I was watching an episode today, in which Lisa’s class gets a new substitute teacher. This teacher recognises her talent and intelligence, and encourages her to learn. Lisa convinces Marge to invite him round for dinner, but the teacher leaves for another assignment in a different city. Back home, Lisa is heartbroken, and Bart is sad about not winning the class president election. Homer manages to comfort both kids, as well as Maggie, and feels like a superdad!
The part where the Lisa is saying goodbye to the teacher on the train, and the part where Homer comforts his kids really touched me. Call me girlish and childish, but it really got to me. I think the script, animation, and writing talent are sometimes better than in some movies. There have been other episodes that have got to me, for example the one in which Bart throws Lisa’s centrepiece into the fire, and later they make up on the roof. <sniff>
Yes but Fururama was different in that it wasn’t based around a proper family. The Simpsons plays sentiment more effectively because you really feel for the characters. When Bart and Lisa make up, or Marge declares her love for Homer, you can relate it to a real life family. For me, at least, it seems more emotional because the characters and the interaction between them seem more realistic.
Yeah, the episodes from the first couple of years in particular really could carry some weight when they wanted to. I think 'Round Springfield, the episode in which Bleeding Gums Murphy dies, is one of the best.
Just last night I saw the episode where Homer sees his long lost mother and at the end where she leaves and the credits role and Homer is sitting on the hood of his car as it gets dark gets to me to every time b/c the scene is sad and the theme song is real slow as well
The episode where Bart gets caught shoplifting. I get choked up when Marge catches Bart sneaking in the house with a photo of himself, with the receipt “paid in full.”
Help me out - is Bart going to be held back a year? He has to take a test alone and Mrs. Crabapple fudges the rules so he just passes (an ‘F’?) and anyway here’s the thing - they gather round the fridge to look at Bart’s paper and make a big fuss of him and there are several ‘A’ graded papers of Lisa’s behind it.
You can tell how that gets to me by the clear and lucid way I’ve expressed myself.
BTW the sub teacher is Dustin Hoffman isn’t it?
Could well be, Macau! The episode I’m talking about was on BBC1 yesterday… did you see it? The voice would fit with Hoffman, as well as the image, and of course being jewish.
The BEST episode of The Simpsons EVER is when Homer and Marge are remembering the time prior to Maggie’s birth. Homer quit his job at the plant and got his dream job and everything was hunky dory until Marge became pregnant. They didn’t have enough money to pay for another child on the salary Homer was receiving, so he goes and begs his old job back from Mr. Burns. Burns tapes up a sign in Homer’s office that reads:
DON’T FORGET YOU’RE HERE FOREVER
Cut to present day, Homer is sitting in his office and we see that he has taped pictures of Maggie over the sign to read:
For that to work, you must remember that Bart and Lisa (as we learned earlier in the episode) would never call their father “Daddy,” as Homer wanted them to-they’d just call him “Homer.” Maggie, however, seems to have learned not to call your elders by their first name. Homer would be proud…if he had heard her say it.
