• New article from the Springfield Shopper: A Sneak Peek for “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes” has been released!
  • New article from the Springfield Shopper: Season 36 News: Even more Preview Images for “O C’mon All Ye Faithful” have been released!
  • New article from the Springfield Shopper: Season 36 News: The stories which the segments of “Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes” are based of have been announced!
  • Wikisimpsons needs more Featured Article, Picture, Quote, Episode and Comprehensive article nominations!
  • Wikisimpsons has a Discord server! Click here for your invite! Join to talk about the wiki, Simpsons and Tapped Out news, or just to talk to other users.
  • Make an account! It's easy, free, and your work on the wiki can be attributed to you.
TwitterFacebookDiscord

Difference between revisions of "The Way We Weren't"

Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki
m (top: replaced: TheWayWeWeren't1.gif → The Way We Weren't promo.png)
 
(58 intermediate revisions by 29 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{episode
+
{{Tab}}
|image=[[Image:200px-The Way We Weren't.jpg]]
+
{{EpisodePrevNext|number=333|season=15|Simple Simpson|Bart-Mangled Banner}}
|productionCode=FABF13
+
{{Episode
|originalAirdate=May 9, 2004
+
|image= The Way We Weren't promo.png
|blackboardText= None
+
|number= 333
|couchGag=The Simpsons sit on the couch as normal. From offscreen, someone hurls knives at the Simpsons’ heads, but only the walls are hit. Homer tries to get a bowl of chips, but a knife stops him, and slightly misses him.
+
|season=15
|specialGuestVoices= None
+
|snumber=20
|Written By=[[J. Stewart Burns]]
+
|prodcode= FABF13
|Directed By=[[Mike B. Anderson]]
+
|airdate= May 9, [[2004]]
 +
|blackboard=  
 +
|couchgag= The Simpsons sit on the couch as normal. From offscreen, someone hurls knives at the Simpsons' heads, but only the walls are hit. Homer tries to get a bowl of chips, but a knife stops him, and slightly misses him.
 +
|showrunner1= Al Jean
 +
|writer= [[J. Stewart Burns]]
 +
|director= [[Mike B. Anderson]]
 +
|DVD features=yes
 
}}
 
}}
  
 +
"'''The Way We Weren't'''" is the twentieth episode of [[season 15]] of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and the three-hundred and thirty-third episode overall. It originally aired on May 9, [[2004]]. The episode was written by [[J. Stewart Burns]] and directed by [[Mike B. Anderson]].
  
"'''The Way We Weren't'''" is the twentieth episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki> [[The Simpsons (season 15)|fifteenth season]]. The episode aired on May 9, 2004.
+
== Synopsis ==
 +
{{Desc|When [[Homer]] admits that [[Marge]] was not his first kiss, he recounts the story of his first smooch at summer camp with an anonymous girl - who turns out to be Marge! Following their first kiss, young Homer and Marge planned to meet again, but Homer accidentally returned to the wrong camp and wound up at Camp Flab-Away - a fat camp for young boys. Marge admits to Homer that believing her first kiss had stood her up caused her 30 years of heartbreak. But soon they discover something from their past that proves their love was destined.}}
  
==Plot==
+
== Plot ==
When Homer and [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] fight over the use of a beer bottle Milhouse wants to use, it lands them in the [[Simpson family]] court, with [[Lisa Simpson|Lisa]] presiding as judge. [[Marge Simpson|Marge]], giving a testimony, tells the kids that [[The Way We Was|when she was in high school]], she had her first kiss with Homer, but Homer confesses that it was not his first kiss. Homer recalls that when he was 10, he went to a camp for underprivileged boys, [[Camp See-A-Tree]], where Homer meets [[Lenny Leonard|Lenny]], [[Carl Carlson|Carl]], and as a counselor, [[Moe Szyslak|Moe]]. It turns out the summer camp is more like a prison and they go to work in the kitchen at a rich girls' camp across the lake. Homer finds a retainer and returns it to the girl who lost it, though he cannot see her (they are separated by the kitchen wall). She wants Homer to see her later that night.  He does so, even though due to an accident with a switchblade he is wearing an eye patch. He tells Bart and Lisa that she was the prettiest girl he had ever met until he later met their mother, but Marge admits that she was that girl Homer met.  
+
[[File:The Way We Weren't.png|250px|left|thumb|Homer kissing Marge]]
 +
Bart tricks Milhouse and Ralph into doing chores in the front yard. [[Sherri]] and [[Terri]] appear and introduce them to their "boy-crazy cousin who thinks Bart is cute" and they go to play spin the bottle in Bart's treehouse. Milhouse gets to kiss the girl, but she backs away and he accidently kisses Homer. Homer strangles [[Bart]] over the use of a beer bottle Milhouse wanted to use (the beer actually landed "safely" into Homer's mouth, who drank it while napping), it lands them in the [[Simpson family]] court, with [[Lisa]] presiding as judge.
  
