Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song With Dan McCoy

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

"That photo was taken shortly before I was shot in the back; which was very strange, because it was during a Bob Hope show. I was trying to get Joey Heatherton to put on some pants, for god's sake!" - Seymour Skinner It's The Simpsons' 100th episode, and the show is finally giving people what they want: almost no Homer, and a complete study/reinvention of Seymour Skinner. Plus, the debut of Luigi, Baby Gerald, and Leopold! What more could you possibly want? (Outside of the yet-to-be-invented walking clock.) Our guest: Dan McCoy from The Flop House podcast Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

This podcast is brought to you by patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon movie podcast, and tons more. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast. That's one hell of a toboggin ride. I'm one of your host, the Croquet playing Mitt Muncher Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today, as always.

Henry Gilbert, and I baked you some raisin roundies. And who is our special guest on the line? It's me, Dan McCoy, a greased Scotsman. And this week's episode is Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badass Song. How would you like it if 20 years from now, people were laughing at things you did? Not likely. This episode originally aired on April 28, 1994, over 31 years ago. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history.

Oh, my God. Completely forgotten film, No Escape, tops the box office. The state funeral for Richard Nixon is broadcast worldwide and The Simpsons celebrates 100 episodes. No Escape. Now, Henry, who is in this movie? What is it? It sounds like a thriller to me. Yes, I wondered if Dan, a movie podcast expert, had heard of it to himself.

That's the one that stars Robert Patrick. Is that correct? And Ray Leota is in it. I had never heard of it before, had not seen it. It's directed by Martin Campbell, a real director who does good movies like Golden Eye and DeCena Royale and less so, the Green Lantern film of 2011. But it's a future prison escape movie set in the terrifying year of 2022. No.

Let me guess. Does Rayleigh ought to play a high-strung character, perhaps? I would think, yeah, I think he's the lead in it, too, I think. And as for the state funeral of Richard Nixon, that's kind of interesting for several reasons. One, he was 81, which is the age that presidents are now instead of when presidents die. And secondly, it was the final public appearance of. Ronald Reagan. Oh yeah, yeah, I looked up images of this as you were talking about it, and there he is right there. And then he passes. It takes 10 years for him to pass after this. Sorry, I was distracted because I was looking up No Escape to confirm that, yeah, when I said Robert Patrick, I was inserting his face on Ray Leota's body in the poster, which I do recall. And I did recall that Lance Henriksen was in it, but yeah, this is a forgotten one. I mean, the biggest tragedy is that Richard Nixon missed no escape. He didn't get to see it or the 100th episode of The Simpsons, which I'm sure. sure he loved they're always talking about him on that show yeah it's really funny too because that

as you mentioned bob they always were making nixon jokes like they did the tree house of this season just months earlier was a joke that he isn't dead yet and not in hell yet i'm not dead yet yeah well and in the script for this one that that's out there and i'll source multiple times for the many interesting changes there are two different nixon jokes in it that they cut i understand why we have to be respectful to him for the time being until he appears in Futurama, then knives are out. And yeah, this, the landmark 100th episode of the Simpsons aired this night partnered with what they call in the ads the first episode Bart the Genius. Like it plays right after it's like 100th episode and then the first episode. They haven't changed at all,

have they? I mean, consider watching those two back to back and thinking, wow, so much time has passed when it has not even been five years. I'm not sure what Dan would think about this, but when we covered this episode originally, it was our 100th episode. And we now have over 1,000 episodes on our network. So when we originally did this, I was like handing out gifts to my co-host

because it's time to celebrate 100 episodes. Wow, can you believe it? Now I feel like a weathered Simpson's producer and I can do 100 episodes standing on my head. That's amazing. I mean, like we, you know, our show, the flop house has been around a long time, but a combination of erratic

original schedule and the fact that we did a separate numbering for our many episodes, which is weird, and also the fact that I am too lazy to start multiple shows like you, industrious gentleman, means that we're still under 500 official numbers, but it's madness. I guess of just regular Simpsons episodes, we're into like the 300s of season 15, and now we've done 100 episodes twice. So at the very least, we're over 500 there. And now the show itself is cruising to episode 800 next season. Dear Lord.

There's a very funny bit on the commentary where they joke that when they hit the 200th episode, David Merkin at the party said halfway there, guys, when 400 episodes is actually halfway to where they are now with no side of stopping. And they'll put all the actors heads and jars, Futurama style, they keep it rolling forever. Begin the thong of Harry Shearer So that's all the stuff that happened on this momentous night of television history And joining us once again is Dan McCoy from the Flop House

And Dan last joined us for Season 4's Wacking Day Welcome back to the show Dan Oh, thank you. It's always a delight And Dan, do you recall watching this one live? We don't normally do that anymore of asking the guests But this was such a big night, heavily promoted as the 100th episode I did wonder who else was watching it live and seeing all the interstitials advertising,

like celebrating 100 episodes of Simpsons? I am absolutely sure I must have because it was, you know, it consumed my thoughts, the Simpsons during its golden period. Like, that was the funniest thing I feel like I had ever seen and so specifically a thing I enjoyed, but I don't remember anything about that night in particular.

I remember seeing this one a lot because I think, Henry, you were recording episodes pretty regularly, but for me, I wasn't doing that. as regularly, but towards the end of the season, I would realize, okay, summer's coming. There's going to be a drought of Simpsons, so I need to start recording these. So I associate the ends of seasons five and six with me watching a lot of those episodes over and over during the summer, and this was one of them.

I might have seen this episode like 100 times, and it is one of my favorites. In my recollection, I also kept thinking that this, like, aired the same night as the next episode, the boy who knew too much because they're both Bart and Skinnery episodes. but that's just because I watched the tape over and over again with them back to back on them. I just kept thinking, yeah, there were two Simpsons that night. And it's so weird, it was two Skinner episodes. But no, the next one aired is normal a week later. And this one, they talk about on the commentary, like, why do they pick this as the 100th?

And, you know, they're like, well, it's a Bart-centric one. That's probably why they went with it. Though they also, if I must get truly pedantic on what is a 100th episode of the Simpsons. So let's say the numbering is correct This is the 100th one that aired Like you can check the numbers on Wikipedia On the official like you know Wikipedia of Simpson's episodes

It'll number the season episode and number 100 However were they to have gone in production order Then Lisa's rival which is production 17 Would actually be the 100th episode like written And this is 18 in production Meaning it's the 101st written so Well, hey, they're both great. They're both great.

I thank you for that because what is a podcast for if to not be truly pedantic? Everyone, who's about to write a comment, just stop writing their comment because they realized we pointed that out. Now, this episode really is Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. Weinstein. Wait, Stein, it's Stein. I mix this up in my head sometimes. So it's really Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein coming into their own as writers because they were the youngest writers on the staff. Imagine this, the Simpsons hiring people in their 20s to write for the show.

And then people in their 20s could run them. the show. It was a crazy time to be alive. Well, these guys in their early careers on the show, they were assigned March stories, and then when they were writing their own stories, they were sort of following the lead of previous episodes. I believe Lisa versus Malibu Stacey was them

looking at Duff List and saying, okay, Duffless was exploring the Duff Company. What else can we explore in this universe? But this is these two writers with a lot more confidence, and they're actually redefining an established character, Skinner. There are some qualities that had been established at this point, but they're finding a lot more

humanity in the character than the previous joyless scold that we knew him as. Yeah, and this is some of my favorite stuff about Skinner, whenever this sort of like creeping fondness for Bart comes in, where it's like, I don't know, you can't live in opposition to this person for so long without learning to love them a little bit. And it's crazy, whenever I watch this again and realize, you know, the trajectory of Bill and Josh throughout the show, this is the 100th episode of The Simpsons, the milestone. They knew this when they were putting it together. And it has like almost zero Homer in it.

And they cut out Homer content they could have left in. So that is the sign of a confident writer. We don't even need Homer for this 100th episode. And that is the trajectory that they would follow in season 7 and 8. Like let's do some side stories. Let's not focus as much on Homer as like the lead of the show. Let's explore some things or close up some loopholes because we think the show is ending soon. And this is Bill and Josh digging into something they love.

which is boring a comedy, like intentionally boring, or finding the comedy in a boring guy. Like, you know, I do love when in the mercenaires, they write Skinner as just the guy who presses the independent thought alarm. But this is a Skinner who is just, he's just very boring. He reads off the names of detergents out loud and just is a sad man. He conducts pre-recorded music. Yes. He's a sad man, but there's something also beautiful about that. You know, even you's just saying it right now, I'm like, man, if I could get the same pleasure that he gets out of reading the various detergents and thinking like, hmm, it'll be a special treat if I try this new one that I haven't had before.

Yes, he's very comfortable with himself. And one thing I noted, we'll get to it when we talk about the episode, though, when Bart walks in on him conducting the recorded orchestra, he's not embarrassed. So he's just like, yeah, this is a thing I do. Welcome into my own little zone here, Bart. Bill and Joss said they were both inspired by teachers they had because they've known each other since middle school and then have been writing partners on and off for decades of their lives like their entire adult lives and they knew in high school

multiple teachers they say that were like Principal Skinner who were the people in school and then you find out they're like sad lonely people who live with their parents even in some cases yes I absolutely had a Skinner French teacher who was a nice guy but also very weird and he lived with his parents and he wasn't uptight like Skinner even though he was in his 60s

he would always talk about Beavis and Butthead and he was obsessed with the movie Porky's and would reference Porky's over and over again I've never seen Porkies but because of this teacher I know there's a character called Bula Ballbreaker in the film This seems inappropriate in so many ways He was never held accountable for anything

or nothing was found out about him He's dead now but people always thought like What a weirdo but he's kind of charming in that way Well, I'm here to at least reinforce that you do not need to see Porky's. There's not really anything in there for you. What about Porky's 2 the next day? Well, therein hangs a tail. What happened the day after everything happened in the first Porky's movie?

We'll finally know. More stuff. It's also, in that case, I have not seen either of those movies either, but I know that it does, like it really is the next day after the end of the first movie, which is a gutsy decision in a movie about high school students that you then film years later what else can you put through that hole I'm asking you

it was funny a friend of mine who also had not seen Porky's like read the synopsis of it and they're like I don't know I don't like the sound of these kids I'm on Porky's side

and I'm like well Porky was a racist so now you're cancelled there's no one likable in Porky's maybe Kim Cottrell maybe we are holding porky accountable in 2025 that's right he's nobody's hero and there's a lot of production details on this one out there not just because of the commentary or also that bill and josh had made a lot of comments out there too but also there's a table draft that you can

find on uh internet archive to read through it and there's some major changes i'll i'll mention the table draft that's on internet archive is not dated but the one josh shares on twitter is dated and it is September 16th, 1993. I say that because not only that shows you they were writing it when Richard Nixon was alive when they do their Nixon jokes, but also to give you a timeline of how long it takes to make a Simpsons, so that's September. Cut forward four months later to January 17th, 1994.

That is the day of the Northridge earthquake. That happens right before they are going to ship the animation planning to Korea to produce the episode and it stops everything. They almost didn't get this episode done in time. Yeah, I believe Bart of Darkness was the episode that was affected and that might have been a season finale if not for the earthquake, which is why the whole Simpsons getting a pool episode airs in September. Yep.

