things for for instance the this talent show setup it pretty much is like you know the setup of the first episode the christmas special much better jokes though yes you can see how far they've advanced it's also funny that everybody's bored of this talent show the the people are incredibly talented like the kids are actually better than any i participated in a talent show once i probably was inspired by this episode as a kid going like oh i can be a comedian like bart uh it was embarrassing i i regret doing it what

was your was it a type five yeah it was how'd you open uh well basically can i ask you yeah can i ask you quickly did you sing my ding-a-ling no no i didn't i what i did do was rip off several jokes by gallagher is what i did I just stole Gallagher jokes I got why do you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway yeah that was definitely the one I remember ripping off yeah that's that is great by the way if I saw a student singing my ding-a-ling I I would be like this kid is funny I think I think I would enjoy it I love that joke of them locking the door so no one can leave. It's a great little touch. Have you ever been to a thing where they warn you you'll get wet?

I've been scared of those. I only went to one thing, the Evil Dead musical that used to be in Las Vegas. If you were in one of four rows, you were going to get splashed with red Kool-Aid the whole night. It was in place of the blood. I sat far back and did not get any of it i was too scared i was too wimpy i think i got into like yeah like sea world or like aquarium shows but never never uh a school talent show luckily uh and yeah so homer stops at king toots it just so happens to be next to mose and uh as in most episodes what's unspoken in all

these like well homer's an alcoholic that's his problem like that's what prevents him from being a good father is that when he sees the bar and knows that he can drink a beer in three minutes before the five minutes are up that's so good he does that instead of doing it yes yeah and you know what when mo tells him how to uh he doesn't tell him how to do his job every time i pour myself a beer i remind myself of homer's helpful tip on how to not get too big a head on it yeah you got something class yeah yeah unless you're doing a milk pour by the way that's something i learned oh it's called a milk pour i haven't heard of this it's not worth doing okay but uh i also like uh this is the nicest mo's ever been in this episode like he's somebody who we've learned later saved

a guy from a burning car and his wife and and in this one he's just gonna like sorry homer sorry like he's the nicest guy there's a double read of sorry homer that i wrote down that it's great when he said yeah he says sorry homer twice or something yeah but uh but yes they show uh then i believe a knife no the uh the stacked chairs balancing act which just getting tepid applause. Nobody cares. And this is where we get another first appearance in this episode. Is this Lunch Lady Doris? The first appearance of Lunch Lady Doris.

Yeah. Wow. Voiced by the late Doris Grau. She passed away in 1995. We talked about her plenty. And of course, she would go on to voice Doris on The Critic. And she was a script supervisor. And her career went back to the 40s, i think yes or perhaps even earlier a real selma diamond

voice it was uh yeah i don't you ever hear any doris grail stories around the office mitch no not not you know that was it was way before my my time but everyone would just said that she was a delightful woman that's the kind of light i had heard about her but nothing nothing no no behind the scenes stuff they made al and mike loved her voice so much they just made up a character for on the on the critic to be a regular character i i get that i mean that that she her voice is fantastic yes i also love that skinner when he tells that kim kid who's leaving the stage like i want all those chairs returned i'm not kidding you make sure it's like this is a stage pattern i'm not kidding you put those chairs back it's still i did i did i got to meet marcia wallace by the way which was oh that's

awesome yeah which was great man did uh though did you ever meet harry shearer was he always calling in at that time then i i was there when harry stopped coming in actually i was i was there at the time when when when when when when harry stopped coming in so uh it was uh you know in my experience with him he was uh he was always uh was always nice about it you know uh but uh but always nice to me and there there was that contract dispute oh yeah yeah oh yeah so you were working there during the time where he briefly quit the show that's wow crazy times yeah yes it was it it really was crazy times he was he was always nice to me you could you know you could you i think he's an ornery ornery guy you know i think you can sense that from him

but you know i i never i never had any i never had any problems in the first i'm also a pa so you know uh well hey a guy who's nice to pas that's a good sign yeah yeah he was i mean he's everyone on the show is the voice cast is just so good and when well you know at that time i remember when they were like talking of replacements for him or whatever like you know the outside world was talking about that even more than maybe they were like talking of replacements for him or whatever like you know the outside world was talking about that even more than maybe they worry inside the simpsons but i was like it will never it won't be the same if that guy is it just won't i feel like every voice actor on that show is just so important to the show that if if one of them isn't there hey for almost every actor when they're gone they're gonna have to be replaced by like five other actors you know yes uh yeah

everyone who can specifically do yeah exactly yes or ai well as we know disney loves paying voice actors lots of money we know that famously i love doing it uh but anyway uh so yes uh then fun cut to uh well homer thinks he's got five seconds, 15 seconds to spare. Heads over, sees that it's closed. Comes back and then insults the wimpy dork who closed early. And I just love also is like me and my trenchant mouth. That's a great line. Means vigorous or incisive in expression or style.

Homer has a word of the day calendar i think in his office and that's where he's getting this and then cuts to millhouse playing the spoons which apparently was based on a real uh kid algae knew from his talent show back in childhood they didn't mention this on uh the commentary or anything but i know when mike uh reese and aljean worked at the night show because uh johnny carson was a demented tyrant he would make the writers do a talent show for him and i feel like a lot of this is inspired by that i think you're right oh man i think you're right why i was also thinking of carson when skinner is backstage like being a dick and then he comes on stage like and it's super nice and happy it's like i feel like that's a carson reference there too but

but yes then bart comes out and does his uh insulting comedy which i love that it's written like how a 10 year old would write stand-up which is just saying like duh look at me up principal skinner like it's a 10 year old doesn't know how to write like a good joke but you know what bart is just so charming and funny that it just does make you laugh and i love that bleeding gums murphy right that's who that's yeah that's who bleeding gums murphy is like loving it he's like he's giving bart like uh doesn't give bart like a 10 or whatever he writes down like a he loves he which, which is so fucking funny to me. But you know what?

I guess Lisa didn't notice that Bleeding Gums was there because she should have just asked him for some help. You know, he probably has a spare read sitting around. He could have stepped in and stopped all the mockery from the audience. Yeah, he should have said, I know she can play. What's going on there, Bleeding Gums? Al and Mike were staying up too late. They didn't think of it. I don't know what the what's going on there bleeding gums alan alan mike we're staying up too late they didn't think of it i don't know what the hell's going on well also they unfortunately could not get back uh ron taylor for for this it's a uh a random voice for uh for i think it's

hank oh yeah i think you're right yes yeah so homer is pleading for help uh to get is pleading for help with reed uh and he also doesn't have a picture of lisa in his wallet again, he's pleading for help with Reed. And he also doesn't have a picture of Lisa in his wallet again because he's an awful father. But he finally convinces the guy. Please, you've got to open that store. Let me think about it. No. Okay, okay.

But I want you to see a picture of the little girl you're disappointing. Well, I don't have one. Come on, Jer, open up. Be a pal. Remember when I pulled you and your wife out of that burning car? Okay, okay. But now we're even. What does your daughter need?

I'll have you know, I wrote it down. Number, number four and a half. To my gum, number four and a half. Read, woo-hoo! And what instrument does she play? I don't know. Oh, boy. You know, I mean, we covered it.

My statement here is that it's weird when Mo is not the jerk in a scene. Yes, yeah. Yeah. Twice. Twice in a row it happens. I feel like in just a season later, the joke would be that Mo set that car on fire instead of saving someone from a burning car.

I like nice Mo. I'm a fan of nice Mo. You know, in future episodes in season 26, they introduce a different owner for King Toot, a band named King Toot, who would in then season 30 be voiced by Will Forte. So new ownership for King Toot after Jerry here. He mysteriously burned to death in a car mo was not there to save him but yeah so then uh we quickly cut back to lisa begging march for help there's a fun series of visions of what march thinks is preventing homer and

obviously because home as she imagines like a broken busted tire kidnapped by aliens and then she's like oh he's probably just getting drunk because he's drunk he's a drunk he has an alcohol problem what's her reaction to that one is like probably or something like that right like yeah bingo yeah she has to lie to her daughter yes yeah like oh i'm sure he'll be here which uh yeah and then we cut back to Homer the only way he can remember it is remembering what he yells at Lisa as Lisa stopped playing that saxophone yes yeah that's stupid we've all we all bought uh Simpsons Sing the Blues oh yes we heard him yell at Lisa on that CD uh that was in Do the Bartman yeah so uh my ding-a-ling yes okay this is this is the first time i actually listened to it on its own like i've only heard this reference i never heard the song it was a novelty song for

boomers uh performed by chuck berry the original song was actually much older so chuck berry's version is 72 uh dave bartholomew's version is 52 and it's much dirtier oh yeah wow and apparently also it is a dirt it is just a dirty song huh it's a dirty song yeah uh but apparently to just to make it like playable on the radio and stuff uh chuck berry made it a little cleaner but still referencing a penis wow the cleaner version is the chuck berry one that's funny and apparently it's very hard to clear things for chuck berry because he owns the rights to all of his music so because a producer on the simpsons album knew him they were able to work through the producer to license this song yeah well because in simpsons sing the

blues bart does sing a chuck berry song yes that's right uh ring ring goes a bill hail hail rock and roll that's the dumb song yeah it's fine it's but you were right the first time uh no it's fine and yeah that i i looked this up when chuck berry died uh his my ding-a-ling was among the many song rights that were purchased by the dual tone records company for 50 million dollars in 2017 so now it's uh much easier to get the rights to my ding-a-ling than it was when Barry was alive. You can get it yourself. Isn't that great old Hollywood that they're like, oh, our producer. We had to ask our record producer friend to contact Chuck Berry for us.

