From: c8923075@mystra.newcastle.edu.au (Chris Baird)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.simpsons
Subject: [8F23] Brother, can you spare two dimes?
Date: 13 Dec 1992 23:33:09 -0500
Organization: Widener University Mail/News Gateway
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.widener.edu


Sorry everyone, this is Yet Another incomplete capsule ... but I can't
bear to watch the SF fans start the inevitable rally of one-liners
whenever a dubious `Star Trek' allusion is noted.

-- 
Chris J. Baird,,  <c8923075@mystra.newcastle.edu.au>

(Captain! Spoilers off the Starboard bow!)

===================================================================== 2-Dec-92
> [8F23] Brother, can you spare two dimes?
==============================================================================
> Title sequence
==============================================================================
>> Bart's Blackboard punishment
        I will not fake seizures
        ..............          - at cutoff.

>> Lisa's Sax Solo
        ..............

>> The Driveway:
        ..............

>> The Couch:
        Everyone but Maggie cartwheel into place and strike a `Ta Da!' pose;
        Maggie bounces up to her regular place on the couch and does the
        same.  {recycled from 8F10}

==============================================================================
> Popular References
==============================================================================
    + The Gold Rush
        - the Charlie Chaplin hobo eating a boot.  {ajr}
    + Jimi Hendriks ``Purple Haze''
        - ``S'cuse Me while I kiss the sky; Marge.''
    + 2001:  A Space Odyssey
        - the big, coloured, circular Homer-eye made it gratuitous.  {jdb}
    + Star Trek
        - ``Dammit!  I said full power!'' -- an exclusive James T. Kirk
          utterance.
        - the Asian `navigator'.  {tk}
    ? Brainstorm
      The Emmy television entertainment awards.
      Davey and Goliath
        - Flanders' doorbell (see below).  {me}
      The Wizard of Oz
        - ``There's no vibrating chair in that bag for me?''  {me}

>> The mumble award for excellence

Rolf Wilson {rw}:  Has [anyone else] picked up on the parallel between the
    Montgomery Burns award and the Malcolm Baldrige excellence awards?  Or
    has a similarity of initials and my fevered imagination led me astray
    again?

Bob Yantosca {by}:  The Excellence award did indeed look like an Emmy,
    only they substituted a model of an atom (with a couple of electrons to
    boot) for the globe.  (And the winged figure had a resemblance to Monty
    himself. -dk)

>> Flanders' doorbell

Mark Eckenwiler {me}:  Astute viewers will have noted that the doorbell
    chimes ``Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott'' (A Mighty Fortress is Our God).
    I suspect this was chosen in part because of the hymn's association with
    that idiotic Christian values show from my childhood, ``Davey and
    Goliath''.

==============================================================================
> Did You Notice...
==============================================================================
    ... one of Homer's sperm had three eyes?
    ... around the fire, one of the hobos was eating a boot?  {ajr}
    ... Barney's blood on the bar room door?  {las}
    ... Smithers' sperm swam in tight formation...  {jd}
        ... and if you listen real close you can hear a Space Invaders
            type marching noise -- unh-ah unh-ah unh-ah unh-ah!  {tms}
    ... the teapot and cups hanging in the china hutch behind Bart during
        dinner look vaguely like the spaceship Discovery?  {rjc}
        (Probably a self-induced subliminal 2001 reference.)
    ... Herb used an "Oscilloscopes 4 Less" oscilloscope?  {las}
    ... the credits superimposed over the sperm were jiggling too?  {ajr}

==============================================================================
> Lists and Freeze-Frame Fun
==============================================================================
>> The Train
{las}
        Toxic Waste with glowing green slime
        Krusty's Sulfuric Acid  (loved this one -las)
        Emil's Fluffy Pillows  {rlg}

>> Homer's recollections of the couch

        Who Shot J.R.
        Hands Across America
        Berlin Wall Coming Down/Gomer Pyle

>> Great Works of Literature for Children

        Less than Zero
        `Some maudlin novel by Ethan Frome.'  {ma}

>> Herb's Baby Inventions

        Dog in a Ball
        Baby Remote Control Airplane
        Baby Translator  (patent number: 214661767 -rc)

>> Signs at the Baby expo

     Tu-Fr: Twin Convention  (a pun on "Two-fur"? -rjc)
     No Triplets!

==============================================================================
> Animation and continuity goofs
==============================================================================
    - The couch was broken, yet in the final scene, the couch stands
      good-as-new behind Homer's new chair.  {jjw}

==============================================================================
> References to previous episodes
==============================================================================
    ... the flashback to [7F16].