There's so many great DVD extras in season five, but one that I hadn't given enough watching to before is they have a separate animatic commentary on this episode with the animators, just talking, about how this threw everything off and how also the very sad tale of like, I think it's it's either Paul Weir or Bob Anderson talking on it saying that they're like, oh yeah, I knew when the earthquake happened at 4 a.m. for the North Ridge Earth Wake because I was up that late finishing my work on a Sunday night for a deadline. So yeah, there's much out there

for this. Also, it's funny that the promotion of this became a joke internally at the Simpsons because it was sold as the biggest prank Bart has ever pulled. Oh, God. Wow. What a lie. I mean, both factually and in terms of this not being a prank but an unintentional shenanigan. Yeah, on the commentary, I believe it's Oakley who jokes. No, it's actually Bart's most meaningful connection with an authority figure. That's a lot harder to promote, though. There's two, I could find two vintage ads saved by the always helpful account online. Daily Simpsons.

One was the print ad and TV guide for this, which basically has, here specific millennial nerds, do you remember the end of Bart versus the space mutants where Bart's face was on Mount Rushmore? Yes. They do that for the ad. And then in the text, it says,

in the past 99 episodes, Bart has pulled some amazing things. But what he does tonight will go down in history. That's, it's amazing to me that they were trying to sell it that way because what is notable about this story is so much that, like, Bart so unintentionally gets him fired. Like, he is, like, he is doing well at school. Like, Mrs. Craboppel's like, hey, good job on the show and tell, bringing the dog in. Everything is fine until the dog does something that dogs do, which is go search for testicle meat.

This one actually reminded me a lot of Bart's lover, and I mean that in a complimentary way, because it's about Bart having this adversarial relationship with an authority figure and then learning that because of my actions they are suffering and then there's like a meeting between the two. And at a certain point it's revealed that maybe this little boy is the adult's only real friend. Yeah, and it's the kind of heartfelt stuff that Bill and Josh did so well in their seasons. Like this is the same kind of emotion and also the siding of Homer and not needing Homer to tell a great story that they did so well

in most of their best episodes like Lisa the Icono class or Lisa the Simpson. Both of those are great examples of that. And I didn't miss Homer. I didn't think about it until you said that. And then I was like trying to scan the story. I'm like, okay, he was in there.

And I guess he's in at the end where they're plotting to get him back rehired. He's part of that little like boys' conclave of schemers. But that's pretty much it, right? Yeah, I think that's it. I think this might be the least Homer on record until we get to Nightmare Cafeteria in which Homer does not exist at all in that one triouse of horror segment. I wonder with the ads and listeners will also get to hear the vintage ad of Kent Brockman

and it's like Harry Shearer, I think it's really him, talking over old clips of Bart and also basically saying, you know, you'll never believe what he does tonight after all of the other stuff. I wonder if it's like them trying to call back to like nostalgia for, Bart Mania. Like, hey, do you remember in 1990 how much you loved Bart and all the crazy things Bart did? Well, come on back. He's doing something crazy again. Yeah, remember when

he was the lead of the show? Remember? Also, they mentioned on the commentary, a reason why Fox wanted to make a big deal out of this is because 100 episodes is when you get to syndication. Syndication for the Simpsons will launch very profitably and popularly

for Fox in the fall. Though they're kind of doing self-dealing, to be honest. The Fox shows are all on or I mean the Simpsons I believe are almost exclusively on Fox networks and nobody sued over that. I inadvertently

started salivating when you said syndication as a guy who used to write for television who wrote over a thousand episodes of topical humor that no one wants to revisit again and thus only got sort of like one

cent internet residual checks until Paramount scrubbed all that anyway. I'm like, ooh, syndication, the sweetest plum. Boy, yeah, I mean, they weren't a WGO show yet. So I wonder how little the writers are getting from that syndication deal. They had their own private deals with Fox, I think. Yeah, animation has historically gotten pretty screwed. And I don't know.

I don't know. With the way the world is, perhaps we'll all be joining them. And one last preamble thing I want to mention is that they had fun testimonials throughout the whole hour of saying congratulations to 100 episodes from previous guest stars. Half of them are still with us. It's

Luke Perry, Leonard Nimoy, Kelsey Grammer, Danny DeVito, Joe Montania, and Tony Bennett. And here, I'll have the editor can drop it in right here. The whole 90 seconds of all of their testimonials. Are you comfortable in there, Luke Perry?

You know, I've been shot out of a lot of canons in my day, but it's never like your first time. Congratulations to the Simpsons on their 100th episode. The Simpsons' 100th episode celebration continues. Now I'd like to turn things over to our grand marshal, Mr. Leonard Nimoy. To everyone in the sleepy town of Springfield. Weren't you one of the little rascals?

May you live long and prosper. The Simpsons' 100th episode celebration continues. Hello, Kelsey Grammer here. You have such a beautiful voice. Guilty as charged. with solicitations to the people who bring the Simpsons to life. May you make a hundred more? The Simpsons' 100th episode Celebration continues.

Hi, Danny DeBito here to congratulate the Simpsons on their 100th show. Auntie Herb, can I spit over the side? Hockey brains out. Thank God I'm not related to them in real life. The Simpsons' 100th episode celebration continues. Hi, I'm Joe Montagnan, wishing the Simpsons all the best on their 100th episode. As fat Tony would say, thanks for making me an offer, I couldn't refuse. The Simpsons' 100th episode Celebration continues.

Look, it's Tony Bennett. I'd like to take this moment to sing the praises of The Simpsons. Hey, good to see you. Congratulations on your 100th show. The Simpsons' 100th episode celebration continues. I think Tony Bennett's is my favorite because he does just go like, The Simpsons are great and I love them. They're real super folks.

Like he feels like he doesn't remember ever being on the Cincinnati. Yeah, I was going to say these are all guest stars at a certain point in time, right? Yeah, yeah. They're all super folks. Sounds like he's just, you know, he has a thing that he puts on, like, headshots that he signs for people. And he just said that out loud. And I have not seen these in a while, Henry. Are they all just basically being filmed on whatever project they're currently working on?

They're not in the same room being shot against the same background, right? No, no, yeah. They definitely, somebody came to them in L.A. Like, the Leonard Nimoy one looks like he's in his office, while Kelsey Grammer definitely seems to be like on the set of Frasier, I would say. They're basically doing cameos for The Simpsons. Yes, yes. And also on the DVD, James O. Brooks has a little, like, story about how they got to 100 episodes.

He tells the classic Life in Hell story, but I notice he says a friend of mine gave me that piece of art, not Polly Platt, who was still alive at the time, which lends to my belief that they had had a bad falling out. Super producer Polly Platt, you'll learn all about her on the, you must remember this podcast, which has a really good history on her. If you want to watch a good Peter Bogdanovich film, watch the ones where Polly was still around. And I believe Easy Riders Raging Bulls,

there's a lot about her in that. A lot of that book is secretly, all of the partners of these famous directors were really the driving force on these things you like. Yeah. Yeah, that's an interesting book that also I just left for all the celebrity dish

of like, ooh, Robert Townsend and Robert Evans were like that would double team girls in the hotel room, those kinds of stories. But hey, anyway, this episode though, the title is named after Melvin Ban People's Trailblazing Independent Film, Sweet

Sweetbacks Badass Song. No similarities beyond that. I think the comedy is that such a precursor or the first black exploitation film is a to somebody as boring as Skinner. And until I got online, I always asked myself, why does this episode have such a weird-ass name?

Yeah. When I worked at a video store, I always had trouble finding this one because I would always forget that the badass is B-A-A-D-A-S-S-S-S-S-S. It's two A's in the bad. And five S's. Now, Henry, you went above and beyond in terms of Talking Simpsons' research.

How many S's are in the movie? GAS, the Roger Corman film. I'm going to say, No more than seven, no less than five. I think that's a pretty good, yeah, that's a good range. But yes, I did watch this film for the first time. I just, when we covered this years ago, I was like, boy, I should have seen this movie. It's like an important movie.

And so now it's currently on the Criterion channel, which I subscribe to. So I was like, you know what I'll watch it. I cannot imagine what people thought in 1971 of it, because in 2025, it is like a crazy extreme movie, even now. Well, you've piqued my interest for sure. I had sort of like, I'm like, yeah, that's a movie. I'll never get around to it. There's so many movies in the world. But now you've made me want to watch it.

You will see some things that are technically crimes, I think, on screen. Well, no, Henry, you're an accessory. After the fact. Well, you know, like, Criterion Collection puts it in there. It's really their fault. Entrapment. It just should. I mean, maybe it's a little, they're working a little too hard on this, but it's funny that most of the episode tells the season are Bart gets an elephant or rosebud, but they're going for a deep cut, Oakley and Weinstein. Yeah.

And this episode's couch gag, well, first we have a chalkboard gag actually referencing the episode saying Bart will not celebrate meaningless milestones. This is the Merkin stuff. Like, Merkin is biting the hand. Like, he doesn't want to be reverent. It's this David Merkin is irreverent instead of reverent. Yeah, he could work it. magazine. I love them ripping off the Fox logo in the corner and all stomping on it on an episode where Fox has spent a ton of promotional money on. That's gratitude for you. It did make me nostalgic for network bugs in a way.

Like, oh, I remember this specific Fox bug in the corner. I feel like I remember them ripping it off, but then it's still like being on the screen sometimes in like reruns. The only time I remember feeling anything about the. corner bugs or the logos in the corner that David Merkin says he hates, I remember it being a major point of contention in the sci-fi era of mystery science theater. Oh yeah, the bug would always cover Crow and all the fans complained until they moved it to the lower left side of the screen, so the lower right. Yeah. I mean, I hated it when it started happening as a kid and I

remember like a lot of people hating it. Like it's messing up the integrity of like whatever you're watching by having this thing there all the time. And now it's, It feels like, it's not like I disagree with that anymore, but it feels like such a charming relic of a time when we had less to worry about. Like, things have gotten so much worse since then that we're just like, oh, yeah, sure, whatever, put whatever on there. Like, have a dynamically insert a tide ad in the middle of a joke or something. It's fine.

That was back before watching the credits was not a physical challenge. Like, oh, God, find the remote. We have to watch the credits. You know, on the commentary to the one over the animatic. where the animators are all, you know, talking about things that annoy them. They do talk about how they, in 2004, are sick of meeting regular people who say, oh, you do this all on computers now. And I have to think they only get that 10 times as worse now of being told,

well, AI just draws it all for you, doesn't it? Yeah, what prompts do you use? I can feel myself. I can feel myself growing older in real time. I can feel it. Then we get a nostalgic opening theme where they went. above and beyond with not only parodying the Wonder Years, but paying for

a Lennon McCartney cover song in the Joe Cocker original. That's one way to not future proof your show after it leaves the broadcast space, which is why Wonder Years weirdly unavailable, weirdly edited in certain regions. I don't know if they ever released it with the music

intact because that's a tall order. So many Beatles songs are in there. It's basically the Forest Gump soundtrack in every episode. I did not know that that was true. I knew that that was true for a WKRP in Cincinnati which used to use like the who and stuff like

big rock bands and it's like well this will never be on DVD in its original form I've heard like SNL or other late night shows can get away with that more because it's like they're technically news or something is that right something like that well this

this opening is we start with continuity nods to the way we was this it's basically Homer and Marge looking like they did as seniors in high school. Yeah, Homer's same car is there. And the funny thing is, we covered this episode last, I believe, in maybe

2017. And since we last covered it, there was another The Wonder Years. It ran from 2021 to 2023. And the funny thing is, despite coming more than 30 years later than the original series, it was still about the same time period. Although, to be fair, it was about the black perspective. It was not about a white

family, so you have that. But I feel like we're not willing to admit that modern wonder years would be about the early 2000s. Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, well, wasn't, there have been so many Wonder Years alike since then, too, like, well, the Goldman's definitely was with Pat and Oswald in the Daniel Stern role, right? Was that a, I'm thinking of the Goldbergs? The Goldbergs, not the Goldberg. That's right. Yeah. And was everybody hates Chris a period piece, too? Oh, yeah, yeah. With Chris Rock voiceover, too. That's right. Yeah.