I can't believe that it's an actual dirty. I so just thought that it was just like a stupid little like sing-along song that from like the like the 30s or something that was not in any way dirty you know i know skinner stop like that's to me is a part of the joke is that this kid like is that skinner is stopping the song for being dirty when it's when in my mind i didn't think it was but that's so funny to hear that it was like an actually filthy song, which is great. That's a, yeah. I remember seeing this as first as a kid and thinking like, Oh, that's a silly thing that kid made up. And then later listening to an oldie station, I would hear that. I heard the Barry version of just like, and I heard bells ring and it got caught on my ding,

a ling, a ling, oh my ding. And it's a sing-along song with the audience. You want them to sing, and if you didn't like this song, then you must be playing with your own ding-a-ling. That's how the song ends. Dear God. It is fun. I feel like Skinner was in the bathroom or something. He comes out

way too late. He should be on that kid after the first ding-a-ling is uttered. Honestly, he shouldn't have let Bart on stage either like he's you know as a producer of this stage show he's not he's not in control of his stage no one's vetting these acts it's kind of funny that he lets part do his thing but uh like uh he just takes he takes the burn for for for a minute there when he's when he's doing z more there's there's there's also which i'm sure you're gonna get to but there's there's an iconic shot of of lisa coming up when she gets her hair dried like to me that is like that to me is like something that was just like played in commercials

a bunch like uh like her face like like like uh her skin loose on her face from uh from the hair dryer it's like such an iconic uh image to me but oh yeah uh this is before she goes on stage oh also to answer the question homer is asked baritone or uh tenor uh it's uh lisa plays a baritone style sax bleeding gums is an alto style but lisa's sax being a baritone it's shaped like one but a baritone is actually much bigger which was the original joke uh graining had when he's like oh she plays a baritone saxophone because it would be a sax that's slightly bigger than her even oh that's funny she then gets on stage and uh right as she's introduced skinner does his quick the like one of the last times the spinner skinner misspeaks gag oh i just

misspoke there just like skinner. With stormy leather or weather. That's a very quaint season one joke of Skinner. But, yes, Lisa tries playing her wacky sax, and it doesn't go well for her in our next clip. I hate to be that kid's father. Uh-oh. That'll do. It's not my fault.

It's the reed. Oh, yes, of course. It's the reed. Let's hear it for Lisa Simpson and her wacky sex. Yeah. Woo. Woo, yeah. yeah yeah oh poor poor elisa just sobbing on stage let down by her father in the worst way it's that skinner is so funny in a couple different ways right in there it's it's so great

yes yes it's the sex and then let's give it up for Lisa Simpson and her wacky sex, trying to play off this awful, horrible performance as a wacky, fun thing. She intentionally did this or something. Yeah, isn't this silly? It's great. Oh, of course. It's the read. So dismissive.

Oh, that's what it was, the read, yes. And Homer realizing he fucked up in that moment of opening the door, like, uh-oh, like, yeah, he's screwed. Cheering her on. Yes, yeah. Just the tears from Lisa's eyes, they are so sad in that moment there. It's a lot of episodes in a row about bad fathers. Yeah, he's a really bad, and the next episode is Saturdays of Thunder,

and he's a pretty bad dad in that one, too. And then the crusty episode with his bad dad. Yeah, yeah, boy, man. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our Net Zero Hub at electricireland.ie.

They were working through some data issues on this one. Yeah, this poor writer's room. Jesus. But I want to talk about Phineas Q. Butterfat's 5600 Flavors Ice Cream Parlor. Yeah. So it's the debut of this as well, and you can actually eat at this at Universal Studios, but the Mount Belly Ache is not on the menu. Ah, yeah. I looked that up.

Yeah, though on the menu you can't get a thing like, there's one thing named after Mr. Teeny, which is like Mr. Teeny's banana split. It's like a Conan cone or something. I think it's supposed to be a Conan O'Brien reference. Weird. Yeah. I want to know if Mitch knows about this. So this this restaurant or eatery is based on Farrell's, which is an ice cream parlor chain that started in 63 and went defunct in 2019 and according to wikipedia quote the largest item

on the menu the zoo sunday was delivered with great fanfare by a number of employees carrying it wildly around the restaurant on a stretcher accompanied by the sound of ambulance sirens so they're parodying the zoo sunday with this mountbelly thing it's funny that they're they're the mountbelly ache is like maybe more tame like seems like a little bit more tame than actually what they're parodying it's like it was on a stretcher with fucking with with with with uh with uh an ambulance sound that's like that's that's wild that's like uh and by the way the mountbelly ache looks great it should be on the menu at universal i guess with inflation that's maybe 300 that sunday oh yeah 88 to now yeah yeah oh damn and that would you pay i mean if you had a couple people maybe it'd be fun to get

you know i've never out of all the junk i've eaten at the universal springfield the many times i've gone there i've not eaten at the ice cream parlor because yeah it just seems like just regular ice cream though i mean a crusty burger just is a burger it's not really any different but yeah yeah they took i mean doc brown's chicken was a great spot and it is now it's now they took over that spot right it's now yeah the cleat is chicken they still sell the brown uh chicken plate there but yeah okay all right yeah yeah were you sad that the back to the future ride had to die so the simpsons ride could exist mitch a little bit yeah i remember i was i was i remember i picked up al we were there for like the premiere of the ride we went like when it opened and i remember i told al because his mom was gonna ride the ride and i was like when we when we did the the back to the

future ride my mom sat in a non-moving seat. And he told his mom that she could sit in a non-moving seat. Not true. But he was in the car with me. I gave him bad information. I think that the ride is fun. But every time I go in there now, it looks like it's faded. The screen doesn't look bright. You know what I'm saying? It looks like the projection of it looks like kind of like a dark color and kind of like grayish or whatever.

But I think the ride is pretty fun. I think they did a good job on it. That's my issue. I think they need to change some bulbs in there. It's just so dim. Yeah. It's so dim. The picture of it is truly dim.

It needs to be like brighter. But like the actual what actually happens on the ride is fun. I think it's the backstory of Maggie turning giant and everything like that is fun. You know, the ride made my mom sick. I hope Al Jean's mom was okay on it. I mean, I think a lot of people got sick even when we were riding. There was a sour milk smell when you were in Maggie's mouth at one point. Yeah, when you get sucked off by maggie it's uh you know did they change the sour milk smell to like baby

powder i think it's baby powder yeah the last time i wrote it man it's better you know it's not as quality it's an all right scent the the the banana smell on the minions ride is uh is a preferable scent i think sure yeah i'm down with that as well yeah the ride is okay preferable scent, I think. Sure, yeah. I'm down with that as well, yeah. The ride is okay. They did it. Warburton did a great job, and I think the story of it is good. It's dim. It's like a dim ride.

And for that reason, it kind of almost felt old when it was new. You know what I mean? But the donuts there can't be beat. The Lard Lad Donuts. The donuts are so good. Yeah. uh but but the uh i mean the the donuts there can't be beat the lard lead donuts the donuts are so good yeah i didn't know that they made them on site until uh someone came on podcast the ride who used to work at the bakery there yeah i thought they were just freeze-dried in like china and shipped over and like in a warehouse for three years but no they're fresh i would have believed that as well yeah no they're they're and they're like those so when we would have the

simpsons the the season premiere parties or whatever, when we have them up there, everyone would just be getting a donut to go, you know, and I would I mean, I would, too. And you just eat it for the next like three days. And it's great. That has to again, I think I heard Al Jean say this about that Springfield world and like official stuff, but it does have to be weird as hell to be. It's great for us to walk

around as simpsons fans to walk around the springfield but to be like al jean who remembers making up the the creation of phineas q butterfat and then just seeing the real sign and just walking by like that or the aztec that's wild gotta be weird gotta be weird it's truly wild truly wild especially if it's a joke you don't like oh yeah it's like i can't believe we went with that and now it's a building like the android's dungeon which i know mike reese is like we could have had something funnier than android's dungeon i know he says that but and now it's the area forever uh but yes lisa doesn't want to eat any of it homer is still begging her forgiveness and she says i forgive you he says you didn't mean that which is actually just plucked straight

out of bart the daredevil it's the same way well in bart the daredevil when bart says okay i won't jump i won't do the jump the homer says you didn't mean that but this time lisa emptily emptily replies no i didn't like which i love that like yeah he's it's killing homer that lisa doesn't love him anymore, which see, this is, this is again, Homer's problem as a parent, you know, he, he didn't give a shit about Lisa all this time. And now only when she withdraws her love is he's like, oh, I fucked up. I I'm a bad dad. No, no. I was, I was just laughing here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is, it is great. She's that he, she's giving homer what he wants in that moment and and yeah it's

it's fan it's fantastic i mean like it's also like such like a like a like it is like there's not like a ton of pressure on it where she's like she hates me but she's annoyed with him you know what i mean like it's like homer homer proves himself a good dad by being like above and beyond it's it's it's it's worse to homer than it even is to lisa she's just she's used to it basically and it's just like yeah that's what you do you know this is your thing and in uh in a very you know dated now but accurate for the time homer puts in a vhs tape which is him realizing he's a terrible father in our next clip i'm done oh that cost 88 dollars i'm sorry dad i don't feel much like eating.

