ARGH! This week the DC affiliate was not preempted by a football game, but rather through a technical blunder of biblical proportions. Viewers watched in horror as halfway into the opening credits, the signal went grayscale, and began to jog wildly around, skipping a quarter of the way into the episode and then blacking out to the station logo. Aghast, viewers waited through a 3 minute interlude, only to find that the unscrupulous network had failed to restore the new episode, and resorted to airing The Mr. X episode. They went through an entire segment of it, and only managed to switch to the new episode after bicommerical break, chopping out a third of the show, which resumed right at the Skinner-Laser pointer scene, which was hillarious, in a disassociated kinda way.
It's a especially damnable shame, because this one was the best episode of the season, if the latter 2/3rds of it is any indication.
I must confess on that review that my opinion is biased by my new method of watching the simpsons. In these turbulent times, Americans are drinking more than ever, and I think the latest shows are really geared at an audience which is at the very least, pleasantly squiffed. While I am a non-drinker usually, I find my enjoyment of the show is greatly enhanced by the consumption of a pitcher of pre-mix mudslide. It also makes King of the hill at least semi-watchable. Erah! Way to social engineer FOX.