Though none of those used the important IP of the Wonder Year, so they don't matter the same as a Wonder Year's reboot. Then the script calls it officially 1979 when Homer has his beard And honestly I could use Sebastian Cabot's beard advice You know I need to take better care of mine Beards are back I'm the only non-bearded podcaster on this episode

I can't see Dan but I feel like the beard is still there Yeah I still have it Yeah I oil it I trim it I mean that's that's my beer care tips That's as far as I go You know I have a special beard conditioner I use in the shower, but I could be more diligent on the oiling. I could be. Well, Dan, you're the sole bearded man on your podcast, right?

That's true. Every once in a while, Stuart will grow a mustache just to prove to the world that he's still very handsome with a mustache, and he's just stunting on everyone, but no full beard. And in the original script There was also a joke That Marge was drunk And arrested in Tijuana And that was also embarrassing her And making her not want part

To bring it to show and tell I like that they keep it mostly sweet Because it really is evocative Of the Wonder Years opening They don't try to go too crazy Outside of Homer lighting his beard on fire And when that 20 years later joke came in that I use as the intro

Which is such like a great That's another great like They know this is an important episode And reflecting on history when I was a kid and heard that joke, I probably was thinking like, man, what even is 2014? And now that's 11 years ago.

I was probably also thinking like 2014, that feels as far away as 2022, the setting of no escape. I bet there'll be a super duper Nintendo by then. Welcome to a very special Simpson celebration hour featuring the 100th episode. The very first Simpsons episode.

Way to go, Homer. And surprise celebrity tributes. He began his career at one. Bye-bye, keys. Bye. Now, after trashing Camp Krusty and jumping Springfield Gorge, I got stintes.

E. Bart Wolf Foley's greatest stunt ever. Everything's under control. On the all-new 100th episode of the Simpsons Thursday. Hey, it's Henry Gilbert here, and I also want to wish a happy 100 episodes on The Simpsons and a happy 500th or whatever episode of Talking Simpsons to all you listeners out there. And a big thank you to our guest this week, Dan McCoy from The Flop House.

Awesome to have him back on. We always love talking about The Simpsons with such an accomplished comedy writer and podcaster as Dan. Thanks so much for coming on. Be sure to check out the Flop House. They put out so many great podcasts there. And you know that we're only able to do our podcast because of what? listeners like you and listeners like you who support us at patreon.com slash

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doing hundreds of them right there just waiting for you to sign up at patreon.com slash talking simpsons and barton changes his mind when he sees a very adorable video of himself potty training which is it's very cute but it's why he's not going to bring it Then comes another iconic moment. Marge reveals her love of potatoes. And her thinking potatoes are neat is just great, but it's the drawing. It's the drawing of her holding it up. Yeah, she looks so genuinely pleased.

And that's the line. I was, you know, Bob beforehand said, you know, you can introduce yourself with a line. I'm like, oh, there's one that I love it here. And I couldn't remember what it. And, of course, it's, I just think they're neat about potatoes. Yeah, I love learning these little quirks of Marge. In a year, she'll be the one who's fixated on keeping Millhouse's teeth. Right.

It's nice when Marge gets to be weird. I like that. And Bart then is rushing to find something else for show and tell. He doesn't know what a geode is. He was hardly a geodologist, but I think I had a couple geodes that were like, you know, purchased on family vacations to like a cavern of some kind. And I love this slam on geodes when he, you know,

runs into the bus. And every other kid also wants to take a geode to show and tell. Because geodes have had it too good for two. long we got to take them down fancy rocks that was very observational because i think every kid is attracted to a geode and thinking wow the earth can make this yeah it's so cool just like as a kid i thought for myco is really neat too you just think it's neat and then you know again this is them doing a great job of coming up with like what's a clever thing for what did you dream of as a kid and one was what if i brought my dog to school or just the excitement of a dog is at school that

shouldn't be and we cut to Nelson and he brings he brings the same thing every week we learn yes I love uncovering these new nuances that I have not noticed and one thing I really love about this joke is when he's wrapping up his presentation he says once again if I'm not mistaken and he's not even that sure about the presentation despite bringing this can every week he's still hedging his bets and Edna says like I look forward to hearing it next week like Marshall Wallace also is killing. Every actor is doing great in this episode. And, you know, it's funny, too, they pair this in first airing with Bart the Genius because this first act is like Bart in competition with Martin just like in Bart the Genius's first act, too.

Yeah, I think it's very funny. Even before the dog upstages, Martin, once the dog is revealed, Martin already looks unhappy. Yes. You get a very brief shot of him kind of frowning in the audience. Yeah. Because he knows like he's a goody two shoes. He's like, hey, that's against the rules.

You can't bring a dog to school and beat me. And it's all very negative from Martin. Yeah. And this is when Bart has a riddle for the class in our first clip. Boys and girls, Mrs. Krabopo, I come before you today to solve a riddle that has plagued mankind for centuries. What has four legs and ticks? A walking clock?

A walking clock! I'd wager he has some variety of walking clock in that box. Art, is it a walking clock? What? No, it's my dog. Oh, he is a jam. Here, boy. Would you like these cookies Martin made for me?

My reason roundies! My dog's name is Santa's little helper. One time he crawled under the house, and when he came out he was covered with ants. Then he ran into a church and drank all the holy water. Thank you, Bart. Great job. I knew the dog before he came to class.

Millhouse stealing valor. One thing about Merkin's era is just the school as this oppressive, tedious place to be. And I just love how just the entrance of a dog makes everyone light up. This is something that should not be here. We're engaged now. We're awake. Yeah. I mean, my late life recent.

diagnosis of ADHD really like shed some light on how just how oppressive I found school and how much energy I put into pretending to be sick so I didn't have to go like I really appreciate and it takes me back like oh yeah like I'm like how does anyone do this how was this something that we all had to suffer through for 17 years plus I love Marsha Wallace's delivery of great job like she she's kind of shocked bart did a good job yeah and martin in the next scene like martin is trying to give his big presentation he's prepared and everybody is just being like very realistic with the dog of just like when a dog is there everybody wants its attention yeah and it's kind of a callback to bart gets an f because uh martin was dressed up as

hemingway for his book report and doing a similar amboyant dramatic presentation while playing a character. Yeah, actually, I think to what Dan was talking about with how, you know, Bart, I think, can represent, you know, ADHD kids or kids who have trouble focusing in class and don't want to be there. Martin has a flamboyance

he wants to express and he does it through presentations like this. Though differently from both Bart the Genius and Bart gets an F with Martin, Mrs. Graboppel now doesn't give a shit about Martin. She used to be like, oh, Martin's her favorite.

always loved. Like when he finishes his presentation in Barkets and F, Crabopal is clapping enthusiastically. She loves it. Now that is an interesting shift and probably a shift to something a little more like well observed and realistic where it's like, you know, she's been a teacher for so long. She's tired. She's sick of this. Like these brown nose and kids. I think after the way Marshall Wallace plays Edna is so good. I bet it's, it really began with Barth the lover where she's just like, Something makes her so sad. She thinks he's going to cry. Like, she just is like a broken, tired, divorced woman who would not give a crap that Martin baked raisin roundies for her.

I would just feed them to a dog. They're dog food now. Yep. And this is where, yes, Martin uses, like, my G-O'd must be acknowledged. He insists that this is what school must be acknowledging his G-O'd. And so, oh, another my favorite drawings. Willie's reaction to when Santa's little helper, like, looks at. him he's like

God what a funny drug and this is where San's little helper is put in a closet in no way does Bart make this a prank San his little helper wanders off on his own at the smelling of a testicle he's in the ducks this is another reason I think this is a perfect build

Josh episode that shows why they were the future of the series after this in that this always builds on things like they build new games in characterization here and this feels like a new step forward in what Ralph is as a child with issues. Yes. The thing about snagglepus going to the bathroom

that just comes out of nowhere to the point where it just feels like brilliant and inspired but you're wondering like what did he see? Yeah. No, I really focused on that this time. I'm like are we to believe that he just saw a cat outside but read it as snagglepus or was like did he just totally hallucinate a cartoon snagglepus and the specific of it was that for some reason he was going to the bathroom. I mean, Ralph truly becomes Ralph in Lisa's rival, but that's just

a few production episodes away, right, Henry? It's actually the one right before production. Oh, it's before. So technically Ralph had already had his dumbening. Sorry, I forgot you said that earlier. This is actually after the production of that one. But basically concurrent productions, well

to show you how they like sweeten things in ADR, change things like in the original script and I do feel like Hoover's mouth movements belie that they changed it late. Her original line was Ralph, remember the time he said Superman was outside

and then the scene ends. But they changed it into snagelpuss and then added the extra bit of to me Ralph sounds like desperate like he doesn't want to have seen snagglepuss going to the bathroom. He's scared honestly. Yeah, that really, I mean the Superman thing, fine,

whatever, it's funny enough. But The fact that it is snagglepus, it's the thing he was doing, and it's Ralph seeming upset that he was a party to this. That's a private moment. And Bob, you said, yeah, I always get it mixed up to Weinstein versus Weinstein. And this episode doesn't help that, like, Josh Weinstein, in his episode, writes a joke about Weinstein's parents complaining in our next clip where Skinner is on edge. I know Weinstein's parents were upset

Superintendent, but I was sure it was a phony excuse I mean, it sounds so made up, yom, Kip, poor I mean, I... Sir, you've got to come quick. There's a dog running around in the air ducts. I understand. Children, this is Principal Skinner. Remain calm. There is a dog in the vents. Woolley, go into the vent and get him.

What? Have you gone Waxi in your bister? I cannot fit no event, you croquet and playing mint muncher. Grease yourself up and go in, you, you guff speaking, work slacker. Ooh, good comeback. Lunch, lady Doris. Have you got any grease? Yes, yes we do.

Then grease me up, woman. Okay, dokey. I love the combination of Doris's face and the line reading makes it clear that even though she has like an almost total lack of affect, she is not unmoved by the fact that Willie is like a super musly guy. Like she seems a little turned on, but she doesn't, it's not overplayed at all. sure I could do that I could grease you up and I noticed that Willie has to deliver a very expository line there's a dog running around in the air ducts but because of that Dan just dresses it up

with as many rolling ars as possible to make it funny I do love the reaction shot on Lunch Lady Doris looking at like Willie's Olympian body like asking for her to grease him up and she doesn't want to overplay also like her eyes look down like she's taking it all in is what we're saying

And we'll see later the vantage point of Willie's sizable bulge coming over the screen, too. There's a lot of testicles in Act 1. There's the assorted horse parts and then Willie Speedo. They remembered from Radio Bart that Willie, groundskeeper Willie, has a perfect body. Despite when he has clothes on, he has a paunch like most Simpson men. And yeah, I also love that the start of Skinner's Day is that he was accidentally anti-Semitic just because he has never heard of Yom Kippur. and thinks it's a fake holiday, a kid made up. Yeah.

