(long) A review of "Bart Has Two Mommies (HABF07)"

[The long of it]

The Rob Wades of the world can relax -- despite the title, "Bart Has Two Mommies" isn't about Marge going lesbian or anything. Instead, it shifts between two major plotlines: Marge coaxes the two Flanders boys out of Ned's protective home and into the real world, while Homer tries to get Bart out the arms of a lonely chimp.

The first story starts when Ned asks Marge to baby-sit his sons while he mans a booth at a left-handers' convention. Ned has worked hard to provide a safe place for his boys to grow up -- maybe a little too hard. It's amusing, if a little pathetic, to see what they consider a good time (a "sitting-still" contest), and what they're afraid of. (In one activity, each boy makes a mask portraying the other. They quickly grow afraid and say, "Let's switch back!") Eventually, Marge does get them to the point where they can indulge in some normal childhood activities, like riding a teeter-totter or climbing a rock wall. There's a nice moral here about overprotective parenting, and this plot delivers it in a light-and-easy manner.

Meanwhile, somebody has to watch Bart and Lisa, and naturally that someone is Homer. He's sort of the anti-Flanders, barely watching the children at all. In one scene, the children joust on bicycles as Homer dozes on the couch. During a trip to a retirement home for show-biz animals, Bart gets pulled into a cage with Toot-toot, the female chimp from a show called, "Teen Tarzan." With her natural children also in show-biz, she "adopts" Bart as one of her own, becoming the second "Mommy" of the title. There are some good gags here, but what struck me most is what a sympathetic character Toot- toot turns out to be.

"Bart Has Two Mommies" has a number of things going for it. The two plots are juggled well, and they come together plausibly in the third act. The Flanders family comes off pretty well here, goody-goody enough to be funny, but still worldly enough to seem recognizably human. There are quite a few guest stars (Susan Sarandon, Dave Thomas (as Bob Hope, I think), and Antonio Fargas, reprising his role as Huggy Bear), and their roles add meaningfully to the show.

So why am I having trouble warming up to this episode? I suspect it's because while the show covers a lot of the fundamentals, like plotting and character, it lacks a really memorable scene or gag. There's a lot of individual jokes that I liked, but nothing I loved as much as (for example) Moe's "You guys brought *guns*?" line from last week's episode.

Then again, they can't all be classics. "Bart Has Two Mommies" may not generate that much talk around the water cooler, but it is a good average episode of "The Simpsons," which would make it an above- average show for most other series. And, hey, it's something even the Flanders children can safely enjoy.

[The short of it]

This episode has a number of things going for it. Both of its twin plots tell interesting stories, and they come together nicely for resolution in the third act. The Flanders family comes off pretty well, and the chimp in the "B" plot is a surprisingly sympathetic character. The humor is decent, but there's no standout moment or "hook" that would make this a truly memorable show. I hate to sound slighting, but it's an "average" episode, even if that is by the high standards of "The Simpsons." (B-)

[DYNs]

...	the animals' keeper doesn't seem to mind people trying to feed
	the animals?
...	while grooming him, Toot-toot finds something in Bart's hair?
...	Rod and Todd's groaning as they climb the stairs sounds like
	it's on some sort of tape loop?
...	Ned knows the melody to "Welcome to the Jungle"?

[References]

iMac (model of computer) - feMac similar in name and appearance

the "terrible two's" (stage of childhood development) - Homer nicknames his rubber duck -- which has been assigned the number 2 for the race -- "terrible two"

Kaypro (make of computer) - Ned refers to "quid pro for the Kaypro" when he wants the Simpsons to do a favor in return for the feMac

SAT (college aptitude tests) - Marge spoofs this as "Snuggles and Tickles"

"Animal House" (movie) - animal retirement home called "Aging Animal House"

"Babe" (movie) - the spunky talking piglet from the movie has grown into the adult pig in the retirement home

"AFLAC" (insurance company) - their spokes-mascot is a duck that quacks, "AFLAC"; he has the cage next-door to Babe

"Starsky and Hutch" (TV series) - Huggy Bear was their streetwise informant - the producers got Antonio Fargas, the man who played Huggy Bear, to do the cameo

Led Zeppelin (rock group) - Ned refers to himself as "Ned Zeppelin" ... - ... and asks if his boys are "Abrased and Contused" (referring to LZ's early hit, "Dazed and Confused")

Clue (board game) - the Flanders boys play Christian Clue

"Welcome to the Jungle" (song) - Ned makes up safety-oriented lyrics to this song

"King Kong" (movie)
-	Toot-toot ascends the steeple with Bart, like Kong climbs the
	Chrysler building with Fay Wray (or the Empire State Building
	with Naomi Watts, take your pick)

"Vertigo" (movie) - Todd (or was it Rod?) has panic attack while climbing something - ground seems to get further away as Todd looks down

[Previous Episode References]

[2F10] Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" heard [8F14] Homer screws up royally while taking care of the kids [7F15] Vertigo effect as a character looks down (This is hard to animate, so I hope you appreciated it!)