Look, I let you down, and I apologize. I know that doesn't make it right, but I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I forgive you. DOH! You didn't mean that! No, I didn't. Aw. Music helping out. Look, Homer.

Lisa's taking her first steps. You taping it? Yes. I'll watch it later. No, my freakish little friend. That's a seagull. Dad, Dad? Dad, Dad?

Did you hear that, Homer? Mark, please, i'm busy no wonder she hates me oh i never even noticed she was a lot homer if you want to make up with lisa just spend some time with her that's the one of the most reused does but it's not a doe it's a bow they love that bow whoa geez that's like the fourth time it first appeared in roasting in an open fire and this is the four i think the fourth time it's appeared and that's so funny that like it's like just spend time with her and he's like that's the worst answer he could hear he's like oh i have to actually you spend time with her what the fuck well we find out later he thinks it'll make him gay yes yeah that's that's

some extreme toxic masculinity for homer there uh so these are minor details is that in a later episode is that's not that's not the same episode where he thinks part is gay correct or is it later he says uh if i spend too much time with lisa it'll make me you know fruity yeah but uh we can see that they chose betamax for their uh their v their videotape format and also there's a fantasy island parody this is before fantasy island was dark and twisted as it is today right and apparently uh harry sheer really hated saying my freakish little friend it's a little corny yeah but apparently the the footage came back with mouths moving and they needed to put something there and the cry gets making fun of hervey villachos you know homer looks bad in this video but in his

defense he did watch it later he did watch her that's true we're seeing it so you know what he wasn't lying there though honestly what disturbed me the most was not only that he's ignoring lisa but that for lisa to be baby sized in that clip bart has to be four and he's strength so he's strangling a four-year-old like i mean homer strangling is always abusive i guess really if you think about it too much wasn't he about to strangle bart out of the womb immediately yeah he almost does like why you little and then he stops himself oh that's too funny you know when your dad grabs you by the neck that's all it is it's just cartoonified that's neck, that's all it is. It's just cartoonified. That's all it is.

That's all. And Mitch, earlier you mentioned the blow dryer animation. It's actually copied. Yes. Was I wrong on where it was? I'm sure I was. I've been wrong like five times already, and I watched this again last night. It's in this upcoming montage, and it's actually taken from Bart the General when Bart is crying

after being beaten up and Homer uses the blow dryer on him. So they took the exact same animation but changed characters. Now I'm wondering, is it the Bart getting hair dried that's iconic or is it Lisa? I thought it happened before the talent show.

So it happens in this montage right here with that Homer just watched of Lisa, you're saying? Yeah, yeah. Of him taking care of lisa and failing this uh i think it was the bart the general one since it was season one i think that was like the iconic one this is more than like being honestly self-referential like this is this is like them in the show doing the you know now in recent seasons they've had lisa send homer the meme of homer entering the bushes which like the simpsons

reference their own memes in the show so homer strangles his son and and scalds his daughter's face with hot air yeah those are his traits yeah you know i uh i don't know this for sure but bart the general uh where that scene appeared carlos baezo is accredited animator on that episode the director of this one so i wonder if that was him copying himself with that sequence i wonder but yes and then homer's shoves her off the swing and yes this is when homer is you know what one day of helping lisa he's like this is making me fruity i can't do it i can't uh dad should not help his daughter this is wrong and they did a lot of these scenes uh in the first like i don't know six maybe seven seasons where it's like uh we're halfway through

the story let's get into bed and check in on things let's have a discussion about where we are what our stances are and things possible solutions it was like a device they would use a lot that it's just funny you saying that like that thing of like homer being like it will turn me fruity or whatever because like i forget so much of the time that like homer is a football watching like you i don't think of him in that way you know what i mean like i don't think of him as like as like uh a man's man which he's not you know what i mean but the the idea of him even being like i don't want to spend too much time with a girl is such a weird even idea to me of what homer is but oh at this point homer was born in the 50s and now he is our

age actually i'm now older than homer because i just turned 40 so i guess he's slightly less progressive than us is homer 39 is that his is that his given age canonically at this point in the show he's 35 as writers on the show get older they push his age forward but they kind of have to stop at 39 they never want him to be over 40 yeah yeah i am 39 i'm the last year of homer yeah no i've got live it up guys i've got six more weeks of being when this episode comes out uh i have six more weeks of being homer's age and then i'll be 40 as well all but three hairs will fall out. This is a wig. But yes, as Homer, at least as Marge tells him there's no quick fix, Homer's like, no, you were onto something with that quick fix idea.

He's like, no, your suggestion was to come up with a quick fix. And this is also like Al Jean really was good at knowing the Simpsons lore back then. That was one of his best skills because he knew we have done so many jokes that lisa wants a pony this is like the last episode lisa ever cares about a pony it's such a season one thing of lisa wants a pony and so this was in real life just like homer does here aljean said lisa's always asking for a pony there's an episode when lisa finally gets that pony yeah which i think it's a great move al i think al's right why not yeah so homer also has a joke that uh he says with gasoline prices uh as they're going up the way they are like we can't not buy a pony which uh gas in california pretty high right now is seven bucks

a gallon less money than taking care of a large animal like that i think so i think uh what it's probably close yeah i i think i think it must be close i'm seeing 650s around here in the bay area mitch i don't know what the the gas is like in la right now at the time of this recording i mean yes it was it was a scary thing where i were there it was six dollars and it was 666 it was like it was it seemed like like yeah it seemed like end times uh yeah no it's it's it's it's up there it's uh it's it's uh it's pony level i'd say it's around pony level you know the the average price of gas per gallon in california in 1991 a dollar 15 oh yeah jeez god uh here they were complaining they didn't know what they were

complaining about it's just like we did an episode where they were complaining they didn't know what they were complaining about it's just like we did an episode where they were joking in 2001 about climate change i was like you fools i don't want you joking about this is this is like uh about this episode aired about a month after my ninth birthday so uh and now i'm on my last year of homer just to put this all in perspective yeah we were all in perspective. Yeah, we were all in the age between Bart and Lisa when this episode aired. We were no longer Lisa's age, but not yet Bart's age. And now we're stepping into between Homer and Grandpa.

Hey, let's say Homer and Skinner. Yeah, Homer and Skinner. And then after Skinner, Grandpa. But it's so cute as Marge is telling him the very realistic reasons why he can't buy a pony and uh homer just saying like haha you love me like that that kind of is homer's cheat code with marge you're just like well no you actually love me so i can get away with anything which that's bad that's not good homer i also like how homer even says Snub, which was the name of Marge's itchy and scratchy

in Marge episode, Parent Group. Homer first heads over to another first appearance, All Creatures Great and Cheap, the pet store seen in many an episode. It would appear in four more classic season episodes after this one, including season nine's

The Last Temptation of Crust, which is where Homer argues with that bird. He loves talking to it. And Homer does smell worse than the pet store. Yes, yes. That's such a funny moment. Oh, my. What does that smell? This was in Mike Reese's book as well, that he said, after that joke was read at the table read,

classic season one writer George Meyer remarked, oh, I guess Homer smells now too. He's just like, great. So Homer's just not just a fat idiot. He also stinks worse than a pet store. They'll one-up this, I think, next year where Homer smells worse than the rendering plants. Yes, yeah, that's right.

Which actually, I was thinking that too when the when the bronson guy who runs the place gives him the directions to the rendering plant i was like oh is that the same rendering plant they could that's uh melted hog fats yeah this is a different horse rendering plant all right yeah yeah it's uh i also like homer is so stupid that he only knows it's not a horse when he reads the sign Scottish Deerhound. Not just from looking at it. He had to read the sign. But yeah, so then Homer heads to the Grateful Gelding instead and tries to buy a horse in our next clip. Now, lady, I'm buying a pony for my little girl, and I don't care what it costs. Very good.

That stunning creature over there is half a million dollars. Half a million dollars? He was sired by Seattle Slough, and his mother won the Kentucky Derby. Wow. His likeness graces a stamp in Tanzania. I'll take it. Mr. Simpson, do you have half a million dollars?

Uh, sure. Let me write you a check. Mr. Simpson, this check is dated January 1st, 2054. Is there a problem with that? Our ponies start at $5,000. Cash. Isn't there like a pound where you can pick up cheap ponies that ran away from home i sincerely hope not you know if all things go well with us we can see we can live to see this check become you know uh good yeah we'll be we'll be 71 then i i did the jesus and uh yes grateful gelding a gelding is a castrated horse and it's it's funny i think I did the math. And yes, Grateful Gelding.

Gelding is a castrated horse. And it's funny. I think this could be part of the joke. You cut from the sign to the bottom half of a running horse. Oh, yeah. You're right. I think you're right. And Seattle Slough is real.

