Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming
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"Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The title is a reference to the 1977 film Twilight's Last Gleaming, or, more likely, the same phrase in The Star Spangled Banner.
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[edit] Synopsis
Krusty the Clown begins another episode of his show on a serious note – he thanks the children for their contributions to a food drive. However, the cans and boxes of food sent in by fans of the show are not being used to feed needy families, but as part of a super-sloppy obstacle course competition (a la Double Dare). Bart and Lisa, as usual, revel in the mayhem and Krusty's abuse of Sideshow Mel.
The prisoners at Springwood Minimum Security Prison are also laughing at the proceedings, causing Sideshow Bob to lose his concentration while building a model of Westminster Abbey inside a bottle and ruin his project.
He enters the nearby room where the other inmates were laughing at the inane antics of Krusty. After the other inmates remind Sideshow Bob he used to be Krusty's sidekick, the embittered ex-TV star begins to defame other 'trash TV' shows, all of which he pans as pointless, mindless drivel, until Rupert Murdoch steps in to end Bob's attack on TV claiming "I own 60% of that network!", which is presumably the Fox network. While on work duty at a local airfield (which is being cleaned for an annual air show), the quality of television programming eats at Bob's mind, and he forms a plan.
Meanwhile, everyone in town (including the Simpson family) goes to the air show, where the usual antics occur. At the same time, Bob – impersonating an Air Force colonel – gains access into the restricted area of a hangar, where he finds a 10-megaton nuclear weapon.
Col. Hapablap tries to begin the show, but the signal on a giant-screen television is lost and just as quickly restored on Sideshow Bob. Bob suggests life would be better without television, and then threatens to detonate the nuclear bomb unless Springfield gives into his demand to shut down all television broadcasts. Bob also points out he knows irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it. Everyone flees the airfield in panic (Squeaky Voiced Teen: "Stamp your hand for reentry!" but everyone ignores him); Bart and Lisa are separated from their parents.
While National Guardsmen frantically search the base for Sideshow Bob, Mayor Quimby and Col. Hapablap meet to decide what to do. When Bob is nowhere to be found, Quimby (out of options and running out of time) decides to give in to Bob's ultimatum, despite Krusty's (self-interest motivated) insistence that in a world without television, "the survivors would envy the dead!". Television transmitters are destroyed, and television stations hastily plan farewell programs. Kent Brockman gives a farewell speech, toasting all the good times he's shared with viewers, such as premium ice cream price wars.
As Bob (whom, we learn, was televising his demands from a stolen Duff Blimp) gleefully celebrates the success of his plan (whilst rueing the fact that he didn't make more demands, including one for some "decent local marmalade"), Krusty is determined not to give in to his former co-star's demands (if he can stay on the air, he'd have 100% of the audience). He takes refuge in a civil defense shed and, after turning on the transmitter, heavily improvises a show including The Stingy and Battery Show. Bob finds out and is outraged - even the threat of nuclear destruction is no match for television.
Bart and Lisa find their way into the cockpit of the Duff Blimp, where Bob – having lost his patience – tries to detonate the bomb. However, the bomb is a dud and no damage is done.
Bob, outraged that the nuclear bomb didn't destroy Springfield, takes Bart hostage and, after landing the blimp, puts a knife against his neck. Lisa manages to sneak away and creates a message announcing Bob's whereabouts. When Chief Wiggum tries to arrest Bob, Bob just laughs at him and takes his 10-year-old hostage to a hangar, where he steals the original Wright Brothers aircraft (which had been an exhibit at the air show).
Bob, holding the knife's blade to Bart's neck, plans a kamikaze mission by crashing the plane into the civil defense shed where Krusty is hiding. He flies towards Krusty's shed, humorously yelling "DIE KRUSTY DIE!!". However, the plane is mechanically unable to carry out Bob's kamikaze mission, and it merely bounces (harmlessly) off the shack's roof. The plane lands and stalls, and authorities quickly tackle Bob and take him into custody. As Bob bemoans his failed plan (and how clichéd the ending was), an unharmed Bart is reunited with his parents.
However, all is not well. Just as Bob is being arrested, an air-force operative accidentally drives a tank over the Wright Brothers plane, crushing it to bits (which is perhaps to be expected, as tanks aren't usually driven in the Air Force).
[edit] The Stingy and Battery Show
A fictional show-within-a-show briefly improvised by Krusty the Clown. Determined to stay on air, Krusty broadcast from a small emergency broadcasting system shack in the Springfield alkali flats.
