Rate/Review "Springfield Up" (JABF07)

[vox]

So does anyone have a link for the episode? I missed it

willie hears ya. willie don't care

[JohnSmith1882]

Not bad at all. Was that the judge from Kickin' It in Homer Vs New York?

[JoshG]

Just downloaded it, and you're right, the episode just ends before the whole song. So strange. This version also doesn't have the opening credits/couch gag. Global had it.

So if the uncut version had a normal opening, then was Declan's intro moved to the start of act one? Cuz I liked it as the episode's intro w/ the “created/developed by” credits over the shot of the playground. Enhanced the uniqueness of the whole episode.

[caramelbart]

Meh 1/5

[TriforceBun]

That was an outstanding episode. It's quite late right now (and I'm equally late to the thread), so I'll keep it brief. This episode was unique, almost entirely character-based, and consistently funny (moments of humor I loved that haven't been mentioned much are Homer's looking at the "camera," his job as an open-casket caricature artist, and the dozens die in typing accident headline). The voice acting, pacing, and use of secondaries ranged from good to great. I truly felt that the episode didn't have any of the recent problems of S17 and 18--no overly-long gags, no sporadic, unfocused storyline, no generic plot contrivances, and no awful gags! The idea itself was excellent, and it was presented in a memorable way, making for a real fan-pleaser.

The only minor complaints I have are that I'd like to see more of the first act vignettes in the latter half, and...well, that's pretty much it. Maybe one or two gags didn't hit the mark, but whatever. Springfield Up was an original, compelling, memorable, funny, clever, fresh, and smartly-written show that had an outstanding use of comedic timing and atmosphere. There's no doubt that this'll be S18's Emmy nominee.

Up there with Moe Baby Blues and The Way We Weren't as one of the all-time best Jean episodes.

5/5 A

Meh 1/5

Care to clarify?

[Kiyosuki]

Lou has some incredible hair going there.

Oh, and some minor...minor trivia stuff. Stuff about ages. Lenny, Carl, Wiggum, and Homer are sort of around the same age. Its kind of been implied before but ages are always vague in this series. Its the most "solid" we've kind of gotten with it. In fact, Homer and Wiggum are pretty much said to be both 40 in this. (32+8). Another little instance of Homer's age jumping around. lol I'm not sure if Wiggum's age has ever been specifically said before though. Moe looks around CBG's age, and he's supposed to be 45. I'm not sure if Snake's age has ever been implied either but he looks to be around at least Homer and Wiggum's age too. At least for now.

Once again, nothing too anal or "concrete" here because you know how this series is with the little stuff. lol But it may be of mildly interesting note.

[MegaSvensk]

Man, this was a really good, original and funny episode.
One or two more eps of this quality and this won't be the worst season since season 11.

A / 5/5

[Jeff Vader]

the two beats that absolutely hammer in a deep cynicism about the rewards of ambition and genius are those of Frink and the Cat Lady, and those two choices reflect an anti-intellectualism rarely seen on this show.

I don't think the "cat lady" example represents an anti-intellectualism. She represents more of the anti-ambition streak that the show has. The writers seem to hate ambition, especially blind ambition. She seemed close to the Lindsay Nigel (i think that's her name) character who is bright and intelligent in a corporate/structured way, but is also the type of person that everyone hates because of her use of marketing lingo and belief that she is smarter than she is. Frank Grimes would probably be another example of the anti-ambition streak in the show.

As Homer has said, "If something's hard to do then it's not worth doing" and "You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try."

[Disgruntled Goat]

Wow, a pretty decent episode! Not laugh-a-minute like an episode such as this ought to be heading towards, but solid with enough of the good stuff. Ending pun was lame as hell, as those always have been. But this episode was definitely a big step in the right direction.

In fact, Homer and Wiggum are pretty much said to be both 40 in this. (32+8).

^^^Yeah I noticed that this implied Homer was 40 - that'll be why they chose 8-year intervals instead of 7 (Homer would have to be 35 or 42). 6 or 9 could have worked - Homer would be 36 (which he has been before).

[Veryjammy]

There are two gutsy ideas at work in "Springfield Up": It's the first flashback show where the flashbacks are actively at play with the present (rather than relegating the present to wraparound status), and I would say it's the first format-bender where the bend is a setpiece rather than the true focus of the show's action ("Nuestro Jomer" is arguable, but hallucinatory subject matter notwithstanding, it's the visuals that are revolutionary, not the story). I'm not convinced that either succeeds, but "Springfield Up" plays its trump cards -- different character models, seventies jokes and in-jokes about the future -- as well as it can.

