Rate and Review: Last Tap Dance in Springfield

[TheFlandersMan]

I have to say that this is a great season 11 episode. I recently popped it in my VCR and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was laughing throughout, and the pacing, acting and emotion was excellent. They still knew how to do good humor back then, no doubt.

I'd take Scully over Jean anyday.

[garret]

I haven't seen it in a while but I remember liking both plots. B+/A-

[Semaj]

Pretty much everything TheFlandersMan said. Mike Scully produced some of the funniest episodes ever.

5/5

[Nameless]

overrated. c+

[Jayrayman]

meh, it was ok. 3/5

[simplysimpsons]

Brilliant for season 11. Fun and fast with both plots working pretty well. A couple of off colour moments, like the ending, but I liked it overall. B

[Channel Surfer]

If you want to make a case that Scully is better than Jean, this would not be the episode I'd pick.

Anyway, stupid episode. This might be the only episode to fail at the most basic storytelling idea of motivation. Because if you think about it, this episode is so ineptly written that it doesn't give a single reason on why Lisa is in the tap dancing class. Not even a half-assed reason like her immediate swooning over her movie character and wanting to dance the Tango de la Muerte, literally no reason at all. So any attempt at emotion or caring about what's going on is wasted, because there is no reason any of this should be going on.

The rest is lame too. The Bart/Milhouse stuff is a sad retelling of Bart and Ralph's town escapades montage in "This Little Wiggy" which wasn't exactly great to begin with, ending with a completely never before done idea of mocking common cartoon cliches. The Lisa "plot" is made only more annoying by Little Vicki, a conveniently stupid character that can and does nonsensical things for the sake of a gag or plot point. Things like "Vicki"/"Little Vicki"/"But you just said...", cat fighting with Lisa for some reason (major groan), "That's a smile, not an upside down frown", ect, and aside from Ralph her domineering idiocy is the supposed source of humor in this sad story. Other Scullyish conventions of self-tap dancing shoes and Homer's laser eye surgery, not to mention the fact that nepotism reigned supreme with the writing credit, only serve as a reminder that this episode would never have passed even three years ago, and would surprise me still if such nonsense passed even today. A few gags, countable on one hand, are the sum total worth of this episode. D+

[brody]

Basically what CS said

C-

[Thats A Paddlin]

Scully is much better than Jean IMO, and Ive always enjoyed this episode, 4/5.

[Lisa's First Word]

One of the good ones from Scully

85/100

[Rest your giant head]

4/5
My 3rd favorite season 11 episode.

[TheFlandersMan]

If you want to make a case that Scully is better than Jean, this would not be the episode I'd pick.

Anyway, stupid episode. This might be the only episode to fail at the most basic storytelling idea of motivation. Because if you think about it, this episode is so ineptly written that it doesn't give a single reason on why Lisa is in the tap dancing class. Not even a half-assed reason like her immediate swooning over her movie character and wanting to dance the Tango de la Muerte, literally no reason at all. So any attempt at emotion or caring about what's going on is wasted, because there is no reason any of this should be going on.

The rest is lame too. The Bart/Milhouse stuff is a sad retelling of Bart and Ralph's town escapades montage in "This Little Wiggy" which wasn't exactly great to begin with, ending with a completely never before done idea of mocking common cartoon cliches. The Lisa "plot" is made only more annoying by Little Vicki, a conveniently stupid character that can and does nonsensical things for the sake of a gag or plot point. Things like "Vicki"/"Little Vicki"/"But you just said...", cat fighting with Lisa for some reason (major groan), "That's a smile, not an upside down frown", ect, and aside from Ralph her domineering idiocy is the supposed source of humor in this sad story. Other Scullyish conventions of self-tap dancing shoes and Homer's laser eye surgery, not to mention the fact that nepotism reigned supreme with the writing credit, only serve as a reminder that this episode would never have passed even three years ago, and would surprise me still if such nonsense passed even today. A few gags, countable on one hand, are the sum total worth of this episode. D+

I don't find most of your complaints to be valid. There IS a reason for Lisa to be in that tap dancing class, and it's not half-assed. Simple, she see's a dancing movie, Tango de la Muerte, and aspires to be a dancer. Lisa gets short changed by Little Vicky, a washed up movie dancer with the ego the size of a mountain. Lisa has these dreams and fantasies of something she cannot do well, and the teacher does nothing to improve her technique, and instead shoves her off as curtain puller. From that alone there was plenty of emotion to be had.

Here, Season 2 episode for you: Bart the Daredevil. Bart sees a evil kinevil type, and aspires to be a daredevil just like him. Now I'm not comparing the quality of the two episodes at all, but the simple reason for wanting to perform applies to both Bart and Lisa, in this case.

And the humor is purely subjective. I personally found a lot of it to be hilarious throughout, as do others. The character of little vicky was fun and different. Homer's eye surgery was admittedly Scully all the way, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case, as I liked that scene a lot.

I didn't hand pick this episode to argue that Scully is better than Jean. As I said this was the first episode that was on my tape when I put in the VCR. That said, I do like it more than most Jean episodes. No shame in saying that, too.

[Imperciph]

But Lisa is a lot less impressionable than Bart. It is more believable to see Bart impressed by a extreme daredevil who defies the rules and regulations than to see Lisa being inspired to be a tap dancer all of a sudden by seeing a certain dance move.