He's so famous, he has a Wikipedia page. Oh, yeah, yeah. So he died in 2002 at the age of 28. So yeah, horses live about 30 years, as Marge says later in the show. And he racked up a ton of major wins in the mid to late 70s before entering the next stage of his life, and that's impregnating horses. So he spent the rest of his life impregnating other horses who would go on to have offspring that would win more races. So Seattle Slew was actually a very famous horse. His seaman was more famous than the wins. Yeah, by one count I saw, he had sired over 1,100 horses.

Like, that's how many horses. That's the dream. Yes. Dear Lord. Yeah, he had won, Seattle Slew won the 1977 Triple Crown, which to let you know how rare that is, meaning you win the three biggest races in horse racing, that's so rare that in the 44 years since that happened

only two other horses have done that that's that's how rare it is so he's like he's got the e-god of horses then yes okay yes yes he does yeah i i know all these horse facts because my my dad loved the ponies that was his does he have a seattle slew poster up in his garage well he liked the gambling on them not uh well whoever the horse was kind of meaningless to him. The gambling was the fun part. I want to win the EGOT of horses. It sounds like a good deal. It's great. And you know what?

If you look on eBay for Tanzanian horse stamps, you'll find them. Famous horses are all over stamps in Tanzania. Wow, okay. You can buy some. He's got to be on those. Yeah, that 2054 sounded real far away at one point. It doesn't sound that way now i you know i hope god i hope to make the healthy choices in my life to see that 2054 you know i'm with you yeah

but yes i i love that whole how homer is just broken down like i sincerely hope not like tressie's really great at this uh this katherine heparin time yeah she's very funny any tress mcNeil stories, Mitch? She seems like a cool lady. She was just always super nice and would be talkative with you at the table reads. And, yeah, no, she was nothing to say beyond the fact that she was just cool as hell, really. Yeah, when we did our table read or we went to the table read, she was there doing Bart because Nancy wasn't there. And, and you know you get autographs sometimes at the end of those and

i wanted one from her but she was out of there like batman yeah she's in demand yeah yeah she goes yeah she's in and out she does her thing and she gets out of there i mean she she's also someone who was just always she'd be there all the time too you know she i feel like she she i she if i had to think of someone who was like the mvp of table reads it was probably her where she would just like always kind of be there and be reading so i'm not sure how much they do in i mean especially the last few years they're definitely not doing them in person but i wonder if they moved a lot to just to you know over the phone or whatever now that things are kind of back yeah now tress uh yeah

and tress has a it's just so interesting to me tress and so many other these like 90s voice actors we heard in cartoons all the time as kids that they were like the the ucb trained podcasters of their day like they were all these like second city and groundling folks true yeah like like yeah yeah she's great it's i mean as as you guys know just like going and watching them perform is it's so fun and this character is is great like uh like like you were saying about it's that sort of thing of like i could listen i like i want this this this horse trainer lady to be in the episode more you know it's also funny on the commentary cavender mistakes her for the one that uh that tracy olman did instead all right a similar one she's like oh this is tracy right they're

like no no it's stress it's stress but let's not talk about tracy allman in this commentary yes yeah let's keep it uh but uh so homer he needs money where is he gonna get it well he's gonna borrow some from uh his work which uh is obviously this now it's like payday loans every place they use but uh i just love you it's it's uh as as they were so doing even then they're like can we just add a dose of burns to this like a minute of burns will really perk up this episode and like he shouldn't be there and they have to come up with an excuse for him to be there yes yeah and it's it's so perfect i've got the clip here i'm happy they did yeah hello. Hello. Ah! Simpsony.

How can I help you? Mr. Burns, you do this personally? No, it's a hobby. I'm not in this for any personal gain, heavens no. By the way, are you acquainted with our state's stringent usury laws? Usury? Oh, silly me. I must have just made up a word that doesn't exist.

Now, what is the purpose of this loan? I want to buy a pony. Isn't that cute? Smithers, he's planning on joining the horse he set. That is it purpose of this loan? I want to buy a pony. Isn't that cute? Smithers, he's planning on joining the horse he set. That is it, isn't it? You're not planning to eat it? No, I need to get it for my little girl because she doesn't love me anymore. Shut up, Simpson. Sorry.

Do you have any collateral? Oh, Smithers, let's not be so cold. His spirit is my collateral. To sign this form, the money will be yours. Sorry, I was just thinking of something funny Smithers did today. I didn't do anything funny, sir. Shut up. Homer is going to owe Burns money forever.

Usury laws prohibit lenders from charging borrowers excessively high rates of interest on loans. That's what it means. We don't have those anymore. Those have gone out the window. Right, yes. Yeah, the laws. See, all these jokes about when laws, when there was a better social infrastructure, they don't work anymore. The same with that Homer, they just did a a whole the season finale of this season was about

addressing the fact that homer's job is impossible and the bart would never get it growing up now yeah no job has a credit union anymore which is why you get a 25 interest uh rate on your payday loan next to the liquor store yeah depressing yeah dear god sorry mitch a lot of the times we end up thinking about boy that things are worse now than then. These jokes and also the jokes on The Simpsons outstrip, reality outstrips them over time. That's why it's good to be in entertainment where there are no labor issues at all. Oh, yes. Yeah.

But I also just love Burns' way of saying, oh, silly me. I just made up a word that doesn't exist. What a great cover on his part. And yes i i just love burns is laughing also when he reads the name on the thing he's again just like simpson a like he still still doesn't know still doesn't know who he is but uh so yes homer then gets the the horse him shoving the horse into the backseat is also just so funny and then lucky that horse didn't kick his head in. Yeah. I guess ponies are small, but this is like a little Sebastian-style pony in that it's such a huge sheet that Homer can get it up the stairs and into Lisa's bed.

Yes, yeah. I looked that up, so I had always heard the rumor that you can't get horses downstairs. And it's not, apparently, according to my Googling, it's not impossible to get a horse downstairs, but you really got to train them because a horse's natural instinct is when going upstairs, it can see its feet. But if it goes downstairs, it can't see its feet, and it spooks a horse to not see its feet. Like so. Oh, that's what it is. So a horse is chasing you, run downstairs. Yeah. And then taunt it from the bottom of the stairs.

See, like you pussy, you're too scared. Put a blanket under its chin. It just can't see its feet, and then it's freaked out. That's great. You know, Bob, you mentioned Little Sebastian. We're talking to a cast member of Parks and Rec right here. My character probably pet Little Sebastian or took his photo with him i'm sure uh your bjorn lurpus uh by the way i like the idea of a horse chasing you he's like if a horse is ever chasing you like somehow you got a horse angry and it's

chasing you to bite you maybe i don't know what it would want to do kick you bite you whatever it's doing we could have just saved a life on this podcast yeah yeah you know don't know what it would want to do. Kick you, bite you, whatever it's doing. We could have just saved a life on this podcast. Yeah, yeah. You know, don't overestimate it. It could be a highly trained horse, and it could get down those stairs. It's one of those stairs horses. God, how terrifying is that? It's a stair horse. And then comes another of Al Jean's favorite things,

which is referencing the Godfather. He loves it so much. And they already in this season kind of had in Bart the murderer. Bart wakes up from his nightmare and his scream is framed very similar to the horse head scene in Godfather as well. Am I misremembering this? When he cuts the head off of Jebediah Springfield, is the head in the bed too? Oh, yeah, that's also in the bed. Oh, that's what it is.

So this is their third. This is them going even farther. It actually just is a horse's head, which, again, the reason I finally watched The Godfather when I was 13, 14 was to get these references. But in the movie, though, the big cheat is the horse's head is poking out from under the covers. In the movie, the head is under the covers at the foot of the bed. Right. The guy wakes up and is like, what's all this blood? And yeah, it's shot and staged just like The Godfather.

I think they use the same music because it's a Fox movie. No, it's a Paramount movie, but it is the same music. Or a very good sound alike. Yes. Yeah. And though Lisa has to be a very deep sleeper for a horse to be placed in her bed without her noticing, I have to say. Yeah, it's wild that she didn't, her dad maybe pushing the horse into the bed. I don't know how the horse got in there, but she didn't stir from her slumber.

