One thought that kept occuring to me throughout the episode was that it could have used one more plot. As it is, it seems that it must have been pretty short and required lots of filler, joke extension, and the telltale long opening/couch gag to get it to time. The Marge/Lisa plot was good enough; any attempt to extend that probably would have turned into a mini clip show, been an unnecessary "get Marge out of jail" ending, or taken the limited emotional focus off of Homer and Bart (if exploring the drug thing some more, for example). As for Homer and Bart, it started out promising (e.g. the diner scene), but seemed to get just a little wacky and not as touching; there's potential for some nice (and funny) actual bonding, yet things such as the drawn-out rescue scene and the little involvement of the punishment camp detracted from its impact. I'm a little ambivalent on the first act's (extended) steam reaction scene; each part was pretty good, but all together, they started to drag on. So... on the brighter side, I enjoyed the open ending and the bit of deadlock for the jail calls, and most of the non-drawn-out humor was fun. Time to pack it up for another month - till then!
DYN: ...the secretary (who apparently exists now) sounds a little like Doris Grau? ...Flanders waits to continue "Joseph's Coat" as he walks from door to window to window, judging by the continuity of the listed colors?
Previous episode references 4F01: Skinner's pride for his new car a bit like Chalmers' in this episode AABF03: State Comptroller Atkins appears 9F07: Mr. Plow jacket appears to be only previously seen item at yard sale (in the type of scene where usually half a dozen would appear) 7G09: Homer almost drives off a cliff
Goofs Judging by the way most airline seats are designated, Bart's seat should not be a "C" - "D" would be the most obvious choice.
Other notes -Assuming new episodes do return on 2/26, that will make a ten-week window with only 2 new episodes inside it. (And so much for February sweeps!) -Marge's insistence on "no looky-loos" for the yard sale sounds familiar. I did a quick look but turned up nothing - has the phrase appeared on the show before? -A question for Don: is this episode's official title spelled with a "D'oh" or an "(ANNOYED GRUNT)"?
Meta-reference corner As soon as the state of Oregon was mentioned, I figured a meta-reference would appear, and so it did, when Homer mentioned the birthplace of Matt "Groaning." That he later drove through the birthplace of MG seemed a little much, but at least there is a well-established convention of destroying popular figures' birthplaces on the show. The scene with Chief Wiggum and Lou, discussing his "Ma Peddle" joke, also seemed to be a bit of a reference to the show's humor and how the references often can be somewhat antiquated (not that I mind). And of course, Homer's "I bet this looks cool from overhead" comment while taking the four-leaf clover ramps was a nod as well.