A Star Is Torn
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "A Star is Torn" | |
| Episode no. | 353 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | GABF13 |
| Orig. Airdate | May 8, 2005 |
| Writer(s) | Carolyn Omine |
| Director(s) | Nancy Kruse |
| Chalkboard | None |
| Couch gag | Homer walks through a series of doorways to get to the living room, a la Get Smart |
| Guest star(s) | Fantasia Barrino as Clarissa Wellington |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 16 November 7, 2004 – May 15, 2005 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"A Star Is Torn" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons' sixteenth season. The episode aired on May 8, 2005 in the US.
[edit] Synopsis
The Simpsons go to the Kwik-E-Mart, where they see a robbery in progress. Homer, out of change to call the cops, asks Apu, who tells him that he has to buy something first. Marge wonders whether they should try other stores. Lisa insists upon buying vegetables, to which the rest reluctantly agree. That night, they enjoy their vegetarian meal, until Bart, Homer, Marge, and Maggie feel queasy and start throwing up. Because she is a vegetarian, Lisa seems to be fine. The rest of the family is sitting on the couch, shivering. Lisa points out that the rest of them are so used to processed foods that they couldn't stomach the nutritiousness of vegetables. As the sick ones sit on the couch, wrapped in blankets, Lisa gently sings them to sleep with the "Mockingbird" song.
The next morning, the non-vegetarian bunch of the Simpsons are better and showing it—by eating buckets of fried chicken, while watching TV. On TV, they see Krusty make an endorsement for his "Li'l Starmaker" competition. Bart convinces Lisa to enter the competition, praising her beautiful singing voice. Lisa is touched that Bart thinks so highly of her, so Bart sets the record straight by chucking a chicken bone at her.
Later that evening, every kid shows up at the competition. Krusty tells everyone that he is going to be their celebrity judge, but he also says that he will use an "Applause-O-Meter" to measure the people's appreciation of the kids' singing. We see a series of bad auditions, including Ralph Wiggum's rather high-pitched and not-so-faithful rendition of "A-B-C-D...", then Clarissa Wellington's perfect version of "Mockingbird", the same song Lisa was planning to sing. Lisa starts to panic, but Homer comes to her rescue by going to the nearby music store and writing a song for her to sing (albeit with the use of much plagiarism). She sings the song "I'm Talking Springfield", which praises Springfield (not so much Ned Flanders), which delights the crowd so much that the Applause-O-Meter goes berserk.
Soon the competition enters its knockout stages. Homer, now Lisa's manager, starts using every means at his disposal to make Lisa feel comfortable. He even gets her the right spotlight, by beating up the technician. Every week, one contestant is eliminated based on the votes cast by the audience. Soon, the three semi-finalists are Lisa, Clarissa and a boy named Cameron. He seems to be the fan favorite, thanks to his beautiful voice and a smile "that brought a puppy back to life".
Soon Clarissa gets eliminated, leaving just Cameron and Lisa in the fray. However, Homer's helpfulness gets a bit out-of-hand and makes Lisa mad, so she fires him as her manager. On the way back home in the car, Lisa tries apologizing for firing him, but that makes him angrier and they start yelling at each other, making Marge, Bart, and Maggie beat a hasty retreat to a video arcade and/or shoe shopping. Lisa also exits and Homer drives off alone. As the rest of them eat dinner, Homer comes in and announces that he is now Cameron's manager, and he has renamed Cameron to "Johnny Rainbow" and himself to "Colonel Cool". Lisa feels unhappy that Homer is upset at her. She sees Homer teaching Cameron a few jazz dancing lessons. She tries to make up with Homer by feeding him homemade cookies, but that fails once the cookies are finished.
On the day before the final elimination, Lisa practices on stage, but can't seem to get a good spotlight. Homer and "Johnny Rainbow" enter and Homer seems a bit icy towards Lisa, though he softens up enough to tell her to look into the spotlight, to make her eyes look bright. Lisa is touched by Homer's advice.
During the final, Lisa sings her own song she has written herself, called "Always My Dad", dedicated to Homer. After she finishes, everyone loves it, and she goes to Homer, and they make up. However, Homer had always believed in her and was just sabotaging Cameron. Cameron sings a rather condescending song "Privileged Boy" (that Homer wrote). The shocked audience boos him off the stage, with a few rotten vegetables as an accompaniment. Lisa is moved to know that Homer set up Cameron just for her. He tells her that he will always be there for her, not even death can stop him. When she feels a bit creeped out, he tells her he loves her and they hug.
As the credits roll, Lisa and Homer dance to the same jazz dance that he was teaching Cameron. Maggie joins them, but keeps falling over.
[edit] Trivia
- This is actually Homer's second stint as a singer's manager; he launched Lurleen Lumpkin's career way back in "Colonel Homer". Add in "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" and "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", and it's Homer's fourth episode revolving around his being in the music business (which might explain his cynical remark about the state of the profession, that the most important thing about the music business is to never trust people in the music business).
- Krusty begging Clarissa to cry more references the way the producers milk the contestants' emotions on American Idol.
[edit] Cultural references
- This is the third episode with the title parodying the classic film A Star is Born, the other two being "A Star is Burns" and "A Star is Born-Again".
- Li'l Starmaker is a parody of American Idol and this is even referenced in the episode ("Not affiliated with American Idol; we've never even heard of American Idol").
- This episode seems to draw heavily from Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer.