As someone who has some Scots ancestry, although like most white Americans, I'm just a mutt with no culture. I would like to say that whatever genes would make it so you could not catch me if greased did not come down to me, I think I would be pretty easy to catch. I move pretty slowly. I spent a large portion of my teens being greasy,

so everyone was grabbing at me. Stop being so greasy. I couldn't escape. And this is where there's the first of several deleted scenes in the episode where Skinner's conversation on the phone actually went

a little longer. Well, yes. All right, maybe there are problems at this school, but it's not my fault. Look at the TV shows these kids watch. That Beavis and the butthead? What? No, no, no, sir. You're not the butthead.

Beavis' chum is the butt. I'm sad that wasn't included because I love the line Beavis' chum is the butthead. We'd be saying that all the time if it had aired in 94. And also it feels like a wink to the new hot cartoon that they like to do then. Oh, Beavis and Butthead, they're the bad kid to show now, not The Simpsons any longer. Then we have Willie starting to go through the air dock. They also cut a scene with hippie teacher in it. He could have been in the episode.

Oh, that guy. He has maybe two lines in the entire series. In the script, hippie teacher, that's his name. From the Air Ducks, Santa's little helper drools on him while he's trying to tell the kids about a Dan Fogelberg concert. I'm laughing already. And another great bid was like, well, first we have an alien parody, which is great. I haven't watched the first aliens in a good while. Bob, I saw Ulog aliens recently.

Yeah, I really wish I would have seen it earlier because I just thought it was merely pretty good. Every alien past the first alien is not, it cannot meet the first alien. I feel like it's just diminishing returns. I really like aliens. That's the first one I saw. I saw alien after I saw aliens. So, I mean, in aliens, it all is just about everything's bigger. Like, they even do like this, the blip scene except the what?

There's like 70 blips all around him instead of one, right? An incredible amount of blips. Yeah, I love aliens for the intensity of it. Like, it really, like, once it gets moving, it really moves. I understand that alien is, like, the greater achievement in terms of, like, originality and, like, really setting the stage. I mean, they're both great. I don't need to pet them against one another.

And there are only so many James Cameron movies that aren't about Avatar. That's true. So you have to treasure them. And fewer by percentage every year. Yep. he actually is acting like he's going to make that biopic about the Hiroshima survivor at some point when it's like no you have three more Avatar films to make I don't think you know how old you are James Cameron yeah I think he's like 80 at this point stuck with those naked cats yes did you guys watch well Bob you didn't see fantastic formative Dan did you watch the exclusive to theater avatar trailer I did and as some look look I'm not I'm not down on avatar like there's some people who are who are really down on the Avatar movies and my position is

they're wonderful things to see once in the theater on a big screen with 3D and then not think of again. Like they work on the level of like moment to moment like James Cameron Whizbang stuff. So I'm keen on seeing the next one

but the trailer did nothing for me. But now it's the fire ones who don't think of, well I don't know. I forget the plot even the second one, other than Paya Khan the Tolcun. I remember that. So, I mean, if we've got the water ones and fire ones, and I guess the first ones are kind of wind ones because they're flying around. So if we're going to stick with this like element thing, we got Earth ones coming up next,

which seems like the boring one to sort of not end on, I guess, but like, say for later. When does the airbender show up? Yeah, that's the question. See, isn't that crazy that the Avatar TV show is all about the elements. And so then now they're literally going to the fire nation in this one. Like, it's crazy. He'll pretend he, James Cameron will pretend he's never heard of Avatar, the last Airbender. And yet, keeps doing all this. But we've got him here and we're going to torture him until he admits it.

I think he was publicly mad about it for a very long time. Even though Avatar became such a common word to use. Yeah. Well, this execution of the alien parody is very good. And I also love that it ends with Dan Castellaneta's performance. of giggling and saying ow in his Scottish accent is really good. This also, as all the kids are laughing, there's another deleted scene because Ms. Hoover and Edna Krabopal,

they're in the hallways smoking, which you'll see the end of this scene is Skinner telling them to get back to class. But in between is this deleted scene of Lisa confronting them. Miss Hoover, maybe things would calm down if we went back to class and tried to keep working. Great idea, Lisa. Here's your gold star. Oh, Mama.

And she puts a gold star on Lisa's face when she says it. But the reason they cut it is because the lip sync is off. Lisa's mouth is moving when Hoover is saying that line. So that's why it's going to. I assume they decided not funny enough to get a retake. I love coming on here. And these are the only ways I'm going to hear these delete scenes because I have all of the DVDs up until a certain point. But like, I'm so lazy in this era of streaming.

I'm like, I'm not going to dig those out. So I get to hear all the deleted stuff through guesting. This is the service we provide to guests and listeners. Especially because Disney Plus certainly isn't going to upload any bonus features to Disney Plus anymore. Also in the script, when they tell Skinner and just laugh at him that of him having hiccups, he actually tries to stand up for himself. He says, don't sass me. I am in no mood for backchap, flip lip, applesauce or flak of any kind, capish.

I can hear Harry Shearer saying these things. Shear rules in this episode. Like, he's so good. Yeah, and the hiccup thing did not stick. I feel like they tried to bring back, oh, mercy, a few times, but that didn't really stick either. So there are a few of these qualities. They're trying to kind of reinvent and reintroduce Skinner to the world. They give him a back, well, not the backstory.

He's already had that. But they flush him out more, but these little ticks do not persist. We get to it later, but I think this is where they truly officially say that Skinner lives with his mother. like I'll give examples for previous ones where you could say like when say everybody's getting the juice loosener in Marge goes to margin chains he is gifting her it but it's you can assume they live together but they don't make it clear and same when it's more of a a psycho parody thing they it's like I guess they live together in that but this makes it like crystal clear that they live together so Willie finally catches him as only agrees Scotchman can And he reveals that they are actually in the gymnasium, very high up. I cannot find anywhere that St. Curligan Wagons is a real cathedral. Yeah, we are, I think that we looked this up last time. And according to the sub, if you type in what they show you in the subtitles,

it's just a very funny, made-up Scottish word. And it's the same in the script, too, St. Curagagoo Waggon. And so they send in the cops, and this is where there's also a good gag where, in the script. Skinner is offered water to help with his hiccups and he says no because food and drink are not permitted in the gymnasium. That's great. And this is where Chalmers arrives, which Oakley again, if you ask him who his favorite guy is it's Chalmers. It's why he wrote Steemed Hams. He loved getting Chalmers in the episode for such key moments here as Chalmers explodes on Skinner. Skinner!

Superintendent Chalmers, you didn't have to come all the way down here. Everything's under control. I have had it. I have had it! With this school, Skinner, the low test scores. Class after class of ugly, ugly children. Oh, no, I really think the children's appearance... Seymour, you are in very, very big trouble.

Why, looking into this lovable mutts eyes just melts my heart. Seymour, all of it. is forgiven. Make way for Willie! I said make way for Willie, you gloated Gusberg. Seymour? You're fired.

I'm sorry. Did you just call me a liar? No, I said you were fired. Oh. That's much worse. And this is also more Chalmers than we've ever seen before. And it's funny to hear Bill Oakley talk about the steam ham scene on the commentary because he doesn't even call it that.

He's just like, oh, that's why I wrote the thing with Skinner. and Chalmers having lunch or he's very vague about it because that was just considered a very weird moment in the Simpsons for a very long time until people started embracing it for years and years and it became a meme. And now it's, I'd say, right behind Homer backing into Bushes as the most important Simpsons scene ever to the end. Yeah, probably. Yeah, I love those guys because it's like two flavors of a rule follower kind of. Like it's the sincere, hapless one and the one who like just is tired and like just doesn't want trouble like it was angry at the other one for messing up well and oakley really catches that like that chalmers is a mostly regular guy who would have a real reaction to like these sitcom shenanigans are upsetting and this shouldn't happen

it's good that none of this is really skinner's fault because the big crashing noise you hear in the background it's the firefighter's ladder it knocks the scoreboard off the ceiling and crashes through a window. Skinner has nothing to do with that, but he's still absorbing all of the blame. Yeah. Also great that the cops are there and they're just playing basketball, which Wiggum congratulates them on. And another great Chalmers line they could have kept in that's in the script is

Chalmers, during his tirade also looks at Bard and says, is that the boy I had expelled for hitting me with a tractor last year? And Skinner has to go like, no, no. Which that was the episode we did with Dan last year. That's, yes. Last year.

that's that's the connection you can find the other clues right end of the podcast and of course you'll win the big prize so that ends act one we come back Bart's feeling guilty though actually when he thinks his guilt is actually

him slowly being poisoned by a spider in the back of his head and in the original script they sweetened the scene of Homer so you know Homer is asking if he can bring the dog to work then he tries to bring Maggie and that's denied as well

in the script, Homer brings Snowball 2 to the power plant. Oh, and when he does, Snowball 2 is merely terrified and just claws are clamped to his chair. And then Lenny goes, can we go home yet? And Carl says, eh, I'll just go phone in a bomb threat. That's good. And this is the first time Homer speaks in this episode, right? I mean, he's in the Wonder Years parody Homer in the past. But does he speak at all in Act 1?

No, we don't see him at all in Act 1, yeah. Other than the flashbacks, there's no current Homer. in act one, I guess because he's gone to work at that point. Though this is where the most deleted scenes are in act two, and they're all Homer ones, actually. But before that, we get the first appearance of another character they don't do enough with. Boys and girls, because of Mr. Skinner's sudden departure,

I've had to appoint a new principle, Leopold. All right, you little punks, pick up your freaking ears. Because I'm only going to be saying this once. From now on, things are gonna be very, very different around here. With your new principal, Ned Flanders! Well, Tivity, top of the A& to every good buddy here. As chairman of the PTA, I am Diddley delighted to take over,

and I think I can put the pal back in principal. And I'll put the super backing superintendent. That's the same exact job. What gives, Leo? Yes, Leopold, one of three characters invented in this episode, two of them remain major players in the Simpsons world. I think they realized after Leopold's second appearance, they could only do the same joke twice

because he appears again in the PTA disbands introducing Marge as their new teacher. It's the exact same setup. I actually like that one a little more because he says, here's one substitute, you're not going to screw with. Marge Simpson. in both cases

there's such great anti-sickcom jokes like because you know the average sitcom like you know one well even wonder years but I'll say like boy meets world would have like oh well we're getting a new substitute or saved by the bell would be like

we finally got rid of Mr. Belding and then a really serious hard ass like Leopold would show up and be like think Zach you're not getting away with this anymore and then they want to get belting back and they walk you right up to it Chalmers never says

your new principal is Leopold He merely just says Leopold And then Leopold acts like He's the new principal But he's just called upon To introduce Ned Yeah

Yeah I was It makes me wonder I'm like so what is his Is he a hype man That the district has Or what is his deal? Yeah I wish he would have stuck around As Skinner's Enforcer

But unlike another character Inverted in this episode You can't eat at Leopold's Tavern At Universal Studios You can't eat at Luigi's Pizzeria at a theme park I also love how Chalmers seems to have a long

like friendship with him as he becomes you know a jealous standup going like what's the deal Leo like I just love how he's he's going on come on Leo what's the deal you saw that I mean you know Dan is a professional

comedy writer you like when like this feels like comedy writers complaining about like I told the same joke nobody laughed at that like that kind of insider kind of stuff yeah I mean it feels very real because it's just yeah it is that better

But it's also, Leopold could tell him, you know, as I'm sure he's a comedy expert, like, well, yeah, it's the same joke, but, you know, we just had a joke of that kind, so it's not going to land the same way. It's going to feel desperate. You know, like, it's realistic on all ends. And this scene continues with another perfect bit of Ned explaining his plans. Now, I know everybody's eager to get back to class. But I thought it might break the eye. if we had a little Q&A. Dude, ask a question or we'll have to go back to class. Yeah, you. Yeah, I was wondering, do you, uh, what's your policy on lunch? Well, let me just say I want to put the stew back in students.

