A Tale of Two Springfields
"A Tale of Two Springfields"
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Episode Information
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"A Tale of Two Springfields" is the second episode from season twelve of the animated TV series The Simpsons. The title is a spoof of Charles Dickens' classic book, A Tale of Two Cities.
Contents
Plot
While feeding Santa's Little Helper, Bart finds a badger in his doghouse. Bart and Lisa try to get rid of it themselves, but are unsuccessful. After Homer suggests they blow up the doghouse with dynamite, Lisa tells them to call animal control. When Homer calls them, he gets a tri-tone and a recording indicating that he did not enter the correct area code. Marge informs him that the phone company ran out of numbers, so they had to split Springfield into two area codes. One half keeps the old 636 and the Simpsons' half get the new 939. He is outraged that they changed the code so suddenly (even though Lenny and Carl say that they had weeks of advance warnings, including two weeks at area code camp). While at a town meeting, with Homer wearing a suicide belt, Lindsey Naegle shows a film (starring talking telephone Phony McRing-Ring) that attempts to convince the audience two area codes are better. The whole town agrees with it. However, Homer stands up, reminding them how terrible it was and points out that the original 636 code was kept by the rich side of town. When Homer fails to blow himself up, he leads a rebellion of the poor and goes off to form a new town.
Homer names the town with the new 939 code "New Springfield", while the half of the town with 636 is now called "Olde Springfield". Homer is appointed mayor of New Springfield but shows disrespect for the office by using his sash as a napkin. Rivalry quickly ensues between the two towns. When Olde Springfield insults the inefficiency of his half of town, Homer cuts power to Olde Springfield. Olde Springfield retaliates by hijacking a beer truck and dumping its contents in the river. Homer and New Springfield strike back by cutting off the river into Olde Springfield; however this causes its inhabitants to find gold in the river and buy the Evian bottled water factory. Homer decides to build a giant wall right through town, just like Berlin. When he tells his citizens they do not have enough supplies to get past tomorrow and that a wave of disease will kill the weak (afterwards, they'll be forced to eat certain breeds of dogs), everyone except the Simpsons leave.
Now the mayor of a ghost town, Homer boasts to himself that The Who is coming to their town, when they are actually performing in Olde Springfield. Together, he and Bart are able to get them to perform in New Springfield. When Olde Springfield is waiting for the band, they find them in New Springfield and prepare to riot. Just before a major conflict, The Who suggests they get speed-dial to solve their rivalry. They also agree to play if Springfield tears down the wall, which Pete Townshend (voiced by his brother, Paul Townshend) ends up destroying by playing the famous outro to "Won't Get Fooled Again".
Trivia
- After Homer hears about the change of area code, the badger shows up and Homer goes "Go away! We got bigger problems now." This is a reference to the recurring sudden plot changes in most Simpson episodes.
- In syndication, all of the badger scenes (with the exception of the first) are cut, and in other parts of the world, there is a scene right after the guard throws Homer and Bart into The Who's room, where Homer smashes a lamp to the ground, and Bart starts to kick the drum set. In fact, the entire episode was heavily cut for syndication. Originally 22 minutes and 11 seconds long, two minutes and 10 seconds were cut, and the episode was expanded 46 seconds to a length of 20:47. This is still about a half-minute shorter than most syndicated versions.
- This is the 250th episode of the show.
- Area code 636 is actually assigned to suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri[1]; although this seems to reveal Springfield’s state, the real Springfield, Missouri is in a different area code. Area code 939 is one of two codes used in Puerto Rico.
- This is the only episode of the Simpsons directed by Shaun Cashman.
- When Lisa is trying to find out what badgers eat she goes on whatbadgerseat.com. A real version of the site (whose logo is reminiscent of ask.com) was made by the producers of the show.
- At the moment when Homer is introduced to the Who, the band is heard playing the closing chords of what appears to be "The Seeker".
- The song played right before the end credits is "Won't Get Fooled Again" and not Homer's request of "Pinball Wizard".