I love the Godfather reference. Give it to me. Yeah, it's great not to linger too long on this but uh back in the michael jackson episode bart and uh leon got a piano all the way up the stairs into her room and she was still sleeping no that's true so i think canonically lisa is a deep sleeper she's a very deep yeah yeah maybe she should maybe possibly see a doctor about it it seems bad yeah but there's a fire so uh you know in the simpsons house it's caught on fire a number of times it's a day it is a

dangerous place uh but so yes when lisa has an incredible scream like yardley had just screams her guts out here like man it then she is pleased by the horse with elixir she's like oh isn't that cute but and then she rides into the room with uh homer and the music uh is meant to be a reference to magnificent seven i believe of her riding in triumphantly and uh yes i love how marge is just grumbling and how how homer just answers that like sounds like someone is angling for a pony of her own and then meanwhile he like fucks over bart and just taunting him in his face like nay i know you love me so you're not getting squat haha like i mean i love this like that stuff i love about the simpsons so much is like and bart doesn't fight him back on it you're like

oh there is like a little true real truth to that that's like so cute the bart like does love homer and like uh homer is using it to dangle it over his head for not giving him anything uh it's great it's a great moment and uh yeah so the horse is just walking around again i got to give it to carlos paeza and the rest of the animation team animating horses is very hard and they and mac reigning has the rule of like animals in the show act like animals they don't act cartoony meaning you can't do cartoony cheats on the horse it has to walk around like a horse it can't do like a a wild take when maggie puts a pacifier in his mouth or her mouth yeah it's named princess so i'm assuming it's a girl yeah sucking on a pacifier is also very funny and uh you know what else uh you know and also the uh the bit with her calling it princess that is another callback

in old money lisa is asking abe you know for how to best spend the inheritance he got from b simmons and she says or you can buy me a pony and he he's like, oh, you're right. Oh, I'd name it Princess and I'd ride it every day. Like, so that was also why I'll credit that to Gene and Reese remembering like, oh, yeah, Lisa already sold us what the name of her pony would be. It would be Princess. That's great. I never, I never, I never known that. That's, that's, that's, that's awesome. You know what?

I'm with Homer. Try the garage, you know, see if the pony likes it in there. See how it goes. And the courts will decide if you can't do that that's for the course it's just a wild pony roaming the neighborhood at night but so instead homer must stable the horse and this is when he learns what love costs a month which is 530 dollars i looked that up to put it into perspective according to an article i read in 1991 the median a mortgage uh monthly mortgage price was 715 so that's five which again just typing that out made

me want to cry i was like about seven i can own a house for 715 a month like that's insane that's wild we could we could have owned a house i have it we'd have a pony we'd have we could have anything we wanted if we were adults back in the day that's wild but i guess we couldn't have our podcast jobs back then either though unfortunately it's a downside but but i also like that lisa's being taught pronunciation and she's turning very you know i think it's good lisa lost this pony because she'd have turned out too bougie and you know acting too upper class i'm glad she kept her class level because is that when she talks like she talks like katherine hepper and when she does the yes father you've made me the happiest girl that's ever lived that's a great

moment so we head to the break uh and when we come back i just had to get this this scene of dan and nancy together of it's such a pointless little scene but i love it of homer of bart and abe playing video games and it's pure improv between them there's two improv scenes which they rarely ever did but i think uh mike and al needed to get some time for like a late night script that was hard to write and this is like such a funny segment you're right so great yeah i'll play it. What do I do? What do I do?

Grandpa, do you want to go to the right? Yes. Move the joystick to the left. Yes. Move the what? The joystick. You didn't tell me. Oh, here comes a silent cruiser.

A silent cruiser. Go to hyperspace. Ready? Hit it. Wait. Where's the hyperspace? Grandpa, you're the spaceship, not the... I'm the what?

I thought I was this guy. Oh! Game's over, Grandpa. I got down on the floor for this i just love i got down for for this you know though again in the in the times made fools of us all thing we're used to being we were the kids telling our grandpas impossibly how to play a video game i feel like if a kid troll tried to explain to me how to play fortnight i would at least have a similar it'd take me a minute it'd take me a minute be like what what's how do i move this thing i dropped i definitely wouldn't want to get down on the floor yeah i wouldn't i wouldn't i definitely wouldn't drop down off the couch so it'd be awful yeah i mean that's a great little moment on the plus side we live in the world of wireless controllers so no

more of this getting on the floor is crap. That's a great point. And the median age of gamers is like 65 now. That's true. It's actually much lower, but still, we're all getting older and still playing video games. You know what? Me being a big old nerd back then, it did bother me that that was an Atari joystick.

Clearly, they were playing on when... This is 1991. The Genesis is out. The Super NES is about to come out in america they're a low-income family okay sure sure they still they've still got their atari and playing atari level games i got a pony yeah the money went to a pony they couldn't spend it on a super nes i get it uh but uh but yeah so and uh then homer heads uh walks through the room just uh and when lisa gives him a kiss to start the act so you know he needs money he goes like i was hoping to be money

which i also love there's uh reese jokes about this a lot too that they often do these things of where like marge looking at the budget sitting over a calculator that they've done it too many times but but i love this here i i love this little scene of marge is the uh it's the family accountant oh dear we're in serious trouble here we're just going to have to cut down on luxuries well you know we're always buying maggie vaccinations for diseases she doesn't even have actually i was like no we're not going to be doing it then i'm afraid there's no choice but to buying Maggie vaccinations for diseases she doesn't even have. Actually, I was thinking we could cut down on beer. Nah, we're not going to be doing that. Then I'm afraid there's no choice but to give up the pony. First, you didn't want me to get the pony.

Now you want me to take it back. Make up your mind. Homer. Marge, Lisa loves me. The pony stays. All right. You got us into this. You get us out.

Fine, I will. There's plenty of money out there for a guy who's willing to work for it do you have any jewelry you don't need anymore is he drinking a beer in that moment is that what's is that yeah we hear him chugging on of course i i love too that yeah his response to like cutting back on beer he's like yeah we're not gonna be doing that like just so dismissive i don't know you know that with that vaccine comment, I feel like Homer's posting on Telegram these days. Yeah, yeah. The vaccine comment, I wrote down, uh-oh.

There's not a lot of uh-ohs in here, but that was an uh-oh moment. Yeah, Homer's ready to join Evangeline Lilly at the front lines of the anti-vax movement. But, yeah, no, I just love Marge. Marge just calculating finances and Homer, you know. But it makes sense to me as a kid. I was like, yeah, why did I get all those vaccines?

I never even got the thing. The joke there is what kind of idiot would think such a stupid thing of like, yeah, not realizing vaccines prevent you from getting it but now that's uh again just where we live in it's it's what today is if we were talking about this episode just even three three and a half years ago would not have been a i wouldn't have batted an eye at that joke but uh yeah i mean you know what i think if homer just gave her one month of the pony and then took it back that's enough enough. I do think Lisa probably would be mad at him that he would take back the pony. But I mean, come on.

One month of a pony. Pretty good. You're really going to keep this pony forever, Lisa. Be realistic. You know, that's what I'd say. Just say you get one month of a pony. Though I was also thinking this skips to the end. But does Homer get that $5,000 back for that pony that this skips to the end but does homer get that five thousand

bucks back for that pony that lisa gives back to the place or is he just out that five thousand bucks i wonder i think maybe you get like a uh like a restocking fee maybe i think taking off of that you should at least get half the fee back on that pony i think i oh you know it also is very sweet how lisa yeah sorry i'm seeing your cat on screen mitch i was just thinking i think i oh you know it also is very sweet how lisa yeah sorry i'm seeing your cat on screen mitch i was just thinking i think it's very sweet how lisa is trying to comfort the other pets to let them know that like hey you still matter just because we got a new pet it's it's very sweet but anytime you see santa little santa's a little helper and snowball too right at this point maybe uh anytime you see like their reaction anytime there's like an animal episode and you get to

see them i i love it so much or when like uh they're trying to get attention and they're walking on their back legs things like that it's just they they those two give me they bring me so much joy but uh up next is a story i think they regret wasting in one act because they say oh this could have been a whole episode of homer at the quickie mart but it is uh apu's biggest role to date like he gets basically a b story in this episode yeah yeah yes and there's a little bit of an uh-oh moment he says he has a line there where it's like one of the day where one of you would be working for me which in hindsight even with hank and everything like that it's like it was it was a little bit of an uh-oh moment uh within there too uh yeah at the time i get i could see a progressive reading on it of just that that was so uh captured by the american dream that he's like now i can fulfill the american dream

of exploiting a white man instead of me being exploited like yes yes yes but yeah no i it also it's uh on top of the the whole hank is area playing him part of it all it's yeah it's it's it's heavy with things yes yeah yeah also uh oh yeah right before this bit though lisa with the salt lick i love that num num good salt lick like just a great adorable little thing with her in the salt lick and you know what i looked it up apparently some horses are very finicky about their salt lick brands and there's many and there's many different thoughts in the horse owning community about what to use with your salt lick and some instead prefer mineral blocks to salt licks you know controversial yeah i gotta get myself a mineral block in here great uh no i mean i think the anti-salt like people have gotten to you i mean i have enough

salt in my life as it is anyway i need to i've been told i need to cut down on that on your salt on your salt licks yeah fewer fewer salt licks my doctor says you've been licking a salt lick the entire throughout the entire episode when i turn it's right off screen right over here we cut out all the noises we apologize you know if you want to buy your own salt lick on amazon they're right there reasonably priced you know if you if you look at us you're going to be getting salt lick emails for three weeks yeah is there a sugar lick i would i would do the sugar lick like a i guess sugar cubes maybe but i have no idea if there's a sugar lick, but I want one. This is a minor tangent, but I don't know what happened one time where on YouTube you

get random ads, you know, that, and I always wonder like, okay, how is this, how is this profiling me for whatever ad this is of like refinance this or brain pills or whatever. One time I got an ad that was like, we all have have horses but how do you take care of them get this horse fan for i was like wow this this thinks that i'm rich enough to own a horse how does the youtube think i'm a horse owner i was very very confused by it but uh but yeah so homer buys a scratch off in the next scene and this again is another callback because in season one homer's night out one of homer's first interactions with up who he buys this same scratch off from him and it's the same deal liberty bell liberty bell

cherry but in that one he doesn't lie to up when he goes like ah cherry nuts like oh no actually he says stupid purple fruit thing right he doesn't call it a cherry So it's, again, another callback. Stupid purple fruit thing. Wrong color as well. But, you know, I just did a scratch-off recently, the Pac-Man scratch-off. It was not kind to me. Pac-Man, I did not win there. But that shows you where scratch-offs are at,

or our age group that we're getting advertised for. The California Lottery is doing Pac-Man scratch-offs? Yep, they are. Also Henry Scratch-Offs. Are you in trouble no no no i only did this recently uh i was i was listening to mitch's friends on the sloppy boys podcast they did a little scratch-offs episode and it made it gave me a thirst for scratch-offs as well those guys gotta cut it out too what the hell are they doing yeah

i'll call the sloppy boys after this episode uh but yeah here i'm tattling on the sloppy boys after this episode But yeah here I'm Tattling on the sloppy boys to Mitch here But yes Homer and Apu This is a very funny Exchange with Dan and Hank here In character Yes Woo hoo

Three liberty bells That'll be ten thousand dollars Apu Oh congratulations Mr. Homer. Thank you. If I could just see the ticket. Well, there it is. Are you pleased to be removing your thumb? No.

