The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show

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The Simpsons episode
"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"
Poochie in Itchy & Scratchy's car
Episode no.	167
Prod. code	4F12
Orig. Airdate	February 9, 1997
Show Runner(s)	Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein
Written by	David S. Cohen
Directed by	Steve Moore
Couch gag	A parody of the Sgt. Pepper's album cover.[1]
Guest star	Alex Rocco as Roger Meyers, Jr. Phil Hartman as Troy McClure[1]
DVD commentary by	Matt Groening Josh Weinstein David X. Cohen Yeardley Smith Alex Rocco Steven Dean Moore
Season 8 October 27, 1996 – May 18, 1997
Treehouse of Horror VII You Only Move Twice The Homer They Fall Burns, Baby Burns Bart After Dark A Milhouse Divided Lisa's Date with Density Hurricane Neddy El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer) The Springfield Files The Twisted World of Marge Simpson Mountain of Madness Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show Homer's Phobia Brother from Another Series My Sister, My Sitter Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment Grade School Confidential The Canine Mutiny The Old Man and the Lisa In Marge We Trust Homer's Enemy The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase The Secret War of Lisa Simpson
List of all Simpsons episodes...

"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" is the fourteenth episode of the eighth season of The Simpsons, which originally aired February 9, 1997.^[2] It was written by David S. Cohen,^[2] and directed by Steve Moore.^[2] Alex Rocco guest starred as Roger Meyers, Jr. for the third time.^[2] The episode saw the introduction of the short-lived character Poochie. This episode also saw the The Simpsons surpass The Flintstones in the number of episodes produced for an animated series.^[3]

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 The Itchy & Scratchy Show: "The Beagle Has Landed" 3 Production 3.1 Original plan for Poochie 4 Caricatures of the show's staff 5 Reception 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The ratings of the Itchy & Scratchy Show segment of the Krusty the Clown show fall dramatically. Krusty gives the cartoon's producer Roger Meyers, Jr. an ultimatum: come up with a way to fix the sagging ratings, or else. Meyers decides to commission a study group to determine the reason why Itchy and Scratchy have lost their popularity.

Bart and Lisa participate in the study, watching cartoons and answering questions. However, things do not go very well, with the children contradicting themselves when suggesting what they want. Lisa points out that there was nothing wrong with Itchy and Scratchy to begin with; rather, the characters had simply lost the impact they once had with their audience.

Meyers thanks Lisa for "saving" Itchy and Scratchy, and decides that a new character is what is needed to salvage his cartoon. He tells Krusty and his team of writers that this new character should be a dog, one with attitude and it is decided his name shall be Poochie.

Homer is among several Springfield residents to audition for the role of Poochie's voice, and wins the job. He meets June Bellamy, the voice actress for Itchy and Scratchy. The two then make several publicity stops to promote Poochie. Homer, meanwhile, invites all of his friends and relatives over to the screening of the first Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show.

Krusty builds up the excitement for the first cartoon featuring Poochie, titled "The Beagle Has Landed". However, the cartoon is full of clichés and inane antics. Homer and Flanders are the only ones who like the cartoon, while everyone else is unimpressed.

It isn't long before Meyers is forced to admit that Poochie's debut was a dud, and he decides to retire the character. Homer learns that Poochie will be killed off and is resolved to keep the Poochie character alive. At his next recording session, rather than reading from the script, he implores the audience to give Poochie a fair chance. The writing team is impressed with Homer's statement, and he is led to believe that the comments will be included in the next cartoon.

Instead, Meyers dubs the correct line—"I have to go now. My planet needs me."—into the dialogue, and a statement attesting to the dog's demise (he died on the way back to his home planet) is hurriedly edited into the cartoon. The in-studio audience cheers wildly as Krusty gleefully promises that Poochie is gone for good. Homer feels betrayed but, after realizing he never got paid for his efforts, chalks things up to the nature of show business.^[4]

Throughout the episode, a college-aged boy named Roy comes to live with the Simpsons. When Lisa remarks that new characters are just a cheap effort to boost crappy shows' ratings, Roy appears out of nowhere. He has a few minor lines, calls Homer "Mr. S", and at the episode's end, he declares that he is moving out to live with "two sexy ladies."