- The Simpsons' telephone number is given as 939-555-0113. The old area coded number of 636-555-0113 appears to connect to Mr. Burns; however, in "Lisa's Date with Density", his phone number was 555-0001.
- The "angel skeleton" from "Lisa the Skeptic" can be seen in the wall dividing the cities.
- One of the Simpsons comic books published by Bongo featured a similar plotline in which Springfield is divided over the issue of use and access to a lake.
- The phone number for the exterminators is 983-7668 (X-TERM-N-8).
- The drummer who plays with The Who in this episode is clearly a cartoon version of Keith Moon.
- This is the first time Homer has his body opened and his organs still working shown. The second time was in "Treehouse of Horror XII" where his head was opened and his brain shown.
Cultural references
- Homer imagines himself as a mayor, walking down the street in a Western town, wearing a cowboy hat and firing a rifle, in a parody of the opening credit of the Western show The Rifleman starring Chuck Connors.
- Todd's woodpecker is a reference the Woody Woodpecker show, especially its laugh after attacking Bart.
- The self-referencing blackboard gag refers to the presidential election which was two days after the episode was aired. A controversy surrounding the election was the supposed use of subliminal messages.
- The timing of the episode coincides with Matt Groening's native northwest Oregon splitting into two overlapping area codes (Area code 503 and Area code 971). Such a split plan was often unpopular due to existing phone numbers changing and now the alternative method of an overlay plan, whereby an area is given a new code for new numbers but existing numbers do not change.
- While waiting for The Who's concert in Olde Springfield, Principal Skinner seems to be dressed in Mod attire. Edna Krabappel is dressed as a typical groupie.
- The scene with Homer, Lenny, and Carl having lunch in the nuclear power plant has a reference to the movie Pulp Fiction. While writing the new area code on his hand, Homer complains that he already has enough things to remember and a close-up of his hand shows the writing "Lenny=White, Carl=Black." This is a reference to the second last scene in Pulp Fiction, in which The Wolf is called to help resolve a problem. On a pad of paper before he meets up with Vincent and Jules, he writes "Vincent-White, Jules-Black" in order to distinguish between the two.
- The last part of the final scene - where the badgers descend upon Springfield - shows one badger, much smaller than the rest, some distance behind the others. This is probably a reference to several similar Looney Tunes cartoons starring Sylvester in which he is originally terrorised by a group of mice, but subsequently develops enough courage to "show them who's boss" and drive them all away. In each of these cartoons, the mice are shown fleeing the house, screaming and squeaking in fear, followed a little later by a baby mouse chattering incoherently in a voice that has been recorded at high speed.
- Homer telling the Arizona Cardinals representative to "keep walking" is a reference to how poor the Cardinals franchise has been.
- After they receive the gold from the river, Kent Brockman does an editorial about it and thanks Homer saying that they will all be covered in golden showers (a sexual term for peeing on your partner). He does not get it but the people off to the side laugh hysterically.
- When The Who orders Homer to tear down the wall, the moment is quite similar to movie The Wall by Pink Floyd, in which the main character is ordered to tear down the wall in his head, that alienates him from the world.
The Who references
- When Kent Brockman's newscast shows a picture of Homer and friends on the steps of a home, the layout and poses match the back cover of The Who's Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy compilation album.
- Moe's line "That fat, dumb, and bald guy sure plays some real hard ball" is a variation of a lyric in the song "Pinball Wizard" by The Who. The original lyric is "That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball".
Cuts
There were several parts cut when this episode airs on Sky One, including:
- When KBBL are talking about a matress on the freeway, the 'Joan Collin's must be in town.' is cut.
- When Homer phones the Radio Station, it cuts from the scene to the town hall, missing out the scene with Homer strangling Bart, and Bart retaliating by hitting Homer on the head with the phone.
- Kent's 'Golden Showers' line is cut.
Episode Quotes
Homer: Oh yeah? They think they're better than us? Hey Bart, C'mere a minute! Bart: You c'mere a minute! Homer: Oh yeah?
External links
- Template:Imdb episode
- Whatbadgerseat.com A spoof site created after the episode.
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