Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Round Springfield

Episode Date: December 27, 2017

In a very special episode, Lisa loses Bleeding Gums Murphy (who was never popular). After Bart eats a jagged metal cereal piece, Lisa reconnects with the sickly jazz musician, who passes away and leaves a hole in Lisa's life. Can she find a way to honor him via a radio station and magic? And is this episode worse than we remember? Find out here!

this week's episode is brought to you by patreon at patreon.com slash talking simpsons not only you get access to every episode a week early and ad free but we have tons of extras including our two newest interviews we chat with mike scully about his time executive producing the show i ran it through seasons 9 through 12 which I always characterize as the four most consecutive seasons of the show. And we talked with writer Mimi Pond about what it was like to write the first episode of The Simpsons. You know, and I get to be the turd in the punch bowl every single time I tell this story,

because nobody wants to hear anything bad about The Simpsons. You can find all that and more exclusively on patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where nobody ever suspects the butterfly. I'm your host, Bob Dr. Cheeksmackie, and this is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Henry Gilbert, good mole man to you. Who else?

Tanya Harding, sex tape, Chris Antista. Oh boy, real life events are happening and today's episode is around Springfield. Starland vocal band? They suck! Yes! And today's episode aired on April 30th, 1995

and as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh my God! Jazz hands, Bobby, because LucasArts is revving up full throttle. happen on this mythical day in real world history. Jazz hands, Bobby, because LucasArts is revving up full throttle. Jacques Chirac is elected president of France

and since you don't have a job and you don't have shit to do, why not watch Ice Cube and Chris Tucker in Friday? This will interest no one, but Full Throttle was their first CD-ROM only game, so suck at floppy disks. Damn, left behind those disks. This is how old 95 was. They used to have talky versions of their

computer games in which you would buy the CD version just for voices, but the entire game could be conceivably put on floppy disks. I know people with DVD sets know the pain, but when you have seven floppy disks that are part of your full game and one goes away, you just can't play that thing anymore.

It's just over. It's the worst. That's why you gotta copy those floppies. Don can't play that thing anymore. It's just over. That's why you gotta copy those floppies. Don't listen to that rap guy. Yeah, Friday was... I didn't see Friday until it started airing on cable. I did not see it in the theaters. It's an excellent film on the strength of... I love saying his name, DJ Pooh's script. Got to go on to write Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.

I like when you watch those movies and you see the soon-to-be famous comedians who have big parts in it, like Bernie Mac. Almost everybody. Deebo, Tiny Lister, John Witherspoon. Well, Tiny Lister, I already knew from his run as Zeus in the WWF. Who can forget? Give it to me. But weren't there several next Friday?

Three Fridays. There's a Friday trilogy trilogy an animated series wow an animated series oh i think chris tucker didn't come back for any of them did he nope not at all i think they're talking about a reboot where he does come back because hey what's he got going on now yeah he's more open to it the for the longest time the only things he appeared in were rush hour films and michael jackson lost i i heard the problem was they couldn't understand the words that were coming out of his mouth. Ah, good one. Yes.

So today's episode is around Springfield. It was written by the critic team, just like A Star Is Burned. I didn't know that, but then I did while watching it. This is totally one of the critic episodes. I mean, yes, there's a lot of topical stuff that probably wouldn't be on The Simpsons in this specific of a joke. It seems like someone had to say look it's a very critic joke you have to change these people's names they cannot just

be on the show it can't just be alan dershowitz like you have to change it slightly that i don't think like we've re-watched the whole show together i wouldn't think to revisit bleeding gums murphy absolutely not well bleeding gums mur Murphy is an important character to Al Jean and Mike Reese because their first episode, I believe, was Moaning Lisa that they wrote. And Bleeding Gums Murphy is the magical black man in that episode who solves her problems. But he's funny and he's played by Ron Taylor. But we haven't seen him for over 100 episodes. So the second he shows up here in a hospital a hospital yeah i'm like even then i knew oh he's dying oh you did you knew right away i got hit real hard no no i mean he made a few

appearances he sung the national anthem and dancing homer and you yes he's a background character a bunch but like he hadn't talked in a while and he was actually on the talent show judge panel with skin carry consultant rowena thatena. Oh, yeah, that's true. He laughed at the refried dog poop on him. But after season three he was gone, but no one really talked about him. Though this episode two is a real death parade. I'm gonna play

the death jingle now, folks. Death stalks you at every turn! There it is! Death! In the commentary recorded 12 years ago for this episode, Mike Reese calls it a real bloodbath.

Yes. Well, so you've got Ron Taylor, the actor who played Bleeding Gums Murphy. He died in 2002. You've got Steve Allen, who died not long

after that as well. And you've also got Phil Hartman. And now Marsha Wallace as well. And Doris Grau. And Doris Grau. So five dead people

i i think crusty gets canceled now has more dead people and it just thanks to it had more guest stars it's almost unfair this and this is also the home to the clip for the death jingle indeed uh but this also i forgot that how much i edited it that's not a straight take no yeah it hit me too when i was getting like oh man chris edited it down uh this episode also though is another first for the simpsons which i didn't know until doing research actually for the critic because the two writers of the teleplay were writers for the critic and that is the writing team of joshua sternan and then jeffrey ventimiglia now jennifer ventimiglia so the co-writer is i believe the first trans writer of a simpsons episode and jennifer ventimiglia uh transitioned sometimes in the 2010s i i'm not sure exactly uh she and joshua were in the news a few a couple

years ago because they had sold a script to be produced by Dan Savage of Savage Love Column fame to make an autobiographical show about two Hollywood writers and one transitions and what that was like for them. It might have an opening if Jeffrey Tambor's kicked off his show. That's true. They're still writing partners, and I believe they were 27 when they wrote this episode. Wow. So super young writers. It's never going to happen for me, is it? Nope.

We passed the line, Chris. All right. Checking in. Jennifer pre-transition is on the commentary. Also, though, I like that this commentary, that they are very open, that this was total awards bait, that they wanted to make an awards bait episode they thought if we kill off a character and have maudlin emotions in it it'll surely win an award that's why very rarely the simpsons have teleplay credits but this one al gina mike reese were like we want

the awards when the awards come for this then we need to get the awards. So they have to get story by credit and gave teleplay to Ventimiglia and Sternen. And as we talked about before, the credited writer is not always the person who came up with the idea for the episode. Rarely so. But they're never listed as story by. So, yeah, that's pure Emmy baits. Hold up the Spielberg credit. I said two sentences to two people and they wrote the thing. Though I had heard that Aaron Sorkin was one of the few who made sure he was on those titles. That it was implied that he did that to get more money for his coke addiction.

Yeah, I thought he rewrote every script on a cocaine bender or something. He's credited to teleplay for most of his stuff. I mean, that's the deal too. Matthew Wiener rewrote pretty much every episode of Mad Men. Dan Harmon rewrote every episode of community but it's just it's just the system of doing it like as showrunner you still let people have credit so as the writer so they can move up in the world just like you got to do before you were a show but i've rarely had this luxury but it's really easy to add good jokes when the structure and the

places and the things and the timing are already there and i was just re-watching an episode of community and like that's a brilliant thing i don't think i'd have the energy to write if i had this whole scene was my responsibility uh but i just heard dan harman talk about the same thing for rick and morty like he always puts a final stink on every yeah he calls it harmonizing harmonizing yeah so more Emmy stuff. We know now that Lisa's wedding was submitted and won. Good. This was not even submitted. So they clearly didn't have faith in this episode winning.

And they were right. I mean, we'll get into it later. But I feel like the pathos they want to earn in this episode just feels flat and cheap. And it comes out of nowhere. Like, they don't really build to it. It's never really earned, in my opinion. I didn't feel it was earned either. It felt kind of cheap. And like a very special episode which i felt is beneath the

simpsons honestly and i like lisa episodes this is just a not very good one and i'd also say that i wonder if it was somewhat political because the the people i would assume the people who submit what episodes you're going to do for the emmys are would be david merkin in the regular staff of six not the pinch hitting staff of the critic so why would they submit an episode they didn't write they would go with one of theirs and also they were just smarter to go with like i would have submitted lisa's substitute over around springfield lisa's wedding lisa's wedding it's a better way they could resubmit the substitute win again do that. Yes. But the first joke in this episode feels more 2017 than 1995. Hell yeah.

