Difference between revisions of "Love, Springfieldian Style"

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"Love, Springfieldian Style" is the twelfth episode of the season 19 of The Simpsons and the four-hundred and twelfth episode overall. It originally aired on February 17, 2008. The episode was written by Don Payne and directed by Raymond S. Persi.

Synopsis

"Marge and Homer get stuck on a Valentine's Day-themed ride, so Homer begins the first of a series of three romantic tales – all parodies of Lady and the Tramp, Sid and Nancy and Bonnie and Clyde."

Plot

Wrapround part 1

The episode begins on a Valentine's Day afternoon. As a Valentine's Day treat, Homer takes Marge to a carnival, where they lose the kids in order to spend the day with one another in the Tunnel of Love. Inside, the two enjoy each other's company, however, Bart attempts to spoil his parents' happiness by filling the water with freezing jello, causing Homer and Marge's boat to stop. Trapped, Homer decides to pass time by telling Marge a love story: Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde

In 1933, during the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker (Marge) rejects a man trying to get her attention (Cletus), saying she is looking for someone exciting. Clyde Barrow (Homer) then arrives, and after robbing a store, the two run off. Clyde discovers Bonnie's passion is violence, and the two go on a crime spree by robbing banks. After tricking a citizen (Flanders) into helping them, the two garner intense popularity in the country for the robberies. The citizen they tricked soon realizes what had happened, and snitches to the police. The Louisiana officers soon arrive, and the cops gun Bonnie and Clyde down. While dying, Bonnie tells Clyde that she is looking for a man with more excitement, and that they would never have been together.

Wrapround part 2

Bart and Lisa arrive at Marge and Homer's boat, where Marge launches into a story of two dogs in love, Shady and the Vamp.

Shady and the Vamp

Shady (Homer) is in love with Vamp (Marge) and eyes her from a distance, vowing that he will win her. After he is trampled by a mob of children, Vamp comforts Shady, and he asks her out for dinner. The two go to Luigi's, where, after a romantic pasta dinner, the two run off onto a hill. In the morning, Vamp wakes up with nauseous feelings, and Shady leaves her, knowing she is pregnant. In a musical entitled "Any Minute Now", the two dogs await for one another's return, though the cats living with Vamp (Patty and Selma) convince her that Shady would never come back. Her puppies decide to go look for their father, and after being kidnapped by the dog catcher (Willie), Shady arrives to save his children. He returns to Vamp, who takes him back and informs him that they have not two, but eleven puppies in the house.

Sid and Nancy

Nancy Spungen (Lisa), a young model student walks into a rock concert by the Sex Pistols, where she is enamored by the eccentric bassist, Sid Vicious (Nelson). After viewing him throw his instrument at one of the crowd, she decides to go after him. A chocolate dealer (Otto, in a parody of a drug dealer) sells her a chocolate bar which she gives to Sid, who soon begins dating her. As shown in a montage, the two begin having their lives spiraled out of control while gaining a chocolate addiction. Sid soon begins ditching the Pistols, angering lead singer Johnny Rotten (Bart). Sid arrives in the middle of a performance after a major chocolate spree, and knocks into an amplifier which topples over and crushes their drummer, Paul Cook (Dolph). Nancy arrives to defend Sid, and informs the Pistols that Sid doesn't need them, and the two go off trying to sing a soft type of music, performing at CBGB (Comic Book Guy's Bar). When they are kicked out for a terrible performance, the two decide to go back to their addiction, ending the story. The episode ends within Bart's story parodying the garbage scene in Sid and Nancy, but showing Homer as the person dumping the trash as it covers the final scene.

Production

The song "Any Minute Now" used to have a rap in the middle of it. It was removed as most of the writers didn't believe it lived up to the quality of the rest of the song.^[1] The episode was written before the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. However, coloring came back during the strike so the writers couldn't edit the script. One of the non-writing producers could edit it and completely changed it, which gave one day for Al Jean to change it back to what he wanted. Jean also believes that "Any Minute Now" would have been cut if they had a screening with the writers. The Tunnel of Love stopping by an animatronic was based on when Jean was at a Haunted Mansion in Disneyland and was right under a crow that leaped out.^[2]

Large parts of the "Bonnie and Clyde" segment were inspired by the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde.^[3] The joke about Pearl Harbor was originally cut by non-writing producer Richard Sakai but was restored by Jean. Al Jean decided that the bodies of Bonnie and Clyde shouldn't pray blood as that makes it less cartoony.^[2] Raymond Persi asked fellow director Milton Gray what he should do for the outlines of the characters in the "Shady and the Vamp" segment as usually, the characters have black outlines. Gray suggested that they use grey outlines for the characters in the segment to better fit with the theme.^[3] For the "Sid and Nancy" segment, the animators were trying to get an indie comic feel so Raymond Persi used the Love and Rockets comics as inspiration.^[3]

Reception

Genevieve Koski of TV Club gave the episode a B+, saying that the segments "were all fun in their novelty". She particularly enjoyed the "Shady and the Vamp" segment, coming from a "Disney family".^[4]

As of April 2019, the episode has a 6.7 rating on IMDb^[5] and a 8.1 rating on TV.com.^[6]

Censorship

The episode was censored in England due to the drug-related plot and Johnny Rotten (Bart) singing the word "bollocks" repeatedly.^[7]

References

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Love, Springfieldian Style".