I suppose an episode like this has seemed inevitable since Mike Reiss spoke wistfully about the notion of a "Simpsons Babies" spinoff on some commentary track or other, but it's easy to see why a series like that wouldn't have worked: Like most of the more celebrated episodes from recent seasons, this one plays hard to its core audience at the expense of casual viewers. To be fair, the show's creators clearly seem aware of this problem, hence the extreme absurdity that is the .44 magnum massage. And this episode compensates by hitting all the show's best-honed comic notes -- particularly misdirection (Disco Sea Captain), the infectious extension (twelve o'clock) and Stan Daniels turns (the quick cut to kids) beautifully.*

It's good that the comedy works when it does, because flashback episodes and assaults on fluffy feature reporting are both well-trodden territory for "The Simpsons," and while both should have plenty of material left to mine, this episode doesn’t have much new to say about early Homer/Marge (inevitably the focus of the former plot) or documentarians. It was a credible reinvention of previous jabs, just as "Behind the Laughter" reinvented the "138th" and the spinoff show by means of dead-on style parody, and human-interest documentarians who screw their subjects are certainly topical. But since the show abandons its still-fertile concept pretty early on in terms of the action, it's forced to stand on its character-based satire, and there just wasn’t much of any.

New tableaux of brilliant, talented Marge sacrificing her dreams for Homer don't add much to the existing dozens of examples we have (though I was tickled by Homer's artistic pursuits, which ring true to anyone with a liberal arts education). And Eric Idle does a solid job, but by the end of the first act, even people who haven't seen him before well understand that he's venal, backbiting and a little poncey. These are all things we've seen from Brockman time and again, and like a "Simpson, eh?" eventually it's behavior that begs something new.

Since the show does finally acknowledge the link that tends to form between documentarian and subject, I would have been more interested to see that explored more fully than just basic friendship with Moe and the standard treacle ending (which, considering how easy it was to see coming, took us too long to arrive at). Compassion and internal conflict are things we've never seen from any of the newsmen or women on "The Simpsons," and considering how much Declan is in this episode, at least some of the time he spends snickering could have been better spent more fully realizing the dimension of his character that is tacked on as a third-act conversion here.

Besides its reminder that newsmen are people, too, this episode's particularly vitriolic assertion that family (and, to a lesser extent, friendship) trump career success is the point on which I'm most conflicted. True, it is the mantra that makes the show work, but just like in real life, it’s one that can only be emphasized so much before it starts sounding desperate and sad. Besides the required ending, the two beats that absolutely hammer in a deep cynicism about the rewards of ambition and genius are those of Frink and the Cat Lady, and those two choices reflect an anti-intellectualism rarely seen on this show. The time machine didn't drive me as nuts as I'm sure it did Matt Groening, but my stomach turned when I saw the most positive example of a successful woman ever to appear on “The Simpsons” reduced to "that crazy cat lady," and vehicular manslaughter of the lonely man who invented a time machine reinforced that discomfort. I have to admit I was surprised to see such despair on this point; most of the show's writers are old enough to know how well they have it.

These particularly bitter notes reinforce just how hollow this episode feels at its core. It's been punched up quite well, and it's worth acknowledging that while the show's comic notes are all seen here, it's not just in terms of the tired one-note character jokes that haunt episodes like "Little Big Mom." But style parodies like "Behind the Laughter," or, say, the X-Files Episode "X-Cops," work because they don't implode on themselves. I'm not going to argue that "X-Cops" had more to say than this episode, but I wouldn't have wanted to watch "Behind the Laughter" if one act of documentary was followed by two acts of the Simpsons running away from VH-1, either.

3/5.

*Just as importantly in terms of what "The Simpsons" really does well, the adults acting (for the most part) quite credibly as kids does a decent job of compensating for the complete lack of child perspective from the usual sources, which would otherwise have cut the legs out from underneath this conceit.

Anyone else feel incredibly dumb reading this post?

[Tomacco]

So if the uncut version had a normal opening, then was Declan's intro moved to the start of act one? Cuz I liked it as the episode's intro w/ the “created/developed by” credits over the shot of the playground. Enhanced the uniqueness of the whole episode.

Yep, it was at the start of act one. The couch gag, for those who wanna know, was a repeat of the Simpsons as cockroaches running off when the light turns on.

[JM1878]

I don't think the "cat lady" example represents an anti-intellectualism. She represents more of the anti-ambition streak that the show has. The writers seem to hate ambition, especially blind ambition. She seemed close to the Lindsay Nigel (i think that's her name) character who is bright and intelligent in a corporate/structured way, but is also the type of person that everyone hates because of her use of marketing lingo and belief that she is smarter than she is. Frank Grimes would probably be another example of the anti-ambition streak in the show.

As Homer has said, "If something's hard to do then it's not worth doing" and "You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try."

I love lines like those two, but I think they're often misinterpreted as the show's actual editorial viewpoint rather than a self-conscious attack on the sitcom conventions at the heart of the show.