[FFF]

Sign above "Hell" mirror:

       SEE WHAT
    YOU'D LOOK LIKE
        IN HELL

Foreign-language dictionaries:

    FLANDERS-ENGLISH      SIMPSONS/ENGLISH
    ENGLISH-FLANDERS      ENGLISH/SIMPSONS
       DICTIONARY            DICTIONARY

Convention marquee:

       LEFT-HANDERS
        CONVENTION
    TODAY'S SEMINAR --
      AMBIDEXTROUS:
    LEFTIES IN DENIAL?

Flanders' T-shirts:

    LEFTIES      I [heart]
     DO IT        LEFTIES
     RIGHT

Randy Johnson's teddy bears:

    RANDY
    JOHNSON'S
    S O U T H P A W Z

Old show-biz animal home brochure:

    G O L D E N   C A G E S
    ANIMAL RETIREMENT  HOME

Sign at the home itself:

    AGING ANIMAL HOUSE
     SEE OUR CEMETERY
        OF LASSIES

Huggy Bear's cage:

       HUGGY BEAR
         FROM
    STARSKY AND HUTCH

Christian board game:

    Christian
    C l u e

Cards from the game:

SECULAR HUMANIST

SCHOOLHOUSE

MISINFORMATION

Fun Zone brochure:

    RUFFINTUMBLE'S
       FUN ZONE

Fun Zone marquee:

     BALL PIT
    DREDGED FOR
     HOMELESS
       DAILY

Climbing rock:

     MT.
    VERTICOOL

News graphic:

          SIMPSON
    [Bart] THE [Toot-toot]
         CHIMP SON

Steeple plaque:

      BART SIMPSON
    MEMORIAL STEEPLE

[Oops!]

The animal retirement home is called Golden Cages in the brochure, and Aging Animal House on the grounds itself. Perhaps there are two such homes, and the Simpsons visited the wrong one?

[Personal Comments & Observations]

Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" is played as Homer is wrung out in the Old Mill.

"Ode to Joy," from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, is heard as Rod and Todd enjoy "freestyle" teeter-tottering.

When Toot-toot and Mr. Teeny reunite, the soundtrack fittingly plays "Reunited."

When he hears that there's a home for TV animals "that aren't cute anymore," Santa's Little Helper becomes concerned and pulls a cute stunt. You know, as if he were aware that he too is a TV animal.

(Well, for people I know something about, anyway.)

Susan Sarandon: Actress (she was in "Search for Tomorrow," among other things) who today is best noted for being a spokesperson for various liberal causes -- like better treatment for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Rita Rudner: Comedian. She was a bigger deal ten years ago than she is now, in my opinion. I don't remember her material as being particularly objectionable. Then again, that's never stopped Ned from objecting before.

Tom Green: Comic Actor. He got his start on some MTV show by making an ass of himself, and that's what he's been doing ever since. He might fit in on Krusty's show, now that I think about it, but Krusty would probably accuse Tom of trying to upstage him.

Dudley Moore: Actor, perhaps best known to U.S. audiences for playing lovable rich drunk Arthur. He was part of a popular British comedy team before that. I don't really know anything about Susan Anton. Some quick research turns up the fact that she was a former Miss California, and starred in at least two musical variety shows on TV, "Presenting Susan Anton," and "Mel & Susan Together." I'm guessing there was a height mismatch between the two, with Moore being the shorter one, based on Hope's dialogue.

Bob Hope: Long-lived comedian, as the "Why did I wait 100 years to bring you up here" joke suggests. Hope was active during much of that time, delivering one-line zingers about famous people of the day. Looks like he's continuing that tradition in the afterlife.

Dolly Parton: Well-endowed country singer. She'd probably be famous even without it, but her figure is a part of persona.

Carmen Miranda: Dancer. Her signature act had her wearing an enormous hat made out of fruit. Imagine Marge's beehive, but made up of pineapples, bananas, and other tropical fruit, and you get an idea of what it looked like.

More like eMac, which is what I'm currently on.
Hardware Overview:
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The computer on the Simpsons is similar to the newer iMac, though.

In article , Alan Michelson wrote:

it's a G4 iMac - sometimes referred to as the "Luxo Mac", with a swiveling LCD screen mounted atop a round base. The current G5 and Intel iMac design have more of a traditional LCD monitor look.

This is the second Mac OFF has owned, BTW - in "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes", the computer Homer ultimately bought looks a lot like a Power Mac G4 Tower. I own one of these, but not for the reasons Homer did....