She Used to Be My Girl
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "She Used to Be My Girl" | |
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| Episode no. | 339 |
| Prod. code | FABF22 |
| Orig. Airdate | December 5, 2004 |
| Written by | Tim Long |
| Directed by | Matthew Nastuk |
| Chalkboard | "Poking a dead raccoon is not research" |
| Couch gag | The family members' heads are all replaced with that of Moe's |
| Guest star | Kim Cattrall as Chloe Talbot (pictured left) |
| Season 16 November 7, 2004 – May 15, 2005 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"She Used to Be My Girl" is the fourth episode from the sixteenth season of the animated TV series The Simpsons. It features actress Kim Cattrall from Sex and the City.
[edit] Synopsis
The episode opens with the family in the living room, but they quickly become distracted by a throng of newsvans rolling down the street, including a Fox News van, blaring Queen's "We Are the Champions" with a large "Bush Cheney 2004" banner. On television Kent Brockman explains that Mayor Quimby has had 27 different paternity suits filed against him, with the mayor eventually placating most of the reporters with a cute puppy.
But one reporter is not distracted: Marge's old high school friend Chloe Talbot, herself from Springfield, who continues to ask Quimby tough questions and lambasting her male coworkers.
Marge sees her friend on TV and is jealous of her success, and later they meet on the street. An embarrassed Marge confesses she never left Springfield, but the two are generally glad to see each other again. Chloe comes to the Simpsons for dinner; her exciting stories -- taking place all over the world and involving famous people -- annoy Marge and inspire Lisa, who goes out to dinner with Chloe.
In a flashback, we learn the story of Marge and Chloe's friendship: both were reporters for their high school newspaper, but after college Marge stayed with her sweetheart Homer, with Chloe leaving her sweetheart Barney. With all of Chloe's success, Marge seems to begin to resent both her decision and her family, but receives supporting words from Homer.
On their way back from dinner, Chloe invites Lisa to the UN women's conference, with Lisa saying she would need parental permission. Upon arriving at the Simpsons house, they are met at the door by a drunk Marge, who is angry at their late return. Marge attacks Chloe and the two wrestle with each other on the lawn with Chloe saying "I'm going to show you some moves I learned from G. Gordon Liddy!" with Marge screaming back "I'm so sick of names!"
Lisa decides to sneak out to attend the conference with Chloe, receiving a little help from Bart. She hides in the car's trunk, but as Chloe drives off she receives a call from her boss, telling her to instead cover the story of the eruption of Springfield Volcano.
Lisa pops out of the trunk -- to Chloe's surprise -- but instead of attending a women's conference, she replaces Chloe's cameraman, who ran away at the first sight of lava. "Remember to keep my boobs in the shot," she directs.
Marge and Homer go to the actual women's conference in search of Lisa, but there see Chloe's live broadcast from the volcano, crediting Lisa behind the camera. Things at the volcano are looking grim, with Chloe and Lisa awaiting a fiery death. Marge races to the scene and leaps from rock to rock across a sea of lava to rescue Lisa; moments later, Barney descends in a helicopter to rescue Chloe, who grants him a half hour of pity sex.
The episode closes with Marge imagining what she could have done with her life...she is in front an ice rink, reporting that "the miracle on ice" never happened. "Nooo!" she screams in real life, to a shrugging family.
As the credits roll, we flash back to Lisa hiding from the volcano in Chloe's trunk. "What are you doing in there?" Chloe asks. Lisa -- perhaps somewhat out of character -- responds "Praying to Buddha...Jesus...Spongebob...there's no time to be picky!" In Heaven, the three figures debate whether or not to help, with Spongebob concluding "Screw her!" and laughing maniacally.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the third time that a 2-headed animal (the 2-headed goat-statue) appeared on the show after the 2-headed dog in "Last Exit to Springfield" and the animal with both the head of Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II in "Treehouse of Horror VIII".
- Dan Rather makes his first Simpsons appearance. Tom Brokaw (or, at least a Tom Brokaw-esque character) has appeared several times.
- To date, this is the last episode of The Simpsons to be animated by Toonzone Entertainment. It is unknown if the studio will animate future episodes.
- Barney became a helicopter pilot in the episode "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses".
- In the syndicated series, this episode is sometimes rated TV-14-DLS.
[edit] Cultural references
- Mayor Quimby's puppy distraction refers to Richard Nixon's checkers speech.
- Chloe is seen driving a Cadillac CTS.
- Chloe is shown interviewing Bob Dylan.
- When Chloe and Barney are in the helicopter the music from Sex and the City can be heard.
- The title is a spoof of the song "Used to Be My Girl" by The O'Jays.
- This is the second episode in which Barney uses his helicopter pilot skills.
- Fox News' rather celebratory entrance, with Bush/Cheney '04 on the side of a huge bus and Queen's "We Are The Champions" playing is a jab at Fox News' decidedly right-slanted perspective, in spite of its touting itself as being anti-spin.
- Spongebob Squarepants makes a cameo in the end of the episode. His show usually beat out The Simpsons at the Kids' Choice Awards.
