12/4 - DOUBLE FEATURE 7:00 - Milhouse of Sand and Fog (GABF19) When Maggie gets the chicken pox, Homer decides to hold a party where parents can bring their children to get infected, leading to Milhouse's parents getting back together, but when Milhouse realizes they're more interested in each other than in him, he and Bart scheme to break them up * NOTE: Some cities in the Eastern and Central time zones, including Washington, will get this episode in progress or even pre-empted if they air a 4:05 (Eastern) NFL game that day
8:00 - The Girl Who Slept Too Little (GABF16) A protest against building a stamp museum behind the Simpson house results in it being built over the cemetery - and the cemetery being moved to behind the Simpson house, which scares Lisa to the point that she can't sleep at night until she decides to overcome her fear by spending a night in the cemetery itself * NOTE: As expected, "Family Guy" won Fox's "Have It Your Way" vote, so that show will air (as usual) at 9:00 that night
12/11 - The Italian Bob (HABF02) "The Simpsons are going to" - Italy (well, DUH) when Mr. Burns wants Homer to pick up his new Italian sports car, but the Simpsons end up in a small Italian town with a surprise - Mayor Sideshow Bob, who doesn't want his crimes revealed to the people, but he didn't count on one Simpson and one too many glasses of wine * NOTE: Despite the fact that 12/11 is not a Fox NFL doubleheader day, there is no Simpsons episode scheduled for 7:00
12/18 - Simpsons Christmas Stories (HABF01) It's D'oh-Ho-Homer time as the Simpsons feature in three Christmas stories - The Gospel According to Matthew (Groening), with Homer and Marge as Mary and Joseph; during WWII, Grampa and Mr. Burns shoot down Santa; "The Nutcracker", Simpsons-style
ALT.TV.SIMPSONS DEAD PERIODS For those of you who have tried searching Google Groups for, say, when syndication started (mid-September 1994) and noticed that there were no posts there, here's the explanation; there are some gaps in the alt.tv.simpsons archive. Here are the dates prior to 1/1/1996 where there are vewy few posts (and the posts that do exist are there because they were cross-posted to groups with better archives): 11/22/91 - 12/22/91 10/19/92 - 11/4/92 10/19/93 - 11/4/93 6/21/93 - 7/18/94 7/28/94 - 9/1/94 9/14/94 - 10/17/94 3/30/95 - 12/31/95 (yes - nine months are missing, including the entire "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" discussion)
STUFF for "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas" (GABF22)
--------------------------------------------------
Written by Joel H. Cohen
Directed by Matthew Nastuk
Blackboard: none
Couch: The couch is replaced by a nest; a giant bird feeds a worm to
Homer
Special Guest Voice: Lily Tomlin
Also Starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor,
Karl Wiedergott
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-VREVIEW: B-minus - the only part of the show that made me take anything resembling notice was the end of the Lisa and Milhouse story line. Maybe if they wouldn't have dusted off the "looks like they lost after all - no, wait, what a surprise, they got something in the end" finish, it would have been better. (By the way, "prego" means "you're welcome".)
REFERENCES "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas" (title) Johnny Carino's restaurants (Johnny Fiesta's) Beefaroni (Beef-O-Ghetti) Fox Sports Net (Homer watches a Fox sports station) ESPN Classic (Fox Sports West II Classic Fox Sports Fox) "Cheers" (someone with a middle name of Mussolini)
DYNs ...Mayor Quimby's wife sounds different? ...Frank Welker didn't provide (or at least wasn't credited with doing) the dolphin voice? ...Sherri and Terri have an idioglossia (a "twin language" only they can understand)? ...Marge's red dress is redder than Lisa's? ...Springfield's Little Italy is the birthplace of Beef-O-Ghetti? ...Milhouse's middle name is Mussolini? ...Lisa kissed Milhouse - and Milhouse didn't freak out about it? ...Homer is watching Fox Sports West II Classic Fox Sports Fox? ...they never do say if Lisa qualifies for the summer program in Rome?
GOOFS / FREEZE FRAME / WHATNOT This is the first time an 8:00 episode has been delayed to most stations in the Eastern USA because of a late-running NFL regular season game. (Delays have been caused by post-season games, and episodes have been delayed in limited cities on non-doubleheader days.) The first airing was on November 27, 2005, which was a Fox NFL doubleheader day, so every station except in some of the home markets (mainly those in cities where teams were playing home games on CBS, like Oakland) aired a game starting at 4:15 PM Eastern. The New York Giants-Seattle Seahawks game ran until about 8:08 PM; following a quick post-game show, the episode started at 8:15 PM Eastern. Note that cities in the Mountain and Pacific time zones got the episode on time.
When Moe falls, he shouldn't be falling faster than the ladies if he is in a spread-eagle position like they are. (Things at the same altitude fall at pretty much the same speed.)
Marge's hair is solid, until she needs to pull the Faberge egg out of it.
-- Don "What was Lisa saying at the end?" Why is everybody looking at me?