[The long of it]
I'll say this for the writing team of Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta: You never know what they'll come up with next. "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses (BABF14)," their first (and best) episode, wove together two interesting stories, and explored new facets of one long- term character. Their follow-up, "Gump Roast (DABF12)," was a clip show with a questionable framing story. Now we have "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner (FABF08)," an episode that emphasizes pop-culture parodies and off-the-wall humor, perhaps at the expense of plot development. There are lots of funny individual scenes, but put together they don't quite make a complete story.
The plot opens with Homer, Bart, Lisa, and the Flanders boys visiting Springfield's movie megaplex. Homer takes the kids to see an intense horror movie because his friend Lenny has a small speaking role. The movie's way too scary for Bart and Lisa, who are still shivering from fear later that night. When they her spooky noises coming from the attic, they have their parents investigate. It turns out there *is* something in the attic -- Artie Ziff. He's fallen on hard times when the tech stock bubble burst, so naturally he decided to take up residence in the Simpson home without actually telling anyone. From there, the story becomes gradually more far-fetched. The SEC is looking into Ziff's shady accounting practices, but he manages to shift blame to Homer, who goes to jail. Later, Artie has a change of heart for reasons that struck me as being nearly as flimsy as a dot- com business plan.
It is on this skeletal plot that Lacusta and Castellaneta hang several funny scenes. Many of best pop-culture spoofs come as freeze-frame moments in the first act. The theater's marquee lists movies that would make interesting sketches in themselves, like "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Board of Education," and "The Pianist Goes Hawaiian." If that's not enough, a coming-attractions poster touts, "You're in the Matrix, Charlie Brown." Before calling in their parents, Bart and Lisa try looking into the attic themselves, and they bring along a small camcorder. The result is a lot like the "Blair Witch Project." I can't quite make up my mind about this scene. It was well-done, but "Blair Witch" was so easily spoofed that parodies were everywhere: television shows, movies, and even commercials. "The Simpsons" didn't follow the trend largely because of the long lead time in making an episode; by the time it aired, the concept would be pretty tired. I always thought it was a gutsy move for the show to avoid doing a parody; so much for that idea. At least now the producers can argue that they're spoofing something that's a part of the national culture, rather than hopping on a comedy bandwagon.
"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" is on stronger ground when the focus shifts to the Ziff-Homer plot. I liked the scene where Ziff reads to Lisa. It turns out that Homer tried this once, Lisa says sadly, but Homer wound up confusing the book for reality and began searching for the story's mythical chocolate factory. Later, when the family visits Homer in jail, Bart tries cheering his father up by throttling himself. (I also liked Maggie's reaction to a pop-up book in the jail's visitor waiting room.) As they did with Barney, the writers explore Ziff's character a little. Here, Ziff becomes more clearly unlikable, and yet never so repulsive that we want him to go away. It's an impressive balancing act.
For all this, the show is almost overshadowed by one of the coolest couch gags ever. It's a long "pull" show from the living room, to the neighborhood, then Earth, then the rest of the universe, and finally back to Homer's DNA. When it was done, I shared in Homer's "wow."
Jon Lovitz reprises his role as Artie Ziff and, as always, he does fine work. There's also a brief tip of the hat to the other characters he has voiced in the show. It's too bad Lovitz can't be on more often. I guess his voice is distinctive enough that his characters would all sound kind of alike -- the same problem Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith have, actually.
"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" reminds me a little of the episodes the show was airing during the fifth and sixth season. In those years, "The Simpsons" moved away from humor grounded in reality to a more surreal and off-the-wall style. Like those episodes, tonight's show had plenty of good humor, but when the credits rolled, I was asking myself, "What the heck was that about?" A lot of people today consider the fifth season a classic. Will history be as kind to "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"? I don't know, but by then Castellaneta and Lacusta will probably have gone in an entirely different direction. Hmmm, I don't think they've done a musical yet ...
[The short of it]
As writers, Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta certainly defy prediction. After one plot- and character-driven episode, and one fanciful clip show, we get a surreal collection of amusing skits. The plot, involving Artie Ziff going broke and living in the Simpsons' attic, is thin. Fortunately, the individual scenes are funny enough to make up for this. Ziff's character is nicely balanced, being unlikable enough to be the heavy, yet not so repulsive that we want him to go away. Lovitz does his usual fine job voicing him, too. Be sure to catch the opening couch gag, one of the coolest ever. Overall, this episode's a fine rebound from "Gump Roast." (B)
[DYNs]
... the statue of Buddha in the attic? ... the music playing when Ziff loses his fortune is a more subdued version of the bouncy song playing on his way up? ... Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" was among Ziff's possessions when the repo men cleaned out his mansion?
