Notes for PABF10 (Them, Robot)

Ah, not too bad, except that they painted themselves into a corner and the ending was kind of meh. I suppose there's a minor social point in there somewhere... I was having more fun at times watching for robot code numbers and seeing how quickly I could remember the corresponding Simpsons episode where appropriate (since ABF just means Simpsons, I sometimes leave it out in notes). Heh. (The alcohol bit coming full circle was fun, though. And the casting of Brent Spiner as, I assume, the robots.)

DYN: ...the opening cloud gag is a repeat (of NABF12)? ...all the robots have a letter and two digits, except Smithers' replacement (LA6)? ...SNPP employs the whole town, apparently? ...the robot considers Milhouse to be the inferior one at baseball, even though in JABF11 Bart absolutely sucked? ...Burns is reading Tina Fey's Bossypants for some reason?

Previous episode stuff (see also below for couch) FABF04: Title (inspired of course by "I, Robot", I know) EABF16: Bart mentions the Pre-teen Braves DABF01, CABF03, BABF11: Irish coffee, Long Island iced tea, hallucinogenic toad PABF08 just last week: office supply theft, fishing trip GABF07: They Might Be Giants credits song (here the end of "Robot Parade")

Goof Almost right after mentioning that the robots must stick to yellow guidance stripes, the robots play baseball all over a field, not just where Homer painted the lines. And the rescue (though maybe that counts toward the laws of robotics). And don't get me started on the fishing boat gag.

Couch gag Starts with a banner saying "AMERICA: Most powerful country in the world" and a running list of years at the bottom (1989 to 2012) as it advances. Oddly, not every year has a relevant cameo in it - and I can't determine what rationale there is behind the inclusion. Even more oddly, most of the cameos are EARLY. 1989: family holding American flags 1990 1991: Leon Kompowski (7F24, 9/19/91) 1992 1993: Stampy (1F15, 3/31/93) - with Ralph in its mouth (did this happen in DABF18?) 1994 1995: Poochie (4F12, 2/9/97) 1996 1997: Leprechaun (presumably 5F13, 3/22/98) 1998 1999: Maude's ghost (she died BABF10, 2/13/00, but first appeared as a ghost DABF19, 11/3/02 - Maggie Roswell is credited tonight too) 2000 2001: Baron von Kissalot (DABF04, 2/10/02) 2002 2003: fake Willy Wonka (FABF21, 12/12/04) 2004 2005: I forget the real and fake name of the jazz dance guy (KABF08, 3/30/08!) 2006 2007: Spider-pig (movie, 7/27/07) - also, TV changes, which didn't happen until LABF01 (2/15/09) 2008 2009: Princess Penelope (LABF20, 1/10/10) 2010: decaying banner ripped down, Homer and Bart write a new one "Now too big to fail, we hope" 2011 2012: Maggie holds a Chinese flag

So that was... random.

Matthew Garvey wrote in news:8484922a-874e-4800- [email]:

When Burns says "You are so not the heartless automotrons I was looking for" the closed-captioning appears as "human automotrons."

Also the picture frame on the wall starts out tilted one way, then straightened for a couple of years, then tilted the other way.

Once Upon A Time, Matthew Garvey wrote:

You make me sad.

** Captain Infinity

Them, Robot

Wasn't there a THOH episode similar to this? That was a takeoff on "Westworld"?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074559/

All I can say about the couch gag is that not only has Bob Fosse died, but the guy who played him in the movie has also died.

Old Grandpa - Old Granddad upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/Old_Grand_Dad.jpg

So, for the second week in a row, the stealing of office supplies is an issue??

The robot saves the human from being hit by a truck. Just like in the original. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667816/

Didn't they have a bonfire of toys in a THOH episode that featured Gary Coleman???

Mr. Museum

On Mon, 26 Mar 2012, [email] wrote:

I thought the episode where Bart sneaks out of school, and ends up at Mayor Quimby's nephew's birthday party (and then was witness to the "beating" of the chef) was a Westworld takeoff. Principal Skinner is on his trail, not even letting a raging river stop him, and I'm sure that episode had a shot from his viewpoint where there was some information on screen that was like what Yul Brynner saw in the movie.

Michael

Yes. Yes it was.

Itchy and Scratchy Land was also a take-off on Westworld. Westworld was a nice happy theme park populated by tame robots. But the robots malfunctioned and ran amok. Just like the Itchy and Scratchy robots.

On Fri, 6 Apr 2012, [email] wrote:

Yes. I hadn't thought of that episode, but now that you mention it, I even noticed the Westworld angle when watching it. It was very close.

Michael

Matthew Garvey wrote:

Because he's the boss, and he liked being bossy? Something like that, I'm thinking.