Hey, kids, it's story time. I'm going to tell you the story of Krusty's expensive new suit. His sexual harassment suit. Oh, boy. Anyway, as part of Krusty's plea bargain, he has a new court-ordered sidekick, Ms. No Means No. Whoa, you're hot. Let's get some dinner after the show. I have dinner with all my employees.

Right, Sideshow Mel? We've never spoken outside of work. I'm surprised he doesn't try to blame his problems on his Percodan addiction. It wasn't my fault. It on his Percodan addiction. It wasn't my fault. It was a Percodan. If you ask me, that stuff rots your brain. And I'll wait for my new sponsor.

Percodan! Oh, crap! I don't know why Percodan was sponsoring the Krusty the Clown show. I like to think that on his Percodan bender, he signed up for that. He forgot about it. Yeah, and actually we saw a similar joke in The Critic with the James Bond parody, Mr. No Means No. That's true. It's the same joke from the same season. I just wanted to add an addendum here.

As I would say the foremost recreational drug user, Percodan doesn't exist anymore. Percocet is what it was replaced with. After all the deaths. I don't know. It's still oxycodone. It's still responsible for many deaths. There's tons of people addicted to it, though. I feel like the Percodan thing is specifically a reference to Jerry Lewis.

He was addicted to Percodan, and he actually came out later. So he injured his back terribly in 1965 doing just a pratfall. Backflip or something on a piano? Yeah, he did a pratfall off a piano at a Vegas show, which he did a million times. But he said somebody put a steel cable in the wrong spot and he broke his back on it. And so he was just on painkillers for over a decade. He said in 1973 he was suicidal from it and he had like he's like i had the gun in my mouth and then i heard my kids laughing and i put it away and then he finally got

off the percadon so i think many other people were on percadon like uh elvis was on percadon as well and i think it's jerry lewis i think jerry lewis eventually had a thing installed in his body that would just pump painkillers into himself. Allegedly, yeah. No, I watched a video of him holding up his thing. He's like, I press this button and it gives me more good feelings. I invented it for me. I love his serious voice.

It's so good. Invented it for me. It is for me. Krusty got to keep his job after his sexual harassment suit, which as we saw with Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, you get immediately fired that morning. And then the women who work with you have to go on TV and like, this was a surprise.

That, by the way, folks, if you listen to an episode recently where we talked for five minutes about the Today Show and didn't mention Matt Lauer, it's because we recorded it before that came out. And honestly, like, forgive, we're recording this a little earlier too. show and didn't mention Matt Lauer it's because we recorded it before that came out and honestly like forgive we're recording this a little earlier too so if more sexual harassment things came out after like if you're a clown just stay inside stay maybe this is why Miss Penny Candy is no

longer on the show I thought the only female employee except for Tina Ballerina it was more like for instance Sam Kinison setting the uh no no not Sam Kinison, Bobcat Goldthwait setting The Tonight Show on fire. That you would have to do an on-air apology if you did something vaguely criminal at this point. Nobody lost their job. Nobody went to court. They just did something like that. They did some kind of public service. You did some community service.

But on camera. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On camera. That happened a lot or you'd have to do one of those anti-drunk driving commercials after like you're the actor who played aj soprano and got caught drunk driving yeah which i miss those days of just like did you guys just do drugs that was our worst problem in the world uh yes and i also that's still what the cover is today i'm just like i ask all my employees out to dinner like which is a total lie you're only doing it to the women uh i invite all my employees to watch you masturbate men and

women they're all welcome uh so geographically it doesn't make much sense that they're watching tv in the kitchen but you just have to do that for the joke it's the one free tv they can move around yeah and i also think uh by the way if you you don't know who George Washington Carver is, he's the peanut guy. Yes. Though he also was a bit of an environmentalist, which kind of gets overlooked

among all the peanut stuff. Scientists. Most scientists are. Yeah. Specifically, what did he do with peanuts again? Well, his thing was that he saw that

cotton destroyed, it sucked up the environment. You needed better crops for it, even though cotton made you the most money. And so he's trying to teach farmers, like, no, plant peanuts and sweet potatoes. They're better for your land. And here's all these things you can make with that food. Just do that instead of cotton.

Yeah, I think in my extremely white school during Black History Month, we spent about five minutes on this stuff. Yeah, he was a number one you'd hear about in black history history month in the 90s uh i thought that jagged metal crusty i was like a lame plot device it's i don't know if the joke is that they're not trying or it's if i don't i don't really is it a prize in the box and then it comes out of its plastic or like it was a joke i really loved at the time but it doesn't i don't know it doesn't hold up the same the same as other jokes in the season. Watching it again, I'm like, Bart is so lucky he didn't chew his cereal

because, oh my God. Yes, yeah. Well, and I'd also say he should just have internal bleeding and be immediately coughing up blood. It should not give him appendicitis. There's no reason it should go to his appendix. They consulted Mike Reese's father, a doctor, and he said

no, that cannot happen, but they went and did it anyways. And I bet he got paid anyway. That's right, he gave his dad he probably gave his dad a fat consult. I want to think this is partially based on a real food poisoning scare from a few years ago in real history. The 1993 Jack in the Box

E. coli scare, which is actually the most infamous food poison outbreak in contemporary history. Yeah. It's when I came into California, I was shocked. Like, this company still exists? When I hear the name, all I think of is that it killed people. Yeah. I mean, another chain that was in my area, Chi Chi's, the Mexican restaurant,

their salsa gave people E. coli. They're gone. They're gone forever. It's amazing Jack in the Box bounce back. Yes. I remember their first ads on, like, cable ads on cable in the late 90s of, Guys, we're back. Look, we're getting better. It's okay. They wanted to pretend it was all in the past.

Yeah, and I lived in Ohio, and Jack in the Box was just a punchline to me until I moved out here and saw them. But yeah, 732 people were infected from beet patties. Four children died, and 178 people were left with permanent injuries. And the most hilarious thing about this, all of these infections came from the Monster Burger. Oh, God. And the tagline was, so good, it's scary. So really, the Monster Burger killed people. That's unbelievable it could survive.

I feel like four children died. Little babies. If one child died from any food here, you feel like that'd be the end of that company. They were in our town and they disappeared. I remember them disappearing when this happened. They never came back. And I think ultimately it was found to be the fault of Jack in the Box. They tried to blame their

distributor, but ultimately they did not cook the burgers hot enough. There was such demand for these burgers, they wanted to get them out as soon as possible to the customers. So they learned a valuable lesson. Cook your meat, goddammit. Yes, yeah. So Bart also is learning a valuable lesson from Homer when he's trying to get people

to believe him that he's sick. I hate this joke. Bart, I said you were going to study. Oh, my stomach. You just don't want to take that test. I mean it. It really hurts. Mom, I think he's serious kids are so naive lisa when you get to be our age you'll learn a few things like when a sign says

do not feed the bears man you'd better not feed the bears now get to school boy i don't like that do not feed the bears joke i like how badly the bear is drawn it looks like a toy and I think the one thing that's missing is the bear should be growling or making a noise. It just is like so weird. It was more of the magic reality of the critic as well. In the critic, a giant blue whale can drop on a jay and nobody thinks about it. But in The Simpsons at this point, Homer just lifting his arm up in a non-Halloween episode to be like, oh, a bear's been on my arm this entire time. It has been for days. And it's not drawn well.

I feel like they should have retaken that scene or something. I'd also say for redundancy's sake that they have two jokes about Homer's left arm having something he doesn't recognize. That's right. It also has a tattoo on it. So they do a Homer's weird left arm joke twice. I also don't love the joke of the charter says that Bart can die, which is like, shouldn't that be in the teacher's union rules or something? I think it was updated over time.

