Homer of Seville

"Homer of Seville",^[2] also known as "The Homer of Seville"^[3] is the second episode of The Simpsons' nineteenth season and first aired on September 30, 2007. After gaining an operatic ability to sing, Homer becomes a professional and famous opera singer. While running from a mob of his crazed fans, he is saved by Julia, a beautiful and dangerous stalker.^[4] It was written by Carolyn Omine, directed by Michael Polcino.^[5] The episode was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award.^[6] The episode garnered 8.4 million viewers, less than the previous episode.^[6]

1 Plot
2 Cultural references
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

After escaping church, the Simpson family looks for a restaurant to stop and eat lunch at. Upon seeing that all the restaurants have long lines, the family spots a catering van setting up food at a house. The family sneaks in and only after gorging themselves in front of people they don't know, do they realize that they’ve snuck into a wake. Homer is wrangled into being a pallbearer for the burial. At the cemetery, Homer struggles with the coffin; not looking where he's going, he falls into an empty grave hurting his back in the process. At the hospital Dr. Hibbert treats Homer and sets up to give him an X-ray to check out his vertebrae. While lying on his back, Homer learns of the cost of the X-ray, and lets out a "D'oh!". However, to the surprise of everyone, Homer's “D’oh!” sounds beautiful and operatic. Dr. Hibbert concludes that when Homer lies on his back his stomach lodges underneath his diaphragm, which in turn helps propel his powerful singing voice.

Dr. Hibbert tours Homer around the hospital while singing, to help alleviate patient suffering. As Marge pushes a singing Homer around the hospital in his bed, Mr. Burns overhears Homer's voice and hires him to star in La Bohème at the Springfield Opera House. Homer, despite having to sing on his back, quickly becomes an opera star. Homer's growing fame and success at the opera house gains him loyal fans, and even gives advice to famous opera singer Placido Domingo. Homer, Marge, Lenny and Carl share their wedding anniversary dinner at a nice restaurant together. Marge confesses to Homer that she's glad he's become famous, but that she misses their privacy. After Lenny and Carl leave, Homer is hounded by adoring fans. Marge gets fed up and storms out of the restaurant and Homer follows after her. On the street, Homer tries to make up with Marge, when a large group of fans spots Homer and Marge and begins chasing after them. Homer and Marge get pinned in an alley and just before the frenzied mob reaches them, a black clad biker on a motorcycle shows up to drive Homer and Marge to safety.

Back at home, Marge and Homer are surprised to find that the mysterious rider is a woman -- Julia (Maya Rudolph). Julia, also a fan of Homer, explains that she hates how all the other fans constantly mob him all the time. She proposes that they hire her to be Homer's manager, so she can take care of everything. Marge loves the idea, and heads to make a celebratory pie. With Marge gone, Julia's true intentions are revealed: standing naked before Homer, she says he can have her anyway he wants her. She threatens to tell Marge he attacked her, should he tell. Although crazily obsessed with Homer, Julia proves to be a great fan club president and Marge is impressed with her efficiency. However, after her continual sexual advances, Homer is forced to put his foot down and fire Julia, who leaves darkly implying she'll get back at Homer. At breakfast the next day, Homer pours himself a bowl of cereal and a deadly cobra hidden inside the cereal box tries to attack Homer, but luckily, he beat the cobra silly. Lisa concludes that Julia is trying to kill him for firing her and Springfield's finest are put on bodyguard detail for Homer to keep him safe.

As Homer prepares for his next performance in his dressing room Marge pleads with Chief Wiggum to call off the performance, but he convinces her that Homer will be safe and explains that he has the opera house under total surveillance. Later, while Homer performs on stage, Marge and the kids remain vigilant and on the lookout for Julia. Bart spots her disguised as the conductor and Marge watches in horror as Julia loads a poison dart into her conductor’s wand. Just as Julia prepares the use her wand as a blow gun, Marge leaps into action, grabs a French horn and redirects the flight of the poison dart back at Julia. Upon being hit by the dart Julia falls to the ground and Chief Wiggum calls on his snipers to finish her off. Every bullet misses, except for one; a second later, the giant chandelier falls from the ceiling above and crashes on top of Julia. Outside, Julia is wheeled into an ambulance, and vows that she'll be back. Homer and the family head for home and Homer announces that he is retiring from the opera and explains that he can think of a much more fun thing he can do while on his back: painting. A classical operatic version of the Simpsons theme plays as the credits roll over a black background.^[2]

[edit] Cultural references

The title is a reference to The Barber of Seville.^[7] The church calls "Jesus: The Real American Idol".^[7] Homer mentions Au Jus.^[7] The Springfield Opera House resembles the Sydney Opera House.^[7] Placido Domingo claims his nickname is "P Dingle".^[7] Homer's entourage, Lenny and Carl, parody the series Entourage.^[7] Lisa claims that tenor Andrea Bocelli recorded an entire song on his back, and demonstrated this technique on an episode of American Idol in 2006.^[8] The stores the family pass by are pop-culture parodies.^[9] Julia closing her eyes, revealing "Love You" on her eyelids parodies a similar scene in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.^[10]

[edit] Reception

The episode originally gained 8.4 million viewers.^[6] The episode was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for 2007, but lost to The Simpsons eighteenth season episode, "Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2".^[6] Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a poor review (4.5/10), and found the plot contrived and found Homer's rendition of "If Ever I Would Leave You" unfunny. He did enjoy the episode's opening scenes in the church.^[9] Richard Keller of TV Squad quotes he thought the episode was decent with several laughs. He praised voice actor Castellaneta's professional voice.^[7]