Marge vs. the Monorail
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"Marge vs. the Monorail" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons' fourth season and originally aired on January 14, 1993. The plot focuses around the town of Springfield buying a monorail from a conman and Marge's dislike of the purchase. It was written by Conan O'Brien and directed by Rich Moore. Leonard Nimoy guest stars as himself and Phil Hartman guest stars as Lyle Lanley.
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[edit] Synopsis
After being caught dumping nuclear waste in the city park, Mr. Burns is fined three million dollars. A town meeting is immediately held so that the citizens can decide what to spend the money on and Marge suggests using it to fix up Main Street, which is in a bad condition. The town shows enthusiasm for this idea and is about to vote for it when suddenly a whistle is heard and a smooth stranger named Lyle Lanley suggests that the town buys a new monorail. He leads them in a song, which convinces the town to buy the monorail.
Marge is unhappy with the town's purchase, believing that they should have fixed Main Street and that the monorail is unsafe. While watching TV, Homer sees an advertisement that suggests he become a monorail conductor and Homer, claiming it to be a lifelong dream, immediately agrees. After an intensive three week course, Homer is named the monorail conductor. Still feeling uneasy about the monorail, Marge decides to visit Lyle Lanley and discovers a notebook that reveals Lanley’s true intentions. Marge immediately drives to North Haverbrook, which Lanley mentioned was a previous purchaser of one of his monorails, and meets Sebastian Cobb, who explains that Lanley cut costs everywhere and that the entire thing is a scam.
At the maiden voyage of the monorail, the entire town has come out, including Leonard Nimoy. Lanley grabs his money and jumps in a taxi, which takes him to the airport. The monorail takes off just before Marge and Cobb arrive. At first things run smoothly, but the cords malfunction, causing the monorail to speed up and travel at dangerous speeds. Nobody can figure out how to stop the monorail and although a Solar eclipse briefly halts it, the eclipse ends and the monorail takes off. Meanwhile, Lanley’s flight makes a brief unscheduled stop in North Haverbrook, where Lanley is immediately attacked by a group of locals. Back in Springfield, Cobb tells Homer that in order to stop the train, he needs to find an anchor. Homer grabs the giant “M” from the side of the Monorail and uses it as an anchor. Eventually, it latches onto a giant doughnut, stopping the monorail and saving its passengers.[1][4][5][3]
[edit] Production
Conan O'Brien first pitched this episode at a story retreat. He first pitched the idea to Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who said the episode was a little crazy and thought he should pitch some other stuff first. Conan first pitched an episode where Lisa had a rival and an episode where Marge gets a job at the Plant and Burns falls in love with her. Both went over well and then he pitched this episode, which James L. Brooks absolutely loved.[7]
[edit] Casting
Leonard Nimoy was originally considered for the role as the celebrity at the maiden voyage of the monorail, but the writing staff didn't think he would accept, because William Shatner had previously turned the show down. Instead, George Takei was asked to guest star as he had done the show once before. After demanding several script changes,[8] Takei declined, saying he did not want to make fun of public transportation as he was a member of the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District. As a result, the staff went to Nimoy, who accepted.[7]
[edit] Cultural references
The episode starts with a tribute song to The Flintstones as Homer heads home from work and crashes his car.[2] The episode is a partial spoof of The Music Man, with "The Monorail Song" strongly resembling the Music Man's "Trouble".[2] When Mr. Burns is brought into the court room, he is restrained in the same way as Hannibal Lecter in the film The Silence of the Lambs.[2] Homer's Monorail conductor uniform is based on uniforms from Star Wars.[6]
[edit] Reception
This episode is quite often rated as being among the top Simpsons episodes. In 2003, Entertainment Weekly released a list of its Top 25 episodes, ranking this episode at Number 4, saying "the episode has arguably the highest throwaway-gag-per-minute ratio of any Simpsons, and all of them are laugh-out-loud funny."[9] In his book "Planet Simpson", Chris Turner named the episode as being one of his five favorites.[10] The Quindecim, a college newspaper, made their own top 25, naming "Marge vs. the Monorail" as the second greatest episode of the series.[11] In 2006, IGN.com named the episode the best of the fourth season.[12] The BBC website says "An unsurpassed episode. It's hard to know where to start dishing out the praise - Leonard Nimoy's guest appearance, the Monorail song, Marge's narration, the truck full of popcorn..."[2] The episode earned an 8.5/10 on IMDB,[13] and a 9.3/10 out on TV.com.[12]
Leonard Nimoy's appearance as himself has been praised as being one of the funniest Simpsons guest appearances ever.[8] In a list of the 25 greatest guest voices on the show, released September 5, 2006, IGN.com ranked Leonard Nimoy at 11th.[14] He would later voice himself in season 8's "The Springfield Files"
Conan O'Brien has said this is his favorite Simpsons episode.[15] Homer's lines "I call the big one Bitey" and "doughnuts, is there anything they can't do?" are among Matt Groening's favorite Simpsons lines.[16]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Marge vs. the Monorail" The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on February 14, 2007
- ^ a b c d e f g h Marge vs. the Monorail BBC.co.uk. Retrieved on February 14, 2007
- ^ a b Martyn, Warren; Adrian Wood (2000). I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0495-2.
- ^ Episode Capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- ^ Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, p. 173. ISBN 0-00063-8898-1.
- ^ a b Moore, Rich. (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Jean, Al. (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Reiss, Mike. (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ The Family Dynamic EW.com. Retrieved on February 13, 2007
- ^ Turner, Chris. Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. ISBN 0-679-31318-4.
- ^ Culp, Sarah (2003-02-17). The Simpsons' Top 25 Episodes. The Quindecim. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
- ^ a b The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes IGN.com. Retrieved on February 14, 2007
- ^ Marge vs. the Monorail IMDB. Retrieved on February 13, 2007
- ^ Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances IGN.com
- ^ O'Brien, Conan. (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Groening, Matt. (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
[edit] External links
- "Marge vs. the Monorail" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- Find "Monorail" at The Lyrics List at The Simpsons Archive
- "Marge vs. the Monorail" at The Simpsons.com
- "Marge vs. the Monorail" at TV.com
- "Marge vs. the Monorail" at the Internet Movie Database
- "Marge vs. the Monorail" at BBC.co.uk