Yeah, and then also just the snake ate Milhouse. I do like the return of the snake joke, but just like the snake ate Milhouse. The joke. We do see Lunch Lady Doris in the nurse's office again because of budget cuts. But in the episode Whacking Day, we find out she gets two paychecks that way. So she's played nurse before. Yeah. And then we also get a very important line that would only be a big deal until in 2004.

Yes. Lunch Lady Doris, why are you here? Budget cuts. They've even got groundskeeper Willie teaching French. Bonjour! You cheese-eating surrender monkeys! Look, my stomach really hurts. All I can give you are these chewable Prozac for kids.

Your choice. Manic depressive mouse or the bluebird of unhappiness? Superintendent Chalmers, I'd like you to meet our new school nurse, Lunch Lady Doris. Yeah, nice to see you. Seymour, why is that student lying unconscious on the floor? Well, in many cases, the floor is the best...

Oh, look, here comes Lumpy, the school snake. Help! Help! Oh, Lord. It was nice to see Chalmers briefly, at least. This is one of the few terms on The Simpsons that has its own wiki. Yeah, it's cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

I've never seen a joke because it should be totally funny and fine, but I've never seen a joke more stolen with that attribution than this joke. It was co-opted with nefarious purposes behind it. You're not supposed to agree with Willie. Yes, Willie is the correct character who I agree with.

The joke is that Willie is being an obnoxious Scotsman who hates the French, which is a thing for members of the United Kingdom that they hate the French. That's the joke. You're not supposed to agree with Willie. Wasn't that like a New York Post cover or something? They used Cheesy and Thunder Monkeys in a major headline somewhere.

In newspapers, it's attributed to cantankerous TV show hosts like Jeremy Clarkson and what's his name? Anthony Bourdain have all used it with no attribution whatsoever. We're all just saying a Simpsons quote. And they mentioned on the commentary that Jeanine Garofalo is complaining about the use of that term because it was too insulting. And it all was because the French dared to not help us invade a sovereign nation under illegal means. How dare those assholes not want to help kill people in Iraq? The good thing is, in the end, we were right.

Exactly. We were proven right. Those WMDs showed up. There was no proof that it was all just lies nope nope look i'm not saying france says everything right but they were right not to go every delicious if you actually have a political argument with someone leaning right they would appreciate if you forgot about all that yes you're supposed to pretend that please just forget it just forget it happened it was just spreading democracy and let's stop thinking about it yeah it's that easy Just sow the seeds and walk away.

Yeah, we sowed the seeds of democracy. It certainly didn't cause the rise of ISIS or anything like that. But anyway, yeah, I remember you kids, if you're younger than us, maybe don't remember what it was like in the mid-2000s. Like, fuck France was how everybody felt. Like, I remember. Freedom fries and what the Congress cafeteria. That really happened. The Congress cafeteria called them Freedom Fries.

I also remember I worked at a Blockbuster video in Florida with some conservative people, but I tried to never talk politics with them. Unlike now, which I would have been complaining all the time. But anyway, there was a guy there who like, oh, we both love Star Wars. That's cool. And then I mentioned like the new the first pirates movie was out which is before we knew who johnny depp was so i was just excited for it i said let's see the new pirates have you guys seen the new pirates movie and then he said

no i'm not seeing that because johnny depp's a france lover i was like that's why you're not seeing this fucking because he lived in france or something yeah he had lived in france how dare he not see to that degree also that prozac for kids gag like it's cute and all but it makes no sense like it's just they just had a funny name for prozac yeah it also feels like a very critic joke uh yes again and also it felt like a very critic joke was hearing the er theme when we see hibbert yes that's the joke and It's a hospital. And they just throw in Dr. Nick there for a gag, even though he should not be working with Hibbert. I feel like a lot of this is Al Jean and Mike Ree sort of revisiting their greatest hits of the seasons they worked on. Like, That's Why Chalmers Is There, Lunch Lady Doris, Riviera, Hibbert.

Like, a lot of the beats we've seen them right before, they're sort of returning to. And that's distracting from the main story, I think. Yeah, but they're easy softballs they can count on man these are primo seats i could really go for a hot dog homer this is an operation hot dogs get your hot dogs here okay bart i will count to three and you will be sound asleep one three. Out like a light. Scalper. Whoopsie. Maybe if I fiddle with these knobs.

Hey, I smell gas. Pleasant gas. Night night gas. Dr. Nick is like a surgeon for hire. I don't know what he's doing working with Dr. Hibbert yeah and also though that that gas being loose should have knocked out hibbert too that it only affects nick

is just like it makes a joke even cheaper i think he doesn't breathe out of the mask i forgot i don't know it's just that he's fiddling with the knobs and so it's just loose at the top there'd be a lot of gas in that room then. It doesn't. Yeah, whatever. Though it is a real nightmare scenario for me thinking of like waking up during a surgery and seeing them cutting into you. Like, ugh.

It's terrifying to me. Then I swear this scene of Bart showing off his scar and his appendicitis is straight from the French children's book Madeline.

Yeah, if you've seen the animated adaptation she sings a song about it. My scar, my scar. I'm so glad someone else remembers it. I'm getting goosebumps. It's so vague. I'm not the Madeline super fan, if you've seen the animated adaptation, she sings a song about it. My scar, my scar. I'm so glad someone else remembers it. I'm getting goosebumps. It's so vague. I'm not the Madeline superfan. You guys are, apparently. It was straight to HBO, and I remember bringing the tape home to try and convince my parents to subscribe

to HBO, because the book I loved, my sister and I loved, was now animated, and we watched it over and over again, a friend's tape of Madeline. They had to add a ton of songs because it's just, it's a 20-page children's book. So there's a whimsical song about a scar. Yeah. Interesting. Yes, it's a French

child who lives in a convent, or, well, a nun takes care of them in an orphanage, and she gets appendicitis one day, and then to show how brave she is, she's like showing off her scar, just as Bart does. She's Madeline. Wicked! I got this cool scar, and I get to miss a week of school.

Dr. Hibbert, can I have my appendix out? Why not? Follow me, kids. Nurse, prep these children. I'm glad you're okay, Bart. Leaning on Smurphy! Little Lisa, it's good to see you again. It's been a long time.

And then we get an actual flashback at the end of the show. Man, is that jarring. In season six, even, seeing season one animation boy i do want to step back a tiny bit to a joke that just really fell flat for me and when it ended i'm like where where was the joke where uh bart comes to after his surgery and um he blames homer for the uh for the accident and uh homer begins strangling him and then hibbert comes in and says now he just had surgery to stop strangling him and homer does and it's over it's over the scene just ends i'm like that could have been a joke like i guess the joke is he shouldn't be strangling someone who just had

surgery but there was it just was so flat to me like flat and awkward yeah though i really love the delivery of nurse prep these children they must all be insured that they just all are immediately removing it. And so, yeah, that's the entrance of Bleeding Gums Murphy. And again, it's what makes this episode really weak to me. He can't leave the room. The show, Simpsons, especially in season six, undercuts so many sitcom cliches. But this is the exact sitcom cliche of like, oh, you're a character i haven't seen in a while you're in a hospital bed the whole time you'll even have a telltale cough like it's just so

maudlin and treacly i just don't like it like and the closest they get to jokes with well first you get a joke that apparently bleeding gums his brother is hibbert which so yeah hibbert has two long lost brothers in this show the other one one was the doctor in Shelbyville when Homer is looking for her Powell. Just right at that moment, I'm like, that's the kind of joke someone writes when they know they're not coming back tomorrow. Yes. You just let this open thread forever. I did like Bart's Dr. Cheeks joke, just that they fit in as many ways to talk about his butt as possible. Doing the rounds and not a little behind.

