The Way We Weren't Capsule Submission

S P O I L E R

S P A C E

Review: A. It's been a while since we've had a flashback episode (as in one focuses on Homer and Marge's past), and in a season full of near-misses and disappointments, The Way We Weren't provided a very pleasant relief in a weak season. What makes this episode interesting is two things. First, after covering everything from Homer and Marge's high school days and Maggie's birth, this episode covers untouched (for a flashback episode) territory: their childhood, which means plenty of 1960's and 1970's references. Second, unlike most flashback episodes, where there's one side of the story, we are treated to two differenet sides of the tale: Marge's side, which focuses on her feeling betrayed by the person who gave him her first kiss; and Homer's side, who actually did love a young Marge, but failed to make the planned second date thanks to him being mistaken for a fat camp escapee. Add some good LOL moments (i.e. Patty and Selma playing with a G. I. Joe doll, Homer being a pen pal of Osama Bin Laden) and this is definitely one of the best episodes this season (and good timing too, as next week's episode has "suck" written all over it).

DYN's

-Milhouse takes medication for ringworm?

Refs.

The Way We Were -Title

Roe vs. Wade -Homer having to choose between "Row or Wade" and then mentions "freedom of choice"

So Happy Together -Music playing as Homer and Marge kiss

Screaming Yellow Zonkers, Quisp cereal, Kool-Aid -Things in Homer's fantasy as he kisses

Baretta -Homer's lunch box

Comments

Homer's having a trouble remembering the decade of his first kiss refers to the one of the problems with flashback episodes: the fact that since the characters don't age, it affects these types of episodes continuity wise. When the Simpsons first had a flashback episode in 1991, 1974 would be a year where Homer and Marge are seniors in highschool. However, by today's standards, the early 1970's would now be a period where Homer and Marge, thanks to them barely aging, would now be kids attending summer camp.

Marge's comment about the flashback becoming "WB" refers to how most of WB's drama programming since it began broastcasting in 1995 is geared towards teeenagers and how most of these shows contained at least one teenage couple.

Joe Klemm

Goof:

Marge at camp had a dinner where she supposedly learned what all 30+ forks are for, but in "The Mansion Family" there were far fewer forks, and she couldn't remember what the last one did.

Marge had a fear of flying. Would she have been flying in her dream?

DYN:

The "recess" in the trial was long enough for Bart to change out of his formal clothes?

"Ted Schuerzinger" wrote in message news:[email]...

Why, I do believe it's for scratching your ass!

Ted Schuerzinger wrote:

I used to be able to name all 30+ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. Now I can name about 10 off the top of my head.

That's a good point - but might her fear just be localized to airplane flights, given the nature of her trauma?

"Ted Schuerzinger" wrote in message news:[email]...

Because she didn't have the fear then. Maybe that's how she developed it. She fell in love, felt like she was flying, got crushed, and developed her fear.

Ok, that's stretching it a little too much.

Maybe she has a bad experience with flying later on.

"That Guy" wrote in news:m9adnXPUxcgZagLdRVn- [email]:

Her fear of flying was from discovering her father was a flight attendant, when she was younger than she was in this episode.

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F08.html

Jim

"Jim" wrote in message news:P1Tnc.65219$0H1.6190640@attbi_s54...

Thanks, I had forgotten about that!

In alt.tv.simpsons, on the ""The Way We Weren't" Capsule Submission" thread, Ted Schuerzinger wrote:

For Marge, flying on an airplane (which can crash) might be a different thing than flying on a unicorn (which is presumably safe).

Also, as Jim mentions, she got her fear after seeing her flight-attendant father on a plane, which could be another reason her phobia centers just on airplanes rather than flying in general.