The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase

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The Simpsons episode
"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"
Troy McClure introduces the spin-offs.
Episode no. 177
Prod. code 4F20
Orig. airdate May 11, 1997
Show runner(s) Bill Oakley
Josh Weinstein
Written by David S. Cohen
Dan Greaney
Steve Tompkins
Story by: Ken Keeler
Directed by Neil Affleck
Guest star(s) Tim Conway as himself
Gailard Sartain as Charles "Big" Daddy
Phil Hartman as Troy McClure
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
Josh Weinstein
David X. Cohen
Dan Greaney
Yeardley Smith
Ken Keeler
Season 8
October 27, 1996 – May 18, 1997
  1. "Treehouse of Horror VII"
  2. "You Only Move Twice"
  3. "The Homer They Fall"
  4. "Burns, Baby Burns"
  5. "Bart After Dark"
  6. "A Milhouse Divided"
  7. "Lisa's Date with Density"
  8. "Hurricane Neddy"
  9. "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)"
  10. "The Springfield Files"
  11. "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson"
  12. "Mountain of Madness"
  13. "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious"
  14. "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"
  15. "Homer's Phobia"
  16. "Brother from Another Series"
  17. "My Sister, My Sitter"
  18. "Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment"
  19. "Grade School Confidential"
  20. "The Canine Mutiny"
  21. "The Old Man and the Lisa"
  22. "In Marge We Trust"
  23. "Homer's Enemy"
  24. "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"
  25. "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" is the twenty fourth episode of the eighth season of The Simpsons, which originally aired May 11, 1997.[1] It was written by David S. Cohen, Dan Greaney and Steve Tompkins, with Ken Keeler coming up with the story.[1] It was directed by Neil Affleck,[1] and saw Tim Conway, Gailard Sartain and Phil Hartman guest star.[1][2]

It centers around fictional pilot episodes of non-existent television series derived from The Simpsons. The episode is a parody of the tendency of network executives to try to find any reason to spin-off characters from a hit series.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Troy McClure hosts a television special introducing three television shows produced using characters from The Simpsons. The gimmick of the special is that the FOX network, faced with a schedule with only three filled slots (The Simpsons, Melrose Place, and The X-Files),[2] commissions the producers of The Simpsons to produce thirty-five different episodes. The producers instead produce three new spin-offs.

[edit] Chief Wiggum, P.I.

Chief Wiggum and Principal Skinner arrive in New Orleans.
Chief Wiggum and Principal Skinner arrive in New Orleans.

Clancy Wiggum and his son Ralph move to New Orleans with Seymour Skinner ('Skinny Boy') as Wiggum's sidekick, in what is supposedly a dark police drama (Miami Vice is satirized most notably, with the characters living on a houseboat, the music that plays in the chase scene with Big Daddy, the opening theme music, and Skinner's unshaven appearance and attire in the opening scene).

After Wiggum proclaims that he will "clean up the city", Ralph is kidnapped by his new nemesis, Big Daddy. Wiggum tracks him down and saves Ralph, but ultimately lets the villain escape, feeling that he will meet him again the following week "in a more exciting and sexy way". The Simpson family make a guest appearance while celebrating Mardi Gras.The two people chase each other to Big Daddy's house. Chief Wiggum then threatens Big Daddy with a gun and he gives back Ralph and swims away in the water.

The title of this segment, the vehicle Wiggum drives, and the font used in the opening and end scenes are all references to Magnum, P.I..

[edit] The Love-matic Grampa

The next clip is from a sitcom-style television series about Moe's love life. He receives advice from the ghost of Abraham Simpson, who was crushed by a store shelf containing cans of figs that toppled on him and subsequently "got lost on his way up to Heaven" (plane destroyed wings) and now possesses Moe's Love Tester machine. Moe ends up getting a date, but his dependence on the machine is revealed, and he confesses to receiving advice. His date is actually happy when she hears this, flattered that Moe would go to all that trouble for her. Homer makes a guest appearance when he visits the bar. Moe's date, Betty, looks somewhat like Tress MacNeille, the actress who voiced her. After taking the device, Kearney, Dolph and other thugs whack the machine because it said they were gay.[3]

