Notes for HABF09 (Million Dollar Abie)

Tonight's episode couldn't seem to make up its mnd about what it wanted to be. I counted about 4 major themes: bringing football to Springfield, Abe and suicide/death, Abe and bullfighting, and Lisa and bullfighting. I suppose #3 was meant to be the main part of the episode. Of course, #1 worked fine as the usual first-act-setup. #3 seemed a little wacky and pointless, but it didn't bother me too much, as something had to come from #2... but #4, if it was meant to be of any significance at all, came out of nowhere and disappeared in a cloud of BULLS ALL OVER THE PLACE. Of themes 2, 3, and 4, I thought #2 had the most potential, if just as a secondary setup for another story (cf. 1F12, DABF09), but the bullfighting was definitely too involved of a topic to stick in the last act-and-a-half. Of course, as a result, the only resolution was BULLS ALL OVER THE PLACE. Elevators? Balloons? Anyhow, aside from the last act and a few other negative moments, I enjoyed the episode pretty well. Till next week...

DYN: ...LA sent a standard videotape, not a DV tape or DVD or something, to promote itself? ..."Stupid Flanders" remained part of the name of the stadium? ...the Van Houtens seem to be back together in act 1, but each is seen by him or herself later in the episode (and Luann is in her "new" outfit)? ..."assistant dead"? I know it's a little morbid and unrealistic, but I guessed that was coming and I really liked it - go figure. ...Grampa is 83? (Has his age ever been mentioned on the show?)

Previous episode references: GABF02: The "Jock Center" show and format is used again (I believe it's this episode), and big NFL office is the same BABF17, CABF10: It seemed like the pinball machine and "ring around the rosie" sounds came directly from these two episodes 5F09: Springfield is back in the habit of welcoming other cities' garbage AABF16: A Simpson drives away a big sports-hosting deal GABF01: Random ending courtesy of balloons

Meta-reference corner -I am guessing that "48 Minutes" is probably a reference to the actual running length of 60 Minutes (if still a bit high), but I can't help but notice that 48 is 4/5 of 60, the same as the characters' digital deficiency. -George Meyer (IIRC) is seen running from the bulls near the end.

Animation question I see this happen very often, in a variety of shows and both in traditional and digital animation/coloring techniques (e.g. Duckman, Family Guy, The Simpsons). When action has to be slowed down or paused, the held image gets a little blocky-looking, even at standard TV resolution. Tonight, there was a similar problem in the opening section of act 2, with the slowed-down Grampa montage. Why does this happen? And how is it so difficult to fix? I'm not trying to be mean, just curious; does anyone know?

Final note Ricky Gervais is scheduled to be on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" on Monday, 4/3. My guess is that last week's episode will come up at least in passing, so be sure to watch.

-I counted about 4 major themes: bringing football to Springfield, -Abe and suicide/death, Abe and bullfighting, and Lisa and bullfighting.

I personally found only 2. Bringing football to Springfield and Abe and suicide/death. I mean, Abe and bullfighting is kinda together since Abe got a new outlook on life---only to kill for entertainment and Lisa just being a part of that theme. I thought it was a geat episode. I think the last few seasons are very under-rated. I seem to be in the minority though.

R13

Matt Garvey wrote:

Well, the animation was a little choppy, probably to stress the fact that it was in slow-motion; maybe the blockiness is an optical illusion of some sort.

(It could also be digital artifacting, but I don't think that's what you mean by "blocky" - also, it would only affect satellite TV and other "digital signal" viewers.)

-- Don

DYN

The only LOL moment in the whole episode, Abe choosing to "go out" listening to Glenn Miller and watching cops beat hippies.

When the bulls were running after the people, wasn't that similar to the opening scene in Batman where the cartoon characters run down the street together?

This is not the 1st episode where a family member expects to die but does not. Don't forget "poison, poison, tastee fish!".

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I thought the animation in general seemed....weak? There was one shot of a car driving through an intersection where you really got a sense of the layering - badly - as in, there was a graphic of a car and a graphic of the background and one was being dragged and stretched on top of the other. There was no "reality" to the movement.