5/21 - GASP! TRIPLE FEATURE! 7:00 - The Seemingly Never-Ending Story (HABF06) When Homer gets stuck in a hole in a cave and Marge and Bart go off in search of help, Lisa keeps Homer company by telling him a story that includes Mr. Burns telling Lisa a story of the time Moe told Burns a story 7:30 - Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife (HABF08) Ricky Gervais (of the BBC version of "The Office") wrote, and guest voices in, this episode, where Homer gets involved in a new TV show (in order to win a widescreen TV like the one Lenny has) in which he has to trade wives with another man 8:00 - Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play (HABF16) Homer and Marge are asked to help patch up the marriage of one of the Isotopes's star players after he sees them kiss on the Jumbotron during a game, but when Homer is caught giving the player's wife a neck massage, it's a doubleheader in the breakup department * Note that some TV listings have the title as "Homer and Marge..." (this is how it first appeared here as well), but the Fox press release says "Marge and Homer...", and these are almost always the correct titles (for us Family Guy fans out there, Fox is airing "Stewie Griffin: the Untold Story" at 8:30, although the fact that all references to the show refer to it by its three separate episode titles (Stewie B. Goode, Bango was his Name-o, and Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure) make it confusing as to whether it will air as a single 90-minute show or three back-to-back episodes, and if it is a 90-minute show, whether or not the DVD's opening credits, which call it "Stewie Griffin: the Untold Story", will be used)
5/28 - PRE-EMPTED for the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race (western stations will air local programming after the race)
6/4 - Million Dollar Abie (HABF09) Thanks to Grampa, the new "professional football" (don't call it NFL) team won't be in Springfield, so the town takes it out on him, but when his attempt at assisted suicide is stopped by Chief Wiggum, he decides to make the most of his remaining life, starting with becoming a bullfighter - and by coincidence, there's a bullring in Springfield that was going to be a football stadium.
Fox announced on Saturday that "The War at Home" has been renewed for a second season, but did not say what its time slot would be; this will be known when Fox announces its full fall schedule on Thursday. (Then again, remember what happened last year, when Fox announced that Sundays at 7:00 would be "animation repeats", only for Fox to put Malcolm in the Middle into the time slot once football season ended (not only that, but on Fox NFL doubleheader Sundays, they aired Malcolm reruns in the west at that time.)
STUFF for "The Monkey Suit" (HABF14) ------------------------------------ Written by J. Stewart Burns Directed by Raymond S. Persi Blackboard: JE NE PARLE PAS FRAN�AIS Couch: A series of family portraits from 2006 to 2013; the 2013 photo has everybody as a robot (repeat of HABF03) Special Guest Voice: Melanie Griffith, Larry Hagman Also Starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Karl Wiedergott Overseas Animation: Rough Draft TV Rating: TV-PG-V
REVIEW: B-minus - it doesn't help an episode when you hear the plot and can pretty much figure out the entire episode in advance, and making it a "Marge and Lisa are the only ones who seem to be in the right" episode doesn't make things better. The only saving grace in this episode was the bit with Nelson masquerading as other people.
REFERENCES Scopes Monkey Trial (see "Whatnot") "The Natural" (Bart hits a home run) "Men in Black" (the movie Bart watches) 7G09 (Homer is linked with animals)
DYN ...Bart is wearing his lucky red cap, but not a uniform, when he hits his game-winning home run? ...Springfield Elementary has a "single-purpose room"? (Most schools have a multi-purpose room, but Springfield Elementary doesn't need one as it has a gymnasium) ...the Simpsons have a riding mower? ...Lisa has no problem with people believing things that are not scientifically correct? ...at the end of the episode, teaching creationism is still allowed in schools?
GOOFS / FREEZE FRAME / WHATNOT The title is a play on words as a reference to Tennessee v. John Scopes, also known as the "Scopes Monkey Trial". In 1925, Tennessee passed a law outlawing the teaching in public schools of "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." John Scopes was a substitute high school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee who pretty much volunteered to be the "test case" for an ACLU-backed attempt to get the law declared illegal. It ended up with William Jennings Bryan prosecuting the case, and Clarence Darrow defending it. The judge threw out pretty much all of the evidence supporting evolution, as it was irrelevant (the crime was teaching evolution, so whether or not it was true was not at issue); Scopes was convicted (in fact, Darrow asked for a guilty verdict so he could appeal its constutionality) and the judge fined him $100, the minimum sentence (the maximum was $500). It never reached the Supreme Court; the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the jury should have decided the fine instead of the judge, and ordered the original court to correct the problem, but the prosecutors decided instead to drop the charges. The law was repealed in 1967; in 1968, the Supreme Court ruled (in Epperson v. Arkansas) that such laws were unconstitutional. (A "monkey suit" is also a slang term for a tuxedo or other formal men's suit, as well as a monkey costume.)
When Lisa reads chapter one of "The Origin of Species", she is reading from the middle of the book.
-- Don S1.1 MAG+++ LIS++ BAR+ SKI+ MrsK+ MissH+ P&S# FLA- (heresy!) f+++ n+++ Ilps(w) $+++ M44 Looks like that � character came in handy for once