He bounced back. Also, in case you don't know, Ron Taylor became famous on Broadway for originating the role of Audrey II in the 1981 Little Shop of Farts. He obviously was recast in the film. He's got an awesome voice. Yeah, he's great. And then we get the history of Bleeding Gums,

which again, if you need a more, as a viewer for the first time, if you need a more as a viewer of the for the first time if you need a more uh indication that he is dying it's him telling his life story it's like oh here's my life story i'll be dead soon like that's exactly they did that exact fucking thing on the netflix luke cage show when his barber shop dad figures like now it's time to tell you my life story i was a drug dealer i knew this guy all these kids got guns but they ain't got fathers that's like almost a verbatim line from that awful scene and then he's dead in 10 minutes later i mean there's a lot of great jokes

in bleeding gum's backstory but ultimately every part of his life is too ridiculous to get you invested in him as a real person who will die and then care about his death it's just too silly i think so here's part one of his history i learned at the feet of blind willie witherspoon i've been playing jazz for 30 years and i just can't make a go of it i want you to have my saxophone this isn't a saxophone it's an umbrella so i've been playing an umbrella for 30 years why didn't anybody tell me? We all thought it was funny. That's not funny. Then I got my big break. I was on Steve Allen's Tonight Show.

Now, a brilliant jazz musician who's inspired me to do some improv poetry. Twinkle, twinkle, groovy cat. Oh, I wonder where you at. I really love the way you cook. Just like me when I wrote this book, How to Make Love to Steve Allen.

From the author of Happiness is Naked Steve Allen, Journey to the Center of Steve Allen, and The Joy of Cooking Steve Allen. That should be in black and white, though, if it's from the Steve Allen Tonight Show. That is Steve Allen, and he was on the show previously voicing the altered voice of Bart Simpson. And he was the blue dots. Yes, separate vocations. Yeah, though, and he...

Did anybody else go down the Steve Allen rabbit hole? Well, I already did this on The Critic, though, because they did this exact same joke in Critic Season 1 about him saying he wrote a book while writing a song. It's like, while writing the song for you, Marty, I wrote this book. Steve Allen's advice to Marty. There were a ton of Steve Allen has done everything

Jokes and there's a sketch on MST3K Where they invent the Steve-O-Meter that will tell you If Steve Allen has already invented something that you have And Steve Allen did invent the Steve-O-Meter So you can't even invent that It was one of those things I just went down this rabbit hole of Because I think, was that because Steve Allen Had laid claim

He personally claimed he invented all this stuff But I think it's He was just so prolific I think he has technically touched all like so many genres in every medium and he's written a billion books on all of it i even disappeared into like it's steve allen teaching you how to use computers he was he was on the forefront of that i did he's the first host of the tonight show there's someone else credited with creating the tonight show he's like you see that other show he created? This is Steve Allen's show.

And he did the man on the street bits first? He created that. It was originally called the Knickerbocker Hour or something. The Knickerbocker Beer. I'm glad they changed that. But yeah,

this is between 1954 and 1957, this appearance. And he only got busted out of the show because like, you're doing a great job but he wants you to do

the same job on another show. So he moved into another program in hopes to elevate it. He didn't quit and he wasn't fired. out of the show because like you're doing a great job but he wants you to do he wants you to do the same job on another show so they moved him to another program in hopes to elevate it he wasn't he didn't quit and he wasn't fired

and then Jack Parr was next right Jack Parr was brought in and then Johnny Carson and for 30 everyone did 3 to 4 years until Johnny Carson

yeah Steve Allen knocked her up but Johnny Carson married her and I just just because I watched John Mulaney and his salute

to David Letterman I have a dumb bit from his stand up about Steve Allen that made me laugh and I couldn't because I watched John Mulaney and his salute to David Letterman I have a dumb bit from his stand up about Steve Allen that made me laugh and I couldn't help but think of oh let's hear it

the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson I think it said to people hey take a break from your weird life and watch these fancy people make show business but David Letterman's shows

said to people your weird life is just as funny as show business and he showcased weirdos and he showcased outsiders that nobody on TV ever had before. Yeah, yeah, Steve Allen did some of that stuff. But if Steve Allen is so great, how come he's dead?

He has a point. It's the best joke at Steve Allen's expense I've heard in at least 20 years. He's been dead since 2000. That's so great. Yeah, yeah. Steve Allen did some of that stuff. Fuck, that was so funny. I love that John Lenny cares that much about old-timey entertainment.

Because Steve Allen is, and thanks to The Simpsons, will forever remain a part of that. People give a shit. We also find out about his Fabergé egg habit, which in actuality, it's not tens of thousands of dollars for original Fabergé eggs. It's tens of millions of dollars. They're kind of priceless. I did the research on this. They're believed to have been 69 created. Nice.

Dude. 50 are on record, and we currently know where 43 of them are. And the wiki page has where all of them are located. Wow. Yes. They're that precious and rare mark them on a map uh and then we get a very not uh aged well scene i cut my first and only album sax on the beach but then i spent all my money on my 1500 a day habit

i'd like another fabergé egg please, don't you think you've had enough? I'll tell you when I've had enough When was the last time you worked? In 86 when I did a guest shot on the Cosby show Hey kids, meet Grandpa Murphy We have three grandpas already This one's a great jazz musician. Oh, they all are.

You see, the kids, they listen to the rap music which gives them the brain damage with their hippin' and the hoppin' and the pippin' and the poppin' so they don't know what the jazz is all about. You see,

jazz is like jello pudding pop no actually it's more like kodak film no actually jazz is like the new coke it'll be around forever wow now the cosby share uh the cosby show's been rightfully taken off the air for years now but if you've watched a ton of it like me i've probably seen it all front to back like three or four times they're just always in reruns you would know that this happened on the show cosby would often go into these like improv sessions just by himself and everyone just had to sit there in the background until he was done it's great animation on everybody awkwardly just like do we do we say anything yeah it's a great joke about the parade of poorly reasoned guest stars on the Cosby show. I mean, it was very indulgent in a good way that he gave these, like, it was him exposing

black culture to America that didn't really get to be on TV. But they always had to bring them in the house instead of bringing the kids to wherever that person was. So they were usually sometimes a family member. And it's also, The Simpsons still has a, I guess, a playful but not spiteful rivalry with the cosby show at this point so it's been dead for three years now at this point the show's over yeah 92 it ended but yeah i have clips of cosby's time as a genial pitchman now he's known as a serial rapist but in the past he sold many a product and so here are all of them here's jello pudding you ask kids why their beds aren't

made and they say i forgot you ask them why they're walking with muddy sneakers through the living room they say oh i forgot but these same kids will ask you dad how come you didn't fix any jello pudding tonight you said you would two years ago august 12th at 7 31 p.m you had red sweater on and some loafers brown. And you say, I forgot. And they say, Dad, you're grounded. Yellow pudding. What? I can't be a kid without it.

Just let Bill Cosby go. Man, why don't I just, I could just take that commercial and put any product I want at the end of it. So I think he represented all of these products for like a decade at least. So here he is talking about Kodak's color watch system with his dog. Bill Cosby on great film developing. This is my dog. We lost Best of Show at a big dog show. It was a sad night.

He was very upset. I took some pictures, remember? Well, now you don't think I'd take them just anywhere to be developed. Here, come on, look at him. Ask for the Kodak color watch system. This color watch seal says only Kodak products are used for great developing. He's still upset. I show him the pictures.

He says, Arf, Color Watch, you're going to thank me for it. Yeah, Cosby, I bet you've taken some pictures. Yeah. The more the total recall on that seal, like when you had your pictures developed, that's the seal that was on. The Kodak seal. Whoa. Those envelopes came back from the vacation you took two months ago when you could finally afford to, your parents could afford to develop this. You can finally see those photographs.

The best one is New Coke, which according to the novel Gump and Company, was invented by Forrest Gump. Wow. I was wondering where that was going. Introducing the great new taste of Coca-Cola. The best tasting Coke in the history of ever. It's a hit. It's a Coke. What a coke is it wow it's coca-cola with a new

taste a new sensation a new explosion of wonderfulness in your mouth go ahead try it it's just how you feel well these words yeah it's an unfortunate improv well i mean cosby selling you a drink also kind of unfortunate in 2017. Yeah, we found him with a high C promo. It's a drink. Come on, drink it. Coke basically was, well, Coke was trying to compete with Pepsi, right? Trying to be innovative or trying to have.