Yes, please, I must insist. No. No. No, you can't see too much. No. No. Let go. You're ripping it.

A cherry. Oh, Mr. Homer, what has reduced you to such cheap chickenery? Oh, I need money. Well, if you need money, you should have at least jammed a gun in my ribs. Or better yet, you could inquire about my help-wanted sign. You're looking for help? Yes, we need someone for the demanding yet high-profile midnight to 8 a.m. shift. I'm your man!

You're hired. Woo-hoo! Always I dreamed the day would come when oneile midnight to 8 a.m. shift. I'm your man. You're hired. Woo-hoo! Always I dreamed the day would come when one of you would be working for me. I also love that he's just... He's... This... I... Okay, so he does get stuck up by Sideshow Bob pretending to be Krusty.

But that's the only time he's robbed before this. I feel like the number of jokes they do here about apu being robbed and shot is why from then on it's about apu's bullet wounds about him being shot multiple times tied up in the james woods episode uh a bullet this ricocheted off of an existing bullet in his chest i think is how it works that's right insane in a scene that's now just known for a meme about elon musk that that scene of him taking the bullet uh is now just known for a meme about Elon Musk, that scene of him taking the bullet is now just used as the meme. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans,

EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our net zero hub at electricireland.ie. Weird nerds on Twitter, yes. And we covered this with actually with Griffin Newman

last summer in the Pokemon episode with Michael Keaton. We find out that shooting a poo is just a fine now. That's right. Yes. Very dark joke at this point. Extremely dark. We get a quick cut to Lisa riding her pony. And this is when Ralph is still his clever season two character

who yes this is so funny to see yes what man can tame her heart yeah oh yeah we'll make it day of her heart apparently it's ralph in the script i think nancy forgot what ralph sounds like because it just sounds like nelson if you only listen to the clip you just hear nelson yes yeah yeah what is the setup and so he says but what man can tame her but what is what what are they saying is oh she sure has tamed that horse i think is the uh is the first setup to that yeah that's such a funny setup yeah she sure has tamed that horse i think of that setup later being used for the i love that chewing gum walk very wrinkly like they would give these those two characters ralph and the friend he never has after this would occasionally make

weird little comments about lisa say of them having crushes on her but yes ralph ralph will lose a few up uh points after this he has a head injury before i love lisa maybe maybe maybe the horse kicked him in the head. Oh, yeah. He's spending too much time on that. Well, I mean, he's eating a lot of paste. We know that. But, yes, Homer gets shown around the job.

I love how Apu tells him, like, I won't lie to you. At this job, you will be shot. Just period. That doesn't chase him off. I think, like,er only writes down badge of honor like he's not listening to the getting shot part he only writes down badge of honor and this is when he learns that he's laughed at by apu because he's the guy who buys the hot dogs so so mitch we talked to nick actually about this too on his last episode what are your feelings on

the 7-eleven hot dogs uh how are their quality or not i think that they're not i mean we nick and i have talked about them and and is it called are they called big bites is that what they're called i think i'll sometimes grab them i i think that's maybe the safest thing you can do for a hot food in a 7-eleven like hot food that's prepped there or maybe like a go-go taquito i they all have different names now too but those taquitos can get pretty dried out you know the hot the hot dog uh i think it's a better average you'll get on i think yeah yeah yeah i i was was nick a fan of them or no he doesn't eat he doesn't eat red meat anymore but um that's true i think he liked him all right he uh

he said it's ups and downs he definitely was against taquitos as i recall back in the day was bakery stick was was what i liked but so there's a so it is all right it is called a big bite it is it's a big bite is the hot dog i think i think that they're pretty good i had a movie theater hot dog the other day i saw top gun maverick and i think that the big bites are like close to quality of of movie theater hot dog the other day i went and saw top gun maverick and i think that the big bites are like close to quality of of movie theater dogs unless they've been sitting out all day so i'm i'm i'm there for them i i think i think there's much worse things you can get i know that in the simpsons world they're disgusting like they're truly they're truly filthy but i think you can do much worse at 7-elevenven. Much later, this will be the disgusting hot dog that gets Apu fired.

Yes, when he confesses to the Smash Tats. Yes. That's what he's doing. That's right. And then he says he doesn't want to live anymore and he's going to eat one of the hot dogs to die. But yes, so, oh yes, then Homer like steals some stuff

and calls it the perfect crime. I also like that. Oh, no, wait, no, sorry. Homer comes home after being out all night and calls it the perfect crime. I also like that. Oh, no, wait, no, sorry. Homer comes home after being out all night and calls it the perfect crime. And then he's instantly caught. Marge is just like, you've been gone all night. Well, I was so worried. What happened?

I think the mislead for the kids is it sounds like Homer was out cheating on Marge. Yes, yeah. Yes. Which is why they think she murdered him in the other room uh you know i also think to this bit here of the concerned partner seeing the exhausted man come home from work i think that was probably the life al and mike were living in their relationship at that time come up at three sleep three hours homer's exhaustion that he just passes out right there like he should realize this plan's not gonna work you know like it's not not gonna work out these two jobs there's there's uh there there's there's

so much there's so much good stuff with which i'm sure we're you're about to go over but like uh the sliding door on homer's head and then the dream and in the slumberland dream to then when it cut and then it cuts to reality is great where he's where golden's a little take on golden slumbers is playing and uh and then also the alarm when homer gets in the bed alarm goes off and then he immediately gets up it's just such a funny visual it like works so well or he gets into bed and then the alarm goes off and he hits it and gets up it's just it's it's done so so well they make his exhaustion look so believable yeah it's uh it's so well done yeah uh we're skipping around a little bit but yeah what i wrote down like every time uh that golden slumber sequence plays it's very

beautiful but when it ends that circular saw hitting him in the head oh yeah it looks and sounds so painful very much so yes yeah i think yeah homer's torture here i also like that he is the worst employee like apu not just the sleeping on the job but the second homer steals one piece of food he should be like well you're fired i i caught you stealing like just uh you know when i worked at a movie theater i never did it but i contemplated like you know i have an icy machine right here if it was that i could give this a shot the same slushy squishy thing that homer does but i didn't i was not uh i was not gross like that and that movie theater still in business i think it actually is the orange park amc 24 in jacksonville in the florida area i think it's still open yes

yeah not gross like that it's like sounds like the book I'll write about myself someday. Not gross like that. I've had the same thought. I'll be like, I want to do that. Not that gross. I guess I won't do it. Wait, does Homer never work? He never works at the Quiggy Mart again?

Do they never use this ever again? Is this it for him? I know the James Woods works there and everything like that but just homer never works in there again huh out of all the jobs homer had i don't think he ever worked he's worked with apu multiple times afterwards but not worked at i think it's probably such a notable and beloved episode that they never wanted to go back to that idea again wow that's wild to me i just figured that he had even even in like i even thought they went back to it like early you know what i mean like i thought that they went back to it like in their in one through eight seasons you know so we have a quick cut to lisa with the princess and

i love that she's just you know chilling with her horse playing playing endless sax songs you're gonna spook that thing yeah i love that it's called wildfire like that sounds like a like it would be a track on the kenny g album you know just wildfire just a bland name uh and then we also have a quick cut to uh apu with princess cashmere in bed so you know he's a swinging single i like they mike re, make sure to say on the commentary that it's supposed to be him going in frustration. Yeah. Just like, ugh, in frustration. It's not an orgasm.