It's just a damn popularity contest with you kids. well look what you've done you little freaks uh ned told the same joke again i'm on chalmerside pamela hayden does a great job there is jimbo like being put on the spot that's uh that's also really great i've jimbo is so great because it is like such an accurate version of just like a dumb teenage dude like just like not really got anything going on but But that's what's lovable about watching Jimbo. And this is where the original script cuts the first of, like, two scenes for a Homer side story.

So originally, Martin gets up and asks, we've all enjoyed your tenure as chairman of the PTA, particularly your monthly newsletter and net editorials. But tell us, who is slated to fill your shoes? And that's when it's revealed that Homer just happens to be the sergeant-at-arms of the PTA, and thus he is being put in. charge of the PTA. I guess all of the PTA material was offloaded to the PTA disbands next year, which is

another episode about the school that I love. It's a perfect partner to this episode. And, oh, and this is where the other, the first of two mixing jokes that got cut was in there where so Homer is made Sergeant at Arms and Homer doesn't want to do it because he says to Marge, quote, you know this family's not fit to hold high office. Grandpa only served half his term in Congress before he was kicked out. And then Homer points to a framed newspaper with the headline, Watergate Axe Falls, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Simpson indicted. Below is a photo of Grandpa in a 70-style suit being escorted down the Capitol steps by police.

So had they kept it in here, Grandpa would have been a congressman and part of Watergate. The fact that they really do hammer Nixon so much is such a charm. flashback to a time when a president could do bad things and people would hold grudges for decades. It feels so quaint, especially when you get the Futurama and it's revealed as, you know, Nixon is the enemy of mankind. He's the worst

person ever. It's so cute. Very cute. Yeah. Like, they're really warming up for sideshow Bob Roberts here with all of this Watergate stuff. They cut. Maybe that, after it got cut, they're like, fine, we'll do a whole Watergate episode of Simpsons. So we then

see how sad it can be. see a teacher outside of class for another, like, perfect scene. Young men, your gargantuan is making a mockery of our self-served policy. Bart, look. It's Principal Skinner. Then I think he's gone crazy. He's not wearing a suit or tie or anything. Principal Skinner, um, I'm real sorry about my dog getting you fired and biting you and then getting it on with your leg. Well, maybe it was. was for the best. Now I finally have time to do what I've always wanted. Write the Great American novel. Mine is about a futuristic amusement park where dinosaurs are brought to life through advanced

cloning techniques. I call it Billy and the Clonosaurus. Oh, you have got to be kidding, sir. First, you think of an idea that has already been done. Then you give it a title that nobody could possibly like. Didn't you think this movie? The bestseller list for 18 months. Every magazine cover had it. Popular movies of all time, sir. What? What are you thinking? I mean, thank you. Come again. Oh, so good.

And I'm sure somebody out there is selling a Billy in the Clonosaurus T-shirt. I've seen plenty of them. Just the frown that washes over Apu's face as Skinner goes into his idea. And the fact that we need, I think, two time cuts in his rants to really convey how long it went on.

It's just so perfect. It's delightful that he cares that much. Like, he's so angry about this. when it really has no bearing on his life. But it's such an affront that we, yeah, we need two time cuts. It's like, how could you not have heard of this? And then you give it to, and that Skinner looks so sad. Like, all Skinner was like, he just wanted to write this book.

And now he's just been yelled at for like two minutes straight by Apu. And it's, everything is, is tearing Skinner down as well. Now, you know, Billy and the Clonosaurus, there's been several Billy in the Clonosaurus movies. I haven't even seen you. It sounds like they're only getting worse. World was the last one. I was like, I just can't do this anymore.

I can't go to it. And it even sounded like, if there had been good reviews, I'd have given the new one a chance, but it sounds like it sucks too. It sounds like Scarlett Johansson should have just recorded her role through Zoom. It is astounding how quickly and thoroughly

that film series sucked the joy from dinosaurs. Yeah, I just heard Griffin Newman on the Blank Check podcast talking about how he's like, it's another Jurassic Park movie where it starts with like, dinosaurs sure are boring, aren't they yawn?

Which is, that's how Jurassic World starts. They're just like, everybody goes to the dinosaur theme park and they're bored as shit by it. Like, the whole point of the original Billy and the Clonosaurus is, it's really awesome that there's dinosaurs

walking around, isn't it? Look how cool this Brontosaurus is. Yeah, and I'm, I heard that too. I agreed with Griffin's point that like, you're making this damn movie. Like, don't tell me from the beginning that the thing that you're making the movie about is passe and boring.

So after that, we then cut to Bark getting in trouble, though it's really just an excuse to eat peanut butter cups every hour. And it's another great, like, Ned thing, him offering up slice and yoo-hoo. Like, that is a very, that's great specifics. Very old-fashioned. They also cut another great joke from the script here, which is Ned pisses off Edna because he's wishing all the kids in school a happy birthday. And he also says, and also, happy 44th birthday to Edna Crabopal. And then she erases from her chalkboard. Happy 36th birthday, Edna Craboppel.

You know, I briefly wanted to circle back to the kids seeing Skinner in public because that's a very observational thing. I think it happened a few times to me when I was a kid. You would see a teacher at the store when you're there with your mom or at the mall. And you're thinking, like, wow, there are no rules. Like, everything has changed. Technically, I could tell this teacher anything I wanted to, but I'm also still afraid. They still hold some sway over me. This could affect me in the future if I do or say anything.

It's very just quieting. The floor falls from under you. Like the world has turned topsy-turvy when that happens. Yeah, I have that feeling of like, wait, what is Mr. Reynolds doing in the grocery store? He shouldn't be in this aisle. I thought I was safe. Yes, I had Ralph's perspective of the teachers are old people who live at the school. They'll also like post-high school, but in early college age or like,

when I was like 21 or 22, one of my friends just became like friends with our old high school teacher and they started going out for drinks. This was after that teacher had recently, he had gotten divorced. That's that everything falls into place there. That's the key piece of information. This guy was not living at home with his mother. And though it was also just crazy to hear, he started calling the guy I knew as Mr. You know, I shouldn't say his last name. But Mr. Blank, They kept calling him Frank, and I was like, wait, Frank is Mr. Blank? But yeah, the way Millhouse says, I think he's gone crazy. To see Skinner wearing a sweater is insanity.

And I feel like I'm playing every clip here, but God damn it, this is such a good scene of Skinner at the laundromat. Shearer got why this was funny and makes it very funny. Let's see. Tide. cheer bold biz fab all gain whisk

I believe today I will try bold Bard how are you how's school um it's a lot of fun well it was good to see you

It was. Well, then we should get together again. Say, Saturday at my house. Do you know where I live? Uh, no. Hmm. A flaming bag, eh? Well, these new Italian loafers will make short work of it. Uh, I'm kind of busy on Saturday.

Hey. We got skinners underpants. There's nothing you could do about it, Mr. X, principal. That's not true. can buy a new pair. No, I can't. I needed those. I really did. Now, when I was watching this, I was wondering if modern generations, by that I mean, people

younger than us, do they need to be told what's in the bag? What's in the flaming bag? My mom had to explain that joke to me when I was a kid. I didn't know that was a prank to kids. Well, I guess kids now just would do the flaming bag trick to their teachers through the internet, right? They would send the flaming bag emoji. Yeah.

No, it's a prank I only know by reputation. I've never experienced or perpetrated it. Or I would think now they would prank their teachers by like faking allegations against them and getting them fired intentionally. Swatting them, doxing them. A great prank. Yeah. The scene of Skinner just reading off all of it, all of the names, like it's great just like,

Like the rhythm of it's great And it's also just a perfect observation Like all of these detergents in America All have like one syllable name You never thought about it before It's also the reality of unemployment When you're making the most of all of these Very small ways you have control over your life

Yeah Right, yeah It's like the perfect Mission Hill episode About Andy's unemployment Journey Yeah And I like that they're all on top of that I mean, it kind of ties into the, like, you have to make the most of your life.

They're all one-syllable names that try and make it sound exciting, like, for the most part. Not every single one of them, but they're like, you know, like, bold, fab. You clean your clothes with these is what happens. I'm still a tied loyalist. They have the tastiest pods. I just snacked on one before the podcast. It's, but it is the one on my shelf. I also have, I think I have Gain Fabric softener, but it's like, it's mostly tied in our home.

I'm a tides of him as well. Also, the desperation of Skinner, him admitting like he literally can't buy new underwear. He's lost it and he can never get more. And he says it like he's kind of just like realizing it to himself. I like that read a lot too. His wallet is so empty, he cannot buy a new pair. I would assume he only, well, much later episodes make it clear that Agnes keeps all of his money and puts him on allowance. Although this Agnes is the nicest version of her we've ever seen outside of her initial appearance.

They still make her into a realistically baddy old woman, but she seems rather lucid and kind, although I like the little Agnesi touches where she tells Bart, don't touch the wallpaper, and then we find out later it's her job every day to remind Skinner when it's 7.30. That's her role in the household. Yeah, Tress is playing her much nicer than Agnes will be later. In Crapes of Wrath, she's much more of like, oh, spanky, like it's less regularly observed. I like to say that in Crapes of Wrath, after she gets blown up with the cherry bomb of water spout explosion, that caused a head injury that worsened Agnes's behavior from that on. And this is where Bart goes upstairs, he's like, this is where it's very clear. Not only does Skinner still live at home with his mother, but he has the room upstairs. Like he's living in seemingly his childhood bedroom. Now, this will all come to ahead in, like, one of the second or third to last episodes, Bill and Josh do of the Simpsons. But this is the start of the road to the Armin Tamzarian story, which we approve of.

We are pro Armin Tamzarian. Interesting. Well, I got to go, guys. Dan, you're breaking up. But Skinner, yes, Skinner conducting alone. You're like, you're right, Bob. He's not ashamed. He isn't worried like, oh, does Bart think I'm a door?

for doing this. He likes doing it, and he just does it. It's also cute that he offers an individual fruit cocktail cup or a caffeine-free Dr. Pepper. There are some jokes in these early years where the observation is, when you're a kid and you go to a different house, the food is always weird, or it's not the thing you're expected. Like when Patty and Selma are offering them Clamato or Mr. Pibb. Yeah. It's true because it's like, it's also like your older relatives. They have some weird taste. It's not something that is. like in the mainstream of like this is a snack that would be offered wherever. What is it about growing old that means that we're inevitably going to have, I don't know,

the diet, caffeine-free, off-brand cola lying around? I don't know. As I age, I like pickles and tuna melts more than ever. And I fear those are going to become the liver and onions of millennials. You may be pregnant. Oh, God, no. This is where they build in more of the back. story of Skinner being a Vietnam veteran, though that's been heavily established at this point

for a couple seasons. Just a reminder now, like, in 1994, him being a Vietnam vet would be like if a Skinner had, you know, been part of the Afghanistan invasion in 2001, though that wouldn't allow them to make Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket references, which is really what it's about. I love whenever we get these snapshots of just who he was in Vietnam, in this case, shot in the back at U.S.O. show for trying to ruin the fun of seeing a half-naked Joey Hetherton. If you search Joey Hetherton plus Bob Hope, you will see photos from late 60s, Vietnam-era

U.S.O. shows, and she is not wearing pants. She is wearing either very short skirts or basically a body suit with no leggings on. And I was scandalized just like Skinner upon seeing him. Well, Henry gave me permission, so here I go. We're all looking at Joey Hetherton right now. Yes, yeah. Hey, if it was good enough to get Bob Hope excited back in the late 60s, it's good enough for us now. Yeah, there she goes. And what does happen at 7.30? Like, am I reading too much intuitive? Like, is 730 when a program comes on? Like, is this when he watches Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune? Yeah, yeah. I feel like he's just giving his mother something to do because she's just, she has nothing else going on in her life. He's starting to get ready for bed. That would be in line with everything we know about him.

