After becoming fascinated with the life of Thomas Edison, Homer goes to the library to learn more. But after an incident at the regular library, he can only go to the library at Springfield Elementary, where he runs into Bart causing trouble. In this case, he’s playing around on a globe while paying homage to James Cagney’s famous line from White Heat.
When Homer fails to bring Lisa a saxophone reed she needs on the night of the talent show, she’s humiliated in front the entire school. Determined to win her over again, Homer decides to make one of Lisa’s biggest dreams come true: to own a pony. Buying and caring for a pony quickly proves to be more expensive than Homer realized though, and he’s forced to work around the clock to earn the money for it. Homer buys the pony from a horse farm, run by a very proper woman. Tress MacNeille voiced this character and based the voice on Katharine Hepburn’s very distinct voice. When asked about the stable services she offers, the woman also offers to teach pronunciation to Lisa at no extra charge so that Lisa can also speak like Katharine Hepburn.
Over the course of The Simpsons, Grandpa Simpson is often shown to be a big fan of writing letters to people, companies, and publications, usually to complain about something. In the episode “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy,” Grandpa realizes he’s nearing the end of his life and decides to give his family their inheritance early so he can see them enjoy it. Since he knows Lisa enjoys reading, he decides to give her his lifetime of personal correspondence. Lisa takes a telegram from the pile and we learn that at one point in time, Grandpa had many things to say to Boris Karloff, who was apparently not amused.
When Bart discovers some wet cement in Springfield, he can’t resist the urge to write his name in it so he’ll be remembered for years to come. But Marge catches him, brings him home, and scolds him for not taking pride in his hometown. But when she asks Homer to back her up, he fails to see why this was such a big deal.
After Homer enters Lisa in the Little Miss Springfield beauty pageant in an effort to help boost her confidence, Lisa is initially horrified. But the rest of the family convinces her to go through with it and offers to help prepare her for the pageant. Marge helps by taking Lisa to the beauty parlor, where the stylist tries many new styles on her, including the infamous “cinnamon roll” hairstyle worn by Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Kirk Douglas just recently celebrated his 100th birthday and over the course of his life, he’s gotten to star in some of the greatest movies ever made and work with many of the top directors and actors/actresses around. Although he’s primarily remembered for his work in film, Douglas has also made several television appearances over the years, including a guest appearance on The Simpsons in 1996.
In “The Day the Violence Died,” Kirk Douglas was the voice of Chester J. Lampwick, a homeless man Bart meets while watching a parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of Itchy and Scratchy. Lampwick isn’t at all impressed by the parade because he claims he was the real creator of Itchy and Scratchy, but his idea was stolen by Roger Meyers, Sr. several decades earlier. Of course, Bart is skeptical at first, but Chester has a single copy of his original cartoon to back up his claims. Unfortunately, his copy of the cartoon is a nitrate print which catches on fire after he screens it for Bart and Milhouse. Even though all proof of his claim is seemingly destroyed, Bart tries to help Chester get the recognition and money he deserves.
In a parody of the movie A Letter to Three Wives, Homer, Reverend Lovejoy, and Apu take their kids out on a trip so their wives can have a break on Mother’s Day. But just as they’re about to leave, they get a letter from Moe the bartender saying that he’s about to leave town with one of their wives. Throughout the day, each of them tries to think of what could have driven their wives to consider leaving them for Moe.
When Mr. Burns decides to axe the dental insurance employees at the power plant receive, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Lisa needs braces, but since they no longer have insurance to pay for them, Lisa isn’t able to get the top-of-the-line braces she was hoping for. It doesn’t help matters that Lisa’s dentist tends to come off as a tad sinister.
Finding someone to provide a voice for the dentist proved to be a bit of a challenge. First, producers had offered the part to Clint Eastwood, who turned it down. Anthony Perkins later accepted the part. Unfortunately, Perkins died before he was able to record his lines. In the end, the dentist’s voice was provided by Hank Azaria instead.
In this episode, the residents of Springfield suddenly start seeing advertisements for something called Gabbo. Nobody knows exactly what it is, but people are constantly seeing commercials, headlines, and other advertisements letting them know it’s coming soon. While out driving, Mr. Burns and Smithers pass a “GABBO is Coming” billboard, which Mr. Burns misreads.
I’m sure Mr. Burns was very disappointed to find out Gabbo was actually just a ventriloquist dummy.
When Marge auditions for a community theater production of a musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire, she lands the coveted part of Blanche DuBois and their mild-mannered neighbor Ned Flanders is cast as Stanley. Obviously, this episode is pretty heavy on Streetcar Named Desire references and they certainly couldn’t resist working in an homage to the movie’s famous scene where Marlon Brando as Stanley yells, “Hey, Stella!” While Marge is next door rehearsing with Ned, Homer has an incident that fills him with the same anguish Stanley feels in that scene: he’s unable to open his can of pudding. Facing a pudding-less night, he goes out to the backyard and starts yelling for Marge in that Brando-esque manner.
The Hollywood Revue 