I caught it at 7pm Eastern on canadian TV.
Really liked it. Is our favorite family off onto a good streak now? 
And… is the holiday-themed opening credit sequence all new or have they shown that one before??
Cool, they even had Christmas-themed opening credits. 
Is this the fastest opening of a Simpson’s thread ever? It’s not even half over.
Is this the first Christmas special they’ve done? Since the Tracey Ullman Show, I mean? I remember other Christmas-themed episodes, but this one seems to have really gone whole-hog.
“Fresh off the plane… from his father’s funeral… it’s SIDESHOW MEL!”
Actually, the OP started it right as the episode was starting.
They’ve done a bunch of Christmas-themed episodes over the years - especially the last few years.
Huh. When there are duplicate threads, I usually just close the second, later thread and link to the first one, but since both threads were started at the same time, I figure I’d just merge them.
My powers at Christmas are mighty.
Me…
(Sorry, watching this awful episode made me too listless to add the “h”. What a waste after last week’s episode.)
I like Gil, but a whole episode of his character is a bit much to take.
“You want some eggs a la Harold Stassen? They’re always running!”
I had to look that up to get this joke- it’s actually pretty funny.
Forgettable episode, overall - few ‘modern’ entries would have looked good after last week’s, but still. As usual, I can’t remember the lines I liked, but the two or three decent ones* didn’t redeem the rest of it, particularly the Grumble gag, which was WAY overused.
I did like the development of Gil’s character and I’ve got no problem with a Gil-centric episode. When they got to Arizona, I was hoping the signs meant that Gil was actually a big success there, and was pretending to be a loser in Springfield. That would have changed the way we see the character, and it also would have made this episode less like “The Ziff Who Came to Dinner,” which had a similar plot but was a better episode.
*Ah, now I remember a few: the calendar gag was pretty good, and the MLK Day newspaper (headline: Today We Remember Dr. Martin Luther King; subhead: Tomorrow, We Don’t) was very cutting.
One of the worst episodes I can remember. Everyone was just plain annoying or mean. (Marge has to drive all the way to Scottsdale just so she can yell at Gil?)
Odd. Last weeks was weak, this week’s was much stronger. The Krusty’s Holiday on Ice was funny, and the various holidays on the calendar very much so. I alsoloved the twist that Gil had left before Marge could say “no” to him.
“That’s OK. I make six of these a year.”
Marge: Christian charity.
Homer: What does a porn star have to do with it?
It was good, but I have to admit this was this first Sunday when Simpsons was edged out by a more clever American Dad.
I have to agree. Gil doesn’t hold a candle to time-traveling adventures to shoot Ronald Reagan. Sorry, Gil.
I thought it sucked. Worst episode this season.
Actually, this one was only a half-Christmas episode, IMHO. It was mainly focused on Gil, but happened to start at Christmastime and took a whole year to get to the end at next Christmas. I think “'Tis the Sixteenth Season” was the last true “Christmas special.”
Had a few laughs, but I liked the astrolabe Christmas episode from a few years ago better.
The bit with the fight and the baskeball players had to be the most appropriately timed TV show ever. The production staff must have been amazed when they heard about the Knicks the night before.
Maybe Matt Groening is God!