And this is where Bart is catching up with Skinner telling him how things are always falling apart. This is why the teachers are hiding in the faculty lounge. That's why you don't see any other teacher the rest of the episode. Yeah, I think I caught that this time around. It's not just a joke. It's not just Bart exaggerating. That's why the students are just running free in the classrooms.

And his Skinner reacts to it that they credit Harry Shearer for bringing in the oh mercy, which yes, becomes a limited catchphrase of Skinner. They remember to put it in in part one of Who Shot Mr. Burns. I like it a lot as a, this man will not swear. He needs some way of expressing limited emotion. Oh, mercy seems about right. And so Bart and Skinner are having a good time together.

They head to the beach together. Bart saves him from a crab that gets on his ear. And this is where there's another deleted scene where they go to a haunted house at a carnival. And while going through it, a vampire podcast. pops out, but it's a very squeaky-voiced vampire. Blah! I've come to suck your blood! Ah! Principal Skinner! I'm, um... I apologize for scaring you. Oh, no need, Jeremy. As a patron of the haunted house, I expect to be scared.

Oh, okay. Um... Bluh! I love it. As a man who has a real fondness for terrible haunted houses, I love it. If they had kept it in, it would have continued the thing that was in principal charming where it's like, they meet like a waiter there in their 20s who is like an early 20s who's a bad waiter and Skinner remembers him too. And so it's like the implication that Skinner knows like 20 years of elementary school kids. But enough about that. This is time for the biggest introduction, a character who has a footprint much bigger than you would think outside of the Simpsons for being such a random like one-on off you think here. Yes, much bigger than Luigi. They enter

Luigi's restaurant. Now, this line always confused me as a kid and I was thinking, is this a joke? When Skinner walks in and he excitedly tells Bart, oh, they'll make you a pizza pie with a topping of your choice. And as a kid, I would like, well, why is that funny? But now I realize Skinner is so touched by the simplest things in life. Like, wow, a food you can customize.

And that's just how boring and pedestrian his life is. It's just an exciting idea for him. I get to choose. He never orders pizza for himself where he thinks it's the only place that has this pizza. David Silverman on the commentary says he reads ahead in, you know, when they're handed out the script at table reads,

he reads ahead to look for characters. And he says as soon as he saw Luigi in the script, he immediately drew the pizza box man. We all come to love. We're officially welcoming Luigi risotto to the show, his last name was given much later. But yes, he is the key Italian stereotype in the Simpsons. And like I mentioned earlier, you can eat at Luigi's restaurant in Universal Studios.

If you like days old de Giorno pizza, barely reheated, you'll love his pizza. Yeah, you can hear our full review of it on Dauble Hayes. Oh, really? This is such a nutty character because, I mean, it is by intent, only an Italian stereotype. That is the long and short of what this character is. but it's delightful like the bit of Jim just like leaving the room and being

just so mean and it's only funny because it is this absurd to 11 Italian stereotype saying these mean things for no reason and they do the same joke again with him just like with Leopold but then he goes on to exist

outside of this single joke sphere that's when Krusty goes into his restaurant and he says I only consider you scum compared to Krusty yeah you see you see you how you scum. Yeah, let's hear a Luigi's original character game. I thought you might like this restaurant, Bart. They'll make a pizza pie with a topping of your choice. Hey, Simora, you want your usual table? No, no, Luigi. I'd like one with two seats. I'll be

dining with a friend tonight. Hey, good for you, eh? It's real nice here. And Salvatore, guess who's here? Vista cucko Labanza, and I'm a real ugly kid. Labanza means stomach. That's what the internet tells me in Italian. I think it literally means crazy in the head. Oh, okay.

Yeah. I like that Skinner also, I have been rather self-conscious in the past when I was single, like, eating alone at places. Skinner also doesn't care or doesn't think that it's like weird or he's even being made fun of by Luigi in this. And we cut to the school, and it's pure chaos. Martin is in a cage, honestly, for his own safety, I think. Yeah, he's, no one can get in those.

I don't know who put him in there. I don't know who has the key, but he appears to be living his best life. Although, I don't know, he does have to beg for a water dish to be filled. That doesn't seem great. And also, like, they're disturbed on the commentary watching Millhouse Rubb catch you up into his belly. It is very weird looking. as he's forgetting stuff he used to know. Bart, meanwhile, realizes they've got to get Skinner back.

They've gone too far. It almost, it verges on meta of saying, like, well, this doesn't work as a story anymore. It's just everything's become pure chaos here. We need Skinner back for control. Yeah, and I like, I guess it's probably coming up pretty soon now, like Lisa's observation that, like, if you're an agent of chaos, you need something to rage against.

You can't just rage against more chaos. And this is where we cut to Skinner being sad outside. It's all of his memories overwhelming him. I like how he's remembering the Raisin Roundies callback. And Ralph, what a child way to explain. Like, I got Carson. Not I threw up, but he just thinks throwing up is called being carsick. And he got carsick in his office.

This is where the other Nixon joke was in the episode. In the original script, it was a clever idea. they show first Skinner being wistful in front of the school, then it pans down. Frank is trapped outside of his old lab and he's wistful and sad for some reason. And then it cuts over to Richard Nixon standing outside of the White House looking wistful and sad too. I'm glad they played this straight for the most part outside of the Ralph line.

So that's a good omission, I think. And ingraining celebrates the perfect teardrop on Skinner. Because Dan, you may not know this. neck-graining always thinks they animate the tears wrong on the Simpsons. Too many tears, not enough single-tier drops. And so when Skinner does have a single tear, Graining is almost jumping for joy on the commentary. Like, oh, my God, we did a good tear drop. I love Graining. He's obviously the wellspring of everything, but he's got such weird animation opinions. I feel like he just wants everything toned down so much. I'm like,

Well, no, I like a little exaggeration. And now, I mean, I don't think it's his fault where the show is now. I think they've lost their good directors for the most part. But everything seems so much more static than the beautiful golden period. Yeah, they've lost a lot of money, too. And it's fun to go back to these old commentaries where Graining is complaining about things that we like. Yeah. Yes.

And they then cut to Bart, heading over to Skinner's Place, seemingly to ask. ask him to come back. And this is where he finds out that Skinner has reentered the army. The only thing else is in his life that gave his life meaning. I like that Agnes hands him the letter and then slams the door on him. Like doesn't like this. Well, also her name's not Agnes yet. But it's her getting more negative and mean towards Bart. This is where there's another crazy cut that if they had kept it in from the script, it would have changed so much for the future of Seymour. So Bart says, are you going to be okay without Seymour around? And Magnus says, don't worry about me.

I've got two other sons. Whoa. And then the stage direction is the two sons come to the door. They both resemble Skinner except one is fat and the other is muscular with a beard. Hmm. A little too weird, I think. I'm glad identical triplets. That didn't make it into the show.

They both go like, Seymour, what a weird guy. That was the original end of the act instead of Luigi, getting the ugly kid to play to the Red crap and now we go back to the wonderful time in 1994 when the military was too peaceful yes and we'll see a lot of these jokes around this time of why do we have the military what are they doing just seems like a place for hicks to camp out that the way like that skinner's ranking officer like skinner is a sergeant and he's talking to a younger person than him who's a colonel. And that colonel is talking about how he is the only other combat veteran there because he secured a Montgomery ward in Kuwait City. And then when Skinner's like, so it's my job

to mold these people is like, yeah, I guess. And it's Clinton's military. seemingly we're never going to be in wars again. So we can just say like, ah, these army guys are too soft. They don't do nothing. We went to substance trivia last night, first place, by the way, which never happens. And we watched Homer's Phobia there. And there's a joke where Mo says, Bart cannot be hetero because there's no more wars to fight in. He goes, thank you very much, Mr. Warren, Christopher. I believe the Secretary of Defense under Clinton, perhaps. Ah, right.

This provides good context because I was like, I'm not really sure where the satire is pointing here. And I, you know, I lived through the time, but it's like, yeah, I mean, these seem like the type of people who would show up for the army and how the army exists when we're not at war. Like, what's going on? the way we have to say this because it's a podcast secretary of states delete your comment immediately pull over to the side of the road if you have to and uh you know what that guy who says they don't got them group turlets no more do they if they had just written it a couple months later they would have known to make that cletus but he only just appeared in bark gets an elephant in the script and so i don't think they yet fell in love with cletus yeah they forgot the rule that uh in springfield

there's one person who exhibits every trait there could possibly be and that's the hillbilly. Yeah, the group Turlitz guy does not have his own restaurant at Universal, but Cletus does. Right across the street from Luigi's, right. Boy, what will they become once they go away? Dan, you got to get to Universal soon just so you can have eaten at Cletus and Luigi's

before they replace it with Dominic Toreto's chicken. I did eat at one of the, I can't remember which one it was. I think it was like, I think it was just, like Mo's there, right, is just like a restaurant. Like, you can get beer there, but it also has food, or am I misremembering? I'm not sure if you can get food there, but you can get beer in the Flaming Moe, which we've already complained too much about on this podcast. Yeah.

Okay. I just remember having some uninspiring chicken tenders. Yeah, I think it's connected to the Krusty Burger, and you can just bring your food in there to eat. Yes, okay, yeah, I went to the Krusty Burger. Yeah, the food options there not so great. The ride, I like quite a bit. Well, if you write it now, it's more of a chiropractic experience. It's, yeah, it's more of a paralyzer.

Oh, God. So instead of this scene with Ned in his office, they cut an entire, a huge scene of Homer as the head of the PTA, is mad at Ned and tries to get him impeached. So it's even like lightly Nixon comedy there too. And then everybody hates Homer's idea so much and loves Ned that they end it by impeached. teaching Homer and he's no longer in charge of the PTA. God, there's a lot going on in the script. I think they said in their earlier years, Oakley and Weinstein would just write too large of scripts.

They would turn in way too many pages. And I think they're eventually learning what they're expected to turn in when they need to make an episode. I think this script, had it been all fully animated, would have been like a 29-minute episode or something, without commercials, I mean. I think that's why they were chosen to write the series,

only two-parter for a very long time because that's just like one of their scripts. And what I think sideshow Bob Roberts is the like long, if you take out the opening, I think it's the longest one of her, you know, or it's close to it. I know the real gyms has this important. It has like a specially engineered

opening that's never used again, just to squeeze in a few extra seconds. And instead, this is where we get a little moment of Homer. Like, I think he says 30 words in the episode. And this is like three of them here. But this is another important first appearance, though not as important as Luigi.

Ned, Homer and I are a little concerned with the way the school is being run. Yes, deeply concerned. Well, I may go a little bit easy in the old hickory-dickory stick, but that's just because my dad was so hard on me when I was a boy. Whoopsie-Doodle. Oh, man! Ned's building go over my poems. He's a real flat tire.

