The Simpsons/Marge vs. the Monorail
From The TV IV
| Marge vs. the Monorail | |
 | |
| Season 4, Episode 12 | |
| Airdate | January 14, 1993 |
| Production Number | 9F10 |
| Writer(s) | Conan O'Brien |
| Director(s) | Rich Moore |
| Homer's Triple Bypass | Selma's Choice |
| The Simpsons — Season Four | |
Marge vs. the Monorail is the twelfth episode of the fourth season of The Simpsons, and the seventy-first episode overall. When the city comes into a great deal of money, they're swindled out of it by a con man selling monorails to newly wealthy cities.
Special Guest Voices: Phil Hartman (Lyle Lanley), Leonard Nimoy (Himself)
Also Starring: Doris Grau (Lurleen Lumpkin), Maggie Roswell (Maude Flanders, Ms. Hoover, Café Owner, Voice of Monorail)
Contents |
[edit] Plot Overview
Mr. Burns has been discovered dumping nuclear waste in a public Springfield park by the Environmental Protection Agency, an act which forces him to pay the city $3 million in fines. The mayor holds a town meeting that night to solicit suggestions on how to spend the money. Lisa already hopes that the money will be spent on virtual reality for the school, but Bart is looking for giant mechanical ants to destroy the school with. At the meeting, the entire town offers suggestions which range from Maude wanting to put out a wildfire in East Springfield to "Mr. Snrub" wanting it invested into the nuclear plant and Apu wanting more police officers in the city. Marge finally stands up to recommend repairing the potholes on Main Street, which is met with applause from the crowd (except for Abe Simpson) until Lyle Lanley appears with a song about monorails in his heart. He successfully sells the saps on buying a monorail to put them on the map next places like Ogdenville and North Haverbrook.
Plans for the monorail are quickly put in motion and Homer decides to attend a class on monorail conducting along with several other people from the city. Meanwhile, Barney is inexplicably is the foreman for monorail construction even though he's incredibly reckless. In the end of the class, Lanley tries to escape from town and quickly names Homer the conductor because he's closest to the door. Marge doesn't have a good feeling about Homer's new job and decides to investigate Lyle Lanley's office, in which she discovers a notebook with a crudely drawn monorail in flames in it.
Marge drives to North Haverbrook, where she meets Sebastian Cobb. Cobb was hired to build the Haverbrook monorail, which had so many corners cut that it was a disaster on its first day out. Cobb tells her that their only hope is if they have a "damn good conductor." At the monorail unveiling, Leonard Nimoy christens its first voyage, along with Krusty the Clown and other local celebrities. On the monorail's approach to the station, one of the hoses blows and it's sent into warp speed at 180MPH. The brakes don't work and the monorail is solar powered so it can't be stopped. There's a solar eclipse briefly, but it only stops things shortly.
Meanwhile, Lyle Lanley's flight to Tahiti has a holdover in North Haverbrook where he's beaten senseless by a mob of angry citizens. Marge finally gets through to Homer and Cobb suggests that he find an anchor of some sort to stop the monorail. He takes the "M" off the monorail logo and it eventually anchors itself to a giant donut sign. The monorail stops and its passengers are free to disembark from the emergency chutes.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Title Sequence
- Blackboard: "I will not eat things for money." The last line cuts off at "things."
- Couch Gag: The entire cast of the show joins the Simpson family around the couch, leaving the family stuck in the background.
[edit] Monorail Lyrics
- Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
- Like a genuine,
- Bona fide,
- Electrified,
- Six-car
- Monorail! ...
- What'd I say?
- (Ned Flanders): Monorail!
- What's it called?
- (Patty & Selma): Monorail!
- That's right! Monorail!
- (Miss Hoover): I hear those things are awfully loud...
- It glides as softly as a cloud.
- (Apu): Is there a chance the track could bend?
- Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
- (Barney): What about us brain-dead slobs?
- You'll all be given cushy jobs.
- (Abe): Were you sent here by the devil?
- No, good sir, I'm on the level.
- (Wiggum):The ring came off my pudding can.
- Take my pen knife, my good man.
- I swear it's Springfield's only choice...
- Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
- (All): Monorail!
- What's it called?
- (All): Monorail!
- Once again...
- (All): Monorail!
- (Marge): But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...
