Pool 35 Results (my initial ranking in parentheses)
1. Brother From Another Series (3)
2. Two Dozen and One Greyhounds (2)
3. Grandpa vs. Sexual Inadequacy (6)
4. Homer Goes To College (5)
5. Homer Loves Flanders (4)
6. 'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky (1)
Yes, you spoke and I listened and Eric Idle's mockumentary fell all the way from such great heights. While it's true that a top-heavy bracket produces easy results, an insanely deep (or anti-deep) bracket produces a mess like this one (or next one).
By the way, I have an idea for playoff repooling that won't be quite like starting with six flights and promoting/relegating. Instead of applying the latter to the six naturally generated flights, I might present 11 groups (of 32, 32, 32, 30, ..., 30, 29). In theory flight 2N+1 would be entirely of episodes that were Nth place in their prelim pool, with flight 2N taking either Nth place episodes or (N+1)th place. In practice I might go even further and promote/demote obvious cases before posting. Just as with what I originally envisioned, you guys would still get a period to flag overseeded or underseeded episodes.
(See the category archive for other results.)
Pool 36, Pool 37, and Pool 38 are all still open.
Pool 40 will be up by Wednesday.
As usual, I let a pseudorandom number generator choose six episodes, then post my on-the-spot rankings and observation. You comment, ideally with your own rankings. A week later I post my revised rankings, reserving the right to be autocratic (though in practice I almost always go with the consensus).
NOTE TO SELF: =INDIRECT("A"&(FLOOR(RAND()*(335-COUNT(C2:C336)),1)+COUNT(C2:C336)+1))
Numbers...
86: 1F04 (SI-504 / S05E05) Treehouse of Horror IV
In a Night Gallery parody, Bart presents three tales of terror... In "The Devil and Homer Simpson," Homer gives up his soul for a single doughnut. Now, the Devil wants Homer. Next, Bart has a nightmare about a bus crash. And his nightmare is about to come true when a playful gremlin starts taking the bus apart piece by piece "Terror at 5 1/2 Feet." Finally, Mr. Burns is a vampire, and he wants blood, and he turns Bart into a vampire in "Bart Simpson's Dracula."
149: 3F18 (SI-718 / S07E21) 22 Short Films About Springfield
A dull, lazy afternoon, prompts Bart and Milhouse to wonder if anything interest ever happens in Springfield -- a cue for a series of clips about Springfield.
309: EABF13 (SI-1413 / S14E18) Dude, Where's My Ranch?
While out Christmas caroling, the family finds out from a lawyer that the carol they are singing is copyrighted, leading Homer to write his own carol. But when Ned tries to help, Homer turns it into an anti-Flanders song. A passing David Byrne just happens to hear Homer play his song at Moe's, and he turns it into a hit record. When stardom becomes too much, the family spends a week at a dude ranch. Lisa initially objects, until she meets a young junior wrangler named Luke Stetson. Guest stars Jonathan Taylor Thomas , Andy Serkis, and David Byrne.
23: 7F10 (SI-210 / S02E10) Bart Gets Hit by a Car
When Mr. Burns hits Bart in a auto accident, and is willing to pay only one-hundred dollars, Homer sues Mr. Burns for a million.
241: BABF11 (SI-1111 / S11E15) Missionary: Impossible
Homer becomes a missionary on a remote, tropical island as part of his effort to evade the local PBS affiliate's pledge drive collection officials. Guest starring Betty White as herself.
20: 7F07 (SI-207 / S02E07) Bart vs. Thanksgiving
Bart runs away from home when he accidentally burns Lisa's masterpiece and refuses to apologize about it.
My first impressions:
We've had so much Season 5 and so much Treehouse, yet not this one yet. Early candidate for "episode to beat." (Then again technically the first number pulled is always "the one to beat" unless/until something beats it.)
Of all the episodes I've never seen, "22 Short Films" might be the second most famous behind "The PTA Disbands." Yet off the top of my head I can't remember whether people like it or hate it or "meh."
Hmm, so this bracket will have at least two "NR."