[edit] The Itchy & Scratchy Show: "The Beagle Has Landed"

Itchy and Scratchy are driving to a fireworks factory, when they pass a beagle dressed as a surfer dude. Itchy tells Scratchy that "It's our new friend, Poochie."

To show that he's ultra-cool, Poochie uses a rap to introduce himself, which states he is "half Joe Camel and a third Fonzarelli" (David Cohen notes in the commentary that 1/2 + 1/3 comes to only 5/6th of a character). Scratchy thinks Poochie is "one outrageous dude," while Itchy opines the beagle is "totally in [his] face."

Further revealing his character, Poochie then performs a rock guitar solo, before demonstrating how he can ride a bike and play basketball at the same time. Before exiting, he uses some more hip language: "Catch you on the flip side, dudemeisters!" He also feigns a high five to Scratchy, before reminding the audience to recycle (to the extreme) and taking off in Itchy and Scratchy's car (passing the fireworks factory).

[edit] Production

The episode was intended to be a commentary on what it was like to work on a television show that he been on the air for a long time but was nearing its end,^[5] with it being meant to show that The Simpsons could still be good after eight seasons, even though it no longer had the "shock value" it did for the early seasons.^[5] A while before this episode, a Fox executive made a suggestion that a new character should come and live with the Simpsons, on a permanent basis, and that it would "liven up the show",^[6] the character of Roy being reference to this.^[7] Roy had originally been designed to appear in the "Time and Punishment" section of the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" in one of the alternate realities, living with the Simpsons.^[5]

The executives also wanted Jenny McCarthy to be on the show, as they wanted her to sign a deal with Fox.^[8]

This episode features the first mention of Comic Book Guy's soon-to-be catchphrase "Worst episode ever", which was taken from the alt.tv.simpsons message boards.^[5] The first mention of "Worst episode ever" can be found in this post, which was about the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie".

[edit] Original plan for Poochie

David Cohen's initial vision for Poochie was that he would be annoying to fans because he was wealthy, aloof and unlikeable. In the episode's DVD commentary he read his script for the first cartoon featuring Itchy, Scratchy, and Poochie:

Itchy and Scratchy are laborers in Poochie's gold mine. Poochie sits on a velvet throne surrounded by bags of money. He drinks champagne as he whips Itchy and Scratchy and lectures them on the value of hard work in a capitalist society. Finally, Itchy and Scratchy get fed up and plan their revenge. They decide Scratchy will present a fake money bag to Poochie. Itchy will secretly be hiding in the bag. When Poochie raises the bag to inhale the sweet smell of money, Itchy will jab him in the nose with a syringe of poison. Itchy gets in the bag and Scratchy presents it to Poochie, but the plan backfires because Poochie is offended by how small the money bag is. To demonstrate how worthless it is to him, he sets it on fire and uses it to light his cigar. Itchy's flaming skeleton falls out of the burning bag, and the syringe lands on Scratchy's toe and kills him, too. Poochie says, "Oh, well, I can always use my millions of dollars to hire more workers. That's the power of money." The end.^[5]

[edit] Caricatures of the show's staff

As with other episodes centering around the production of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, such as "The Front", the show's staff are shown. Almost all of them are caricatures of the actual staff of The Simpsons.^[5] In the first scene at the production table the person in the lower right corner, wearing a squid T-shirt, is David Cohen.^[5] On the left side, the furthest away is Bill Oakley^[5] with Josh Weinstein next to him.^[5] Next to Weinstein is George Meyer,^[5] who is the writer who speaks out and gets fired. The animator shown designing Poochie is supervising director David Silverman.^[5] Others who appear include Dan McGrath,^[5] Ian Maxtone-Graham,^[5] Donick Cary,^[5] Ron Hauge,^[5] Ned Goldreyer^[5] and Mike Scully, who had to be added in later, as the animators "didn't have his photo" from which to get an accurate likeness.^[5]

[edit] Reception

It was placed twenty-third on Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episodes list.^[9] The Quindecim, a college newspaper, made their own top 25, placing "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" in seventeenth place.^[10] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it: "A very neat episode which, like "The Front", is a good parody of the cartooning business." It currently holds a rating of "Great", with a score of 8.4/10 on TV.com,^[11] and a score of 7.0/10 at the Internet Movie Database.^[12]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" episode page at The Simpsons.com
• "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" at TV.com
• "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" at the Internet Movie Database