Frank Grimes is probably the best example of the show's take on this divide between the mythology of a producer culture full of Horatio Algers and the reality of a consumer culture full of Homer Simpsons, but Grimes isn't the one being criticized the most harshly in "Homer's Enemy." Like Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Sir Topas in the Canterbury Tales or pretty much anybody in Tamburlaine, he is an attack on the foundation of the world into which he has been thrown.

Grimes is the epitome of the notion that an American can pull himself up by his bootstraps, regardless of crippling silo explosions. When he sinks into the ground, the Puritan work ethic sinks along with him (to riotous laughter). But that's a criticism of the sheer insanity that lies at the heart of most of my favorite episodes of "The Simpsons": The notion that Homer is the hero, that we laugh with him and not at him. The tacit ridiculousness of this idea is at the heart of perhaps the best argument Chris Turner makes in Planet Simpson -- that Homer is the antithesis of every ideal our frontiersmen- and cowboy-loving society claims to hold dear.

To be fair (and I think Turner takes note of this, too), it's not just Homer's consumerism that we identify with -- it's his defiance of authority. But I would argue that we identify with Homer more when he is TRYING to do things -- to help his kids, to romance his wife, to get a job he likes better -- than we do when he’s chewing on Grimey’s pencils or eating his lunch. The brilliance of “Homer’s Enemy” is that we may go back to rooting for Homer when his next caper comes around, but we can’t help but recognize our own hypocrisy as we cheer him on. That adds an entire level to every subsequent “Simpsons” adventure and every message that comes with them.

The devolution of the Cat Lady, however, is not John Swartzwelder raging against the machine he helped build. Nor is it Lindsay Naegel, who exemplifies the machine against which Swartzwelder raged decades ago as an advertising copywriter. Naegel represents the engine of consumer culture that victimizes people like Grimes. She is consistently in thrall to a corporate master, and her only apparent desires are rooted in the consumerism she espouses. But that’s not what we see in the Cat Lady -- a hyperbolically brilliant woman at her peak reduced to a gibbering lunatic because she worked too hard to have time for a family by age 30.

[Kiyosuki]

I don't think the "cat lady" example represents an anti-intellectualism. She represents more of the anti-ambition streak that the show has. The writers seem to hate ambition, especially blind ambition. She seemed close to the Lindsay Nigel (i think that's her name) character who is bright and intelligent in a corporate/structured way, but is also the type of person that everyone hates because of her use of marketing lingo and belief that she is smarter than she is. Frank Grimes would probably be another example of the anti-ambition streak in the show.

As Homer has said, "If something's hard to do then it's not worth doing" and "You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try."

The way I saw Eleanor/CCL's little descent into maddness wasn't necessarilly promoting a total lack of ambition. To me it was about being level with yourself. You know, taking things in stride, pacing yourself, taking in the good with the bad, and not pushing yourself so much that it makes you self destruct.

No effort or ambition at all's also been poked at in this series many times too. Lazyness and falling to complacency is really one of the most destructive forces in the universe if you think about it. lol And this series hasn't denied that either. In general I think the show goes more towards avoiding extremes of yourself and keeping things balanced.

Thats really what this episode was all about. Taking life as it is, and not constantly as what you wish it to be. As I said what I liked about this episode is how every segment was fun, and in some cases really humorous...but many of them had a point too. They all went together to help further the point made with Homer and Marge in the end.

-Wiggum did what he could and acomplished what he wanted. You may be able to critisize his ability, but you can't critisize that he at least got there. He may not have pants that fit (lol) or be perfect at what he does but still he's a...for the most part nice guy who can't really ignore that he did alright for himself.
-Frink did quite a bit with his life. He wanted to get his hands on a lady of course (didn't he have a kid? lol small details.) and never did, but still he didn't do so bad. But I guess he had trouble seeing that. Whats ironic is that he could probably find easier ways of finding love than a time machine. lol He's only looking at what he wants.
-Eleanor had big dreams and did them all, but the thing is...is she self destructed from how much she did at once. We all have our limits and commiting yourself to too much expectation is really rarely a good thing. You'll kind of miss life.
-Nautical Stu was just awsome fluff. lol

-It all boils down to the end with Homer and Marge. Homer tried his usual get rich quick schemes and experiments to make it big but he never did. And Marge wanted to become a photographer/photo journalist but didn't get the chance too. The big kick here though thats supported by all the other segments, is Declan mocks Homer and as Homer pretty sympathetically puts, makes him out to be the guy "that makes others look good". But as Marge plainly sees herself despite her life not ending up how she wanted it, and how imperfect it may be...that their life isn't all that bad either. They've done quite a bit, and some around Springfield even like/envy something about them.

If Homer had never tried...anything he wouldn't of gotten Marge, his family, and what life he does have. But as he says in the end, if you always pay attention to what you don't have and how you wished things were you'll miss whats going on in the now.

Thats how I saw this episode's little subtle message. It uses Homer in a vaguely similar manner to how he's used in Homer's Enemy.