[References]
"Passion of the Christ" (movie) - "Fashion of the Christ" playing at the theater (boy, that was good timing)
"Finding Nemo" (movie) - "Eating Nemo" is also playing
that movie with Justin and Kelly from "American Idol" - ... whose name escapes me, has apparently spawned a fourth sequel
"The Incredible Hulk" (movie) - "The Unwatchable Hulk" is another choice at the theater
"The Pianist" (movie) "Gidget Goes Hawaiian" (movie) - "The Pianist Goes Hawaiian" combines two wildly different films
"Freddy vs. Jason" (movie) "Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education" (historic legal case) - there's a movie called, "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Board of Education" (the "Board of Education" case is the one that ruled racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional)
"The Wild Thornberrys" (TV series and movie) - "The Wild Dingleberrys" is playing at the theater [see "Personal Comments & Observations" for more]
"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (movie) - Homer hopes that "My Big Fat Greek Salad" is playing at the theater
"The Matrix" (movie) "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" (play) - coming attractions at the theater include "A Matrix Christmas," and "You're in the Matrix, Charlie Brown"
"The Others" (movie) - "The Undeadening" had a similar atmosphere and set design
"Signs" (movie) - about a "priest who stopped believing"
"The Blair Witch Project" (movie) - Lisa's tearful self-close-up in the handheld video camera [And Aaron Hirshberg thought a Dot-bomb parody would be pass�]
Enron (energy-trading brokerage) - bilked its shareholders the way Ziff did - Ziffcorp's logo similar to Enron's "crooked E"
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (book) - the book that inspires Homer's quixotic quest
"The Critic" (TV series) - Jay Sherman stops at Moe's for a drink
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (movie) - Selma refers to her bachelorette pad as the "Temple of Doom"
"The Hobbit" (book) - Snake calls Ziff a hobbit
[Previous Episode References]
[8F19] Lisa afraid of a scary movie [8F19] Someone claims getting used to movie violence now will help prepare for life later [5F10] Janeane Garofalo appears [2F31] Jay Sherman, movie critic, appears [8F04] Aristotle Amodopoulos, the Shelbyville power plant owner, seen [7F18] Professor Lombardo, the art teacher, seen [8F18] Llewelyn Sinclair, the play director, seen [CABF14] Homer complains about the Blue Man Group [EABF09] Krusty the Kongressman
[FFF]
Items on the roof of the Simpsons' house:
- shuttlecock, four footballs, two Frisbee brand plastic flying
disks, kite, Snowball II [*], badminton racquet[*] Yeah, that's right -- Snowball *II*. I'm playing along.
Theater marquee:
SPRINGFIELD
GOOGOLPLEX
THEATERS 1 RETURN TO APE VALLEY 5 FROM JUSTIN TO KELLY 4
2 FASHION OF THE CHRIST 6 THE UNWATCHABLE HULK
3 GHOST FRAT 7 THE PIANIST GOES HAWAIIAN
4 EATING NEMO 8 FREDDY VS. JASON VS. BOARD OF EDUCATIONBox office movie poster:
THE
WILD
DINGLEBERRYS
MOVIERUNNING TIME: 47 MINUTES
First "Coming Attraction" poster:
A MATRIX
CHRISTMASChristian movie review book:
WHAT WOULD
JESUS VIEW?By Michael Medved
[Jesus on]
[a sofa ]Second "Coming Attraction" poster:
YOU'RE IN THE
MATRIX,
CHARLIE BROWNOld magazine cover:
Newsweek
--------------------
Why America Loves
Saddam Hussein [Uncle Sam and ]
[Saddam sharing]
[an ice-cream ]
[float ]Ziff's needlepoint:
ATTIC
SWEET
ATTICLisa's book:
JOHNATHAN
FRANZEN THE
CORRECTIONSNewspaper front page:
SIMPSON FOUND GUILTY,
SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS [Homer] LOCAL BULLY
[perp ] TO HOMER: [Nelson pic]
[walk ] "HAW, HAW"Prison sign:
SPRINGFIELD PENITENTIARY
IF YOU COMMITTED MURDER,
YOU'D BE HOME BY NOWWaiting-room book:
WHEN DADDY
DOES HARD TIME[Oops!]
Homer would have had a difficult time seeing any of the movies he mentioned, since none of them were even listed on the Googleplex marquee.
Perhaps I'm fuzzy about corporate laws, but why would being majority shareholder make Homer liable for Ziff's actions? The SEC already knew Ziff was responsible (that's why they barged in on the poker game), and that his crimes took place before Homer won the stock.