I mean a cute, man. He's putting us on the train to Squares, Will, Mona. Alp Clausen just passed away, and I listened to that. I'm like, boy, that was enhanced a lot by Alph Clauseen's music in that scene. So this was before Hurricane Nettie? Yes, yes. I'm glad that you confirmed that for me, because I thought it was.

And then when this happened, I'm like, oh, this must have been after. I had no idea that, like, Hurricane Nettie was actually calling back to a throwaway. I think they're like, oh, we're actually concerned about the continuity here. We're going to really make, we've established this because I, because when first went into the flashback, I wondered, I was like, oh, are they going to break continuity? Is it going to be an early version of, I didn't remember? So that's, that's interesting. Sorry.

And I was expecting there to be like a Superman v. Batman moment in the future where Homer and Ned both realize their mom has the same name. Yeah. But they're both Mona, for whatever reason. I know Mona is named after Richard Pell's former wife when he wrote that episode Who is the sister of

Steve Jobs, right? Yeah, yeah, I think so. I also love that it's another cutaway where the two other characters Like Marge looks at Homer of like I don't know what's going on Like it's characters reacting to it in real time And yeah, well, it's such a great detail

that like Ned was not raised by hyper-religious parents he was raised by crazy beatniks who he hates so much but can't admit that he hates them yeah there's a great little bit on the commentary where bill and josh say like oh yeah i think dan is doing an imitation of dick shan's beatnik character from it's a mad mad mad mad mad world and grating's like yeah beat nick character like that's it's a character mocking beatnicks in that movie i believe he's ethel merman's character's son who's called into like help i think that's what he is he's like oh man like that that is how he talks the whole movie it is true that like i feel like my entire conception of beatniks at this point only comes from parodies of beatniks i'm not thinking of

like oh man like alan ginsberg or something you know that's not what comes up in my head for me it's mostly the roger korman movie a bucket of blood yes we wouldn't have actually seen manor g crebs you know getting high on reefer and having like gay sex like a lot of A lot of beatniks were back then. I just watched Hairspray again for a first time in a while recently. The beatniks in it are really funny. Like they are getting high and then they want to just like get naked and do poetry. That's what the, they seem like real or scary beatniks in that movie.

This sets the path for Hurricane Nettie and Dan. I appreciate that Bill and Josh care so much about the continuity. It unfortunately made it be probably more critical of future episodes. after them that don't care about continuity and say, make it that Ned is actually 60 years old and never had beat Nick parents. Well, we shan't talk about that. Angers up the blood.

Then in the script right before the introduction of a certain baby, there's a bit of Bart when Lisa is asking like, oh, do you want to cause chaos here in age of chaos? He implies that he is trying to get the same enjoyment out of pranking mo but it doesn't feel the same. And they actually have a cut Mo prank joke here that I'll read. Bart calls, I'd like to speak to Miss Lintercourse, first name Norma.

Mo replies, hey, is anybody here familiar with normal intercourse? No, sorry, buddy. You've called the wrong place if you're looking for normal intercourse. And then Bart hangs up sad. It's like them saying, this is why we don't do this joke anymore. I like that they maintain the canon that Bart can't call Mo anymore because he revealed himself as Jim Bo Jones in season four, which they maintain that for a very long time. And this time, like, Ned does, or sorry, Mo doesn't even take the bait on it. He doesn't even get angry.

He's just like, nope. And apparently, Moes is a notoriously kinky establishment with no vanilla sex in here. I mean, we've seen what happens in the back rooms. You know. But then, hey, speaking of more first appearances, here, Here's another one. Oh. Wow, I never thought Principal Skinner could become any more of a square, but there's the proof.

It's weird, Lease. I miss him as a friend, but I miss him even more as an enemy. I think you need Skinner Bart. Everybody needs the nemesis. Sherlock Holmes had his Dr. Moriarty. Mountain Dew has its mellow yellow. Even Maggie has that baby with the one eyebrow. to be named baby Gerald in the future.

Yeah, doesn't, I mean, we haven't done this one yet in terms of our timeline. That baby Gerald returns in Lady Bouvier's lover when Lisa says, there are no other babies in terms of the babies invited to Maggie's party. Yeah, Lisa doesn't get along with the other babies. Yeah. Yeah, I think they say on the commentary, Bill and Joss, say, like, we were writing these back to back, and that's why we just copy the same jokes twice. Yeah, yeah, I guess they do use the, so, like, Luigi,

and Leopold and Gerald all have the same joke happening again, not soon after. You know, they had a tough deadline and they're like, if we like that one eyebrow,

they didn't wait for the reaction of one eyebrow baby being popular. They had the confidence in it and R.A. did the call back. And yeah,

like he'd be, he'd be named Gerald in the Laddie episode. Right, right. When Laddie rescues the baby and Quimby calls him Baby Gerald.

Now, Dan probably doesn't know this, but Baby Gerald has become a breakout star recently. in those, I'll call them excreble Maggie shorts on Disney Plus. Those shorts, what a pile of nothing. And just whatever, I don't know, whatever new thing is out that they need to tie something in with, it all makes me so sad.

It feels like a humiliation ritual that Disney is making The Simpsons do after all of those jokes about the corporation over the years. Oh, you've got to stamp on the Fox logo. Well, now you're going to have to, like, dance with Goose. Whoofy and the Mandalorian. This Italian guy's got a new album and everybody's excited. Every character. Here's Thor to do something with you.

You like Thor? And you're right, Bob, like half of them are built around Maggie. I feel like partially so they don't have to hire all the voice actors for it. Yes, no, that feels like they're engineered to be as cheap as possible. If they had money behind them, I feel like something fun could be done with them, but they're not willing to do that. So they always come up short. And, you know, also, like you said, Henry, you don't hear the voices you like to hear in The Simpsons. I also, I think they at first started doing them to try to get, like, Oscar buzz.

Like, they thought they could win the short Oscar. Like, in fact, they write, they write an entire season 20 something's episode about them doing the Oscar junket to try to win the short subject one for a bit. And it's like, it's like, on a certain level, like, I get why they want it. to try to win the one award the show hasn't won, but also it's like, well then we've said it before, but how about you let the actual director, David Solman, work really hard

on this and do a great animated Oscar winning thing instead of overriding it with too many cute Maggie scenes. Yeah, fully on board with that. But Gerald always ends up in them as the villain. It's one of those like, oh, Al Jean wants to change all of these things that

Bill and Josh make, but he sure loves Luigi and Gerald. They both are major parts of Algene shows. That's something else about Luigi. I didn't want to say that like one reason Luigi appears too much is that, or not too much, but an overused aspect of Luigi

is I feel like they constantly use him to be like, oh, people say that we make stereotype some nationalities or ethnicities but nobody complains about Luigi, like I don't like how he's used as a prop in those arguments sometimes. Yes, it's interesting. We mentioned this before

not to go too long on intention, but When you get to Universal Studios, you realize here's what was okay to make fun of in 2008. And I wonder if they built this park today, would you have the, I would say, understandably classist jokes about Cletus as an entire restaurant? I mean, I'm fine with it, but you could see that as offensive in 2025 or even the lovable Luigi selling you pizza. Right. Well, that's the problem with using Luigi as that kind of prop. I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, like, in my mind, he's sort of like grandfell.

fathered in to my acceptance. But, you know, if you were going to ask me, like, today, like, should we have this character that is just an Italian stereotype? I'd be like, no, you should probably cut that character. But he's a pizza box man come to life. I just love how Marge once said, pizza box man. There's no pizza man. You know, one day we're going to live through the silencing of Mario.

He's just going to sound like Chris Pratt in the video games. We'll have to let go of the It's a Me. Yes, Garfield. He's everybody. I just learned that Dan is Garfield's strong. twin. I didn't realize this. That's right. My birthday twin. The exact same year and day. The first Garfield strip came out on my day of my birth. So Bart heads off to find Skinner. He rides his bike onto the firing range. This is where seemingly Apu and Sanjay die and

are blown up and die. Yes. Skinner unwittingly gets revenge for being yelled at over his novel idea the way the smoking k of the quickie mart falls into the background that's such a great gag that's so no i really admired how like they they set it up they have the long sound of the the rocket like descending and then we cut away we don't see what happens we just see in the background the k dropping like that's a beautiful uh joke i think bill and josh also joke about like sometimes the quickie mart has gas bumps, sometimes it doesn't. Yeah. And so Bart admits that like, hey, I can get

Ned fired. I got you fired, didn't I? And Skinner just goes, yes. And they have to admit that they can't be friends anymore once he's his teacher again because Bart will probably never be a good student. He just has to admit it. And we'll always have the laundromat. Another cute line.

And then comes the last time Homer is in the episode. Yes, it's all to set up a scene that they cut out of the final version. Yes, there's two cuts for Homer and our other two deleted scenes and the first one is right after this. Let's hear the scene of their planning.

What's he doing here? Well, once he found out we were going to get Ned Flanders fired, he insisted on helping. That is true. Here's the plan. Once Chalmers comes for his next inspection and sees out crappy the school has gotten, he'll fire Ned on the spot. One question remains,

how do I get out of the army? Blamo. Just make a pass at your commanding officer. Done and done. And I mean done. What's going on in there? Nothing. So, uh, the cut scene is Homer explains further what his plan to get Ned fired is. That is true.

Okay. Now, here's my plan to drive Ned crazy. We nail all the school furniture to the ceiling and convince Ned that the building is upside down. This will work better if we can persuade the children to somehow walk on the ceiling. Dad, that is not going to be. be necessary I just love Homer's statement of that is true

that's all he says like yeah and then he just disappears from the episode in the final version Seymour's and I mean done

like didn't really register to me as a kid that like oh so he already made a pass at his commanding officer which I guess is more evidence

that he is a possible Homer sexual as the Terminator readout told us it's very good timing because between the writing of this episode and the airing

That's when Don't Ask, Don't Tell happened. It was 94 to 2011. So, I mean, this would always get him in trouble, but it was now news that this conversation was in the air. People were realizing, oh, there are gay people in the Army and the military, but they can't tell anyone, nor can they ask anyone about it. Yeah. And this is on the commentary where they question like, well, this is something because it feels like we're trying to say Skinner's gay here. But then we have him get with Edna later, and he was a virgin until then. And they're questioning whether, like, is Skinner by or isn't he?

And I've said it ever since hearing it on that commentary. It's like, I'm cool with if they wanted to make Skinner bisexual. I think that's totally okay. Yeah, I mean, he's a cartoon. I guess there's no, there's nothing we can solve by speculating about his sexuality. But yeah, it seems to me that, like, maybe he's so unaware of his own sexuality that he is possibly by, possibly asexual, you know, just like. He's trying out a lot of stuff, but not actually really succeeding that often. And it seems like a bit of a cheat that Bart doesn't have to do anything to fix the problem.

I mean, I guess getting Skinner out of the Army was solved. But it's such a funny scene that I don't care. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we head back to the school, and Bob, this is where you alerted me to something I'd never noticed before. Oh, yes. Well, we cut back to the classroom twice, once with the scene where Millhouse is rubbing the ketchup on his stomach, once in this final scene

where Bart takes Skinner into the classroom and they both have the exact same layouts except in the first scene I believe it's Kearney tearing the book apart and the second time we come back it's Nelson so they're doing the exact same gag the exact same drawings they're saving time there was just an earthquake

yes we can't dock their pay retroactively unfortunately yeah this is the scene I was talking about where Bart has done nothing the toboggan ride has gotten too fast for Chalmers when he hears what he hears over the system. So yeah, I got the clip here. It's also interesting to note at the start of it, I definitely don't think this is an intentional callback to the episode that is called the first

episode, Bart the Genius, that will follow it in air order. But Martin is singing the Toriador's song from Carmen, which also is in Bart the Genius because they go see Carmen in that. So if it was intentional, a really clever callback to the first episode of The Simpsons. I'll buy it. Correa Adora Garder. Come on, Chalmy. You fired Skinner for less than this.

