Upcoming Episodes plus STUFF for "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" (FABF02)

12/21 - My Mother the Carjacker (EABF18)
    Glenn Close returns as the voice of Homer's Mother, who is finally
    arrested - at least until Homer hijacks the bus taking her to
    prison

MONDAY, 12/22 - 'Tis the Fifteenth Season (FABF02)
    When Homer sells a Joe DiMaggio rookie baseball card but spends
    the money on himself, then sees "A Christmas Carol" on TV, he
    thinks that maybe that wasn't such a good idea...but is the world
    ready for a kinder, generous Homer?

STUFF for "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" (FABF02)
----------------------------------------------
Written by Michael Price
Directed by Steven Dean Moore
Blackboard: (none)
Couch: The couch is a Japanese street bench, and everyone is a famous
       Anime character (Homer as Ultraman, Bart as Astroboy, Maggie as
       Pikachu from Pokemon, Lisa as Sailor Moon(?) and Marge as (??))
Also Starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Karl Wiedergott
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-LV
Stop-motion sequences by: Chiodo Brothers Productions, Inc.

REVIEW: A-minus - I can see a lot of reasons why a number of people
        won't like this (the carol at the end comes to mind), but
        they managed to get from plot point to plot point without
        dragging the show down too much like they do pretty much every
        week (or at least it didn't seem that way this time).

REFERENCES "UltraMan" (Homer in the opening) "AstroBoy" (Bart in the opening) "Sailor Moon" (Lisa in the opening) "Pokemon" (Maggie is Pikachu in the opening) The California Raisins (the California Prunes) Victoria's Secret (Victor's Secret) "Convoy" (the song "Christmas Convoy") "A Christmas Carol" (mentioned in the show) "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" (Mr. McGrew's Christmas Carol) "Family Matters" ("Ebenezer Urkel") "Star Trek" (another Christmas Carol-based story) "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (Homer steals presents from everybody; one of Apu's kids is like Cindy Lou Who) "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (Ned, like Linus, reads from Luke, Chapter 2) 8F12 (Homer whips off his belt) DABF02 (Lisa says she's a Buddhist)

SELF-REFERENCE: When Homer gives his clothes to hoboes, they're all wearing white shirts and blue pants, another "everybody wears the same thing every day" gag

DYNs
...the Astrolabe is Christian?  (It referred to Jesus as "Our Lord
   and Savior")?
...the Astrolabe was programmed to think that Jesus was born on
   December 25, when there is more evidence to the contrary (since
   when do shepherds watch their flocks in the middle of winter)?
...there is no reference to Marge's "money jar"?
...there is no mention of the DVD player after Homer receives it?
...the date 12/6 is mentioned, indiciating that the episode may have
   been meant to air on 12/7 rather than 12/14?
...Jimmy Stewart mentions Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, who was
   Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense?

GOOFS / FREEZE FRAME / WHATNOT When they eat breakfast, it is 12:35 PM.

Normally, TVs that have only one "input" can't have both a VCR and a DVD player hooked up to it, as you would have to hook up the output of the DVD player to the input of the VCR, and the VCR's Macrovision system would "scramble" the DVD's signal. However, Homer's VCR may be old enough that it does not have Macrovision.

-- Don S1.1 MAG+++ LIS++ BAR+ SKI+ MrsK+ MissH+ P&S# FLA- (heresy!) f+++ n+++ Ilps(w) $+++ M41 I can only imagine how the National Federation of the Blind is going to feel about the "blind" Mr. McGrew...

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 05:11:13 GMT, Don Del Grande wrote:

Marge is Swan Jun from "Gatchaman", or as known in the US: Princess from "Battle of the Planets", or Agatha Jun in "G-Force".

There was also "A Claymation Christmas", which did feature the Raisins singing.

"Don Del Grande" wrote in message news:[email]...

I was not aware that any VCR ever had Macrovision. I thought Macrovision was on the tape itself to prevent copying... but I am not sure how it works. Do you have a source for more information on this?

By the way, I have watched TV recorded onto my RePlay through a VCR with no noticeable problems, though I have not tried routing my DVD player through the VCR...

That Guy wrote:

That's not exactly what I meant (I don't think). The Macrovision encoding is in the signal that comes out of the DVD (not all DVDs have it; I think there's a "Macrovision bit" on DVDs that tells the player whether or not to turn Macrovision on, but I'm not entirely sure), and when the signal goes into the VCR, the VCR thinks you're trying to make an illegal copy and the resulting signal is bad (I'm under the impression that the signal alternates between really light and really dark); this is sent to the TV.

RePlay (and TiVo) boxes don't have Macrovision turned on, as far as I know. (As a matter of fact, both of them include instructions for copying a program from the box to a VCR, which wouldn't make much sense if Macrovision was always on.)

-- Don

"Don Del Grande" wrote in message news:[email]...

Macrovision

works.

no

through

I see. Thank you for the info, Don!

If my memory serves me correctly, on Mon, 15 Dec 2003 05:11:13 GMT, Don Del Grande issued the following challenge to face my invincible Iron Chefs:

Generally, it is thought Christ was born in the spring, more likely in May, because of the reference of the shepherds tending flock. It was moved to December by Christians around the fourth century to coincidize with the Winter Solstice and the pagan celebration of the "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun".

Also, thanks to a 6th-Century monk named Dionysius, the current calendar ("Gregorian") was devised. Unfortunately, he miscalculated (there is no Year Zero), so the Birth of Christ is a minimum of four years off (in 4 BCE).

[email] wrote:

All together now: "How does leaving one year out move it to 4 BCE?" I thought 4 BCE was used because it was the year Herod died (and that assumes that "Jesus was born in the days of Herod the Great" is correct in the first place).

ObSimpsons: now JEBUS, on the other hand...

-- Don

If my memory serves me correctly, on Wed, 17 Dec 2003 02:22:34 GMT, Don Del Grande issued the following challenge to face my invincible Iron Chefs:

All togetherback at 'cha: Wizard. ;P

Very true. He still screwed up royally in the calculations.

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 15:26:31 GMT, [email] wrote:

Can we still get presents?