[Personal Comments & Observations]
Now I know where Springfield is! Earth, it's on Earth -- just as I always suspected! Oh, and as for what *part* of Earth, the camera in the opening sequence appeared to pull back from the Great Lakes region, about where Springfield, Illinois, is.
According to the sign at the box office, the running time of the Dingleberrys movie is 47 minutes, suggesting something less than an epic motion picture. Recently, there has been a spate of hastily-made children's movies based on popular TV cartoons -- "Hey! Arnold", "Doug," and a few others -- that are little more than three regular episodes edited together. A short running time, often less than 90 minutes, is a giveaway, as is animation that looks overly simplistic when stretched to big-screen proportions. Critics typically blast these films when they come out since, as Lisa points out, they just charge people to see almost exactly the same thing they can see in their homes for free.
Interestingly, the two "Thornberry" films made to date were "real" films, created especially for theaters with upgraded production values.
One of the Flanders boys holds up a Christian movie guide supposedly written by Michael Medved. While not an unusually pious man (as far as I can tell), Medved has made a name for himself as the "family values" movie critic. About ten years ago, he condemned the movie industry for being out of touch with the moral values of most moviegoers. At the time, box office receipts were trending downward, and Medved claimed this supported his theory that people were shunning movies in favor of more wholesome entertainment. Other cultural commentators claimed the problem wasn't that movies featured immoral subjects or people, but rather that films just weren't as good (in the artistic, not moral, sense).
There's been a lot of posturing on both sides of the issue since then, but it's hard to use box-office results to build a coherent case for having more (or less) traditional morals in film. Medved held "The Silence of the Lambs" up as an example of amoral filmmaking, yet it was a solid hit that spawned two other films and won the Oscar for Best Picture that year. Trashy films like "American Pie" have done well, but so have family pictures, like "Finding Nemo," and films that handle adult subjects with dignity, like "Schindler's List." I think even Medved has become less strident about the issue. In the meantime, other faith-based organizations have launched movie review guides and some papers print columns listing what parents might find objectionable about current movies, the idea being that they can decide what's best for their kids.
The United States never really had a "love affair" with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but there was a time the US lent him some support. That time would be during the Iran-Iraq war. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeni was still a thorn in our side when Hussein decided to attack. As an old Arabic saying goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," so the US government quietly supported Hussein because, hey, he wasn't Khomeni. Bad move, at least in the long term, as the marriage of convenience unraveled and Hussein turned out to be even more trouble than the Iranians were.
The story of Artie Ziff's rise and fall combines two of the biggest business stories of the late 90s and early 00s.
Story 1: As internet usage became pervasive, clever businesspeople thought they could harness it to make money. The general business model involved a web site advertising a product. Interested customers would zap in orders via e-mail or web forms, and the company would FedEx the product back to the customer. The idea appealed to investors because it required no expensive physical stores, and businesses could literally reach the entire world of customers. Money poured in until people realized most of these "dot-com" business (named for their "foo.com" Internet addresses) weren't making a profit, and likely wouldn't anytime soon. I suspect the root problem is that the dot-coms were really just glorified mail-order companies, and while mail-order is a viable way of doing business, it's not exactly a cash cow. Money poured out, bankrupting small investors and people like Artie Ziff who were too slow to sell their businesses to some other sucker before the bubble burst.
Story 2: People who thought dot-coms were too risky an investment might instead have bet their chips on companies like Enron. Enron started out as an energy company -- they owned power plants and the like -- and moved into some sort of brokerage scheme that I never could figure out. Perhaps because this was because there was nothing to figure out. Enron's huge profits were nothing but an illusion created by shady bookkeeping and outright fraud. The house of cards collapsed a couple years ago, again giving small investors and lower- level Enron employees the shaft. Investigations are still pending, and charges are presumably forthcoming against Enron's executives.
Newt Gingrich -- Republican congressman and former Speaker of the House. The arch-conservative's political star reached its height when he led 1994's "Republican Revolution," a successful campaign to elect enough senators and representatives to Congress to put both House and Senate under GOP control. Gingrich eventually fell from favor when party leaders and the voting public felt that he and the Republicans had become too mean-spirited. He's no longer Speaker of the House, although I think he still represents his district near Atlanta.
Janeane "I dare you to spell my name correctly without looking it up" Garofalo -- One of several introspective, almost self-loathing, comedians especially popular during the 90s. It was interesting seeing her and Gingrich the same hot tub, since Garofalo is an outspoken liberal.
Scottie Pippin -- Basketball player, who was part of the enormously successful Chicago Bulls (a.k.a. the team with Michael Jordan on it).