[The long of it]
They say that every dog has his day, but it's the cat that gets the glory (and most of the good jokes) in "Old Yeller Belly."
Bart's treehouse is accidentally demolished in a fight with his sister. Homer, with the help of the Amish, builds his son an elaborate new one. (He does this as "an affront to God." Has he already forgotten his lesson from "Pray Anything (EABF06)"?) A fire breaks out at the housewarming party, and Homer is trapped, pinned under a huge ice sculpture of himself. In the grand canine tradition of Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and Benji, Santa's Little Helper sizes up the situation, sees he's his master's only hope and ... bolts from the scene. Snowball II, perhaps sensing a chance to earn brownie points, or at least some attention, from her family charges in and rescues Homer. After years of neglect (and plenty of requests from a.t.s.), it's nice to see the family cat playing a significant role in an episode.
Beyond that, "Old Yeller Belly" is an uneven show. It starts off with too much broad humor. Take the treehouse-building Amish, for instance. Marge sees that Homer and Bart are spending more time horsing around than building anything, so naturally her first conclusion is to bring in an army of strangers to do the work. It's perfectly normal that she can summon them by ringing a cowbell, too. And that the sound of a cowbell can carry all the way out to Amish country. And that the Amish don't think that the sound is coming from, say, a cow. And that they're willing to drop what they're doing to build what looks like Bill Gate's mansion in a tree. Yes, I know that's the joke, but if you haven't figured out that I like my "Simpsons" humor less goofy, then this must be the first of my reviews that you have ever read. Other jokes, like a train doing a barrel roll as it jumps over Homer and Bart, fall into this same vein.
While we're on the subject of the first act, what was up with Bart's girl-hating club? Even twenty years ago boy-girl animosity wasn't that bad, and from what I hear the two sexes are a lot chummier now. The whole scene played like something out of "Our Gang" -- or was that the reference?
The writers settle down in the second act, and the show improves. Snowball II gets a park named for her in a funny scene, while SLH is metaphorically in the doghouse. By chance, a Duff ad photographer "discovers" him, and SLH displaces Duff Man as the star of Duff's ad campaign. This turn of events has some interesting consequences. Duff Man is out of a job, and he has some trouble differentiating between his character and his real life. "What about my children?" he asks his boss, only to be told they were just one-shot characters in an ad campaign. Now that SLH can earn his keep, his former owner from Springfield Downs shows up to claim him. It's an interesting callback to the show's earliest days. (Very earliest -- this was in the first full-length episode of "The Simpsons.")
On the other hand, most of the story doesn't generate dramatic sparks. SLH falls back into Homer's good graces through no action of his own; he essentially just stumbles into a financial windfall. Later, a chance event with a shark really helps out the family. Random events aren't necessarily a bad thing, but here they make the story arbitrary, as if the characters have no control over their fate. Other interesting plot avenues aren't explored. SLH's first owner just pops up and takes him; we never learn anything more about him, or how he's treating the dog. Some scenes were rehashed. The family works with Duff Man to discredit the dog and return everyone to their rightful place; it reminded me a little too much of the plan to restore Krusty's reputation. Finally, the closing scene didn't have enough punch. At least the show tied up most of its loose ends, and was paced pretty well.
Maybe they should have done the whole show about the cat, after all.
[The short of it]
This is probably the closest we're going to get to a Snowball II episode, and she is this story's best feature, and it was nice to see her get some positive attention. On the other hand, the first act was too broadly written, with silly jokes like a train jump and an Amish treehouse-raising. The humor in the second act settles down, but the story has too many arbitrary events, unexplored plot ideas, and rehashed scenes to be really memorable. Maybe they should have done the whole show about the cat, after all. (B-)
[DYNs]
... fourth-graders Sherri and Terri are willing to go to a second- grader's tea party?