They want to be hip. I don't know this off the top of my head. It's in a bunch of your marketing books of, there's a term for it where they're trying to replace something when no one's asking for that product to be replaced and in my from what i understood i think they found a way to make coke and save money and so they wanted to it's a new coke it's just as good pepsi was a little sweeter yeah it was i that's why i don't like it uh it's disgusting i'm a coke man i will swat a pepsi to the ground at this point is pe Pepsi okay? No. But they replaced it.

The public went crazy for some reason. And for a long time, I don't remember this. I don't remember what it tastes like. But I remember Coke is it in every skating rink and coming out of my TV. That's the slogan for the new Coke. Yeah. But Coca-Cola Classic, they didn't put Coke on another bottle for another 30 years. Just C-O-K-E. It was always Coca-Cola Classic, they didn't put Coke on another bottle for another 30 years? Just C-O-K-E.

It was always Coca-Cola Classic. Coca-Cola Classic, letting you know this is the old version, the one you liked, not the one Bill Cosby says, well, blow in your mouth if you like the taste, whether you like it or not. I know I've had new Coke at some point, and just like Crystal Pepsi, I wish they'd re-release it just so we know what disappointment tastes like. I wonder if at the Coke Museum you can get new Coke. They have every other flavor they have. I would not be surprised if they slid it into regular Coke and nobody noticed. At all. By the way.

I thought Steve Allen did video game commercials. I know I saw one. I didn't see it. And I'm just telling you now because I think you'll like it. I did find an Atari Don Knotts commercial where he escapes prison with the help of the game break. Wow. I recommend Intellivision with George Plimpton. That's a smart one.

Intellivision. By the way, some of the real jazz musicians who were on the Cosby Show included Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, and Lena Horne. Dizzy Gillespie played the music teacher for the then-youngest one. For Rudy. He puffed his cheeks out a lot, I recall. And B.B. King played a character who wasn't B.B. King, but looked exactly like him and used the same instrument.

But he's like, no, it's your uncle. I'm C.C. Prince. I play the guitar. And Stevie Wonder, as well, was on it, too. Yeah, every Bill Cosby joke is weird now, but Gene and Reese loved making fun of Bill Cosby. They used to be rivals. For one character, I think that's the longest one character

has talked on The Simpsons in a long time. Yeah, for sure. They just let Dan Kesslin in a go, which again feels like they would never have a direct parody of a person that long on a non-Gene and Reese one. And I will say Dan's Cosby is not the best Cosby I've heard, but it's still funny. It's still very funny. He improvises very well in the voice.

It's the one I stole because it's the most fun to do. And I do love the animation of him doing kind of Egyptian arms during the Pippin and the Hoppin. It's hard to make him mug as much in a Simpsonized form. And another thing Gene and Reese love is recycled animation. So they pulled out Kent Brockman from Bart's comment when he's about to read off

The Falling People Are Gay just to sub in 20 more seconds of him introducing the Krusty clip, which I do like the Krusty clip of him defending his cereal. Well, I half like it. I like it. And I contend that those tourists were decapitated

before they entered the Krusty Land house of knives. Next question. What about that little boy who got appendicitis from eating your cereal? To prove that this metal-o is harmless, I will personally eat one. See, there's nothing... God!

Oh! Oh, yeah! Oh, boy! This thing is shredding my insides. Uh, Krusty, that wasn't the metal one. That was a regular Krustio. It's poison. So the critic writers did not do their research.

Itchy and Scratchy Land exists, but Krusty Land is only in the Simpsons arcade game. You're all fired. And Universal Studios. Oh, that too. Well, now it's real. I wish they'd have gotten faster to the real. That was just a regular, oh, but it's like, speed it up. There's something clumsy and not funny about it, and it's saved by the loving

animation given to Krusty. Not as elaborate as we've seen before. I do like the tag. It's poison. It's poison. Yeah. Also that he's selling Tonya Harding's Wedding Night video, which is a real, real life sex tape

you could buy if you wanted to be horrible. And now there's a Tonya Harding Nancy Kerrigan movie. Yeah, there is, as we speak,

I, I, Tonya, which I feel like I'll probably like, because I love Margot Robbie, but I, I love Margot Robbie.

Tonya Harding is the unsung celebrity sex tape that no one talks about. Is it just too vile? Is it with Jeff Galooly? I wouldn't want to see Jeff Galooly ever. Yeah, it's not. You can't jerk to it?

Was I being indelicate? They're not that type of people. I need to know about the cinematography, Chris. I'm not lowbrow. I mean, it's like a late 80s. I've seen one second of it they show on the news. It's like, boy, this is cheap. And it's not.

It's awful. They're both not porn types. I mean, body-wise. Yeah, no. They're people you don't want to see have sex. So no one bought it. But I don't know. It's one of the first celebrity sex tapes I can think of.

Let me know. Maybe Little Richard has one out there. Rob Lowe. Then we get the first of two takes of Jazz Band, which this will take us into break, actually. Let's give a listen. Lift me, won't you lift me Above the old routine

Make it nice nice play it clean Jazzman when the Jazzman's testifying a faithless man believes we can sing you into paradise

Or bring you to your knees Jazzman Oh, Jazzman The Simpsons will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? I may not be the jazz man, but I am testifying that you should sign up for patrion.com slash talking Simpsons. Yes, everybody. I am here again to tell you about the awesome Patreon podcast stuff you are missing out on.

If you did not sign up for this, not only do you get every episode a week early and ad free you get tons of cool exclusives including if you listened at the beginning of this episode two of our most recent interviews one where we talked to mike scully for a whole hour and he is was a writer on the simpsons from season five through eight and then the show runner for seasons nine through twelve and he has an amazing career that we only scratch the surface of but it's tons of fun also we have an interview with mimi pond 28 years ago the first ever episode of the simpsons aired and she wrote it but you don't hear a lot about her side of things and as the interview reveals well there's a reason for that and she is really explains things i think both are must listen

interviews for fans of the simpsons and this podcast so you should sign up at patreon.com slash talking simpsons to check them out the holidays are still going strong and if you want a cool gift for yourself, you should get a Talking Simpsons t-shirt. If you just go to shirtsickle.com, that's like Popsicle but with shirt, or tiny.cc slash talking shirt, you can get your own Talking Simpsons t-shirt. That's a beautiful sky blue with a logo that is in the style of Ion Springfield, a song that's very important to us and designed by the wonderful nina matsumoto it's a great thing to wear while listening to us talk

about say talking critic on the patreon which just wrapped up or our exclusive holiday special where we talk about futurama yes we actually do a podcast about futurama in the style of talking simpsons the thing you've always wanted. You can listen to it now at patreon.com slash talking simpsons while wearing your shirt-sickle t-shirt. Hey, this is Hank Azaria. You're listening to Talking Simpsons on Lazer Time. I didn't know that was a thing.

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and commercial-free bonus show, Bonus Time in return. Here's a taste. Fox owns A New Hope in perpetuity. And now Disney does. I said to someone, like, do you remember they traded a real sportscaster for Oswald the Rabbit? For Oswald, yeah. To do nothing with him.

Just to have him. He's got a store. So when someone brought up the Fox deal, I'm like, they want that movie. And they are gonna buy this company. Disney owns the Simpsons and everything like the Simpsons, Fox has made. Family Guy. Family Guy, American Dad.

Married with Children. King of the Hill. They own it all. It's impossible. And the example I was talking with my girlfriend, or maybe I was writing about it online, there's no company that can realistically manage that much shit.

