[The long of it]
Dude, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that "Dude, Where's My Ranch?" harks back to the show's earlier days. The bad news is that I mean "earlier days" in the sense of, "season 11 and 12." The episode has the usual quota of bright moments, but too many of the jokes were absurd and loony, and they made shallower than a "Simpsons" episode should be.
The show follows the now-established formula of a setup followed by a segue into an unrelated plotline. The Simpsons start the show by going caroling from house to house. It's a little jarring to see snow on the ground in Springfield as most other series are getting ready for their summer vacation, but I got over it when the family warbled a cute all-inclusive song on Krusty's doorstep. Cute or not, the family's caroling is cut short when an overzealous lawyer stops them from singing copyrighted holiday tunes like, "White Christmas." (I guess we should just be grateful that they didn't find a way to invoke the DMCA.)
Homer can still write his own Christmas carols, but he gets a little off-message and winds up writing a tune about his despised neighbor, Ned Flanders. With a little help from David Byrne, the song becomes an unlikely hit. I thought it was pretty catchy, with the upbeat tune contrasting with dark lyrics about the Flanders home going up in flames. Success can bring its own troubles, as it does when Homer's song goes into heavy rotation on the radio. By the time spring arrives in Springfield, the Homer is sick of his own song. His family shares the sentiment, but they may be the only ones, as even William Shatner finds a time to do a cover version.
Now, this would be an interesting story for an entire episode. Perhaps Byrne could have encouraged Homer to write songs about other people he knew. Or Flanders could have unwittingly irritated Homer with a "response" song. Or something in that general vein, but no, we have to adhere to the rule that the first act of the show has nothing to do with the final two. So, the Simpsons opt to flee from modern media by vacationing at a dude ranch.
The ranch has a witty name, the Lazy I, and an even funnier former identity as the Wandering I Nudist Resort (a nude ranch?). Not much else in the visit lives up to the level of that sign. Lisa has a serious crush on Luke (Jonathan Taylor Thomas, ex of "Home Improvement"), an environmentally sensitive young teen working among an assortment of folks who couldn't care less about Mother Earth. They seem like a good match, but it's a bland pairing. There was more chemistry in "Lisa's Date with Density (4F01)," with good-girl Lisa trying to make a workable relationship with troglodyte Nelson Muntz. Here, Lisa spends much of her time in pseudo-intellectual liberal mode, complaining about the ranch's foundations in oppression and environmental cruelty. It's as if the writers unfamiliar with the series were flown in, told only that Lisa liked the environment and used a lot of big words, and given the assignment to write a love story for her. I'd be tempted to blame head writer Ian Maxtone-Graham -- who was dismissive of Lisa in a 1997 interview -- for this, but this is the same man who led on "Lisa Gets an 'A' (AABF03)," which deftly found under-explored nuances in her character. Luke, on the other hand, is a generally nice guy, and nothing more or less than that. Early on, there's a hint that he has a devious side when he steers Lisa away from evidence that he's part of a less-than-earth- friendly operation. Nothing develops from this, however, which is a shame. I'd like to see what happens when it's the guy who tries to mold himself to Lisa's expectations, rather than the other way around. Instead we get a predictable plot twist where Lisa thinks Luke has betrayed her, but maybe he hasn't.
Meanwhile, Homer and Bart make an alliance, for reasons which I've since forgotten, with some Native Americans to destroy a beaver dam, which has flooded the Natives' ancestral homes. You can relax; it has the obligatory scene where furry woodland critters pounce on Homer. I also liked the beavers' discovery of a hotel mini-bar, and the Natives' eventual return to their teepees. It wasn't the most consequential subplot in the world, but it wasn't half bad.
That same comment applies to "Dude" as a whole. The show isn't bad, but the end result looks like the writers picked the most obvious direction suggested by the premise, even though there were hints of more creative avenues to follow. "Dude," I imagine them asking, trying to think of a new direction for the story, "Where's My Inspiration?"
