Previous Episode references:
[CABF14] Blue Man Group is referenced [AABF16] Not just the title, but Bart playing with Grampa's face; Battleship game [3F17] Branson, MO is visited. (Odd that Bart seems to have forgotten what it was like. Appropriate for the Flanderses, as Bart himself mentioned in 3F17) Multiple Ray Jay Johnson references, although I don't remember them all. Multiple Scrabble references
Other references:
Bonnie Franklin: Actress best known for her role as the mother on "One Day at a Time"
Charo: Best known (I'd guess) for being a frequent guest on "The Love Boat". I don't know what she did, other than being buxom, wearing a somewhat revealing dress, and saying "coochie coochie". She also appeared recently in a Sprint commercial in which the static of cellular phones was illustrated by the phrase "go hiking tomorrow" was mistaken for "bring home Charo"
Adrian Zmed: co-star of T.J. Hooker with William Shatner and replacement for Deney Terio (sp?) as host of "Dance Fever"
Yakov Smirnoff: Comedian who defected from the Soviet Union, and made a living taking a comedic look at what a wonderful place the USA is in the eyes of an immigrant. I believe Smirnoff does indeed have a theater in Branson.
"Dude, Where's My Car?" referenced again (recently as "Dude, Where's My Pepsi?"; now as "Dude, Where's My Virginity?"
Freeze Frame fun:
It's not ASCII art, but I really enjoyed the sight gag of Jasper's beard. Making fun of Jasper's beard -- that's *definitely* a paddlin'.
Other things I really enjoyed:
Grampa trying to get his way by playing dead "Man Yells at Cloud" headline and photo. I guess that must have been from the same newspaper that appeared in "Half-Decent Proposal" which had the headline "Slow News Day Grips Springfield" Grampa's comment that Bart isn't learning anything in school
The "Where's Springfield" Question redux:
Branson is "1000 miles away" from Springfield.
On an interesting note, the opening scene of OFF being notified of Grampa's death reminded me of a report on Radio Prague today about a family that was suing a Prague hospital. It seems that two men were badly burned in an industrial accident. Several days, one of the men died -- but the hospital notified the family of the other man. That family is now suing the hospital for the 80,000 Czech crowns (~US$2,000) the funeral cost.
Review:
Probably the best episode of the season so far. The timing seemed good, the third act didn't fall down (as in "Jaws Wired Shut" or "Half- Decent Proposal"), and Grampa Simpson gets funny lines as usual (as does Jasper). There was an unfortunate Viagra reference, and the scene at the Kwik-E-Mart, while necessary for Grampa to total Homer's car, was lousy -- they could have found some other way to do this. The grade may change over several viewings, but right now, I'd give it an A-.