He wants that to be clear. Also, you know what the establishing shot outside of Fiesta Terrace? That's Yanked from season one's Life in the Fast Lane. Oh, that's where Jacques lives, right? That's where Jacques lives. Yeah. So, Apu will later live in a different place than Fiesta Terrace later. oh that's where jacques lives right that's where jacques lives yeah so that's uh i'll pull later live in a different place than fiesta terrace uh later but it definitely looks like a singles pad

in los angeles it's one of those many like once you visit los angeles or move there in mitch's case you probably start noticing like oh springfield has a lot of la things in it that that you don't oh certainly yeah tar pits and also also good for a poo she's the she she seems like a she seems like a quite the single babe that he's uh that he's that he's that he's uh hanging out with so i love how he puts it while i'm here pleasuring you my store is going down the tube then we cut to ned uh i guess the joke here is that ned flanders is pranking homer by leaving exact change while he's sleeping not stealing food but instead counting it out penny by penny and then saying like haha i paid you the correct amount i didn't steal food from you homer i paid

you the right amount but uh and yeah this is when homer homer wakes up again and that's yeah when he falls and gets his head crushed over and over and over again so great so great yeah they said it was only like two crushes in the first animation like no cycle it it's got to be three it's got to be like five times and then yes the golden slumber segment i didn't know this was beatles until the the Beatles Rock Band came out. I was like, oh, I've heard this song before. And yeah, they got the actual backing track or whatever. And the visuals are inspired by Little Nemo in Slumberland, the old, very, very old newspaper comic. Oh, wow.

That was a Nintendo game as well, right? Yeah, based on the movie that I think came out in 1992, the animated movie. So they eventually made a huge flop animated movie that I don't even think went to theaters. And then a big flop of a video game. That too. Hey, people like that game. No, it's a good game.

I loved that game when I was a kid. Yeah, that was huge. And Bob's other podcast, Retro Nazi, did a whole episode about Little Nemo and Slumberland. You can learn a lot about that little brat. Yeah. Keeps falling out of bed. Yeah, you know, I i heard them they don't tell

story on this commentary but when they use this scene again in the april fool's clip show episode they tell the story of in the april fool's clip show episode they replace the song with the sound alike because they got golden slumbers and they thought they were getting the real beatles song not just the song rights and it turned out to cost them so much money. And they're like, you can't even tell. You can barely tell it's Golden Slumbers. We spent like tens of thousands of dollars on this Beatles song. So in the clip show, Alf Clausen writes a sound alike when they play this clip.

That means Disney has to pay for this every time. Yeah, I guess so. They must have paid the streaming rights on it to Apple Records. Or no, I guess whoever bought it after, I guess it's Sony EMI that bought it, the song rights after Sony got them. Michael Jackson had them at some point. It's so great they were able to retain those because if you buy any other show on DVD, all the music is replaced. Somehow the Simpsons was able to get away with keeping all the licensed songs in the show. They're the only place they paid for it in perpetuity i i love the song golden slumbers like it's part of the uh the melody uh

sorry medley there i did another skinner ism there the medley at the end of their abbey road album uh it's right there with carry that weight like golden slumbers is a beautiful song and uh and yeah i think this is probably them driving home from work gene and reese like the pain they feel like just this one homer could have killed someone like that's but unfortunately he didn't easily yes him realizing how long a horse is gonna live like that also is like just his very tight toe it's like he's he's got 20 28 more years of this and then a scene is made completely out of recycled animation uh i guess they were worried that the the audience wouldn't know where the story was so

it's it's like made up of animation from the beginning of this episode and also animation of lisa with mumps from the uh bart's dog it's an f yeah yeah so that's why lisa's face is all swollen right she's saying i just called to say i love you dad that's right very distracted homer's got these he's drawn tennis shoes on it's not his normal black cloven foot feet either uh you know what if i could streamline homer's thing drive straight to the office uh strive straight to the power plant from uh the quickie mart you know then just get there a little early and sleep at the office that's all you know that's it yeah i got a little nap at the office yeah yeah no i mean but hey it's worth it to see that segment where he gets into bed and gets out i mean it's it's great now now mitch have you you had a lot of late nights and especially probably like balancing all these

jobs like especially you you had a whole tv show on on ifc that probably had some late nights a hundred percent i in hollywood there's definitely i mean like i was saying when they were doing the double table reads there were there were there i remember driving to the simpsons for work and like getting into a fender bender with a truck which wasn't affected at all because of i was burning the candle at both ends i was doing comedy stuff at night and then had to like you know get up at 6 30 or something and go in there you come home from a herald night at ucb and then straight to the simpsons the next morning straight to the simpsons and there was no golden slumbers little nemo dream sequence it was just me slamming into the back of a truck

you're coming into work with the woosh costume on that's seriously basically yes that woosh is one of the funniest things ever mitch we just want to tell you that like oh man thank you so much that makes my uh based off of zoom the the birthday the zoom birthday guy i don't know if you guys as as children of the of the 80s i feel like you must have had heard zoom at some point but that's that's that's where the idea came from and also you know what but uh i just feel bad for zoom because we you know i did that as a tribute to zoom and then there's like zoom stuff on youtube and then i feel like whoosh like the the joke videos we made for whoosh to go along with it has now taking as taken over those like uh so many people the like people who i don't know or like or my friends will say like

they're like friends of friends will post the video of like woosh on their facebook on their birthday and they'll be like that's like my friend Mitch. And they're like, oh. That maybe is my legacy, is the sincere version of Woosh, which we made as kind of like an online gimmicky thing to go along with the sketch show. I think Henry has sent me a Woosh, because online now there are different names put into your song. Yeah, yeah. No, we had filled in.

We went down a list, and Chris Van arstel and put in like whoever you we even put you at one point so uh it fit for everybody so uh so yes they they uh then cut to them late at night they're watching carson i love these jokes that carson sucks because they wrote this before carson said he was going to retire the next year so it comes out when everybody's wanting to be nice to johnny carson but the joke here is johnny carson's not funny like that it's they have them tell a joke and then bart and lisa do no no reaction to they are like well it's still fun to be up late yeah apparently uh johnny carson loved the word mcnugget and if you wrote a joke with the word mcnugget in it it would make it on the show yes yeah he actually here's here's one more thing for

mike reese's book where he talked about how much he hated the mcnugget thing and thought it was a shitty jokes uh he said here was one of the jokes he hated the most that carson told when he worked there joan collins has gotten a job working for ronald for mcdonald's she's endorsing their new product bitch mcnuggets which uh mike reese was like that sucks but then in his book he had to admit he's like one of the loudest laughs i ever heard from the audience when they were there they've all they wanted to hear was just him say mcnuggets like god carson working yeah also bart yeah barth kind of throwing shade on on carson is fun and like you were saying when he announces that he's retiring the next year i've been watching carson reruns and i'm

like carson's great like my my take on it was carson is great so so uh so but i i mean i also i also get it because all late night talk shows can be shitty and awful at some point but those guys worked right like a lot of those guys worked for for cars well i think it's really mike reese not even al jean didn't even seem that annoyed at his time on cars yeah reese definitely seems like he hated it and it's not holding back jeff martin on the show at this time was a big carson guy he was on the show for maybe like seven years before coming to the simpsons so maybe there was like ah screw carson you know letterman's the dude he's the the guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That makes sense. But so Homer says he's going to have to go for an eight-hour walk, but this is when he passes out in the car. I've also, at my most tired, that is when I go like, Homer, sleep now. It's just. But this is when Lisa and Bart learn the truth in our next clip. Homer, sleep now. What's wrong with Dad? He's just exhausted.

Lisa, do you know how much it costs to keep a pony? No. Well, it's a lot. In fact, your father had to take a second job. The poor guy. Where's he working? The Quickie mart. Lisa, I hope you realize that your father can't keep this up.

You're going to make me give up Princess? Lisa, we can't make you give up that pony. I can make her. Just give me five minutes alone with her. No, Bart. No one's going to make her. This is something Lisa has to decide for herself. All the years i've

lobbied to be treated like an adult have blown up in my face is that a take that lisa's beliefs yeah oh you know what i think it is i'll play the jingle we've got a jingle for this uh mitch oh hell yeah whenever the show bags on lisa's beliefs though uh i think this it happened much more in the scully years that was when they crapped on lisa's beliefs the most i'd say but uh i love that uh just bart's laughter of like ah like i have no respect for this guy like he's now working at the quickie mart he works for apu which bart already views already views as a lesser person, I guess, or just a guy he looks down on.

Now he looks down on Homer even more. Apu, not a friend of the family yet. Not yet, no. Hasn't moved in with him yet. The next scene of Lisa watching Bart torture him and just order him around is just so exhausted. I love to, Bart calls him Pink Hat, which they have to recolor his hat pink for only this scene because it's a white hat the entire rest of the time in the episode.

So keep an eye out. It's pink only in this scene just for that line to work that Bart says, hey, Pink Hat. Then Yardley, as she learns what she must do, her acting here is so sweet. Like her acting, her sad acting here with Lisa. I love this. Hey, Pink Hat. When I ordered that blueberry squishy, I meant today. Coming right up, sir.