Marge gives her side of the story, saying that she was with [[Bouvier sisters|Patty and Selma]], [[Helen Lovejoy]], [[Luann Van Houten]] and [[Cookie Kwan]] at their camp, "[[Camp Land-A-Man]]". At camp, Marge burns her hair with an iron by accident, turning it brown and she explains that is why Homer did not recognize her in high school. She meets Homer (who gives her a false name, Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar) and they kiss. They agree that the following night they will meet again, but Homer does not come. Marge mentions that she could not trust another boy for years. Homer says he did not return for another date because he fell off a cliff into the lake and drifted to a fat camp, "[[Camp Flab-Away]]", which counted [[Mayor Quimby]], [[Chief Wiggum]] and [[Comic Book Guy]] as its participants. Although Homer escapes the fat camp and makes his way to Marge's camp, Marge has left the camp only seconds before he arrives, leaving Homer to be sexually harassed by Patty and Selma. Marge now knows the truth and forgives him, but she thinks that Homer won't be able to preserve their love for long. Homer disproves it by showing half of the heart he kept. Marge also kept hers (though for different reasons), and the two kiss until the light fades.
+
[[Marge]], giving a testimony, tells the kids that [[The Way We Was|when she was in high school]], she had her first kiss with Homer, but Homer confesses that it was not his first kiss. Homer recalls that when he was 10, he went to a camp for underprivileged boys, [[Camp See-A-Tree]], where Homer meets [[Lenny]], [[Carl]], and as a counselor, [[Moe]]. It turns out the summer camp is more like a prison and they go to work in the kitchen at a rich girls' camp across the lake. Homer finds a retainer and returns it to the girl who lost it, though he cannot see her (they are separated by the kitchen wall). She wants Homer to see her later that night. He does so, even though due to an accident with a switchblade he is wearing an eye patch. He tells Bart and Lisa that she was the prettiest girl he had ever met until he later met their mother, but Marge admits that she was that girl Homer met, and if she'd known that he was that boy all those years ago then she never would have married him.
  
==Cultural References==
+
Marge gives her side of the story, saying that she was with [[Patty]], [[Selma]], [[Helen Lovejoy]], [[Luann Van Houten]] and [[Cookie Kwan]] at "[[Camp Land-A-Man]]". At camp, Marge burns her hair with an iron by accident, turning it brown and she explains that is why Homer did not recognize her in high school. She meets Homer (who gives her a false name, Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar) and they kiss, both fantasizing to the tune of "Happy Together" by The Turtles. They agree that the following night they will meet again, but Homer does not come. Marge mentions that she could not trust another boy for years.
* Marge claims she enjoys Parliament but not Funkadelic in reference to the funk collective popular during the 70's.
 
*The song played during the kissing fantasies of young Marge and Homer is "Happy Together", by The Turtles.
 
*The episode title echoes that of the 1973 film ''The Way We Were''.
 
*Homer's imagined perfect world includes Screaming Yellow Zonkers, Quisp flying by in his spaceship, and the Kool-Aid Man -- whom Homer kills by drinking him.
 
*Before meeting the [[The Sea Captain|Sea Captain]] by the docks, Homer says "I guess it's Roe v. Wade, and it's my right to choose." This namechecks the landmark American supreme court decision on abortion.
 
*When the Captain rows Homer across the lake to meet Marge, he sings: "I met her on the mountain, there I took her life. I met her on the mountain, Stabbed her with my knife." These are lyrics from the folk song Tom Dooley, as made famous by The Kingston Trio.
 
*This episode shares the same major storyline as the Who's The Boss? episodes It Happened One Summer I & II, where Tony and Angela discover they shared a kiss while at camp.
 