Moe's segment has a Bewitched/I Dream of Jeannie feel to it,[2] as well as similarities to My Mother the Car.[4] The premise as well as the music and animation in the opening sequence also recall The Smothers Brothers Show, in which a deceased Tom Smothers comes back to earth as an angel to oversee his brother Dick, a swinging bachelor. The first moments of the segment parody Cheers. The Love-matic Grampa machine singing "Daisy Bell" in a distorted manner when its electrical circuits are failing is a reference to HAL from the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.[2] Some aspects of the plot recall the 1988 movie Short Circuit 2 including the idea of a sentient machine giving a man advice on how to speak to women, a scene where the machine is attacked, knocked over and damaged by thugs with crowbars and the subsequent broken speech and confused language spoken by the machine.

[edit] The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour

Not-Lisa and the real family members doing a skit for their variety hour
Not-Lisa and the real family members doing a skit for their variety hour

Homer, Marge, Bart, and Maggie appear in a comedy show featuring various songs and skits. Lisa refuses to participate, but is replaced by an attractive blonde super model. Tim Conway guest stars.

This segment is a parody of The Brady Bunch Hour, an infamous short-lived spinoff of the 1970s sitcom, considered one of the worst shows of all time[citation needed]. The replacement of Lisa in the third segment with another girl reflects the recasting of Jan Brady in the Brady Bunch Hour when Eve Plumb refused to participate. Other shows parodied during the variety show, include The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and Laugh In.[4]

The songs parodied during the third segment are:

[edit] The Future

Troy ends the special with a look at the upcoming season of The Simpsons, filled with blatantly ridiculous plot twists, such as Homer turning Lisa into a frog using magic powers, the discovery of Bart's two long lost identical brothers, Selma marrying Lenny, Bumblebee Man, and Itchy, and Homer meeting an alien named Ozmodiar, a reference to The Great Gazoo,[4] that only he can see. All of these are examples of jumping the shark, jokingly implying that the Simpsons writers are employing desperate attempts to boost low ratings.

[edit] Production

A small green alien called Ozmodiar, that only Homer can see.
A small green alien called Ozmodiar, that only Homer can see.

Ken Keeler came up with the idea for the episode with a one sentence idea: "Let's do spin-offs".[5] After he had pitched the idea it was decided that "it was an idea that ought to work pretty well" and it was produced.[5]

Matt Groening was uneasy about this episode,[6] feeling that its intentionally bad writing and "crazy" plots would be mistranslated as actual bad sitcom writing.[6] He also didn't like the idea of breaking the fourth wall, by saying that the Simpsons were just actors in a television show.[6] The idea was again used in the season 11 episode "Behind the Laughter". Groening later went on to say that the episode "turned out great".[6]

The character of Ozmodiar was included in the script for an earlier episode but was considered too crazy. When this episode came along he just seemed to fit right in and so was included.[4]

A self-conscious reference was cut for the broadcast of this episode, and is found on the season 8 DVD boxset. The big-nosed man first seen validating his parking ticket in "When Flanders Failed" says to Homer and Marge in "The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour", "How come the sets look 20 years out of date?"[7] In this scene he was voiced by Phil Hartman and not Hank Azaria.

Due to the joke in the third segment that Lisa has been replaced, the real Lisa only has one line in the whole episode.[3]

[edit] Reception

The episode was met with a variety of views. Some loved it, such as Entertainment Weekly who placed the episode 19th in their top 25 Simpsons episode list.[8] Others disliked it, with it being placed 47th on the NoHomers.net 50 Worst Episodes list, compiled in 2006.[9] The writers of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood called it, "A very clever spin on the alternates offered by the Treehouse of Horrors run. Each of the spin-offs is very clever in its own way."[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, p. 228. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-02-15.
  3. ^ a b Smith, Yeardley. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ a b c d Weinstein, Josh; Cohen, David; Greaney, Dan; Keeler, Ken. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b Keeler, Ken. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ a b c d Groening, Matt. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season deleted scenes for the episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ The Family Dynamic. Entertainment Weekly (2003-02-06). Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  9. ^ The Official NHC 50 Worst Episodes - Results!. NoHomers.net. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.

[edit] External links

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