Talk:Homer at the Bat

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Article milestones Date Process Result September 15, 2007 Peer review Reviewed December 14, 2007 Good article nominee Listed Current Status: Good article

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Homer at the Bat appeared on The Simpsons Portal as the selected episode from August 24, 2007 to September 7, 2007

Contents 1 Chalkboard gag: intentional? 2 Production info 3 GA pass 4 GA Sweeps (Pass) 5 Old "Baseball Players" section removal

[edit] Chalkboard gag: intentional?

Interesting to see that the chalkboard gag for this episode is "I will not aim for the head." I refuse to believe that this is randomness/coincidence (q.v. the climax of the episode, in which Homer is hit in the head), but unless anyone can find a source saying this was intentional, it might just be one of those things that the viewer is expected to notice but is never made obvious by the production staff... :P --Kinu ^t/_c 05:17, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Production info

This is rough production info from the commentary. It will be prosified and added to the article as soon as I find time.

"Homer at the Bat" marked the first time that a new episode of The Simpsons managed to gain higher ratings than The Cosby Show. (Jean)

The episode was suggested by Sam Simon, who wanted to get many real players. (Jean) Al Jean and Mike Reiss doubted that they would be able to get 9 players, thinking that they might be able to get 3. (Reiss)

The players were recorded over a period of six months, (Reiss) with them being recorded whenever they were playing the Dodgers or Angels. Several players were not the first choice. (Jean) One they went after was Ryan Sandberg (Martin)

Rich Moore was intended to direct the episode, but he did not do anything about Baseball, so he switched with Jim Reardon, who was a baseball fan, and Moore was given "Lisa the Greek" (Reardon)

All of the players were really nice, except one whose name supposedly rhymes with "Manseco" and he was very intimidating. (Jean) He disliked his original part and insisted it be rewritten, and the writers grudgingly (Martin) made him as heroic as possible (Jean)

Swartzwelder is a big baseball fan (Martin)

Two regular cast members, Harry Shearer and Julie Kavner really disliked the episode, (Martin: and were annoyed by the Mattingly/sideburns joke) partially because it so surreal and the guest stars are the focus. (Reiss)

One segment is a parody of Pride of the yankees (Castellaneta)

Carl batting with a piano leg is a reference to Norm Cash of the Detroit Tigers, who once tried to bat with a piano leg in a game where Nolan Ryan was so overpowering. (Jean)

The episode took a long time to produce (Jean) and the player designs were very hard to d0 (Reardon)

Ken Griffey, Jr. didn't understand the line "there's a party in my mouth" and got quite frustrated. He was directed by Mike Reiss and Ken Griffey, Sr. was also present, trying to coach his son (Reiss)

One of the hardest pieces of editing was the hypnotist segment, when various players speak in unison, as the players recorded their parts at different times and it was difficult to sync up their parts (Reiss)

Several players were amused that Strawberry was made the kissass. (Jean)

Jeff Martin directed Roger Clemens, who did his own chicken clucks and Wade Boggs. (Martin)

The music from the movie The Natural is used in this episode. (Jean)

Terry Cashman sings "Talkin' Softball", written by Jeff Martin, which was a parody of his song "Talkin Baseball"

I'll do the reception section now. Gran² 17:11, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

There was a sports article which called this episode the best sports moment of the show, you can find a link in the The Homer They Fall page. And when this one hits GA, we will finally have a GA (or better) from every classic season (although we don't have any GAs from season 5, we do have an FA) -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 17:12, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Yep thanks, forgotten about that. Gran² 17:29, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Reception section done, found this great source you can use [1] . It has a quote from all of the guest stars in the episode, very useful, especially the Mattingly sideburns fact, him having to do it in real life a year after the episode was made. And this [2] which is sort of the same thing, but has some new info as well, and confirms the Canseco/Krabappel thing (the sentence the use looks copied from here... but eh). Plus if I had more time there is probably a few more sources out there, I think this could be our fifth FA. Gran² 18:04, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if you got this already or not, but Chris Turner says this episode is the start of the classic season in Planet Simpson. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 18:34, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I've added two more review, and have you got the page number? I did a quite scan but can't find it. Gran² 19:01, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I have added DVD commentary info, but nothing else. The Planet Simpson page is 39. It is also mentioned on 63 and 373-74 (If you have a different edition than me, try checking the index in the back). -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 19:24, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Yep its there, I'll add in the two sources and the Turner stuff. Gran² 19:30, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA pass

Yeah, excellent, initially I had problems with the prose early on which I intended to sort out, but everything seems fine now. Alientraveller 10:17, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Gran² 10:20, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA Sweeps (Pass)

This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force. I believe the article currently meets the criteria and should remain listed as a Good article. The article history has been updated to reflect this review. Regards, MASEM 17:27, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Old "Baseball Players" section removal

Up until 3 August 2007, the article had a section chronicling Burns' first pick team, as well as an analysis of its impossibilty (due to some of the players being many years removed). This section was deleted, but it does seem noteworthy. Can it be restored? Tutsuro (talk) 00:07, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

The section was removed because it was OR. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 01:36, 19 February 2008 (UTC)