[The long of it]
It seems that nobody's safe from outsourcing these days -- not even the staff of "The Simpsons." From day one, much of the animation grunt work has been farmed out to Korea (the one without nukes, I hope). Now, not even the writing is safe. A couple weeks ago, "Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife (HABF08)" was written by inexpensive British labor, and now "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore" has been outsourced to the team of Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta.
I really liked the premise to this one. Mr. Burns, trying to lower expenditures, outsources almost the entire power plant to Bangalore, India. The only survivors are himself, Mr. Smithers, and Homer Simpson, who is retained to fill a union labor requirement. The opening gags score make some good points about outsourcing. Burns introduces his outsourcing plan with a film showing workers happy that third-world countries are now sharing the labor burden, leaving them free to play lotto. Later, he allays one of his employee's concerns by saying, "Your jobs are safe; they'll just be done by someone else in another country." Whew! What a relief! The third act returns to outsourcing with some good material about how the foreign labor market is treated.
You'll notice I wrote the third act "returns to" outsourcing. This means, of course, that the plot abandons that thread for awhile. For most of its length, "Kiss, Kiss" takes a scattershot approach with jokes about Indian culture, 1980s television, "Apocalypse Now," and Bollywood movies. The material's actually pretty good, but at times the plot seems sidetracked. Even "Million Dollar Abie (HABF09)," which also had a rambling plot, was better-organized since each of its three acts concentrated on just one aspect of the story.
One of the diversions was a guest appearance by Richard Dean Anderson, as himself. Or, perhaps, as MacGyver. Patty and Selma kidnap the former "MacGyver" star and stash him in their apartment. After a creepy and effective start (the point-of-view shot with Patty and Selma demanding autographs will chill any actor's heart), the subplot takes a twist when Anderson begins to get on Patty and Selma's nerves. Given the girls' long-running obsession with "MacGyver," it's a surprise that it took so long for Anderson to make an appearance. (Perhaps his schedule on "Stargate" didn't let him until now?) It certainly isn't a problem with dignity. Anderson's a great sport, letting "himself" get put into all sorts of embarrassing positions. The only problem is, this subplot has no relation to the main plot. Indeed, there is no intersection between the two stories; it is as if Castellaneta and Lacusta wrote two separate stories and then combined them. I'd hate to get rid of one story or the other, but perhaps Anderson's appearance merited an episode of its own.
"Kiss, Kiss, Bang Bangalore" is a pretty good episode, but its lack of focus hurts it a bit. By comparison, "Much Apu About Nothing (3F20)" sticks to its subject, creating an absorbing portrait of Apu's journey from foreigner to American citizen. That episode is as relevant now as it was when it first aired nearly ten years ago. "Kiss, Kiss" probably won't have that same staying power, although it will be interesting to see how it ages.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to teach my Filipino associates how to write DYNs.
[The short of it]
I liked the premise to this one a lot, and wish the show could have focused more attention on its main theme. As it is, plot threatens to get outsourced in favor of jabs at Indian culture and 1980s TV. Speaking of which, the subplot does a good job in giving us one of the most-anticipated guest stars (Richard Dean Anderson as "MacGyver," more or less). It probably deserved an episode of its own though, especially since it had no relation to the main plot of this one. This show probably won't be as timeless as that other immigrant- centered show, "Much Apu About Nothing (3F20)," but it stands on its own as a good episode. (B)
[DYNs]
... in the establishing shot of the Bangalore facility, the usual crow caw has been replaced with a cow grunt? ... even though it (presumably) just opened, the Bangalore power plant already is leaking green radioactive liquid? ... Lenny and Carl are Homer's chief acolytes?
