Rate & Review: "Bart Vs. Lisa Vs. The Third Grade" (DABF20)

[The Governor]

Originally posted by DotheBartman


It wasn't Lisa's Sub level, but nothing is anyways.

Luck of the Fryrish was, IMO. It's Futurama's equivalent.

Jake

[lisa_the_greek]

Originally posted by Simpson Purist


-No Miss Hoover? I guess Maggie Roswell isn't returning for good

But Marcia Mitzman was actually *good* as Ms. Hoover in Trilogy of Error. It's the one time she did a voice and I actually went, "Is that Maggie Roswell?"

By the way, the episode- 5/5. VERY well done, VERY clever.

[Andy]

I was REALLY scared when I heard a radio promo with a clip from Homer going "THEY'RE GOING TO BE IN THE SAME CLASS?! OH, THIS IS HELL!" and crying like his Scullified self. The first part was in the ep, but thankfully not the second part. It probably was just put in there by Fox.

[DotheBartman]

Originally posted by Jake


Luck of the Fryrish was, IMO. It's Futurama's equivalent.

Jake

Hmm...yeah, that was pretty close too, though I'd have to see it again to evaluate it more clearly. From my standpoint it was the best Futurama ever, with "Jurassic Bark" probably coming in second (Tale of Two Santas, A Head in the Polls, and A Big Ball of Garbage are also favorites, though for different reasons).

And Tomacco, I hear ya, this tv season in general has been hell save for the two Futuramas I've seen and maybe parts of tonights somewhat lackluster Simpsons. Even SNL is in the pitts in this year.

[Simpson Purist]

Marcia Mitzman-Gaven was okay as Miss Hoover, but she never got the chance to say more than two lines with her.

Large Marge seems to have the entire No Homers community in hiding (including me).

*SP prays that Large Marge will turn out decent*

[Bob Underdunk T]

A-
Highlights:
*Lion/Antelope Allience
*"Coming up on clock channel...6:00"
*Bart looses his mind
*"Haw-haw!" "You're not in this class. What are you doing here?" "Laughin' at jerks."
*The buddy system; fool-proof
*"Nobody understands you, She Bear."


Large Marge better have some funny verbel jokes, cause from the looks of the previews, it's 22 minutes of her bumping things, and being looked at.

[joe]

THANK YOU AL JEAN!!!! You have given us back our show...kudos!!! Awesome show!!!

[joe h]

The plot/story stays focus now, but that has resulted in every character either being stereotypes of themselves, or just wacky. The dialogue alone destroyed what could have been a decent episode. 2/5

As far as the hotel thing, if they really are the same, in this area almost every hotel chain and independently own hotel have gone Best Western, I am guessing it was a hidden joke. Also Brokaws soccer mom report is dead on when it comes to NBC news. Now that I think of it, they really threw in some hidden references.

[Smilin'JoeFission]

Couch Gag: its nice to see new ground to couch gags. Homer parodying the "Get Smart" opening will forver be be a classic.

First Act: Fantastic! I had a few gripes; poor-written dialouge between Homer and Flanders, some stuff with Marge, but there were some excellent moments. The "Touch the Stove" was so ridiculous, but so hilarious. The Robo Trumble- er, Robot Rumble was hilarious "Together we can defeat the human race....sucker!". But by far, Bart's TV-induced hallucinations were the best.

Second Act: Not as good as the first, but still very good. The retrn to Capital City was great with return of Tony Bennent's song, Gov. Bailey and CC Goofball, but we only got to see a few buildings. Marge telling Lisa not to touch the "free" USA Today was funny, a good example of her character. I'll agree, Bart's flag prank was indeed childish, but he is ten years old. Besides, in tonight's KOTH, Bobby was making drugs at the science fair!

Third Act: Felt very rushed, but ended well, all the same. The freaky hillbillies didn't add a whole lot, but the quip about Spy magazine was OK. Milhouse as Bart's replacement was well-done, too. I noticed Maggie hardly got any face time tonight. Willie at the Field Trip memorial wall was xcellent, was that a parody? I've seen much better Bart and Lisa episodes, but so far, I'd say this the best of the season- ESPECIALLY AFTER SEEING THE PROMO FOR NEXT WEEK'S EP.

Grade- [b]B+[b]

btw, Futurama was excellent tonight. Almost as good as "Luck of the Fryish" I loved the use of flashbacks, and how Seymour was worked in to the familiar scene first episode. Fry's father blaming everything on Y2K was funny. The ednding was incredible.

KOTH- below par. A lot seemed out of character. Also, Brittany Murphy is a regular cast member, what was all the hype on FOX tonight?

Malcom in the Middle- great! Christopher Lloyd was great as Hal's dad, and the scene with the go kart was superb

[Citizen Kang]

Originally posted by Jake
Anyone notice the rap song sounded a lot like Squad Def's "Rappers Delight"?

You mean Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight." They did it originally.

[Simpson Purist]

Originally posted by Smilin'JoeFission
Willie at the Field Trip memorial wall was xcellent, was that a parody?

Also, Brittany Murphy is a regular cast member, what was all the hype on FOX tonight?

The field trip memorial is a parody of all those scenes at the end of war films where you see a bunch of names at the war memorial and someone stands there sobbing. I'm kind of surprised they got away with that gag, it was great.