[References]
"Old Yeller" (book) "yellow belly" (slang) - episode title a parody of both the book (and later Disney movie), and of a phrase meaning "coward"
"The Hole in the Wall Gang" - Bart's anti-girl club called "The Hole in the Underwear Gang"
"Battle Hymn of the Republic" (song) - club's theme song sung to this tune
"The Thinker" (sculpture) - ice sculpture shows Homer striking the same pose as the man in Rodin's masterpiece
"Garfield" (comic strip) - the title character is the lasagna-eating cat Luigi refers to
Pepsi Twist (soda) - now Buzz cola has a lemon-flavored variant
"The Godfather" (movie) - Homer angrily says, "I have no dog" (cf. "I have no brother")
Spuds MacKenzie (advertising mascot) - name for SLH as Duff's mascot is similar
"Penthouse" (nudie magazine) - Marge (?) claims Mr. Duff is as bad as Bob Guccione when it comes to overworking the family pet; Guccione publishes "Penthouse," whose centerfolds are the "Penthouse Pets"
Pepsi Blue (soda) - Duff has a "Blue" variety (it must be novelty beverage night)
"Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" (children's book) - Homer's prayer begins this way
[Previous Episode References]
[7F16] Unkie Herb says, "I have no brother" (cf. "dog," here)
[7F14] someone uses a choke chain on SLH (I'm surprised Homer
hasn't tried this with Bart, now that I think about it)
[CABF09] Henry K. Duff VII appears
[5F11] Arby's restaurant chain dissed
[7G08] the origin of SLH
[3F01] Bart starts a prayer with, "Are you there, God?"[FFF]
Sign on Bart's treehouse:
THE HOLE
IN THE
UNDERWEAR
GANG
---------
NO GIRLS!Park sign:
SNOWBALL II
[Snowball 2]
[with soda]MUNICIPAL CAT PARK
Newspaper headline:
ALE OF THE PUP
Space station controls:
POWER
UP PARTY
DOWNSign at homeless mission:
WE ADD GOD
TO YOUR MISERYEyes-for-cash place:
CA$H FOR YOUR EYE$
At the Duff "coronation":
IT'S
SOMETHING
TO DO[Oops!]
Assuming Homer formally owns SLH (he did just pick him up at the track, after all), he can't lose the dog just by renouncing his ownership. (Of course, maybe the law is different in whatever state Springfield's in.)
[Personal Comments & Observations]
Pushing to get the family treehouse built on schedule, Marge summons the local Amish community. Good choice. Thanks to the movie "Witness," one thing that most people know about the Amish is that the whole community will pitch in to raise a barn, house, or some other structure. I'm surprised Amish communities aren't built to the density of Tokyo or Manhattan by now.
The Amish live by a code of austerity and humility, believing that fancy modern conveniences lead to excessive pride and separation from God. In practice, this usually means living the way people did in the early 19th century. Amish communities don't have electricity, so the shoddy wiring work in Bart's treehouse isn't surprising. Or maybe it is -- I've heard that some Amish towns have set up workshops outside the town limits which do have electricity and a few other modern conveniences. The townspeople go there to work, making trendy Amish crafts to sell to us moderns, while they maintain their actual living spaces in the traditional way.
The Mennonites are another austere Christian sect. They're most famous for their pacifism, and a disease- and weather-resistant strain of wheat that they either bred here or brought with them when they emigrated. Playing craps isn't one of their usual pastimes, though.
Unless I missed something, a scene in the ad campaign for this episode didn't make the actual show. Marge says to someone offscreen (presumably a vet), "I'd expect this kind of behavior from a French Poodle, but not an American dog." There's nothing unusual about outtakes from an episode appearing in a Fox promo, but this particular outtake is a little odd. Evidently, it's a swipe at France for their refusal to back the United States' invasion-liberation of Iraq. Could this be something the producers animated on short notice? What are the odds that the producers would go to the trouble, then write off the effort by *not* using the scene in the show, only for Fox Promotions to pick up this very scene for their ads?
Cat Stevens was a pop singer in the 70s. He converted to Islam and changed his name to Abbie Goldmeyer. No, just kidding, he changed Yusaf Islam, like Homer said.