"Hit By A Car" is inferior to Treehouse IV but you can't say anything that bad about Lionel Hutz's debut episode.
"Missionary: Impossible" - quoting Paul's assessment of the Hell's Satans episode (which I disagreed with, though it does apply here): "OH GOD IT BURNS!"
And speaking of Paul... I guess he won't be slotting "Thanksgiving" very high. The question is, will I?
Both of the NR's below are slotted despite the fact that their slots are at best educated guesses. Of course I claim they're formally both still NR, but given how the other four come out (plus what one can infer from what I do know) I'd be stunned if I would've rated them any differently.
Preliminary rankings:
1. Treehouse of Horror IV
2. Bart Gets Hit by a Car
NR. 22 Short Films About Springfield
4. Bart vs. Thanksgiving
NR. Dude, Where's My Ranch?
6. Missionary: Impossible
Incidentally: Episodes remaining by season...
1: three; 2: nine(!) [about time we got a couple more of these]; 3: seven; 4: eight; 5: five; 6: eleven(!); 7: eight; 8: nine; 9: seven; 10: seven; 11: five (whew!); 12: six; 13: six; 14: only three; 15: eight
One of my all-time favorite Simpsons lines comes from Missionary: Impossible: "I'm not *not* licking toads." Not a great episode, in my book, just a really fun quote -- makes a great scrolling marquee screensaver, too, especially in garish contrasting colors like yellow and hot pink.
Posted by: Allyson at March 28, 2005 04:37 PMOoh, three good and three not-so-good. That makes my life easy!
1. 22 Short Films -- While my opinion of this one has fallen a little bit (I probably wouldn't rank it Top 5 any more), I'd still put it as the solid #1 in this bracket.
2. Treehouse IV
3. Bart Gets Hit by a Car -- Like a lot of the early episodes, it would be better if it didn't have the sappy message ending, but still not a bad episode.
4. Ranch -- It's okay, I guess, except for the inexplicable Lisa-being-mean part.
5. Thanksgiving -- well, you already know how I feel.
6. Missionary -- while the toad line is not infrequently quoted around our apartment, this episode is still pretty awful.
I would flip-flop Pauls 1 and 2, while I'd drop the dude ranch one to the bottom and move 5 and 6 up. Missionary is also the episode that gave us Jebus, which makes it hard for me to put it in last place.
Posted by: Mark at March 29, 2005 03:02 AM1. 22 Short Films
2. Treehouse IV
3. Bart Gets Hit By a Car
4. Bart vs. Thanksgiving
5. Missionary: Impossible
NR. Dude, Where's My Ranch?
1. 22 Short Films -- the kind of episode you'll never see *The Simpsons* do again. The Tall Man in the Small Car probably ranks as one of my favorite one-episode-and-out characters.
2. TOH IV -- *Simpsons* always do a great job spoofing Rod Serling, and this was no exception. The school bus vignette is probably one of the 3-4 best TOH bits they've done. "Bart Simpson's Dracula" was a little weak.
3. Bart Gets Hit... -- first appearance by Lionel Hutz, which is a plus (Harvard, Yale, the Sorbonne, the Louvre). Ending wasn't that great.
4. Bart vs. Thanksgiving -- one of those episodes that doesn't age well over time.
5. Missionary: Impossible -- it has the PBS Pledge Enforcement Van, which is a plus. But overall, it's pretty lame.
6. Dude, Where's My Ranch? -- late-season lameness.
Posted by: James Dinan at March 30, 2005 05:39 PM1. Treehouse of Horror IV - A solid #1.
2. 22 Short Films About Springfield - Interesting concept but only medium execution. The title is cool, the Pulp bits are... well, some of it is cool. Alright.
3. Bart Gets Hit by a Car
4. Missionary: Impossible - The first act ("it's England's longest-running series, and today, we're showing all seven episodes") almost lifts this episode up to #3. Then there's the other two acts ("Mom won't let me read "Hagar the Horrible") and I wise up.
5. Dude, Where's My Ranch?
6. Bart vs. Thanksgiving