  
==Awards==
+
Homer says he did not return for another date because he fell off a cliff into the lake and drifted to a fat camp, "[[Camp Flab-Away]]", which counted [[Mayor Quimby]], [[Chief Wiggum]] and [[Comic Book Guy]] among its participants. The directors refused to believe he wasn't attending the camp and strapped him into an exercise belt machine for hours. Homer escaped the fat camp and made his way to Marge's camp, Marge had left the camp only seconds before he arrived. Marge's sisters told Homer that she hated him, and Homer said that what they had was special. Patty kissed Homer and asked sarcastically if that was special, to which Homer said no.
This episode was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Animated Program (for programming less than one hour) selection.
 
  
==Trivia==
+
Marge now knows the truth and forgives him, but she thinks that Homer won't be able to preserve their love for long. Homer disproves it by showing his half of the heart-shaped stone, which he has kept through all the intervening years. Marge shows that she also kept her half (though for different reasons), and the two kiss until the light fades, while the two halves of the stone come together.
*The three girls Bart has kissed are one of Lisa's friends, Emily, who kissed Bart on a dare (his first kiss, in "[[Flaming Moe's]]"), Jessica Lovejoy ("[[Bart's Girlfriend]]"), and Gina Vendetti ("[[The Wandering Juvie]]"). He would later kiss Darcy in "[[Little Big Girl]]", as well as an unnamed girl in "[[The Monkey Suit]]".
 
*The scene where Young Homer tumbles down the cliff and into the lake is strikingly similar to the grown-up Homer's legendary fall down Springfield Gorge in "[[Bart the Daredevil]]".
 
*Moe breaks the fourth wall and addresses the camera, saying "And that's the origin of that!" before Bart's prank calls when Marge asks for Homer's false name, in which Moe backfires.
 
  
==Errors==
+
== Reception ==
*In this episode, Milhouse states that his kiss with Homer in the treehouse was his first kiss. However, in the season 3 episode, "[[Bart's Friend Falls in Love]]" Milhouse shared his first kiss with Samantha Stanky.
+
"The Way We Weren't" was nominated for a {{W|Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program}} in the {{W|56th Primetime Emmy Awards}}. However, it lost to "The Birth of Evil" from ''{{W|Samurai Jack}}''.<ref>[https://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/2004/outstanding-short-format-animated-program Television Academy - "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming less than one hour) - 2004"]</ref>
*In the [[The Simpsons (season 19)|Season 19]] episode [[Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind]], while traveling through his memories, Homer (literally) destroys the memory of his first kiss in this episode. Bart then makes him believe that Homer's first kiss was with [[Apu]]]. But this does not count because Frink's machine malfunctioned and Homer now believes it is with Marge again.
 
  
 +
== Production ==
 +
<gallery>
 +
File:FABF13 Script.jpg
 +
</gallery>
  
 +
== References ==
 +
{{Reflist}}
  
 +
{{Images|ep=yes}}
 +
{{season 15}}
 +
{{DEFAULTSORT:Way We Weren't, The}}
 +
[[sv:The Way We Weren't]]
 +
[[Category:2004]]
 +
[[Category:Homer episodes]]
 +
[[Category:Marge episodes]]
 +
[[Category:Flashback episodes]]
 +
[[Category:Romance-themed episodes]]
 +
[[Category:Primetime Emmy Award nominated episodes]]
 +
[[Category:Episodes written by J. Stewart Burns]]
 +
[[Category:Episodes directed by Mike B. Anderson]]
  
 
+
[[de:FABF13]]
{{Season 15}}
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Way We Weren't, The}}
 
[[Category:Episodes]]
 
[[Category:Season 15]]
 

Latest revision as of 16:27, August 30, 2024

Season 15 Episode
332 "Simple Simpson"
333
"The Way We Weren't"
"Bart-Mangled Banner" 334
"The Way We Weren't"
The Way We Weren't promo.png
Episode Information
Episode number: 333
Season number: S15 E20
Production code: FABF13
Original airdate: May 9, 2004
Couch gag: The Simpsons sit on the couch as normal. From offscreen, someone hurls knives at the Simpsons' heads, but only the walls are hit. Homer tries to get a bowl of chips, but a knife stops him, and slightly misses him.
Showrunner: Al Jean
Written by: J. Stewart Burns
Directed by: Mike B. Anderson
DVD features


"The Way We Weren't" is the twentieth episode of season 15 of The Simpsons and the three-hundred and thirty-third episode overall. It originally aired on May 9, 2004. The episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Mike B. Anderson.