Desperate to fill in time, he invented a substitute for his long-time ratings winner The Itchy & Scratchy Show using a live scorpion and a battery, naming it The Stingy and Battery Show on the spot. He also performed the theme song: "They bite, and light, and bite and light and dite, ligh, ligh, ligh.... yadda yadda, you know what I'm talkin' about". He then accidentally drops the scorpion and looks worried. He also had two sidekicks: a framed picture of former President Dwight Eisenhower and a fuel can named Professor Gas Can.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode was due to be shown on BBC Two on 14 September 2001, but was replaced with "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" because of the part where Sideshow Bob steals the Wright Brothers plane at the air show, kidnaps Bart, and plans to crash the plane into the shack where Krusty was doing his "show" was considered "in poor taste" due to the September 11 attacks.
- One of the O's in Ocho is an eight-Ball.
- Lisa's quote "I want to meet the first female Stealth Bomber pilot. During the Gulf War she destroyed seventy mosques and her name is Lisa too." was removed for syndication.
- Milhouse is revealed to have been going to a psychiatrist called Dr. Sally Waxler. She isn't mentioned again until the later episode "Milhouse of Sand and Fog".
- Even though Col. Hapablap stated there's "not a cloud in the sky", there's some stratus clouds shown in the background as Sideshow Bob transports his nuclear warhead.
- Col. Hapablap wears a silver star on his collar (the rank insignia of a General) rather than the corect insignia for a Col. (a silver eagle).
- Kelsey Grammer required several takes to complete the line regarding Chuck Yeager's Acura when his character was impersonating Col. Hap Hapablap because he was laughing so hard. This from the commentary of Simpsons Season 7 DVD.
- The two planes scrambled to intercept Sideshow Bob were F-14 Tomcats.
[edit] Cultural references
- Double Dare – The sloppy slide shown on the Krusty the Clown Show is similar to the Sundae Slide that appeared in some episodes of this game show during the final round with the obstacle course.
- Twilight's Last Gleaming - Title and similar plot.
- Fail-Safe – At the beginning of the third act, we see scenes of everyday life across Springfield. One by one, with a "zooming" sound effect, they all freeze-frame in anticipation of the (supposedly) imminent nuclear blast. Such was the ending of the 1964 Cold War thriller by Sidney Lumet.
- "Daisy" political ad – The montage of scenes mentioned above ends with Maggie picking at a daisy - a parody of the famous political ad for the American presidential candidate Lyndon B. Johnson.
- Wright Brothers – A vintage aircraft, said to be the plane used for the historic flight, is on display at the Springfield Air Show.
- Dr. Strangelove – The underground compound resembles the War Room from the film; also Professor Frink appears as the title character from the film. The tune that Sideshow Bob whistles while preparing the bomb is "We'll Meet Again," as sung by Vera Lynn at the end of the film.
Also, Krusty's line that "the survivors would envy the dead" is similar to a line spoken by one of the generals in the War Room, in reference to living in a postapocalyptic world
- Tom Baker arrives in character as the Doctor (from Doctor Who), as part as a delegation of esteemed TV representatives. Other representatives include:
- Raleigh-Durham International Airport – An airport in Raleigh, NC, which is about three hours from where the Wright Brothers' first flight was.
- "High Flight" sonnet quoted by the purportedly American Air Force general, which is actually more affiliated with the Royal Canadian Air Force. It is a similar jab to the British-made Harrier joke.
- Col. Leslie "Hap" Hapablap (voiced by R. Lee Ermey) says, "What is your major malfunction?" to Sideshow Bob, which is a line delivered by Ermey's character in another Stanley Kubrick war movie, Full Metal Jacket.
- Col. Hapablap also exclaims, "What in the World According to Garp?", which is a reference to the famous John Irving novel and film adaptation, "The World According to Garp".
- At the time of this episode, a woman named Awilda Lopez was arrested for killing her adoptive daughter. When she was arrested, Lopez admitted to using her child as a mop to clean the floors of her house, similar to how Krusty the Clown uses Sideshow Mel in the beginning of this episode. Many fans found the joke to be in bad taste due to the timing of the events, but the joke has not been edited out and is included on the season seven DVD set.
- An alien is found in Hangar 18 which could be a reference to the 1980s film or the song by Megadeth.
- Kent Brockman ends his farewell speech by announcing that he will be writing a column for PC World magazine.
- The colonel asserts that he will be on Sideshow Bob like "Garfield [the comic-strip cat] on lasagna."
- Rock You Like a Hurricane -- The song played during the airplane show; by German rock band the Scorpions
- Krusty the Clown thinks of a way to stay on the air while the TV station was conducting an Emergency Broadcast System test. Though FCC regulations prohibited the actual EBS tone from airing on that show, the tone heard on this episode is actually used as an Emergency Alert System attention signal on NOAA Weather Radio. When Krusty started airing his show in a civil defense shack, the EBS was activated as if there were an actual emergency.
- In the sequence where all of the prisoners are being rounded up on to the bus to the prison, Chief Wiggum states, "Hey, where's Sideshow Bob, and that guy who likes to eat people and take their faces?" an obvious reference to the notorious murderer Ed Gein, known for his habit of killing people and taking their faces after he finished consuming them.
[edit] External links