And fill it to the top this time. Yes, sir. She likes a little carrot after her oats. And she really likes it when you scratch her behind the ear and if you're playing the radio she likes contemporary adult in the morning and easy listening at night please take good care of my princess although there is no change in my patrician facade i can assure you my heart is breaking i'll never forget you that uh partition facade joke that was mike reese saying uh i'm imitating james l brooks and he wasn't very happy with the line but i think it's great

yeah i think it's great yeah yeah it does sound like a kind of brook seal there though yeah it does uh i also yeah it's uh just poor lisa having to give away her thing one more time it's so sad just she never never gets to be happy yeah most of these episodes are about her losing yep yeah her not getting something and just losing it well I was going to say that that was a great run

I mean that's such a sweet ending with Lisa but it's such a great run of Bart there of Bart being mean to Homer and laughing at the guy and uh and and and and just calling him pink hat which was funny that they had to recolor the hat but uh it's it's just such great bar stuff and then again there's just more jokes of of how you'll die uh working in the convenience store there's a lot there's there's even more of those

but it's but that lisa realizing what she has to do is is just so sweet and sad yeah the poor her just that like so she gets destroyed at her recital like humiliated and the things she'll never forget and then homer tries to make it up to her by giving her a thing she can't keep so giving her her dream that's even better than her dream and now she has to give it up to her by giving her a thing she can't keep so giving her her dream that's even better than her dream and now she has to give it away really it's like homer cursed her twice in this like honestly and you know two kinds of sadness yeah yeah and bart never really bart is just kind of playing a troublemaker this whole time he's like give me five minutes alone with her messing with homer never really has it come up and just kind of is done with the episode right

right there right he's like uh yeah he never bart never has a sweet moment he's just kind of being a little wise ass the entire time which is great bart's just having a good time yeah and uh the ending here so uh future showrunners bill oakley and josh weinstein they love season three of the simpsons they patterned their seasons after season three and this ending is very similar to uh lisa the vegetarian but i think intentionally because it's the same kind of ending like they reconcile and there's like a piggyback ride yeah but uh maybe mma's does not play in this episode i'm always waiting for it uh yeah and it's even leaving the uh leaving the quickie mart as well yeah that's right because she she goes to the garden on the roof.

Yes, yeah, yeah. But yes, this is a very sweet, as Gene and Reese always say, if you put 30 seconds of sweetness at the end of your episode, nobody remembers anything else and just leaves them with a happy feeling. But this last segment here is very adorable. You call this melted cheese a skeptical clean? The young man you replaced is rolling over in his grave. Dad, you don't have to do this.

Yes, I do. You see, Lisa, grown-ups have a thing called money. Dad, I understand the sacrifice you've made for me. That's why I gave up the pony. You did? Mm-hmm. There's a big, dumb animal I love even more than that horse. Oh, no.

What is it, a hippopotamus? I mean you, you dummy. Aw. Apu, you can take this job and restaff it. Giddy up, Dad. Aw. He slept, he stormed, he was rude to the customers still there goes the best damned employee a convenience store ever had it's a condemnation of all 7-eleven workers out there oh man

jeez the last uh punch today that was a james l brooks line there again it's funny yes on them there's a secret if you guys have your dvds you know there's a secret commentary on this i bet not a lot of you listen to just get to that fifth audio track on the episode you'll hear mike reese by himself talking about this episode that's that's that ending is is really the big dumb animal and it's you it's it's just a really it's great it's a great great great yeah i love her like i mean you you dummy and just them them giggling away together also it's very nice of homer to not say shove it to apu you know yeah he's not his enemy nice but and you know that melted cheese receptacle it's the same one that will be devil james woods that's right we've

been bringing up quite a lot on this episode which no no he deserves it he should be cursed by many a cheese now that's what a cute episode born out of workaholism uh an adorable sweet episode maybe this week i mean this is why al jean loves lisa homer episodes yeah their first one was moaning lisa right gene and reese yeah and so it's some of the best stuff gene and reese did and gene when he took over his solo show runner he always made sure like at least won a season of a homer and lisa's story like a daddy daughter stuff is always always very sweet in the show yeah it's great and and also just a shout out to the i'm not sure if the the chalkboard the moment was new but bark bark bucks are not legal tender is uh is a if the chalkboard moment was new, but Bart Bucks are not legal tender is a great chalkboard opening. Yeah, no.

Were you guys going to go over those? Oh, no, no. Thank you for mentioning that. That was a brand new one, and it was making fun of the Disney dollars that were relatively new then. That was a Disney dollars joke. Yes, yeah. I'm only familiar with the itchy and scratchy money reference. Weiger just sent the Disney dollars.

He sent it to me and Mike Carlson, one of the podcast writers. He's like, Carlson, do you want these? If not, I'm going to throw them away. But his mom had saved Disney dollars in a scrapbook. But I didn't realize that that was the – I just liked the idea of Bart Bucks anyways. It was funny. And then the couch gag, I wonder if the couch gag probably a

repeat uh it's a fun one everyone sits on Homer but it seems like maybe a repeat yeah was it a repeat yeah it's a they would I think this time they were doing 12 uh seasons so they double them up I think it's a it might be the first time they showed it but yeah but that's funny they they haven't completely broken by season four they're like no these can just be fully cartoony they can't they can happen in their own universe and like the rules can break in it but yeah it's uh no this is uh just a great great episode any other final thoughts on it no it's it's it's just that funny thing of like uh i mean like bark gets an elephant comes after this and is also an episode that i that i love but this is just like such a sweet episode you got bart playing just a little devil in the background uh and and and and lisa kind of having to make the right choice you're right it is just

kind of heartbreaking great music throughout it too there's the music stings are really great there's a reason it's one of the it's one of the classics. It's a new animal as well. I like any animal-themed episode. Just one of the best, one of my all-time faves. One of the all-time greats. It's great to see how strong they are in season three, even this early, like a third of the way through the season. They've shaken off all the old Simpsons issues,

and now they're just the show that we know and love. And doing such a great episode while being so exhausted. uh mitch thanks for joining us on the show we really appreciate you giving us your time we know you're very busy uh please talk about where we can find you online and more about uh doughboys a great podcast about uh chain restaurants yeah dope you can get doughboys wherever you get podcasts we also uh have the doughboys double which is on patreon uh i was in a movie called the tomorrow war this last summer a year ago and that's on amazon and you know what it was just announced just as we were recording but uh i'll be on uh twisted metal on uh peacock uh uh in this and i don't know when it will come out there's no release date yet but i'm that's what i'm filming

right now so keep an eye out congratulations thank you yeah very excited that's awesome as we were recording it got announced that's awesome yeah truly yeah my my involvement in it at least yeah i'm very i'm very excited about it but uh yeah check it out and watch the simpsons it's great watch watch more simpsons thank you so much for coming on mitch we've we've been wanting have you on the show. We so appreciate you gave us your time for this and shared so many interesting stories about behind the scenes on The Simpsons 2. We're really interested in that stuff. I'll come back whenever, for real. You guys are awesome.

It was fun doing it. Thank you. Yeah, thanks so much, Mitch. Thanks. Thank you so much to Mike Mitchell for being on the show. If you want to check out more of what he does, check out the Doughboys. And, hey, turn on your damn television. Mike's all over the place.

But as for us, if you want to check out more of what we do and get these podcasts one week at a time and ad-free, please go to patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. Sign up there for five bucks a month to get just that, but also access to everything behind the $5 paywall that includes over 100 miniseries episodes that are full-length about things like The Critic and Mission Hill, Futurama and King of the Hill. And you also get access to our monthly Patreon exclusive miniseries, Talking Futurama and Talking of the Hill. That's only behind the $5 paywall, only at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And there is a $10 level as well.

If you sign up for that, you get access to all the $5 stuff, but also access to one extremely mega long podcast once a month only for patrons of that level or higher and what is that henry bob is talking about the what a cartoon movie podcast where we talk about an animated feature film super duper in depth just like we do the simpsons that often means we talk about an animated feature film for more than five hours and even the last couple have been over six hours long you never know how long it's going to be we've covered this month we're going to be doing beauty and the beast the disney classic the month before that the little mermaid and of course we did our two over six hour long ones for toy story 3 and who framed roger rabbit that's one i know that uh mitch really also enjoys that movie i should have suggested i went to but you can hear

all of those i'd say over 260 hours of what a Cartoon movies. In addition, all the $5 things Bob just mentioned. If you go to patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons today and sign up. As for me, I've been one of your hosts, Bob Mackie. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. And my other podcast, by the way, is Retronauts. That's a classic gaming podcast all about old video games. You can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash retronauts. Sign up there for two full-length bonus episodes every month.

And Henry, what about you? You can follow me on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Stay up to date with all that's going on in my life where I'm always sharing fun Simpson-y things. Also, be sure to follow the official Twitter account of this podcast at TalkSimpsonsPod to stay in the loop when new podcasts go live on the Patreon on the free feed whenever there's a poll or other news going on with us. Also, if you would like an easy-to-explore list

of all the free episodes we've done of this podcast, go to our official website, TalkingSimpsonsPodcast.com. Thanks so much for joining us, folks. We'll see you again next week for Season 13's Jaws Wired Shut, and we'll see you then. And I will sing a lullaby

Once there was a way To get back home Once there was a way To get back home Sleep pretty darling Do not cry And I will sing a lullaby Just in the nick of

Mmm, beer Just in the nick of... Mmm, beer. Hurry, Mo, hurry. I've only got five minutes till the music store closes. Well, why don't you go there first? Hey, do I tell you how to do your job? Sorry, Homer.

You know, if you tip the glass, there won't be so much foam on top. Sorry, Homer.