Synopsis[edit]

"When Homer admits that Marge was not his first kiss, he recounts the story of his first smooch at summer camp with an anonymous girl - who turns out to be Marge! Following their first kiss, young Homer and Marge planned to meet again, but Homer accidentally returned to the wrong camp and wound up at Camp Flab-Away - a fat camp for young boys. Marge admits to Homer that believing her first kiss had stood her up caused her 30 years of heartbreak. But soon they discover something from their past that proves their love was destined."


Plot[edit]

Homer kissing Marge

Bart tricks Milhouse and Ralph into doing chores in the front yard. Sherri and Terri appear and introduce them to their "boy-crazy cousin who thinks Bart is cute" and they go to play spin the bottle in Bart's treehouse. Milhouse gets to kiss the girl, but she backs away and he accidently kisses Homer. Homer strangles Bart over the use of a beer bottle Milhouse wanted to use (the beer actually landed "safely" into Homer's mouth, who drank it while napping), it lands them in the Simpson family court, with Lisa presiding as judge.

Marge, giving a testimony, tells the kids that when she was in high school, she had her first kiss with Homer, but Homer confesses that it was not his first kiss. Homer recalls that when he was 10, he went to a camp for underprivileged boys, Camp See-A-Tree, where Homer meets Lenny, Carl, and as a counselor, Moe. It turns out the summer camp is more like a prison and they go to work in the kitchen at a rich girls' camp across the lake. Homer finds a retainer and returns it to the girl who lost it, though he cannot see her (they are separated by the kitchen wall). She wants Homer to see her later that night. He does so, even though due to an accident with a switchblade he is wearing an eye patch. He tells Bart and Lisa that she was the prettiest girl he had ever met until he later met their mother, but Marge admits that she was that girl Homer met, and if she'd known that he was that boy all those years ago then she never would have married him.

Marge gives her side of the story, saying that she was with Patty, Selma, Helen Lovejoy, Luann Van Houten and Cookie Kwan at "Camp Land-A-Man". At camp, Marge burns her hair with an iron by accident, turning it brown and she explains that is why Homer did not recognize her in high school. She meets Homer (who gives her a false name, Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar) and they kiss, both fantasizing to the tune of "Happy Together" by The Turtles. They agree that the following night they will meet again, but Homer does not come. Marge mentions that she could not trust another boy for years.

Homer says he did not return for another date because he fell off a cliff into the lake and drifted to a fat camp, "Camp Flab-Away", which counted Mayor Quimby, Chief Wiggum and Comic Book Guy among its participants. The directors refused to believe he wasn't attending the camp and strapped him into an exercise belt machine for hours. Homer escaped the fat camp and made his way to Marge's camp, Marge had left the camp only seconds before he arrived. Marge's sisters told Homer that she hated him, and Homer said that what they had was special. Patty kissed Homer and asked sarcastically if that was special, to which Homer said no.

Marge now knows the truth and forgives him, but she thinks that Homer won't be able to preserve their love for long. Homer disproves it by showing his half of the heart-shaped stone, which he has kept through all the intervening years. Marge shows that she also kept her half (though for different reasons), and the two kiss until the light fades, while the two halves of the stone come together.

Reception[edit]

"The Way We Weren't" was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in the 56th Primetime Emmy Awards. However, it lost to "The Birth of Evil" from Samurai Jack.[1]

Production[edit]

References[edit]


The Saga of Carl - title screen.png Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "The Way We Weren't".
Season 15 Episodes
Treehouse of Horror XIV My Mother the Carjacker The President Wore Pearls The Regina Monologues The Fat and the Furriest Today I Am a Clown 'Tis the Fifteenth Season Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays I, (Annoyed Grunt)-bot Diatribe of a Mad Housewife Margical History Tour Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore Smart and Smarter The Ziff Who Came to Dinner Co-Dependent's Day The Wandering Juvie My Big Fat Geek Wedding Catch 'Em If You Can Simple Simpson The Way We Weren't Bart-Mangled Banner Fraudcast News