The Regina Monologues Capsule Submission

S P O I L E R

S P A C E

Review: It's time for another vacation for the Simpsons family. While the last two Simpsons vacation episodes were enjoyable, this one had some doubts thanks to the episode being written by the same person behind "Kill the Aligator and Run". Sure enough, the episode sucks compared to "Blame It on Lisa" and "Dude, Where's My Ranch", but not as bad as "Kill the Aligator". The first act, which usually sets up the episode, could have been better written instead of the whole "Bart finds a $1,000 bill" storyline. The second act picks up the humor, although here some of the jokes are either hit (i.e. the James Bond jokes involving Tony Blair and the Ferris wheel, the gay Englishmen) or miss (i.e the J. K. Rowling cameo). Of course, since this is the same person who wrote "Kill the Aligator", the third act ends up becoming another jerk-ass Homer storyline, although it does have a few good jokes (Homer seeing faires, the ending with Homer meeting his half-sister).

DYN's

Kearny's son attending the Museum of Modern Bart? the 200th Episode t-shirt at the Museum of Modern Bart? the "Prince Albert in a Can" at Harrod's Department Store?

Refs.

The Vagina Monolouges -Title

Play-Doh -Couch Gag

Mary Poppins -Nannies flying around holding umbrellas

Mr. Bean -Homer mistakes Tony Blair for him

Batman -The scene change bit with the UK flag

My Fair Lady -Two Englishmen betting on whether or not it's possible to turn Bart and Lisa into proper people

The New Zoo Revue -Homer thinks H.R.H. stands for Henrietta R. Hippo

Goofs

Since the highest currency that ATM machines carry is $20 bills (not to mention the scarcity of $1000 bills), there's no way that a $1000 bill can come out of an ATM machine.

Comments

The MacBeth bit actually is real. Whenever there's a performance of MacBeth, it is considered bad luck for any of the show's cast members to utter the play's title when backstage.

Homer's comment about UK tapes not being played on American machines is correct. Both countries use different types of formats when it comes to televisions and monitors. In the United States, the standard is NTSC, which has a 352x240 or 720x480 resolution and a frame rate 29.97 frames per second (or 24 fps if it's on film). Meanwhile, England and the rest of Europe uses PAL which has a 720x576 or 352x576 resolution and a frame rate of 25 fps.

Joe Klemm

According to legend, one of the actors (or actresses) in the original production of MACBETH dropped dead on opening night, thus cursing the production.

Shakespearean actors usually refer to MACBETH as "the play" or "the Scottish play."

original production of MACBETH dropped dead on opening night, thus cursing the production.

Well, it woudn't have been an actress, they were banned from acting on stage until well after Mac*eth as first performed. Young boys would have played the female roles.

Can't say I've ever heard that origination of the curse story.

[email] (Andrewjmilner) wrote in message news:...

The MacBeth bit is also a reference to that guy going around the country with his one man play "MacHomer."

I didn't see it as a reference to Rick Miller. The Simpsons have had at least one Shakespeare reference (the Hamlet bit from last year?), and since his plays have been around for a long time, they are part of the landscape and references are likely to be made to the plays. And once they are in England, it makes sense that they would see a theatre performing Macbeth, and even bump into a major Shakespearean actor.

The only connection with MacHomer is that they chose Macbeth for the scene, rather than some other Shakespeare play. And if they hadn't picked that one, they couldn't have done the bit about it being bad luck to speak the name.

Rick was an architect (or maybe just studying the field) when he did some Shakespeare in the park. Word has it that he cooked up MacHomer to kill time, and entertain the others, while waiting back stage. He drew the pictures, and put together MacHomer from there, and performed it at the Montreal Fringe Festival in 1995 and 1996, and then took it on the road.

Michael

I've gotten fifty dollar bills out of ATMs here in Canada, and I worry about bumping into a machine that issues them, so there is no reason for just $20's.

I think the scarcity of $1000 bills would be the most immmediate problem. Even when they were printed, I suspect they were pretty rare.

On the other hand, one could imagine a special ATM at the nuclear plant that would issue large denomination bills, for Mr. Burns' convenience.

Michael

The ATM machines in Las Vegas in and around the casinos give out $100.00 bills.

Specific to the Simpsons episode, I thought it was rather lame. I guess they were relying so heavily on the "Gee, look, it's so-and-so" factor that they forgot to do anything clever with them.

Kris

Interesting info for numismatists from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing below. The page also has pictures of the bills in question. Even when these were printed they were generally used only for inter-bank transactions and that sort of thing.

http://www.moneyfactory.com/section.cfm/5/61

"Currency notes of denominations above $100 are not available from the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve System, or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. On July 14, 1969, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System announced that currency notes in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 would be discontinued immediately due to lack of use. Although they were issued until 1969, they were last printed in 1945. These notes are legal tender and may be found in circulation today; however, most notes still in circulation are probably in the hands of private numismatic dealers and collectors."

Likely Mr. Burns had something to do with this, especially given that 1945 date. After he stole the specially printed large denomination bill (was it in the millions, or billions?) intended for the reconstruction of Europe after the way, likely they gave second thought to those large denomination bills.

Michael

Michael Black wrote:

It was a one trillion dollar bill (with Truman on it, I think), as in "The Trouble with Trillions."

I thought it was trillion, but that seemed so outrageous an amount for anything, let alone a bill, that I figured I was remembering wrong.

Michael

simpsfan wrote in message news:...

My sense of History was off a bit when looking at the page of the different dollar detonations that were available that exceeded $100. I didn't remember who Salmon P. Chase was. If you're interested, here is the link: http://www.tulane.edu/~latner/Chase.html.

StefanW

In part, Joe Klemm wrote:

The official NTSC standard specifies 480 visible scan lines.

While not necessarily stored in this manner, conventional NTSC television equipment displays material at a constant rate of 29.973 frames per second. 24 fps content (which isn't limited to filmed footage) is converted via a process known as "3:2 pulldown."

...except for numerous countries that use varieties of SECAM, an arguably inferior French-developed color system that exists primarily for political reasons. (some of which no longer apply)

SECAM is an acronym for "S�quentiel Couleur Avec M�moire," which translates from French to "Sequential Color with Memory."

PAL (Phase Alternate/Alternating/Alternation Line) is a color system. It can be used in conjunction with any resolution and frame rate.

While various broadcast specifications exist (with the United Kingdom using PAL-I), most PAL countries utilize the aforementioned 576 visible scan lines and 25 frames per second.

An exception is Brazil, which adopted the PAL-M format. (combining the PAL color system with NTSC-type resolution and frame rate)

[email] (Joe Klemm) wrote in news:[email]:

Several ATMs I've found give out $50 bills. Nobody wants them (too much risk that they're counterfeit).