[The short of it]
Good news: This episode is like one from the show's earlier days. Bad news: By "earlier days" I mean, "seasons 11 and 12," when writing tended toward absurd, shallow humor. There are some bright spots, like Homer's penning a wildly popular anti-Flanders song in the first act. Most of the show, however, is given over to a crush between Lisa and a young ranch hand; neither of them was written to emphasize the interesting parts of their characters. Homer and Bart have a nice but inconsequential subplot, but the show as a whole wasn't as memorable or fresh as a "Simpsons" episode should be. (C)
[DYNs]
... Homer misspells "Flanders" in his magnum opus? ... the beaver in the photo has "red eye" from the flash?
[References]
"Dude, Where's My Car?" (movie) - title of episode a parody
"Havah Negilah" (Jewish folk song) - at Krusty's house, OFF sings a non-denominational carol to this tune
"White Christmas" (holiday song) - also gets spoofed
"Stop Making Sense" (movie) - one of the stills in the Homer-Byrne montage has them wearing the "big suit" from the concert film
Styx (band) The Rolling Stones (another band) - music store fittingly named "Styx and Stones Records"
"Billboard" (trade magazine) - now has a junior version called "Billboard for kidz"
Denzel Washington (actor) Washington Monument - the Denzel Washington monument one of the possible vacation spots for the Simpsons
Bauhaus (architectural movement) - the Simpsons could have gone to Walter Gropius' "Bauhaus Village" (Gropius was one of the leading proponents of the minimalist Bauhaus style)
"Lord of the Rings" (book and movie) - clean-up guy at the ranch looked, moved, and talked like Gollum
Britney Spears (singer) - Maggie apes her dancing style
"More, More, More" (song) - Moe's new hit sung to this tune
[Previous Episode References]
[9F21] Homer writes a popular song [1F02] David Byrne mentioned [4F04] Philip Glass mentioned [4F01] Lisa's first crush
[FFF]
Record shop:
STYX AND STONES
RECORDS["Styx" in green ink; "Stones" in red]
Rod and Todd read:
for
Billboard kidz FAM SLAM
IS #1 JAMBack of ranch brochure:
PEACE
QUIET
CHILI
Dude ranch gate:
LAZY I RANCH
FORMERLY
WANDERING I
NUDIST COLONY[Oops!]
Luke isn't Lisa's first crush. Either Corey or Nelson is, depending on how you look at it. But then, Ian Maxtone-Graham never did have a sense of history.
[Personal Comments & Observations]
Some musically-inclined folks mentioned in this episode are:
David Byrne -- Guest-voice Byrne is used to working on the fringes of the music scene. About a decade before alternative music was cool, Byrne and three other musicians (Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth) co-founded Talking Heads. Despite having only one top-40 hit, "Burning Down the House," the band became darlings of the music press. If you were an early adopter of MTV, you might remember Byrne as the Clark Kent-ish guy from the quirky "Once In a Lifetime" video. In the late 80s, he went solo, releasing an album of Brazilian music; this might have inspired the salsa mix of the "I Hate Flanders" song. I lost track of what he did after that; touring America and documenting folk music, a la Willie Lomax, sounds like something he'd do.
N.B.: Lisa ought to know who Byrne is; she named him as a nerd made
good in "Homer Goes to College (1F02)."
Philip Glass -- David Byrne is as pop as Justin Timberlake when compared to Philip Glass. Glass is the avant-garde composer best known for his spare movie scores, including "Koyaanisqatsi" and the soundtrack to "The Hours," for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
William Shatner -- Okay, so he isn't a musician, but he'll forever be remembered for his ill-advised decision in the late 60s to release an album. Shatner's "singing" style featured the same odd inflections and too-frequent dramatic pauses that we heard in his remix of Homer's song. It was so bad that he became an inverse benchmark of musical talent -- a singer might be bad, put he probably isn't *Shatner* bad.
* Hot Pockets are crispy 5-inch pastry crusts with hot fillings that tend to feature cheese, such as ham and cheese, Philly cheesesteak, and pepperoni pizza. They're good for a light lunch or heavy snack.
* "Chutzpah" is the Yiddish term for "nerve," as in, "You've got some nerve hating a 'Simpsons' episode I loved [or loving an episode I hated]."