POOL #6 RANKING:
1. In Marge We Trust
2. Homer's Barbershop Quartet
3. Kraftwerk
4. Itchy & Scratchy Land
5. Faith Off
6. (bye)
(explanation/commentary below)
As usual, pseudorandom numbers pick the episodes; I rank 'em on the spot, you critique my rankings (and/or give yours) and a week later I post the revised list. No voting per se in this benevolent dictatorship but I do use your opinions for awesome.
Coming this spring: All six tiers listed, plus your chance to nominate episodes from each list for promotion or relegation. After that... if we're still interested, then ranking within the tiers will be 100 times as tricky as the prelims were.
Stay tuned for #10 by Monday morning (along with the #7 results), and be sure to weigh in on #7 and #8 if you haven't already, or even if you have. You can also browse the category archive though you'll need to click on each individual post's timestamp to see comments.
Numbers, please...
243: BABF13 (SI-1113 / S11E17) Bart to the Future
While visiting an Indian casino with his family, Bart encounters an Indian who foretells of his future. Bart learns that in the future he is a ne'er-do-well musician with Ralph Wiggum as a room mate. He goes to see Lisa to borrow money, but Lisa has her own problems, being the newly-elected President of the United States and facing a tax crisis.
121: 2F31 (SI-631 / S06E18) A Star Is Burns
In order to boost the towns' sagging popularly, the people of Springfield holds a Film Festival to attract more tourists. Marge invites Jay The Critic Sherman to guest judge. Jon Lovitz guest stars.
129: 2F20 (SI-620 / S07E01) Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)
With Burns shot, Chief Wiggum follows a trail of DNA that leads to the Simpsons front door step. Homer is charged for the shooting and before Homer can be jailed, he escapes. It's a race to see who reaches Burns' hospital room first. Tito Puente guest stars.
50: 8F14 (SI-314 / S03E15) Homer Alone
When the family causes Marge to flip out, she takes a vacation from it all at Rancho Relaxo, leaving Lisa and Bart with Patty and Selma (shudder), and Homer alone with Maggie. Then, Maggie goes searching for Marge.
296: DABF21 (SI-1321 / S14E05) Helter Shelter
While the Simpson house is being fumigated after a Russian termite infestation, the family moves into a house that's part of a reality show where they have to live in 1895. When the ratings for the show begin to fail, the producers bring in Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley. Guest stars Larry Holmes and David Lander.
32: 7F19 (SI-219 / S02E19) Lisa's Substitute
Lisa's regular teacher falls sick, and gets replaced with a substitute teacher who changes the face of learning for Lisa. Meanwhile, Bart runs against Martin, the class brain, for president of his class. Dustin Hoffman voices Mr. Bergstrom (uncredited).
My First Impressions:
(Incidentally, I draw these numbers one by one to give myself the initial surprise for each ep. After eight dupe-free drawings we had not one, not two, but three dupes this time. Each time I ignored and recalc'd. Probably about time to rejigger the pseudorandomness.)
We have here one skin-crawlingly blow-to-the-gut-just-to-think-about-it awful episode, one "Yup, that one sucked..." easy #5, two fine sentimental candidates for #1 (either of which makes a weak #1 or strong #2), one above-average episode that you guys maybe liked even more than I did...
...and Burns Part 2. Was it wrong of me to treat the two parts of this separately? (I say no. There's the episode that stirred up all the hype, and then there's a separate evaluation for how well they resolved the hype. It's not like they reunite those eps for syndication purposes. Actually, have you ever seen either part in syndication?)
Anyhow, Burns is just too... different... to give away to a strong opinion. I was caught up in the hype at the time, and I'm content with how they wrapped things up, but it's really nothing special. If the rest of the field dictates where I slot this, then so be it. How good an episode it actually is might be a good indicator of how weak or strong this pool is.
We've definitely had pools where Substitute would win and conversely pools where Bart to the Future hit rock bottom.
Preliminary Rankings:
1. Homer Alone (hold music: "Baby Come Back!")
2. Lisa's Substitute
3. A Star Is Burns
4. Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part 2)
5. Bart to the Future
6. Helter Shelter
Pool 6 Explanation:
In the bracket of four heavyweights, I resorted to aggregate rankings. (N points for an Nth-place vote, lower totals are better.) "In Marge We Trust" stayed on top but slots 2 thru 4 were a 13-13-14 cluster. You "Kraftwerk" fans and "Itchy & Scratch Land" fans (myself included) better speak up come promotion/relegation time; this bracket of death has some avenging to do...
Hmm. Looking at the list, I would have thought that the only debate would be between #2 and #3. Eventually I took the slanderous mambo and Moe's polygraph test over Pukeahontas and George C. Scott getting hit with a football.
1. Lisa's Substitute
2. Who Shot Mr. Burns 2
3. A Star is Burns
4. Homer Alone
5. Bart to the Future
I've only ever seen 1/2 of Helter Shelter, and I don't really remember it, which is probably for the better.
Posted by: Paul at January 20, 2005 11:52 PMThat makes two weeks where the only episode I remember seeing is that one that you described as much worse than the others. "Helter Shelter" and "Simpson Tide" are episodes that I watched that reinforced my decision to hate the Simpsons and not watch the following 15-25 episodes if I could help it.
Greg's cousin is the head writer for the Simpsons so it's always being watched in my house.
Posted by: M.S. at January 21, 2005 06:12 AM1. Homer Alone
2. A Star is Burns
3. Shot pt. 2
4. Lisa's Substitute
5. Bart to the Future
6. Helter Shelter
This is a tough group, at least in the 1-4 spots. I think I could reshuffle them into every possible permutation and never feel like I got it right.
Posted by: Mark at January 21, 2005 07:31 AM1. Homer Alone -- I enjoyed this episode, especially the main plot of Homer trying to take care of Maggie, with lousy results. The site of Barney thinking he found Maggie, but instead pulling the gas line, was priceless.
2. Burns Part Two -- could have been first, with the exception of the ending. Can't get enough of Sideshow Mel playing Sherlock Holmes, as well as how watching Comedy Central was "quite unusual."
3. A Star is Burns -- I don't care much for crossover episodes, but this one worked. Would have liked to have seen a famous film director appearing as him or herself, either to direct Burns' movie or helming a Springfield-based film for the festival.
4. Lisa's Substitute -- another film that doesn't age well over time. Not a great performance by Hoffman, who only gets praised because he went by a pseudonym.
5. Bart to the Future -- it's been done before, and it was done much better before.
6. Helter Shelter -- how many pointless cameos can you put into one show? And what's with the show's fascination with heavyweight boxers of the 1970s and 1980s?
Posted by: James Dinan at January 21, 2005 07:08 PMPreliminary Rankings:
1. Homer Alone (hold music: "Baby Come Back!")
2. Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part 2) - "Slanderous Mambo" is now used to refer to all Latin speed jazz used by Tiger players for their at bat music.
3. A Star Is Burns - Senor Spielbergo, it always makes me laugh that Steven Spielberg's non-Union Mexican eqivilant would actually be named Senor Spielbergo.
4. Lisa's Substitute
5. Bart to the Future
6. Helter Shelter
1. Who Shot Mr. Burns? Pt. 2 - "Now would you unhook this already, please? I don't deserve this kind of shabby treatment!"
2. A Star Is Burns - "We did twenty takes, and that was the best one."
3. Lisa's Substitute
4. Homer Alone - "Marge, Maggie was very young. It's not like we got so attached to her..."
5. Bart to the Future
6. Helter Shelter
Not a terribly top heavy group.
Posted by: John at January 22, 2005 09:27 PM