The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular
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"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season, and is, as the title suggests, the 138th episode. The episode aired on December 3, 1995.
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[edit] Introduction
Announcer: Live, from the Springfield Civic Auditorium—it's The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular!
(trumpet fanfare; Troy McClure enters)
Troy McClure: Hello, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such Fox network specials as Alien Nose Job and Five Fabulous Weeks of The Chevy Chase Show. Tonight, we're here to honor America's favorite non-prehistoric cartoon family. You'll see long-lost footage, never-before-seen material from your favorite episodes, old favorites you can't see in syndication. (showing clips from previous episodes) So join me, won't you, for The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular.
[edit] Opening credits
The normal medium-length credits appear (features only the chalkboard and couch), except it says "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular! - 23% New Footage".
[edit] Blackboard
Bart writes "I will only do this once a year."
[edit] Couch gag montage
Instead of one couch gag, the episode has a montage of couch gags:
- The family sits on the couch, which turns into a giant brown alien and swallows them whole.
- The family runs off the edge of the frame, and back to the couch.
- The show's entire cast joins the family in front of the couch.
- The family, sitting on the couch, is very small.
- Santa's Little Helper growls on the couch and scares the family.
- The family sits on the couch, only to be squashed like bugs by a human foot, a la the opening of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- Maggie is the largest, and Homer is the smallest.
- The family runs to the couch in a parody of M. C. Escher's Relativity.
- bart shows his fingers.
- The family swims to the couch.
- The couch gag is black and white, and the family enters with a Fleischer-style animation.
- The family forms a chorus line, which turns into a large production number.
[edit] Synopsis
Troy McClure hosts this episode, which looks back at the show and also offers never-before-seen outtakes. Also in the episode, many questions fans often ask finally have their answer revealed. It also takes a look at who Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon are. Groening is portrayed as a Southern patriot who wields a gun, is bald, and has an eye patch (he ends up shooting the camera placed in his office for the audience to see him), Brooks is seen as Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly, and Simon's appearance resembles Howard Hughes. It is also revealed that, according to McClure, Homer's original name in The Simpsons was "Captain Wacky".
In the episode, Troy McClure also shows other clips from the Ullman shorts, including the first The Tracey Ullman Show short, "Good Night". The episode also offers alternative endings to Part Two of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", most of which consisted of random characters shooting Mr. Burns, followed by a more elaborate ending where Smithers is revealed to be the assailant. Over the end, Troy McClure leaves the viewers with what the theatre's audience came to see: hardcore nudity, with a montage of scenes of nudity on The Simpsons playing over the end credits, while KC and the Sunshine Band's Shake Your Booty was playing in the background.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the third episode to show its title within the show.
- The featured, alternate ending to Who Shot Mr. Burns? was created to prevent any staff (be it writers, or even the overseas animators) on the Simpsons from spoiling the mystery.
- Due to the "picture" of Matt Groening and the subsequent cash register joke, Matt Groening frequently receives mail from several right-wing groups applauding him.
- This is the only episode to suggest the house is a set. The later episode parodying VH-1's "Behind the Music", Behind the Laughter, insists the house is an actual house and the show is shot on location.
- There is one scene from Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy during the closing montage in which Marge and Homer are interrupted in bed by Bart. The blanket covering Marge's body is missing, because the drawings used were still missing the final layer.
- After showing the false ending of Who Shot Mr. Burns?, Troy states that the ending could have only worked if they somehow ignored all of the Simpson D.N.A. evidence, which would be "downright nutty." (This is not true, because the DNA has the same explanation that it did in the real ending: the tug-of-war with Maggie). There is then a short, uncomfortable pause. The joke is a reference to the recently-concluded O.J. Simpson murder case, wherein the jurors found O.J. "not guilty" and later interviews found that the jurors had ignored O.J. Simpson's D.N.A. found at the crime scene.
- The reappearance of the scene originally cut from Homer and Apu on the DVD set of Season 5 reveals that the Hindi music heard behind the voices in the bollywood movie (and the glass breaking) was not added until the scene was chosen for part of this episode.
- This episode shows a deleted scene from "Burns' Heir" in which Mr. Burns releases a robot Richard Simmons on Homer, which regenerates by means of liquid metal when shot at (all of which is a parody of the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day). This was a real scene that got cut because the writers didn't think it was funny, but it always got laughs when shown at college screenings and animation conventions [1].
- The outtakes section presents the outtakes as faded-looking to differentiate between old and new footage, and also perhaps as a joke at the expense of T.V. executives who are typically unwilling to invest the money necessary to properly restore damaged and/or washed-out footage when it appears in a retrospective documentary the likes of which this episode is a pseudo-parody on. A mistake is made during the Treehouse of Horror IV scenes. The part where Lizzie Borden reads the verdict is shown as faded even though it is in the episode.
- Although this episodes production code is "3F31", there are no episodes with production codes 3F25 through to 3F30.
[edit] External links
"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
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| So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show · Another Simpsons Clip Show · The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular · All Singing, All Dancing · Gump Roast |