[References]
"Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" (movie) - episode title a spoof
Bangalore (Indian city) - also spoofed in the title
McDonald's (fast-food restaurant chain) - "Mac Tonight" was the moon-man character who briefly starred in some of their advertisements; Homer sets him up as the "man" of the family
"MacGyver" (TV series) - Richard Dean Anderson's escape from Patty and Selma's apartment similar to the many escapes his character made in this series
"The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" (TV series) - Homer does a spot-on imitation of Carson's Karnak routine
"The Da Vinci Code" (novel) - Homer thinks this religious conspiracy novel is part of Biblical canon now
"The Elephant Man" (movie) - Homer uses this name for one of the Hindu gods (Ganesha, perhaps? He has the elephant head)
"The Smurfs" (TV series) - he dubs another god "Papa Smurf"
"The Lady or the Tiger" (short story) - man must choose between two doors, one of which hides a vicious tiger, the other a lady; Lenny and Carl face a similar challenge
"Apocalypse Now" (movie) - the lead character must kill a crazed leader in the Vietnam jungle (cf. the Simpsons retrieving Homer from the Indian jungle) - establishing shot of boat on the river similar - the Doors' "The End" used as background music
every Bollywood movie ever made - well, maybe not *every* one, but a lot of them throw in elaborate musical numbers, like this episode did in the third act
[Previous Episode References]
[9F21] Homer sets up a dummy as a stand-in father figure
[GABF06] Ling-Ling seen
[8F14] One of the gruesome twosome's enormous bras (with the tiny
bow in the center) seen
[8F02], [CABF21] Someone does the "Karnak the Magnificent" bit
[7G12] Patty and Selma narrate a boring slide show
[2F09] Homer as godlike supreme leader
[8F20] Is this the first mention of P&S's "MacGyver" obsession?[FFF]
"MacGyver" convention hall:
SONS OF SICILY
HALL MACGYVER
CONVENTION
TODAY
CONFERENCE CLOSET Q"Stargate" blimp sign:
STARGATE
IS
AWESOMEHomer's management book:
THE CEREAL
IS
THE PRIZE AND OTHER
MANAGEMENT
SECRETS I LEARNED
AT BREAKFASTKavi's description:
Kavi
----
Medium height
dark complexion
Brown eyes
Black hairPeople Anderson shoves out of the DMV line:
(back to front)
Agnes, Gil, Jasper, Cookie Kwan, the "yesss" guy from
Costington's, and MolemanHomer's invitation to Lenny and Carl:
[outside]
Come
Celebrate
My
Promotion[inside]
... to
G O D My cell phone
number will
stay the same
-HomerAnderson's plea for rescue:
HELP
I'VE BEEN
KIDNAPPED
BY TWO
EVIL WITCHES[Oops!]
+ Bart knows who MacGyver is, or at least he did in "A Star is Burns (2F31)." (Or perhaps this is a joke on how quickly people forget about a TV series once it's off the air.)
[Personal Comments & Observations]
Outsourcing -- the export of American jobs to foreign countries -- has recently become a big issue here (until it was displaced by the issue of foreign people coming *here*). Jobs that do not require employees to be physically present for the customer are candidates for outsourcing. For example, when you call some company's help desk, you don't care if the person on the other end of the line is in Montana or Mumbai. With long-distance communication being as reliable and affordable, it's practical to move the call center halfway around the world. The primary incentive to do this is cost control. What would be a starvation wage in the West is actually a decent income in places like India or the Philippines. Naturally, American workers were incensed at having to compete with people who were willing to work for less than a dollar an hour. The problem became especially acute when "prestige" jobs like software engineering began moving. The Indian city of Bangalore has been the destination for many of these high-tech jobs, which might have been a factor in placing the power plant there.
Incidentally, as part of their training, Indian call-center workers must learn how to fake an American accent. Kavi is especially talented in this regard.
Richard Dean Anderson -- The lead actor for (duh) "MacGyver" and, later, "Stargate SG-1."
The premise of "MacGyver" is that the titular character is a government agent who is always getting into tough scrapes with the bad guys. Fortunately for him, he has a remarkable talent for jerry- rigging devices that can help him escape, or defuse terrorist bombs, or capture his adversaries. His escape from Patty and Selma's apartment is an exaggeration of some of his secret-agent improvisations, but not much of one. It's interesting that MacGyver would ask the twins for a gun and some bullets to help him with one of his escapes. As I recall, the MacGyver character was staunchly anti- gun, and refused to carry or use one on the show.
"Stargate" was based on an unexpectedly popular science-fiction movie (that *didn't* star Anderson). Its premise was that aliens founded the ancient Egyptian civilization, acting as gods and enslaving the local human population. They constructed a stargate -- a portal that let them travel easily between their homeworld and Earth. The ancient Egyptian humans eventually overthrew their masters, and the stargate was lost. Cut to modern times, where a team of scientists find and reactivate the stargate. Oops -- now they have to spend the rest of the movie re-defeating the aliens. The movie spawned a series (which first aired on pay-channel Showtime, I think, before moving to the Sci-Fi Channel) where the scientists used the stargate for continuing adventures. Or so I gather; to me, it's just the show that Sci-Fi happened to air before the revamped "Battlestar Galactica." Ironically, I think Anderson recently called it quits and left the original "Stargate."
Lee Iacocca -- Former CEO of Chrysler, who was given credit for the make's back-from-the-brink comeback in the 1980s. Not surprisingly, he was sought-after for his business advice and wrote a successful book or two on business leadership. His stamp of approval, even if obviously edited, might have helped sell a few copies of, "The Breakfast is the Cereal."
There's an orange AMC Gremlin (Hans Moleman's, maybe) in the Springfield DMV parking lot.
"Surrey, surrey, surrey, Selma, surrey, Oprah, Uma, Uma, Oprah ..."