==============================================================================
> Reviews
==============================================================================
John J. Wood {jjw}:
    While I thought there were a few nice moments (Lisa's hotel joke, for
    example) and some occasionally clever dialogue, this episode felt flat
    to me (then again, it seems like I was the only one who loved the Spinal
    Tap episode;-)  Portions of the plot came off non-characteristically and
    forced (the awards ceremony), and the ending was an obvious set-up for a
    third DeVito appearance...not to mention attempting to get the audience
    to think "Maggie's first words?" in a too-predictable fashion (although
    I was pleased with more Maggie).  I probably need to watch it again on
    videotape, but as a whole, the episode appeared to attempt too much but
    accomplished too little.

Ted Frank {tf}:
    I have to say that I didn't enjoy this episode as much as the others
    from this season.  Not enough of the little subtleties that make a
    Simpsons episode great, too hard to suspend disbelief for a couple of
    the things (the settlement, which would've been thrown out of court were
    it really an issue, the whole concept of Herb's invention).  Plus,
    unusually, a lot of the jokes just fell flat.

David Hyatt {dh2}:
    On the one hand, I didn't like the episode because I found most of the
    dialogue, especially in the first half, to be somehow "off".  Burns'
    anti-lawyer rant was WAY "off".  The first Herb scenes were way "off".
    Just altogether wrong rhythms.  And that was just the writing.  Burns'
    voice was also way "off" in that rant.

    I [also] didn't like it because it was a lot of good little scenes
    pressed together.  And the ends of the "Acts" were very unnatural -- the
    "Homer falls off the balcony" ending was just like the "Homer almost
    chokes on the hamburger" ending of last season -- inconclusive, and
    distracting.

    On the other hand, I loved it for a lot of small scenes -- the 2001: A
    Space Odyssey reference, the Flanders' scene, the Raffi joke, the stupid
    award ceremony (with the obligatory "Websters defines..." introduction).

Larry Schwimmer {las}:
    True, it takes a leap of faith [to accept] both how he got the idea,
    its execution, and the marketing.  But, who cares?  They also all have
    four fingers...  Anyways, this is where Devito shines.  The deliveries
    of what the babies were saying was perfect.

==============================================================================
> Comments, questions, and other observations
==============================================================================
Alan Rosenthal {ajr}:  So was this the long-awaited Maggie's first words?
    If so, the joke's on us!

Jym Dyer {jd}:
    I shuddered at the thought of _New_Republic_for_Kids_.  Its parent
    magazine is sheer dingo's kidneys mindrot.  Lisa should know better!

==============================================================================
> Quotes and Scene summaries
==============================================================================

==============================================================================
> Butchered scenes
==============================================================================
>> Butchered/Censored in Australia

==============================================================================
> Special Credits
==============================================================================
Written by ..........; Directed by ..............

Note: The Josh Weistein listed in the credits as a script editor is NOT the
same Josh Weistein of ``Mystery Science Theater 3000'' fame.

>> Also Starring

>> Special guest voice
        Danny De Vito as Herbert Powell.

==============================================================================
> Distribution notice and Acknowledgments
==============================================================================
This compilation and the scene summaries Copyright 1992 Chris Baird;
the quotes from The Simpsons are the property of the 20th Century FOX Film
Corporation, and reproduced contributions belong to their respective authors.
To be freely distributed through Usenet or any other associated networks on
the provision it remains unaltered and is not used to promote a commercial
service.

>> Significant contributions from...

  {ma} - Mark Atchison (atchison@cis.ohio-state.edu)
 {jdb} - J.D. Baldwin (baldwin@csservera.usna.navy.mil)
  {rc} - Ron Carter (rcarter@nyx.cs.du.edu)
 {rjc} - Raymond Chen
  {jd} - Jym Dyer (jym@mica.berkeley.edu)
  {me} - Mark Eckenwiler (eck@panix.com)
  {tf} - Ted Frank (thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu)
 {rlg} - Raymond L. Gilbert (pi@wam.umd.edu)
 {dh2} - David Hyatt (dhyatt@leland.stanford.edu)
  {dk} - Douglas Krause (dkrause@orion.oac.uci.edu)
  {tk} - Tom Kuchar (kuchar@buast7.bu.edu)
 {ajr} - Alan J Rosenthal (flaps@dgp.toronto.edu)
 {tms} - Timothy M. Schreyer
 {las} - Larry Schwimmer (schwim@xenon.stanford.edu)
  {rw} - Rolf Wilson (rolf@geoserv.???)
 {jjw} - John J. Wood (jojw@uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
  {by} - Bob Yantosca (yantosca@buast7.bu.edu)

==============================================================================
Newsgroups: alt.tv.simpsons