Stephen's review for I, D'oh-Bot (FABF04)
S P O I L E R
S P A C E . . . . . .
Preview from tvguide.com Simpsons I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot 30 mins.
Unable to build Bart a working robot for TV's "Robot Rumble," Homer becomes the robot by hiding inside, taking beatings, but giving better. Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria.
Preview from snpp.com
January 11 � I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot (I am not calling it that) I, D'oh-Bot (FABF04) Homer and Bart build a Robot Wars-style robot, but when they discover they don't know as much about building killer robots as they thought, Homer decides to get inside of it; Marge and Lisa are under the impression that Snowball II "went to kitty heaven" NOTE: This episode may start late and/or be "already in progress" in the Eastern and Central time zones because of an NFC Divisional Playoff football game that starts at 4:45 Eastern; if the game runs until 8:30, the episode may be pre-empted, in which case the rest of the USA (and possibly Canada) would most likely get a repeat of another Season 15 episode
Notes on Pre-emption: Notice that Fox allowed for 30 minutes after the scheduled ending of the football game and before the Simpsons episode to allow for flex time should the game go long. They never afforded this for either Futurama or KOTH. Well, even though the game went until 8:20 or so, they are still going to show the Simpsons in its entirety for everyone to see on the east coast. This is interesting because this is what they used to do during the 7th season.
Notes on Robot Competitions: I am an electrical engineer by training, with a specific emphasis in systems engineering. One of the projects that undergraduate engineers were working on at my graduate school was to devise a scaled down automobile that could be raced autonomously. It had little sensors on it that would determine its position to other cars and on the track and would react accordingly. It was a really interesting concept because it was the engineering and the planning that would make one vehicle better than another one. One of the things that probably caused me to never really appreciate most fighting robot competitions is that there is still a huge amount of human element that comes into play in those competitions. These robots are doing the fighting against each other, but humans who are using their own perceptions to determine the best possible means of attack against their opponent are controlling them.
Notes:
Dominoes as opposed to Dominos?
I would have preferred a Lynda Berry reference to a Haley Berry reference.
That was good workmanship for Homer even though it would be easier to get the bolts in than figure out where everything goes on it.
Cute Zoeller reference. He was the guy that made a racist remark after T. Woods won his first Masters in 1997.
What breed of cat was Snowball III? Coltrane looked like an Abyssinian, maybe?
Wasn't that song used in an earlier episode? The one where Homer was beating up other other robots?
I guess Frink's Kid was ok after being thrown through the window in the baby translator episode? Interesting that the episode was shown in the spring of 1992 and the kid looked like he was about 11. Maybe backup characters can age but not any of the main ones?
Those Terminator 2 references still never get old.
Hmmm is that the second crazy cat lady reference of the season?
Uh oh� Someone might get� was it catapulted.. for mentioning the Arman Tanzarian name?
Cute that they refer to Asimov since the name of the episode is an Asimovian reference.
Review: I don't know what to think about this episode. The main plot was kinda cute even though it's a plot that has been hashed out more than any one in the show's run. The subplot was kinda boring and strange, especially since Lisa is one of the more (well, maybe the only) sensitive character on the show and would probably not cycle through so many animals in such a short time. Also, I don't like how Lisa was characterized throughout this episode. Still, there were many cute references and sight gags, so I will give this one a solid B.