Against the Groen(ing): Call of the Simpsons - Episode 7
Posted by Cory Lynn Schibler on 11.02.2007
This is the best you're gonna get. Seriously, it's this or a wagon.
Welcome once again to Against the Groen(ing). I still think that is one of the cleverest titles on the web today. Just throwing that out there, feel free to disagree, as long as you remember that I’m right. I apologize if this review doesn’t live up to the standard I’ve set so far, I’m already a day past my normal deadline, and I hated to ask to postpone again. Already today I have been to class, spent four hours writing a paper for school, gone to work, and attended two meetings after work, so this review is being written about an hour before deadline. So let’s embrace the call of the wild with the Simpson family.
Original Air date: February 18, 1990 Production Code:
This episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Wesley Archer.
Principal Cast Homer: Dan Castellaneta Marge: Julie Kavner Bart: Nancy Cartwright Lisa: Yeardley Smith Guest Voice: Albert Brooks
Chalkboard: “I will not draw naked ladies in class”
Couch: the whole family squeezes in and… nothing happens.
This episode begins like a lot of awesome Simpsons episodes, the Simpson family being jealous of the Flanders family. In this case, Homer is jealous of the new Flanders’ family RV. Of course, the Simpson family immediately heads to the RV lot to buy an RV better than Ned’s. The Simpson family takes a tour of the “ULTIMATE BEHEMOTH!” which is a double decker RV extravaganza. Sadly, Homer’s credit rating doesn’t quite allow the ultimate behemoth to be purchased by the Simpsons and Homer is then swindle by the RV salesman (the amazing Al Brooks) into buying the crappiest RV you have ever seen.
Not being a family to waste time, Homer and the clan immediately pack and head into the wild. After a whirlwind drive through rugged terrain, Homer accidentally stops the RV on the edge of a cliff. In a fantastic gag, Homer tells everyone to on his count slowly slide out of the door of the RV. At one, we hear all the car doors slam and see that the rest of the family has left Homer inside.
Homer goes off by himself to gather his thoughts and accidentally sends out an echo that tells the family that he has already lost all hope. While out looking for food, Homer and Bart believe that Maggie’s pacifier is a rattlesnake and take off running. Once they stop, Homer tells Bart that civilization in on the other side of the bush in front of them. They then walk through said bush and fall over a waterfall and lose all of their clothes. Meanwhile, Maggie is taking in by a group of bears.
Back at the naked men, Homer and Bart make clothes out of the vegetation, and then Homer rigs up a trap to catch some food. Unfortunately, Homer’s contraption catapults the animal across the forest. They then decide to rustle up the animals in the bushes and a few woodland creatures attack Homer.
Back at the bear cave, the bears have taken Maggie in and have raided a human camp to bring Maggie a ton of stuff. Seriously, it looks like freaking Christmas in the bear cave. While Lisa and Marge are chilling by a great fire that they built, the boys are literally chilling in the dark of the forest.
The next day, Homer steals some honey and takes in a mouthful of bees as well. While looking for water to make it where he can talk again, Homer dives into a mud pit and emerges covered in mud and yelling unintelligibly. A local naturist videos this and it is reported that he has found the legendary Bigfoot. This leads to tons of people entering the forest in order to capture the legendary beast. After the girls are found and discover the “finding” of Bigfoot, Marge tells them that that is her husband Homer. A series of tabloid cover sight gags follow, where every time Marge makes a statement, it appears on a new tabloid cover.
In the forest, Homer and Bart stumble across the bear cave and retrieve Maggie. A group of locals then finds Homer and tranquilizes him. Homer is then taken to a research facility for extensive testing. Dr. Marvin Monroe (no clue how a family therapist fits into primate research, but nevertheless) and a team of experts perform extensive test on lovable Homer J. Simpson, and the test results are inconclusive. The doctors announce that Homer may or may not be human. One doctor thinks he is Bigfoot, another thinks he is just a really stupid man. Either way, the episode ends with Marge saying that no matter what they say, she loves Homer.
This video is so cool. Everyone watch the greatness that is the Human Tornado.
The 411: What do I think of this episode? Well, it is written by Swartzwelder so this is automatically a thumbs up. The thing that continues to astound me as I go back over these episodes is how many of the early episodes I still enjoy to this day. Before I owned all the DVDs I watched this show everyday in syndication, and now looking back several of my favorites are from the pre Golden Age seasons such as season 1. 7.0 out of 10.0. Stay tuned next week for the juvenile delinquency of Bartholomew JoJo Simpson in The Telltale Head.