[garret]

That's all well and good but she's 8. I can easily imagine an 8 year old girl wanting to learn to dance just from seeing a movie. It's just as believeable as Bart wanting to be a daredevil from seeing one IMO.

[bluemoose]

Impressionability aside, I just didn't find this episode to be very funny at all. I only remember laughing at a couple of jokes. Granted, I haven't seen it in a while, but still. C-.

[Channel Surfer]

I don't find most of your complaints to be valid. There IS a reason for Lisa to be in that tap dancing class, and it's not half-assed. Simple, she see's a dancing movie, Tango de la Muerte, and aspires to be a dancer. Lisa gets short changed by Little Vicky, a washed up movie dancer with the ego the size of a mountain. Lisa has these dreams and fantasies of something she cannot do well, and the teacher does nothing to improve her technique, and instead shoves her off as curtain puller. From that alone there was plenty of emotion to be had.

First, there's no reason for her to be in a tap dancing class. What does tap dancing have to do with the movie? How often is the movie mentioned once she enters that tap dancing class? That's what I mean by no motivation.

Ignoring that, the movie as a catalyst is weak anyway. Weak because in order to make her care about being a dancer, it relies on simple conveniences and simple writing to make her interested. She wants to be a dancer because she sees a character with her name, with bella on the end of it. Nothing more than that. It's neither a very interesting motivation nor (unlike Bart in "Bart the Daredevil"), at least as conveyed here, something she should have an interest in inherently. It's a similar issue I have with "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky" and a lot of Homer gets-a-job episodes, they wrote her into a frame of mind where her motivation could justify any activity the episode warranted, which is, with little exception, a pretty lazy way of writing.

That said, I do like it more than most Jean episodes. No shame in saying that, too.

There should be. :silly:

[Conker Maddix]

A great ending but i didn't really like the plot. 3/5

[luben]

While 'Tango de la muerte' (but wasn't it a spoof) and Lisa's comments during the movie were actually silly, the idea of a 8-year-old girl wishing to become a dancer after having watched a movie about dance is not so unbelivable (unless you have a too idealized concept of Lisa).

Marge and Lisa went to Little Vicki's school trusting her, having been a famous Hollywood star, and Vicki prevailed upon Lisa to attend her tap dance school.

The character of Vicki, in what she represented, was well written. She was a cliched ex Hollywood star, having had a brief and too rapid and easy career, with a troubled life behind her, no more carried by anyone, so cinical and self-centric to consider other people as being nothing. Vicki had so much talent for tap dance, it was so natural for her to dance without making any sacrifices, never needing to apply hard to it, that she really coudn't teach anything to the non-gifted, nerdish Lisa.
There's a commentary here: often it happens that gifted people, who manage to do great things without making any sacrifices, hardly can understand the value of applying hard to a thing, the value of making sacrifices to reach own targets, the difficulties a non-gifted person faces out to accomplish own wishes.

When Lisa realized that she never would have learnt to dance from Vicki, she wanted to give up tap dance, but Lisa noticed that Homer and Marge were very proud of her new interest and so she decided to keep trying hard, not to disappoint her parents. Another commentary here, about parents conditioning their children choices.

Anyway, the idea of Dr. Frink's dancing shoes was stupid and too cartoonish, while the whole scene of the ballet was horrible.

I enjoied the plot B. It was very similar to the scene from This Little Wiggy, but, still, there were some differences, and the two plots were distinguishable, at least.
I think the ending of plot B was a nice spoof of old cartoons.

Anyway, the humor was consistently good (but it's subjective...).

Bart was well written (for once), Homer wasn't over-the-top and Lisa was belivable.

While LTDIS is for sure not a great episode, it is still better than many other episodes produced since then. 4/5 (B-)

[Prof. Frink]

There aren't many great episodes from Season 11, but this is certainly a highlightable one. It's not the episode you may watch over and over without being bored, but it dwarves some of its surrounding episodes

[Ramier Wolfcastle]

One of the better episodes of Season 11. The idea of Lisa failing at tap-dancing was a bit bland, but the Bart-Milhouse subplot was funny.

4/5 or a B.

[Jeff]

it was OK. i actually forgot about this episode till this poll came up so it certainly wasn't a memorable episode for me but it was pretty good, especially for a season 11 episode. (4/5)

[tom cody]

4/5, good episode

[Sideshow Jay]

4/5, great episode for being from Season 11.

[Speedy Boris]

First, there's no reason for her to be in a tap dancing class. What does tap dancing have to do with the movie? How often is the movie mentioned once she enters that tap dancing class?

Maybe there were no other types of dancing classes available in Springfield, so they had to settle for tap dancing?

Anyway, it's an all right episode, certainly not a painful affair to watch, though not outstanding by any means. I can think of better and worse episodes from season 11.

[ThaSimpsonz]

It's okay, it's well written and it's funny, but it's not one of those episodes where I get the feeling I'd watch it again soon.

[Cartoonnetwork]

That's funny cause I think it's a Scully episode that kinda feels like an early Jean episode. I mean I can imagine this one in season 14 or 15. Another one that I think it could fit in both eras is Hungry Hungry Homer.

Anyway I find it ok. It's not extremely memorable but everybody was more or less in character, there were enough good jokes in it and the story had decent structure and logic. I don't have any problem with any gag or with Vicky's character, but I certainly dislike Homer's eye surgery. Other than that, pretty decent, I c