- (Bart): Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!
- (All): Monorail!
- (All): Monorail!
- (All): Monorail!
- (All): Monorail!
- (Homer): Mono... D'oh!
[edit] Arc Advancement
[edit] Happenings
[edit] Characters
[edit] Referbacks
- 2x08 - Bart the Daredevil: The commercial for Truckasaurus: The Movie is actually just reused footage from when Homer accidentally drove the family car (with the family inside) into the arena with Truckasaurus in it.
[edit] Trivia
[edit] The Show
- Town Charter: There's a great deal of detail in the town charter, including the signature of Jebediah Springfield at the bottom.
- Director Cameos: Animation directors Rich Moore, Wes Archer and David Silverman make a brief cameo at the end of this episode as the three people riding the escalator to nowhere.
[edit] Behind the Scenes
- Korean Mistake: During the Monorail musical number, the salesman was actually meant to play the piano correctly along with a temp musical track they had in place. But, when the animation came back from Korea, the piano playing was completely wrong. Although director Rich Moore wanted to do a retake, they wound up matching the score to the movements, creating a weird plinking sound in the otherwise well written and choreographed song.
- Under Time: The show wound up coming in under the 22 minute mark, which is why they recycled a scene from an older episode as a commercial, added several jokes over the black screen and did a second rotation of the floating heads while Marge was driving.
- Star Trek Switchout: Originally, Leonard Nimoy's part in this episode was to be played by his fellow Star Trek castmate George Takei. However, even though Takei has been in a previous episode of the show, he was forced to decline a role in a show which makes fun of public transportation because he was on the San Francisco Board of Transportation. He would only do the voice if they made extensive changes to the script in which they made the monorail less dangerous or at least somewhat positive in the end, but even then he wound up declining.
- Cut Line: Homer's conductor's uniform was designed with a specific joke in mind, according to Bill Oakley. That joke was eventually cut from the script but involved this exchange:
- Homer: Well, how do I look?
- Selma: Like Darth Vader without the helmet.
[edit] Allusions and References
- Silence of the Lambs: When wheeled into the court hearing, Mr. Burns is restrained in a similar way to how Hannibal Lecter was restrained in the movie Silence of the Lambs, although his face mask isn't as elaborate as the one put on the notorious serial killer and cannibal.
- Andy Capp: Andy Capp is the main character from the comic strip bearing his name, he's an Englishman who enjoys sports, womanizing and getting drunk. Many of the strips revolve around Capp drinking at a bar and getting home late at night, much to his wife's disappointment. Up through the 1980s, Capp frequently got into fistfights with his wife, but this was discontinued when complaints of lightly depicting domestic violence surfaced.
- Homer: Oh, Andy Capp. You wife-beating drunk.
- Batman: When "Mr. Snrub" and Smithers escape from the town meeting, Smithers using a grappling gun that is similar to one used in Tim Burton's 1988 comic adaptation, Batman. In the movie, Batman and Vickie Vale escape from The Joker when Batman uses the physics defying gun to shoot a grappling hook to safety.
- The Flash: The Flash is a comic book alias used by a variety of characters owned by DC Comics over the years, including Jay Garrick (Golden Age), Barry Allen (Silver Age), Wally West and Bart Allen. At the time this episode was broadcast, Wally West was the most prominent Flash published by the company. Another kid asks if Superman can outrun the Flash, this is a reference to an occasional contest held in the early days of the character where they would face off in a race around the world. Usually, Flash would win but only by a very short margin.
- Ralph: Can it outrun the Flash?
- Gallagher: Sebastian Cobb refers to Gallagher, a prop comedian who was popular in the 1980s and early 90s for his inane brand of comedy. A popular part of Gallagher's act involved a sledgehammer he called the "Sledge-o-Matic" that he used to crush food products and whatever else he had on hand. Audience members in the first several rows were issued ponchos and plastic sheets to defend themselves against debris from this segment.
- Sebastian: The celebrity on the maiden voyage was Gallagher.
- The Little Rascals: The Little Rascals are a group of kids who were the focus of several short films beginning in 1928 and ending in 1944. The kids frequently hatched harebrained schemes that got them into more trouble than they anticipated and involved a great deal of physical comedy.
- Mayor: Weren't you one of the Little Rascals?