Let's look at it like this. Disney owns Fox. The movie series Ice Age. Oh, yeah. The movie series Ice Age is a big fish in a small pond for Fox and Blue Sky Studio. You go to SeaWorlds, and they have Ice Age 4D movies,

and they're all over the place. Why the fuck would I, as a Disney employee, put any priority over that with Frozen? Why would Bob Iger ever make an Ice Age anything? Get your weekly bonus podcast, over 100 movie commentaries, exclusive videos, gameplay days,

and more by supporting Lazer Time at patreon.com slash Lazer Time. When the jazz man's testifying, a faithless man believes, he can sing you into paradise or bring it to your knees. It's a gospel kind of thing Yeah, that's the original Carole King. Very appropriate for Lisa to love white jazz. My girlfriend and I, for some reason,

just caught a PBS documentary on Carole King. Huh. Wrote over like a hundred songs for other people. That's true. For the monkeys, for down on the board, like up on the rooftop. It's crazy. She's a national treasure.

I love her. Did you write this? I'm like, oh yeah, here, let me do it for you. I'm like, I'd never heard her perform. This song, didn't know she wrote. What, James Taylor song, You Got a Friend?

Yeah, yeah. She wrote all of that shit. She's probably one of the most prolific songwriters the 60s and 70s had. And I hate her version of her own song. I don't like Jazzman. I like Lisa's better. No, Yardley Smith does a great job with Jazzman.

She's really good. I couldn't believe it. No, I've heard it before, but I just compared it. I'm like, nah, I prefer Lisa's version. I never heard it on the – I listen to oldies stations all the time, but as a kid – My mom was a big fan. But the oldies stations I listened to, I realize now, went from like 52 to 69.

They never did 70s stuff because in the 90s they're like the 70s is too recent that's not oldies but uh yeah it's it's a song of a white lady appreciating jazz and just singing about the jazz man he's so great just like lisa and in this scene bleeding gums murphy gives lisa his sax which feels like it should be more meaningful and i feel like the episode lisa Sax, a few years later, would kind of make this not seem as important. Well, she never uses the sax again outside this episode. She uses the

sax she got from her father or the replacement he got again. That's the saxophone Homer bought, not Bleeding Gums Murphy's. Here is the final line by Bleeding Gums Murphy, well well before he dies baby you are gonna knock him dead here take this for luck your sex thank you so much oh dear i had in my notes it's the second song sung by a simpsons uh cast member by carol king after you make me

feel like a natural woman oh okay the jub jub uh but man that cough i hate that cough so much the simpsons yeah five five to ten episodes ago in maggie makes three they make fun of the theatrical cough that foreshadows the death sure we will will, Mr. Homa. Sure we will. But then they do it just for real there. They just do it sincerely. I'm like, Simpsons should be better than that. They could even kill off bleeding gums

but not have to telegraph it so heavily. I mean, it's not that important, but we don't really even know why he's there. No, no explanation. If he has disease-itis or something, I don't know. Yeah, he's out of time. he has disease itis or something i don't know yeah it's he's he's he's out of time he's a 50 year old black man in the 90s it's not long for this world well he didn't take care of himself as we know he didn't brush his teeth there's probably lots of ways he didn't and teeth are close to your brain so take care of those guys uh you know

you're fine something almost felt like a futurama joke in there though the detox center to re-talk center i feel like you'd see that exact sign gag in a futurama we get a brief preview of sober barney which will become a character in a few years once dan kessler net as his way but uh then we get another like you said the greatest hits of gene and reese a recital at school right they did so many music recitals. Just like Lisa's Pony. This is like classic Skinner introducing a thing on a stage. Now I have learned that most of the orchestra is having their appendixes removed. So without further ado, I give you the remnants of the Springfield Elementary School Orchestra. On saxophone, Lisa Simpson.

On triangle, Martin Prince. And with a flute up his nose, Ralph Wiggum. That's some nice floating boy. They will be playing stars and stripes forever. Hopefully not forever. I didn't, I,

that's one of the quotes I use all the time. That's some nice, that's a nice variable boys. Do it all the time. Did he most from his episode? I like when Wiggum is supportive. Get off the stage, Ralphie. Get off the stage, sweetie. My Danny. Get off the stage, sweetie.

It's cute that, yeah, if Wiggum was a mean dad to Ralph, it wouldn't be as funny. So instead that he's constantly being nice to him, even in the classic, like, Ralph super episode of, like, why are you so interested in my

closet of mystery? But he's super friendly to him the entire time. All the special schools want Ralph. So then Lisa has a huge jazz riff, which I think is supposed to be seen as the moment that Murphy dies and possesses her. Oh, really? I never saw it that way. That's how I read it. I could read it that way.

That's cool. Burst of inspiration. Then she comes back to see he's dead i think that's when he dies and gives his power to her that's that's how i always read it as uh but yeah so then he we come back to the very obvious reveal that murphy is dead and and it's just also played too straight i did i did expect it i expected to i'd seen too many very special episodes it's sort of the only real death in the simpsons at this point it is the first i mean they'd introduced the character b and one for like 10 minutes and then she dies but yeah it's not the same this is a character but you have to see and feel it through lisa yes yeah it's i don't know when you experienced the first death of someone you knew, but it definitely wasn't when I was eight.

No, yeah. It should be noted that Mike Reese really wanted to kill Homer's mom in this episode and not bleeding him as Murphy. Or Marge's mom. Marge's mom. Yeah, Marge's mom. Which would have been fine. Yeah, she has been used so sparingly that you wouldn't miss her. But yeah, then we get everybody trying to comfort her.

I do like how bad Homer is at comforting her. Lisa, honey, are you going to be okay? Bleeding Gums was my hero and I never got to tell him how I felt. Oh, I'm sure he knew. And I'm sure that wherever he is now, he's happy. But he was the only person who had the same love for music that I do. Thank you. Oh, Dad, why did he have to die?

Well, it's like the time that your cat Snowball got run over. Remember, honey? Yeah. What I'm saying is, all we have to do is go down to the pound and get a new jazz man. Oh, Dad! Oh, I blew it again. What? That's some great acting by Yarley.

Even if the story doesn't make me buy into the emotion, she does a great job. And Homer, too. I like when he's trying to be sweetly reassuring, but also very stupid. I thought that was too stupid for Homer. Too stupid? Yeah. I love that he's like, remember that other time you were very sad when your cat died? That's like something Bart would say to Lisa, not

Homer. He's not that dumb. Well, him sucking on the pacifier, that felt like a very Simpsons shorts joke to me. So many of the shorts ended with somebody else sucking the past that's true gross baby's mouths are so clean and uh yeah then bart tells it also felt like a little bit of time killing to be like well what does bart think of the afterlife is like yeah whatever but him saying nobody ever suspects the butterfly is

cute and all but i love the butterfly holding aloft the giant gas can. That's funny. Man, this is a weird personal story. Sure. You burned down a school, Chris. No. What's the statute of limitations on this? I met a girl and slept with her very fast.

And I had told her I'm a Simpsons fan. And she says, oh, you're a Simpsons fan. And she immediately shows me a tattoo in a weird spot and it was no one expects the butterfly I'm like I don't get it and she's like you're I was oh you ruin it you're not a true Simpsons fan you're not a true Simpsons fan but I got in there was it of the butterfly or was it was just the fucking text uh was it uh no one expects was it above her butt crack okay yeah I see not the most elegant place for that send us your Simpsons tattoos Was it above her butt crack? Okay. Yeah. I see.

Not the most elegant place for that. Send us your Simpsons tattoos on your butt crack. Grandpa explains Death Witch. Is this line of the show? Yes. We got the most mileage out of it. Yes. That's the joke. Maybe I need to talk to somebody with a little more age and wisdom.

Death stalks you at every turn. Grandpa. Well, it does. There it is. Death. It's only Maggie. Oh, yeah. You know, at my age, the mind starts playing tricks. So, ah, death. That's only the cat. Oh, ah, death. That's only the cat. Death! That's Maggie again, Grandpa. Oh, where were we? Death! I like we get one more death in the background. We get one death in the background from the Starland vocal band gag. But him being obsessed with death, it gives Grandpa something to do.

But he should know he'll never die because he's Grandpa. It would be too far for them to kill Grandpa. He's too beloved. Wouldn't do that. And in case you don't know who Starland Vocal Band is, which is Homer's tattoo. They suck. Here's their one hit. Whoa. Afternoon Delight.

