Notes for KABF11 (Any Given Sundance)

This episode had a different feel to it, I think because of all the meta-referential feelings in it. What I mean is mostly the "recently famous Simpsons" setup, kind of like in 8F02; it also brings to mind, just a little, the Simpsons parallels in such episodes as 9F16 and 3F16. Lisa's movie itself I could take or leave, but I did like the varied ways her family and others responded to it and its reception. Nelson's film was suitably depressing, but not over the top (or sillily dramatic, like "...he never smelled me...again!"). I may have to let this sit for a while though. Anyway:

DYN: ...in the movie, the wall clock in the kitchen is set at about 2:55, instead of its usual 9 or 3? ...not that this is the first, but in an episode about moviemaking, no special Gracie sound? ...the special credits finished before the usual cutoff point, but were shown in full anyway?

Previous episode references BABF06: Springfield U vs. Springfield A&M 1F18: Skinner's screenplays reminiscent of his novel "Billy and the Cloneasaurus" (2F31: Skinner compares Lisa to the love child of Ingmar Bergman and Penny Marshall - in a deleted scene from this episode, Lisa makes a Bergman-like film. [Thanks to Don for helping me find that a few weeks ago!]) GABF18: Marge's reference to a "snuggle film" like the porn shot at their house in that episode BABF18: Parker Posey (who played Becky) is a name on a banner here, see also below CABF16: Homer caught on film abusing his kids (here it was largely strangling, in that episode he also did that after the footage was shown)

Other episodes about filmmaking and stuff (especially documentaries) 2F31 BABF18 (subplot throughout) EABF11, JABF07 GABF15 featured Kosovo Autumn at the arthouse theater, which I was reminded of by the depressing movies tonight AABF23 I guess

Also The shot of the Simpsons driving to Sundance around the side of a mountain, along with the music, reminded me a good deal of The Shin(n)ing. Perhaps it's just because I watched it recently, but the Simpsons being surprised at the negative content of Lisa's movie, along with apparently never having watched it before the festival, reminds me of Roger's reaction to "Roger the Alien" (the doll) in American Dad's "Star Trek" (1AJN15).

Meta-reference corner Marge: No more Simpsons movies, one was plenty! (funny also that JABF20, which I assume still used its original opening and blackboard, repeated tonight)

Title: Oliver Stone film ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. It's a contraction of "On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other," attributed to NFL commissioner/Philadelphia Eagles founder Bert Bell.

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F31.html

As George Harrison once said, "it's been done".

Or as they once said on South Park "the Simpsons already did it".

Someone from Springfield made a film that was going places at a film festival, until they were outdone by someone else from Springfield who made an even better film. I was waiting for Jon Lovitz to show up and say something.

Mr. Museum

"[email]" wrote:

"I was saying Boo-urns"

[email] wrote:

Yeah, but this time, the better film was by one of Springfield's most pathetic citizens, and had him showing how sad his life is, and then ended with the French "Fin" instead of the English "The End," and...oh, never mind.

Moreover, it just wasn't that funny an episode.

Brett A. Pasternack schreef: (..)

The big difference between this episode and "A star is Burns" was IMHO that the latter emphasises on the film festival, you could call it a satirical approach to how it works on these festivals. "Any given sundance" doesn't really emphasise on the festival nor the movies in it. Lisa feels bad about her film and the way she shows her family in it and feels better after seeing Nelson's movie because his family is worse. So there's a difference but I really had to think hard to come to this conclusion.

True.

Any truth to this? http://www.jumptheshark.com/topic/Simpsons/Simpsons-General-Comments/1795

"I found out that last night's episode, Any Given Sundance, was the lowest rated episode in Simpsons history, getting only 6.18 million viewers." - BOTR

If true, I wonder if this is why: "I chose not to watch the episode because I didn't like the DirectTV synopsis 'Lisa submits a film to the Sundance festival'. Sounded boring & elitist." -

?????? wrote:

It's because they (the writers and producers) won't listen. They are contemptuous of their fans and their opinions, and have been for a long time now. They see everyone who voices a negative opinion of their work as Comic Book Guy.

[email] wrote in news:8qa2249fae8khad37qau9f72sqtvfog73o@ 4ax.com:

Ratings and quality are not necessarily related.

I don't know, but TV ratings have been down pretty much across the board since the strike. Most shows are getting lower ratings than they used to.

Brett A. Pasternack wrote:

The question is, how many people are in a household at 8 PM on a Sunday for ratings purposes?

-- Don