Yeah, I did, but Skinner really bug me. Besides, the way America's public schools are sliding, they'll all be this way in a few months. I say lay back and enjoy it. It's a hell of a toboggin' ride. Well, cockily doodley do, little buddies. Let's thank the Lord for another beautiful school day.

Thank the Lord. Thank the Lord. That sounded like a prayer, a prayer, a prayer in a public school. God has no place within these walls, just like facts have no place with an organized religion. Simpson, you get your wish. Flanders is history. Yeah, you're right, Bob. No action by Bart.

Also, that, like, he doesn't care. He's like, eh, he's getting really bugged to me. And as someone who was in Catholic school at the time, this joke really tickled me. And now, as an adult, I realize, this is a satire. of what religious people think is this happening in public souls how these things are being policed when really they didn't really care that much in the 90s I mean that's a good reading of it I listed this joke and I'm like well at least they do the like the facts joke afterwards to sort of like stab the knife both both ways but in a time when so many constitutional protections are

ignored increasingly I'm like yeah that's the problem that's what that's how it goes no I mean Yeah, the joke could be read as like, oh, if I didn't know David Merkin was such a, like, obviously making fun of Christians and all that, but it could be seen as this is how evil the schools are in attacking somebody who just says, thank the Lord, whose net is nice. Like, it seems almost to support the idea that schools are anti-Christian, but I feel like it's the other way around. They're just going so extreme, but in a thing they believe. And also that Chalmers is so lax about everything else, but, He is a single issue voter when it comes to this topic. Also, yeah, it's a hell of a toboggin ride. You know, I've had to say that a lot, I feel like, in the last 10 years.

Yeah, since 2016, it's been my motto. Well, I mean, and speaking of that kind of thing, I was just thinking about like, oh, I would guess probably in America's public schools, open prayer is more Christian prayer, is more welcome than ever in those schools. And that's when I remembered as part of that toboggan ride, Linda McMahon is in charge of the schools. Like, that is like every time I'm reminded of that, That is, there's so many things that are like, well, this is satire's dead kind of moments. But pro wrestling owner and character and also accused peddler of constant and approver of many sexual crimes.

Linda McMahon being in charge of all the schools, like, it is insane. It's an insane thing to say. Will the Department of Education exist by the time this goes live? Ooh, boy, you're right. In about five or six weeks. Happy times. What will happen to all the real life challenge? homers out there won't somebody think of the chalmers i guess they all got fired by doge right yeah

you guys will be surprised to learn that this entire thing is not in the original script there is an entirely different reason that uh flanders leaves it's like three pages long homer skinner and bart come up with a very complex plan that involves calling over quimby and chalmers to the school sea captain fills the school with wagons of dead fish like it actually is a very complex prank Homer is also trying to impersonate Ned to get Ned fired

and Homer like goes to an acting class to learn how to imitate Ned. Your God. I just love how simple this ending is and how it kind of wraps up on its own and there's an untouching moment between Skinner and Bart that's not ruined by them trying to undercut it.

They let it play. Oh and then to make it even more pointless the prank they plan. They have all of this ready, and then Ned just arrives at the school early and says to Bart that he's actually having to quit because a publisher just bought Ned's first novel. And Ned describes it as, it's about a young lawyer who joins a prestigious Southern law firm, only to find out it's really run by, well, that's not important. What is, is that I quit? Which actually, I guess that's kind of a callback to Billy and the Clonosaurus. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I thought it was going to be like he wrote, he wrote the same. same thing. Yeah, he wrote like his own Jurassic Park, but it's the firm, right? Yes, yes. Well, I'm glad Ned didn't spoil it for Bart. So then basically, in the next shot, Skinner just is the principal again,

and they do the, and he seems to know the student's names, lines, and then it resumes. But so all of that got cut for just Chalmers, instead just deciding Ned is history for one prayer. And then comes the very sweet ending, where also like, I think Chalmers basically literally shrugs on camera like

eh. Chalmers' hostility towards religion is so funny. I also love take it outside, God boy. Which Ned is very agreeable with in our sweet finale here. Well, I really enjoyed my time here, superintendent. May the Lord

bless and keep you. Now take it outside, God boy. Okily dockley. Dirkson took in your shirt. Jaffe spit out that gum. You really think it's a good idea to give that freak. his job back I seems to know the student's names so I guess we're enemies I guess thanks Mark sure mm hmm it's a sweet ending they both put up

kick me or a teach me sign on each other's back. Like Skinner gets to be equal to Bart for a second there. And a second look at Skinner's very nice handwriting. Oh yeah, that's on the letter too that he gives Bart, isn't it? Or that Agnes passes along to Bart. And Bart got pranked good.

People were teaching him all the way home. It's Skinner's biggest prank ever. That's the one. Yeah. And yes, this is where the other scene that got at least to animatic form that's on the DVD cut for Homer. So this scene comes in right after the embrace ends,

and instead of the sweet fade out, somebody comes crashing through the wall on a, I guess, a plow? Bam! Is that Flanders a jerk or what? It's hard to see because there are so many layers of literal paper on the animatic because things are moving, but I believe it is a homer's on a bulldozer and smashing through the wall.

Right, right. I think you're right, bulldozer, but it's so dense and also an SD and doth of an old VHS. Oh, also in the script, after they set up that Skinner's principal again, there's then a sign that shows that Skinner is wanted for desertion

and going AWOL in the script. I get the urge to undercut the sweetness, and they've done that successfully so many times, but that just makes the times where they let it play so much more special and it really works here for me. I'm glad they didn't let Homer literally crash through the scene

to be like, nope, Captain Wacky's here. I'm glad they let it be just, oh, mercy, and just a sweet moment. Especially because the next aired episode is Skinner being a hard ass on Bartigan and Homer being insane and a huge part of the story. It's all the things they removed from this script

are in The Boy Who Knew Too Much. But yeah, such a sweet. leading, Bart and Skinner, realizing they could be friends, but you have to reset once more to the status quo with a set. It also reminds me in the end of a grade school confidential, except it's, you know, Skinner walking the halls alone at night. Yeah, this is one of my favorites, like I said up front. It reinvented Skinner. It really shows Oakley and Weinstein doing what they do best. It's a great mix of Oakley and Weinstein and Merkin, and that is all over season six. So I'm looking forward to covering that. And this made me real.

realize at age 12 or whatever, maybe 11, that, oh, I think I find Principal Skinner very funny, and to this day, he's my favorite character. So, way to go, Simpsons. I mean, there's something to, in, like, a town that's so filled with wacky characters. There's something to one that's a quiet one who, like, is kind of a loser who's, like, trying to do good things. Like, he's a good-hearted guy, really. And it's just the fact that he's, like, a sad sack that everyone laughs at him. Yeah, I think I aspire to have a simple life where I'm entertained by the names of detergents. Yeah. That's my goal. As long as you have enough money for underwear. Yes. I do have more than one pair.

Well, thank you, Dan McCoy, for being on the show. Please tell everybody out there more about the Flop House, what you guys are up to and where we can find you online. You can find us at Flophousepodcast.com or, you know, your podcast listener, presumably, search us on whatever app you're using and we should come up because we've been doing it forever. and it's a podcast about bad movies, a comedy podcast, but we're not mean about the movies that we talk about in general. I always say that people who like bad movies like movies, because if you didn't, you wouldn't waste your time on the bad ones as well.

So it's me and my funny friend, Stuart and Elliot. And yeah, check it out. I enjoyed your one about Captain America, Brave New World. The first Marvel film that I was like, I can't. I didn't watch it. So hearing your accounting of it was helpful. Yeah. It's passable in the way that, like, people who knew how to do this made it, but it's really sort of scraping the bottom.

And I will say, Dan, I really enjoy your letterbox reviews. Dan's on there as well. Oh, thank you. A like on one of my reviews from Dan always makes me feel good because I enjoy yours so much. Dan, we're so needy. You have to like our reviews more. Okay. I'll go back and like some old ones now.

Thank you. But, yes, thank you so much, Dan, for being with us for the big 100th episode of one eighth of the way through the Simpsons series. We'll make it, God damn it. Thank you, Dan. Thanks so much, Dan McCoy, for being on our show. Please check out the Flop House. There's a link to his podcast in the info for this podcast. But if you want to support our podcast and get all of these episodes, add free, which is something you'll like out there.

And also one week ahead of time, go to patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. Sign up for five bucks a month. Again, ad free. podcast and also access to eight years worth of bonus episodes. They're all full length. And on those episodes we cover shows like Futurama, King of the Hill, Mission Hill, the

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slash Talking Simpsons. And there is a $10 level to when you sign up for that you get all the $5 stuff of course but then you get one very long podcast once a month for patrons of that level what is that podcast Henry Bob is mentioning our what a cartoon and movie podcast which is our discussion of an animated feature film as in depth as we do the hundredth episode of the simpsons we just finished a whole summer of two thousand's Disney films our most recent one was treasure planet the nail in the coffin for 2d and the Disney Renaissance some say and we had a ton of

of fun talking about all of those films and that's the most recent ones of years and years of us covering movies, super in depth usually five or even six hours long. So it's basically like you're getting three extra podcasts a month when you're at the $10 level that you also get all the $5 things Bob mentioned to

and it's all ad free. We've covered all the Disney Renaissance, we've covered all the toy story films, we've covered a bunch of anime like Studio Ghibli and Akira, even our longest podcast ever, which is Who Framed Roger Rabbit for over six and a half hours. Sign up today at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons.

Check out the collection section there, and you'll see all of the cool stuff you're missing out on once more at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. And I've been one of your host, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Blue Sky and Letterbox and many other places as Bob Servo. I have another podcast called Retronauts, but instead of plugging that, I'm going to plug my book because it is now back on all major platforms like Amazon and the rest, and that is the Boss Fight Books volume all about Day of the Tenicle, the classic 90s point-and-click adventure game. I did a full oral history on that.

the most definitive book on that subject and you can find it wherever you find your books digitally in physical format however way you want to read it, it's available for you. So please check that out. That is the Boss Fight Books Volume, all about Day of the Tenicle. And Henry, how about you? You can follow me on both Blue Sky and Instagram

as Talking Henry. I'm always posting about stuff there and cool things we're doing. And of course, you should be following the official account of this podcast at Talk SimpsonsPod. In all those places at Talk SimpsonsPod keeps you in the loop about me and Bob about the cool stuff we're doing. when new episodes come out, when there's stuff on the Patreon and other news,

follow at Talk Simpsons pod to stay abreast of everything we're doing. And don't forget that Talking Simpsons.com is the website that has all of our previously released free podcasts, both for Talking Simpsons and for What a Cartoon. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you again next time for Season 15's The Way We Weren't, and we'll see you then. The ingredients were fresh pureed tomatoes, water, salt, and sodium benzoate used to retard spoilage. Once again, if I'm not mistaken, this can contain tomato paste. Thank you, Nelson.

I look forward to seeing it again next week.