Interesting episode. I don't know if it's the fact that Juliet looks like "Veronica" in GABF04 (which I noticed during the previews before airing), the fact that Lisa rarely has really close friends, or something actually intentional in the writing, but somehow I picked up a weird romantic vibe. I did like the ending (surprising that it would hinge on *Lisa* being somewhat grounded in normality), and the actual plot/fantasy stuff seemed fine overall. I enjoyed Homer's characterization throughout, which is a plus; on a smaller note, something about Marge's (admittedly wrong) intuition about where Lisa would escape seemed familiar - maybe Donny's Discount Gas (4F18), Bart's hug (3F02), the trapdoor in the treehouse (5F22), or the family information (7F22). So yeah, that's all for now.
(FOUR ACTS? What's going on? The episodes keep getting shorter too!)
DYN: ...CBG as the main character in the couch gag and then in the first scene? (See also above.) ...Juliet's last name is Hobbes? ...Homer is drinking from a coffee mug labeled "NED"? ...one of the co-queens is named Helvetica? (See also my notes for KABF14, which is running right now!) ...Dr. William MacDougal?? ...Carl calls Clam-Elot "Clamelot's"? (Reminds me of family members of mine who make places such as Benihana and Jo-Ann possessive) ...there's a shrimp platter but not a cod platter (7G10)?
Previous episode references 9F02: Title (Put it this way: would this be a likely episode title if not for that one?) AABF12: "Namaste" 7F18: Art critique reminiscent of this KABF20: "Mypod" 7G07: Bart's ninja escape reminiscent of one here
Goofs
There's no possible way you could count this as "couch gag #429". I know it's the 429th episode, but man, there are only about half as many distinct couch gags, and even ignoring that, a few dozen haven't had them. I suppose it could be "couch gag, #429". (Reminds me of similar counting jokes, like the BBQ in EABF09.)
Lisa and Juliet don't appear to take the composition book with them when they flee the bullies, yet Lisa is able to send in the manuscript.
I suppose there's no use complaining at this stage, but it's always bugged me that "Fall Out Boy" (the band) is not written correctly, especially if it's supposed to be named after Radioactive Man's sidekick. "Fallout" is one word! ONE WORD! Maybe a fall out boy is one who enjoys leaving military formations. These are the kinds of things that get me odd looks, for sure; I must point it out now that it's officially on the show.
Meta-reference corner
Don doesn't appear to have mentioned this on a.t.s yet, but starting with the LABF series, the show is going HD (possibly widescreen) and the regular opening is being redone. I have to imagine the theme, chalkboard gag, sax solo, and couch gag are staying, but on the other hand, maybe they're not. (It would be monumental, like Kenny's period of real death and then subsequent resurrection with no death on South Park.) If so, the blackboard gag tonight, "I will not use permanent ink on the chalkboard", could very well be a sly good-bye to that.
I mentioned in the post for JABF08 I believe but Juliet was a sort of stand-in name for Marge when The Simpsons (series) was being written, apparently because Matt never mentioned that it was going to be "Marge" - I believe it was because of Julie Kavner's own name.
Dr. William MacDougal! (I assume it's "Mac" and not "Mc" because of his heritage.) This could be non-canon, but we'll see, won't we? In the continuing tradition of granting long-standing characters full names in recent years (just for short, Lenny Leonard EABF14, Jeff Albertson GABF02, Gary Chalmers JABF09), we learn what apparently is Willie's last name, even though he claimed not to have one at all in HABF05. (The actual circumstances of his name loss, a standard immigration/Ellis Island joke, also evoke a bit of a memory of Apu's education, as seen in 3F20.)
Other stuff (not for Wiseguy and Captain Infinity)
We weren't sure when KABF21 aired, but it seems KABF22 exists after all! So that's a new record of NINE holdovers (and we never had only 8). Who knows whether the strike will wind up affecting the length of the 20th broadcast season (it could go back up to LABF15 and 24 episodes) or in fact the length instead of the LABF series (it being shortened to 20 instead of the KABFs)... but it's not unlikely that it will continue with 9 in the hole from now on. Also, as I mentioned last time, if written in "season-episode" number format, tonight's is 20-09 and the first episode of 2009.
Finally: Last week, KABF19 repeated. The glitch I detailed there did not appear to be present this time, though I was not able to check if any animation itself was changed.