From The TV IV

Krusty Gets Kancelled is the twenty-second episode of the fourth season of The Simpsons, and the eighty-first episode overall. Krusty's show finds itself in cancellation when a ventriloquist's dummy named Gabbo takes Springfield by storm.

Special Guest Voices: Johnny Carson (Himself), Hugh Hefner (Himself), Better Midler (Herself), Luke Perry (Himself), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Themselves), Elizabeth Taylor (Herself), Marcia Wallace, Barry White (Himself)

Also Starring: Pamela Hayden (Milhouse Van Houten)

Contents 1 Plot Overview 2 Notes 2.1 Title Sequence 2.2 Music 3 Arc Advancement 3.1 Happenings 3.2 Characters 3.3 Referbacks 4 Trivia 4.1 The Show 4.2 Behind the Scenes 4.3 Allusions and References 4.4 Memorable Moments 5 Quotes

[edit] Plot Overview

While watching the Springfield Squares get washed out by a tidal wave, Homer and Bart are bombarded with an ambiguous commercial saying, simply, "Gabbo!" A flood of advertisements for Gabbo ensues over the next several days, building up the moment as much as possible without revealing what exactly Gabbo is. Eventually, Gabbo makes his debut on television in a commercial, revealing himself to be a Jerry Lewis-like ventriloquist's dummy, along with his partner Arthur Crandall. Gabbo has strategically positioned himself in a timeslot opposing Krusty the Klown, which immediately worries Bart and Lisa.

Krusty isn't worried, despite being beaten by The Bumblebee Man on Channel Ocho. Sure enough, Krusty caves and tries a ventriloquist act on his own, but his dilapidated puppet only frightens his slowly diminishing audience of children. Not content with stealing away his audience, Gabbo also takes Itchy & Scratchy, forcing Krusty to show a Soviet cartoon called Worker & Parasite which has no discernible plot but is almost certainly about communism. By now, Krusty's entire audience is gone and his show cancelled.

Now unemployed, Krusty seeks advise from the retired Johnny Carson, who is doing well for himself, before going out on an ill-advised audition for Melrose Place and blowing his last ten bucks on a horse race. Meanwhile, Gabbo's popularity continues to grow, but Gabbo's humiliating bit pranking Krusty sends Bart looking for retribution. He manages to sneak into Gabbo's studio and distract the cameraman long enough for him to get footage of Gabbo calling all the kids in Springfield "S.O.B.s." The resulting media reaction has no effect at all on Gabbo's popularity, although Kent Brockman does wind up fired.

Bart and Lisa find Krusty panhandling for cash and take him back to his home where they find photos of Krusty with many famous celebrities like his half-brother Luke Perry, Elizabeth Taylor and Bette Midler. Lisa hatches a plan to get all of Krusty's famous friends together for a comeback special to relaunch his career. Along with Midler, Hugh Hefner and Red Hot Chili Peppers are picked up along the way for the show as well. When the kids come back with good news, they discover find Krusty fatter than ever after a misguided attempt to lose weight with milk-shakes.

The Simpsons allow Krusty to stay with them until he's back in top condition for the show. After losing the weight, Krusty begs Sideshow Mel to come back to the show, but Mel refuses, forcing him to replace him with Luke Perry. On the day of the comeback special, he easily outperforms Gabbo, whose only guest is Ray Jay Johnson.

The special features Krusty and Sideshow Mel singing "Send in the Clowns", Luke Perry being shot out of a cannon, a performance by the Chili Peppers, Johnny Carson lifting a 1987 Buick Skymark over his head and singing an aria from Carmen, Hugh Hefner playing the glasses and Midler singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" to Krusty. In the end, the special is a great success and Bart declares him the greatest entertainer ever... except maybe Carson, who plays the Simpsons theme on the accordion while balancing Grandpa and Jasper sitting on a board on his head.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Title Sequence

• Blackboard: "I will not charge admission to the bathroom." The last line cuts off at "admi."
• Couch Gag: The family races towards the couch, but is caught in a large net.

[edit] Music

[edit] Arc Advancement

[edit] Happenings

[edit] Characters

[edit] Referbacks

[edit] Trivia

[edit] The Show

• Chili Peppers: This incarnation of Red Hot Chili Peppers is as follows: Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith and Arik Marshall. Marshall was only a temporary replacement member of the band, however, and had only been in the band for less than a year.
• Ad-Libbing: The Red Hot Chili Peppers were asked to adlib their greetings to Moe, but Flea kept swearing into the mic. In the end, he screamed "HEY MOE!" and was only able to get that into the episode because he was standing far away from the microphone.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

• Celebrity Nightmare: A big part of this episode is the celebrity cameo aspect. It was at least partially conceived as a way that producers could burn through the backlog of celebrities who wanted to do voices for the show. Despite this backlog, however, production was nearly shut down when the celebrities who agreed slowly began to back out. Eventually the various parts were filled at the last moment.
• Live on The Simpsons: Originally, the writers wrote parts for four different musical groups including The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. In the end, they settled on Red Hot Chili Peppers. As a side note, the band actually did their performance in the recording booth in their underwear.
• Dubbing Change: In the Latin America dub of this episode, Luke Perry was renamed to Robert Redford for no given reason, which is strange considering that the Peephole magazine wasn't changed to reflect the change. Also in the dub, instead of Ray Jay Johnson, Gabbo's show had Luis Miguel and Juan Gabriel as guests.

[edit] Allusions and References

[edit] Memorable Moments

[edit] Quotes