“As you may know, I might not be around much longer. So I’ve decided to give you your inheritance before I die, that way I can see you enjoy it.” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson
Frankenstein’s Monster had less obvious stitch marks where the pieces were sewn together than this episode. We’ve got Lisa and Nelson getting involved (“Lisa’s Date with Density”), Marge splurging on something and returning it (“Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”), Grampa passing on money to kick start the plot (“Lisa vs. Malibu Stacey”), the kids doling out their inherited money (“Bart the Fink”), and someone wanting to use found money to rent a carpet cleaner (“Bart on the Road”). Even the Itchy & Scratchy bit wasn’t immune, with Scratchy getting married and living happily ever after, Itchy blowing him up in the grave, and Itchy vacuuming up his ghost. And no, the irony of watching an episode about squandered inheritance squandering its own inheritance didn’t make it any more enjoyable.
Of course, the episode had a lot of problems beyond those. The b-plot was nonsense, had no ending, and had Jerkass Homer at his worst. The a-plot kind of had an ending, but mostly it just petered out after blowing through its various guest voices.
The numbers are in and, sadly, they have gone slightly up. I hate when that happens. Last night’s parade of unrelated bits was seen by 8.59 million people. That’s up from last week, though it’s still low by the fall standards of the show. I’m not sure how much of that is Mark Zuckerberg related; though I don’t think it’s the least bit coincidental that this episode came out the same week as The Social Network.
charliesweatpants.com
(The crotch really does wear out too fast.)
Didn’t know where to stick this, but this might interest you:
http://filesocial.com/hmhm63n
Story fragments courtesy of Bill Oakley. Some of the plots got made (Homer getting Smithers’ job, Bart & Playdude, the Sinkhole…which went to the movie, Bart vs Australia, Martin’s parents throwing a birthday party for Martin, a Lisa vs US history plot that may have evolved into “Lisa The Iconoclast”, etc)
Some of the fragments seem funnier than the last few seasons: Grampa finally visiting the Matlock set, where everyone is 70 years old. Also, they assume Matlock is still on the air; JFK parody with Sideshow Bob; Fragment/B-plot with Moe changing his number to various famous ones and people calling him (personal favorite: Beechwood 4-5789 gets Motown women to call him); and possibly my favorite: Flanders writing a Christian Sci-Fi book. THAT one has potential.
This episode ranked 11th in 18-49 for the week. I didn’t know network TV was this much of a wasteland.