Such a very leisurely video. It was Arrested Development that had to point out that this song is way dirtier than you think it is. And that video had literal metaphoric ejaculations. That's true. That's what those skyrockets in Flight are. People look too wholesome to be singing about afternoon nookie, though. That's what I call it. I only think it's weird.

It might have been one other place, but this and PCU both took jabs at Starland Vocal Band, a band I have never heard of in my life so i grew up thinking this is the worst band ever too and it's not even that could be true i don't know right i could be true they more famously got a variety show in the 70s and uh which is only remembered because david letterman did bits all right it was it was one of the first things he did so you can look up a very young though still grumpy david letterman like you can watch david letterman do his man on the street thing at a ren fair and talking guys like you're supposed to be a renaissance man but you're a carny it's no pink lady and jeff the ultimate 70s variety show uh

then yeah we get then we go to the funeral which this is where i i always call this episode the blood and guts murphy episode yeah because it's just so catchy this way dearly beloved we are gathered here today to bid farewell to blood and guts murphy no it was bleeding gums murphy anyway bloody Bloody Gums Murphy was quite the sousaphone player. Saxophone! He was a jazz musician. You didn't know him. Nobody knew him.

But he was a great man. And I won't rest until all of Springfield knows the name of Bleeding Gums Murphy. And I won't rest until I've gotten a hot dog. Homer, this is a cemetery. Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs here. Woo-hoo! I won't rest until I've gotten a hot dog. Homer, this is a cemetery. Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs here! Woo-hoo!

What do you do? Follow my husband around? Lady, he's putting my kids through college. Yeah, Lisa's crusade for bleeding gums is so odd because, Lisa, you've not mentioned him in five years. He's not that important to you. I could see his death spurring her to care more. Yeah, but if he had come up more in the past, I could buy this. It just feels like he appears only to die, and they're trying to milk some

pathos out of him. I forgot one other time, in Bart's Dog Gets an F, she did sew him into the family quilt. It was important. For the past, let's say, three years. Three years, he's not mattered at all. She's been busy. Put My Kids Through College is my second favorite line.

Put My Kids Through College! That delivery makes you crazy. Sounds like John Lovitz, but I mean, it's not him, but it's a John Lovitz kind of voice. Yeah. And then this is something, too. This episode kind of wastes this B-plot.

I'm like, I would love to see a whole episode that's about Bart suing Krusty and the lawsuit and courtroom scenes. Yes, I mean, we're... But instead, it all happens off camera. We get Lionel Hutz, but we're denied a Lionel lawsuit and courtroom scenes. Yes. I mean, we're, but instead it all happens off camera. We get Lionel Hutz, but we're denied a Lionel Hutz courtroom scene.

Yeah. And this joke with the OJ lawyers feels like they said, no, the producer said, no, you can't do this joke. And they're like, we're doing it.

We're doing it whatever way we can. They still come off as the most distinctive looking Simpsons characters ever made. They, they didn't put in Johnny Cochran, but it's the rest of the OJD dream team. That doesn't make sense. Good news, Bart. The Crusty O Cereal Corp. has settled your case for $100,000.

Less, of course, my legal fees. What kind of legal fees? Well, for a case this complex, I had to assemble a crack team of lawyers. Ronald Chaporo, trial attorney. Albert Dershman, who can hold three billiard balls in his mouth. How much of the $100 do I get? $500? Yes, well, uh...

Cool! Glad you're happy. Let's roll. Love the takeoff in a pickup truck with Dersh-Dersh-Dersh-Dersh in the back. It's supposed to be, uh, like the Bronco. That's why it's white. Yes, it is. That's kind of a white. Yes, it is that kind of a joke. This is awful. This is officially awful now.

The one saving grace I like is yet another Bart fantasy in which something bad happens to him and he walks away from that saying, cool. He loses $500 on one roulette spin. And he thinks it's cool. Robert Shapiro and Alan Dershowitz are the people in Bart's living room for about five seconds.

I do like the joke with the pool balls in his mouth. Yeah. It's kind of funny, but ultimately it's just like references. But why? Why Cochran or Kardashian? Why these two? What the fuck? They can only fit in two, I guess.

Yeah. Like these were the two least controversial. Like Johnny Cochran was easily the most controversial because he dared to hate cops and be a proud black guy who fucked over cops i mean ultimately it does make sense as to why there was only 500 left with this legal team yeah yeah that's true yeah though it also flash forward the next episode lionel hutch will be hanging out in junkie town burning things in a dumpster so he flew through that money really fast it all went up his nose yes yeah so then we get homer kind of knocking jazz saying d's and do's i like i do like

you just replace the d's with do's dough it's cute little word play but let's see there's so many jokes in this one that like that aren't like laughers that they just go you go like yeah that's cute yeah that's clever that's cute that's clever jazz stations in america though aren't like laughers that they just go, you go like, eh, that's cute. Yeah, that's clever. That's cute. That's clever. Jazz stations in America, though, aren't very popular. I think the internet really helped them out a lot, but this is my second favorite line. I do like this. Hi, I have a request.

I would like you to do a tribute to Beating Gums, Murphy, please. Oh, I'd love to, little sister, but we don't have his album. What if I could find it? Well, I'd spin it for you, but you know, ain't no one gonna hear it. Our broadcast range is only 23 feet, which makes us the most powerful jazz station in the entire U.S. of A. Gee, your station has a lot of problems.

Tell me about it. Just look at our morning guy. Hello, this is Mole Man in the morning. Good Mole Man to you. Today, part four of our series of the agonizing pain in which i live every day i just love that his saying is good moment to you he's really leaning into his brand good moment to you then it turns out the comic book guy has the sax on the beach album which that is very fitting that is just the type of guy who would own a rare jazz album who would then double the price when he finds out it's more in demand.

I'm glad it was him. I'm only mildly disappointed. It could have been a perfect springboard for a record store guy. Yeah. Simpsons, but I would guess. They could have created a new record store guy. I'm just looking at the writers right now. They don't seem like music.

Stupid audiophiles. Not really. But Al Jean and Mike Reese, again, it's their greatest hits. They've got to work Burns in. So Lisa needs $500, and briefly Burns is stringing her along with the money on a string. That's pretty cute. But they had to work him in. You know they had to.

The second Lisa said $500, I was like, well, okay, Bart's buying the album. This is just also the lines just go together so easily, and they don't subvert any of it and i did feel as a kid in 1995 i liked them being kind of current with a pog joke really good lisa look what i've got bart i can't believe it but why when i said my stomach hurt you were the only one who believed me. Oh, thank you. But $500? You'll never see that much money again. Oh, yeah? Take a look at this.

Flesh-eating bacteria, just to make the E. coli joke more obvious. Now, get it. I do like the pog joke, although that's an awful pog. Like, how do you play with that giant Frisbee pog? Yeah. But again, invented by Steve Allen. That's a Steve Allen manhole. By the way, the Simpsons had their own pogs that are quite rare now.

Yes. Sky caps. I'm sure they're worth pennies upon pennies. Skybox in 1994 as they were making the Simpsons. 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. Trading cards, they also made the Sky Caps, a.k.a. Paws. I bought a ton of those at an outlet mall where they also sold sorny TVs. I knocked this episode, but I will say I do like A and B plots coming together as opposed to the B plot being completely separate. This is the B plot solving the A plot. Yeah, you figured once Bart got Lisa to the hospital, this story had run its course. And I totally forgot it existed.

Yeah. The hut showed up. Again, though, an episode where Bart sees Krusty would have just been a good episode anyway. Like, I wish they hadn't burned that. Again, it's so maudlin, though, that, that like basically magic makes the entire town here's here bleeding gums murphy's music i did the best i could bleeding gums Attention all units. Attention all units.

Poison gas cloud heading for... Oh, that's nice. Hey, it's getting cloudy. Ha, ha. Oh, boy's nice. Hey, it's getting cloudy. Ha, ha. Oh, boy. Ha. So he's dead. Yeah.

