When You Dish upon a Star
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"When You Dish Upon a Star" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons' tenth season. It aired on November 8, 1998.
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[edit] Synopsis
The Simpson family decide to spend a day out on Lake Springfield, where Homer soon gets involved in a paragliding accident. Crash landing in the bedroom of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's vacation house, he convinces them that he should work for them as a personal assistant, while keeping a secret that they are in Springfield.
Eventually Homer becomes good friends with the celebrity couple, though he creeps the visiting Ron Howard out and tries unsuccessfully to pitch a script about a killer robot driving-instructor that travels back in time and a talking pie.
Eventually Homer's inability to keep a secret sees him get fired, and he starts a mobile museum of "Hollywood Jerks" to get back at them. Predictably, the celebrities aren't impressed by this and angrily confront him, even though they wanted to give him a second chance at first. Homer escapes but is stopped by Basinger, though not before injuring Ron Howard.
Ultimately Homer is court-ordered to keep away from any celebrity while Ron Howard successfully pitches Homer's script to Brian Grazer and 20th Century Fox.
[edit] Cultural references
- Homer's rant about deceased celebrities "appearing in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners" is a reference to a 1997 TV advertisement that depicted the late Fred Astaire dancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner.
- Homer: "We can't even pay our bills, and they're drinking Royal Crown Cola!" Royal Crown Cola is a cheaper brand than Pepsi or Coke, so Homer is really just being irritated for no good reason.
- Apu's sandcastle is a very detailed replica of India's famous Taj Mahal.
- PETA is an animal-rights group whose name stands for People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals. They have several celebrity members.
- Homer's dream is a spoof of Hanna-Barbera's Yogi Bear. When he falls asleep again he starts thinking he's Magilla Gorilla.
- Homer angrily addresses Ron Howard as "Potsie" (another Happy Days character) and "Horshack" (a character from Welcome Back, Kotter).
- The ripples in the pink lemonade when the crowd of people come is a reference to Jurassic Park.
- In one of Homer's sketches of the time machine for his movie, the Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future can be seen as part of his time machine.
- homer says he cant read, though a few seconds later he reads a grocery list in the kwik e mart
[edit] External links
- "When You Dish upon a Star" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "When You Dish upon a Star" at the Internet Movie Database
