Notes for GABF18 (Bonfire of the Manatees)

It's been 6 years since a non-November, non-TOH season premiere; especially as I didn't start watching first-run episodes regularly until season 12, I have gotten quite used to starting the season off with a Treehouse of Horror shortly after Halloween. Just a thought. As for "Bonfire of the Manatees," it was going along nicely for a while - I was enjoying the simple, slow-paced plot reminiscent of some older episodes, both for the basic Homer/Marge plot as well as for the comedy (both vignettes in act I, for example, and for some reason Marge's hair "jump start"). This fizzled out in act 3, when Jerkass Homer ("rubes!") somehow melded with Bumbling-yet-devoted Homer, and the plot managed to find its way into sillyville. (Somehow the ending dragged on while the rest of it felt too short.) Probably this is because it got written into a corner with the quick and convenient solution (court order?); I know that it's hard to come up with unique Homer and Marge stories, but it would have worked better, for example, to make it just a Marge story once she decided she needed to find herself, and this would have avoided some of the unpleasantness at the end. Still, the "Car Wash" ending was funny as an isolated thing, and for the most part it was a good beginning to the season - I'm looking forward to next week's "The Girl Who Slept Too Little" though!

DYN: ...this was rated TV-14 DV? (Preumably the suggestive Dialogue was in reference to the porno flick, and the Violence against the manatees - 14 though?) ...Maggie disappears once Homer takes Bart and Lisa on the road trip? ...this episode was pretty light on secondary characters? (I count Moe, Lenny, Carl, Fat Tony and his pals, SLH, and Burns and Smithers) ...the marine biologist's first name, Caleb, is an anagram of "Alec B."?

...before the credits are hacked off, there's 1 frame of "Animation Producers/Laurie Biernacki/Rick Polizzi"?

Previous episode references 5F19 (& DABF12): Alec Baldwin guest stars 3F23: Homer and the Broncos 8F12: Lisa should know a little more about how to pick a winner 8F20: Ketchup vs. other ketchup-like sauces 2F20: Outhouse-that's-not-an-outhouse joke

In alt.tv.simpsons, on the "Notes for GABF18 (Bonfire of the Manatees)" thread, Matt Garvey wrote:

The last time she did this, Lisa wound up feeling exploited (and justifiably so). I think, to keep the peace between them, she and Homer agreed that he'll no longer ask her to predict games.

Benjamin Robinson wrote:

That's a good point - on the other hand, unless they vowed never to speak of it again, she should at least remember that there were ways of predicting the winners.