So, yeah, that was Bleeding Gum sending a lightning bolt down from heaven to expand the reception of that radio station. Showed that kind of care and attention to his career while he was alive well and then bleeding gums murphy appears in the clouds to say goodbye and we get a very who caught this there's no way we caught i got it as a kid in 95 i don't know real i did because i i was enough of a new weeb at the time to know that people were saying that The Lion King ripped off a manga. I hadn't read Kimba, The White Lion. Yeah, that controversy is like a year old. I wouldn't find out about this for another decade.

Actually, I think I was reading Entertainment Weekly in 94, 95, and that's when there was some hubbub about the possible theft. They were probably talking about it at the time. Well, it's not that Gene and Reese were like manga fans or anything. It's that they wanted to take a knock at Disney by saying they stole from The Lion King Ripped Off. They are kids of the 60s and they did see the anime when they were kids. That's true. I think they mentioned that on the commentary.

They're like, The Lion King reminded us of a show we saw as kids called Kimba and that's why we put this joke in the show. We should let them hear the clip so they know what it is. Oh yeah. That was for you, bleeding gums. You've made an old jazz man happy, Lisa. You must avenge my death, Kimba. I mean, Simba.

Luke, I am your father. This is CNN. Will you guys pipe down? I'm saying goodbye to Lisa. We're sorry. I don't want you to go. Sorry, but I have to goodbye goodbye oh what the heck once more from the top oh man that's that that is almost all disney owned properties at this point i really wish

they had gotten uh james earl jones to do those voices and not Harry Shearer. He has a good job, but James Earl Jones has been on the show twice before. Exactly, and Harry Shearer has had to fill in for him in the past, I think. Maybe James Earl Jones has a thing that he doesn't want to play his other character. That could be it. We should play the CNN bumper. These were bumpers that were on the air. They're on now.

They're still there. He's still the CNN guy? Totally. Wow, okay. This is CNN. There you go. That was an old sting I had not heard in a while. Jesus Christ, that made me, little kid Chris Sick.

I know that music. Yeah, but no, he still says this is CNN. Interesting. James Earl Jones is still the voice of Vader. He's shockingly still alive. I know. He played an old guy 25 years ago. I'm of two minds of the Vader thing.

I'm just like, as long as James Earl Jones is alive, I do want him to be Vader. But when I heard him in Rogue One, I'm like, you sound so old, Darth Vader. And that's when he was kicking the most ass ever on screen. Yeah, I know. He just sounded so old. And I wonder how he's going to sound as Mufasa in The New Lion King as well. He's the one they're bringing back. He's still playing Mufasa, but everybody else has been recast.

So nothing changes for James Earl Jones. His life is exactly the same. If I had to pick one person from The Lion King they bring back to reprise their role in it, I would pick him. Matthew Broderick. No one remembers him in the movie. Maybe Nathan Lane would be my second choice after him. I really likeick. No one remembers him in the movie. Maybe Nathan Lane would be my second choice after him. I really like Billy Eichner as Timon.

Yeah, it's perfect. Billy Eichner as Timon is great. Oh, growth, Pumbaa. I cannot wait. Come on. Come on. Timon's going to scream at the top of his lungs. But yeah, so a real bit of a treacly ending where they then reprise

jazz man which will be our outro music i guess i was not this down on this episode last night but after revisiting it here a lot of these are not great simpsons jokes no especially compared to where we are in yeah yeah it's it's watchable but it's far under the season six bar that's been set compared to like say homie the, where we're laughing every second. Or Bart's Comet. Or even the episode right before this, PTA Disbands. And I have written very few things, but I imagine the Kimba joke. That's what we were talking about.

Lion King ripping off an old, what is it called? Kimba the White Lion. By Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of money. If I turn that into my boss I would have to take that joke out it's too distracting and there's no reason to make a joke

on a joke on a joke yeah it's a bit too it's a little sweaty I don't think I picked up on it for 10 years actually I never would have understood what it meant or I just missed it entirely

it is very much a critic joke though to make a specific that specific movie joke of that era of that year even yeah i i think this episode's a little too treacly yeah yeah a little too and not funny enough to make up for it and making and just going with the obvious thing instead of a an undercutting of it which i would expect more from the simpsons so yeah and i think the later clip

show next year's clip show even kind of makes fun of this episode by saying nobody cares about bleeding bleeding comes murphy in the first place like it's they were never popular was that next year yeah it's next year next year uh which is so good like yeah this hey look they tried they obviously i'm glad they could at least be honest on the commentary of like we wanted to win an award it didn't work was sheer emmy bait but uh you know what it's a lower point in season six not quite as low as the the first clip show of the season so but on the plus side for fox it got them another episode from a different production team to add to the syndication package and earn more money and that's why critic season two is only 10 episodes one of which is a

clip show yeah listen to talking critic clip show so yes uh thank you so much for listening folks this has been talking simpsons I've been your host Bob Mackie and my other podcast is retro knots every Monday with an occasional bonus episode on Friday go to retro knots calm or look

for retro knots in your podcatcher and you'll find it I recommend you look up one of our Simpsons based episodes if you want to get into the show we've covered Bart versus the Space Mutants the Simpsons

arcade game and Bart's nightmare which is also bad but the arcade game is great and's Nightmare, which is also bad. But the Simpsons arcade game is great. It's great. And I'm on Twitter as Bob Servo. I'm H-E-N-E-R-Y-G on Twitter, and you can follow me there for updates on this show. Also, you can follow this on Patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons, where you can hear every episode a week early and ad-free.

Not to mention a ton of exclusives, including, if you like this critic talk, you can hear every episode of Talking Critic on there. Plus, we have some really good interviews coming up or have been posted, but just keep an eye on them at patreon.com slash talking simpsons. And we've got that live show coming up January 28th, 2018. It's free. Just make it to the city and we'll touch you in some way. I need to learn to lose 30 pounds.

You got a sharp enough knife, Chris? We'll make it happen. Oh, God. I heard there's somebody from a podcast company going to be there looking to sign people. I'm just kidding. It's my ticket to SNL, baby. This is my ticket out of this dump. But yes, laser time.

You guys were both on last year's semi-sequel to Filthiest Christmas Songs. Yes. You managed to find a whole new slew of them. Hopefully this is going up on Christmas. It is, isn't it? In December? For patrons at least.

But there's that. Laser Time. You guys are on next year. We're going to hit some cartoon shit really hard. So if you want to

dig deep into serious cartoon lore we're going to talk to historians. We're going to do some great video features. You can find all that at LasertimePodcast.com.

Laser Time is the show that started that dumbass network uh that's topic based i did i did just uh watch the simpsons holidays of future past the would-be finale from five years ago uh it's really really good and yeah if you don't like modern episodes watch that one and just think of it like an alternate history even it's a great bookend uh and we did we did that about christmas special sequels. Every famous Christmas special has had a number two, and they're all terrible, and we've forgotten almost every one.

They all want another buy that apple. Exactly. And 302010 is also a show, if you like the stupid news segment I do at the top, we look 30, 20, and 10 years ago to the releases of that week. I think we're in Simpsons season nine at this point, so there's 8 or 9.

And that's really fun to do, to see where you were, what we were watching, what was happening in the news 30, 20, and 10 years ago. And Vigigame Apocalypse, the weekly video game show that you all have been on, including, I believe, the Best of the Year discussion, because you're both avide gamers? I am.

Danganronpa V3. Sorry, Donganrompa V3 got robbed by everybody, including VGA, and I will boycott every website and podcast. I haven't voted yet, but I'm available for bribery. Not enough people played it. That's their problem.

If a game falls in the woods and nobody played it, will it be game of the year? You're making me sad now. That's what they should call the VitaStorm. Well, thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you next week with the Springfield Connection. See you then. When the Jazzman's tested by it,

Faithless man believes He can take you into paradise Or bring you to your knees Jazzman Take my blues away Make my fame the same as yours With every change you make Jazzman Oh, Jazzman Jasmine, oh, Jasmine One more time!

Oh, come on, Lisa. I got a date with Billie Holiday.