Remember Brittany Murphy is a star now (Don't Say A Word, 8 Mile), why not have FOX capitalize on her newfound fame. I'm sure FOX would do the same for Hank Azaria if he was big.

[Tomacco]

Yeah, that wall that they parodied has the names of victims of WWII I believe. I know it's in Washington.

[Kalbelgarion]

'Twas a parody of the Vietnam War Memorial.

[Moose of Doom!]

Just saw the episode. Is it just me or did it have a lot of wasted potential? They could've at least shown a reaction from krabappel when Bart was dropped down.

Other than that it was good

[Old Time Bike]

4/5
pretty good. pretty good.

[BangBangBart]

Great episode, so many funny scenes. It had me cracking up throughout the whole episode 5/5.

[forgetaboutme]

The best of the three eps this season, in my humblest of opinions. While, granted, I was not a big fan of the family of wayward inbreds at the end of the third act, the rest of it seemed pretty grounded. And Bart's little hallucination during the test -- the singing of "Hava Nagila" was a nice touch -- topped off by his little giggle had me reeling.

A steady 4/5.

A note, though: The promo for 'Large Marge' has me frightened.

[davidshirt]

Great episode. It reminded me of the good old days of the Simpsons. The story stayed focused and it wasn't an over the top episode.

[*Waylon Smithers*]

5/5 A! It kicks ass that they have satellite. They could've had more scences from the third grade and did anyone catch the teacher's name? A great episode indeed.

[Max Power]

To sum it up, great episode, and that's the end of that chapter.

[Enter The Moleman]

BEST COUCH GAG EVER!

the episode was good but not great. I liked the dream sequence the best.

side note: large marge looks awful!

[Mike Scully]

I agree 100% with Tomacco's review.

[Cole]

Meh. This was a 3/5 episode for me. So many wasted opportunities. The satellite parodies could have been so much better (aside from the Japanese Friends)...so much material to work with there. And then there were the lame scenes such as the MC Safety and the Safety crew scene and the scene with the redneck family that saved Bart and Lisa. This episode was also drenched in self-referential humor which left a bad taste in my mouth. It did have it's moments, though -- such as the "Get Smart Couch Gag" which has to be my new all-time favorite. And there were some great scenes like the one where Homer and Flanders "argue" over the satellite dish. Also, Marge warning Lisa not to touch the free USA Today had me laughing out loud. That reminded me of what I consider to be the "classic Marge behavior" which we have seen less and less of in recent years. Some great gags but alot of lame jokes that really brought it down. I'm pretty disappointed with this one, as I had very high expectations for it. Still, I give it a C.

[melZets]

Agree with "good-not-great" reviews. Felt like this was made in response to all the fans who constantly cry for less Homercentric plots, no wacky stories to accomodate guest stars, and some continuity.

Copacetic!
Dogs eat barf solely on Wednesdays, Maybel.
Two for flinching!
Parentwaivesrighttosuesayswhat.

[Edgehopper]

I give it a 5/5. This was simply a wonderful episode. In general, I compare episodes to their closest companions, so in this case I'm comparing to "Secret War of Lisa Simpson," "Separate Vocations," "Lisa on Ice," "Das Bus," and all the other Bart and Lisa episodes. This episode outshines most of them, with the possible exception of Separate Vocations (one of my favorites.)

Great satire here that's been missing for a while, with the Goofball, the buddy system line, Willy's scene. Great one liners and visual gags, like Skinner's "A parent who waives the right to sue says what?" line, "Learn to Fart," the Bart dancing the horah in his mind held aloft by Bender, Dan Rather, a clown, and a clock-headed guy scene (I was in hysterics at that one--when was the last time they did anything that could be construed as Jewish humor?) Good education jokes, and overall I had nothing to complain about.

I put this over Little Girl in the Big Ten, and probably tied with Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge for best episode since S8.

Combined with tonight's Futurama and Malcolm, this may be one of the best nights of TV in a long time...

Another gag I liked (I play tenor and bari sax for the Princeton marching band) was the Maggie tossing the skateboard and saxophone in the trash scene at the end. Did anyone else notice that where Lisa usually plays the baritone sax, Maggie threw out a tiny little tenor sax? For some reason, I thought that was really funny.

[*Waylon Smithers*]

Originally posted by Enter The Moleman
BEST COUCH GAG EVER!

Damn straight!

[Channel Surfer]

My opinions can be found here. Scroll to the bottom to read my opinion (or feel free to read any other review by me or my partner ) Ultimately, I gave it a 7.5/10, a C. It techincally rounds rounds to an 4/5 over here, but if a 3/5 is a C (and not a D-), then so be it.

[Gagnonsux]

Originally posted by Tomacco
I hate saying it, but so far I'm disappointed with this season.
I was expecting more from every single episode that's aired so far, especially tonight's. Next week's is freaking me out too, and DABF21 just sounds zany to me, plus they've made enough reality show jabs after tonight's ep.

Just bring on the EABF's already.

I totally agree, it seems like they save the crappy DABFs for this season. I haven't seen anything near the quality of most of season 13.

[•ºMikè~Stẕ]

I really liked it. 5/5

[kupomog]

Well, I'm pissed as ever. The station that is supposed to show the Simpsons is having "Technical Difficulties in programming" so instead of the new Simpsons, they're showing some goddamn crappy ass movie! I'm so goddamn pissed off! Grr, I'm gonna go yell at the TV some more... :angry: :angry: