From: mxg77@po.cwru.edu   
      
   Reasonably good episode, Marge episode in particular. Not much to say in   
   general, I guess, except it handled the plot and conflicts well and no one was   
   an utter buffoon. A few too-silly gags but not enough to ruin it. Why was   
   Russi Taylor not credited    
   posthumously, if Sherri and Terri had lines?   
      
      
   Previous episode stuff   
   YABF19: The angry sportscaster/web-show guy is back for the lumbersports   
   AABF01: Maggie's "baby head fell out" remark slightly reminiscent of "baby   
   legs" bit   
      
   Meta   
   Two broad categories. Lisa's play in the first act was full of catchphrases   
   and general Simpsons observations. The Portland intro sequence showed many   
   street names that Simpsons characters and so on are named after, and later, a   
   nod to Springfield's    
   namesake itself (and the what-state-is-Springfield-in debate) comes up.   
      
   Football.....   
   The 4:30 game ran late, again, to everyone's utter shock. Here in Cleveland,   
   the episode started about 4 minutes late.   
      
      
   Z end is near!   
   This is the first episode of production season 31 to air, and with it comes   
   the new production code prefix: ZABF! But what happens next?? If not for the   
   usual running news of multi-season renewals, I wouldn't have otherwise ruled   
   out the idea of this    
   being the last season, under some sort of Mayan calendar premise. But... I   
   think we can dismiss that idea.   
   I doubt anyone thought, in 1998 or so, that the new 20th Century Fox   
   Television production code system would fail to support all new episodes for   
   generations to come. What show would have over 31 seasons?? (Or 30, if my   
   hunch that Family Guy skipped over    
   FACX to HACX because it was decided that G was too close to 6.) The Simpsons   
   came this close to breaking the 90s system (after 5F would come 6F and then   
   what, 7F again?), and this is the third system it's been on, too!   
   If we are to consider the first character as some sort of crazy single base   
   system (base 32?), then perhaps season 32 would be 10ABF, but that would   
   probably just be as confusing to the uninitiated as it would be cutely logical   
   otherwise. Another    
   character? Greek letters like delta and lambda? Skip the encoding and just use   
   32ABF?   
   Or change the ABF? I mean, that means Simpsons in this scheme. 7ABI is used, I   
   hear, for the 3Gs in retrofitting old episodes to the current scheme. But 1ABI   
   would still essentially denote sesason 1 of some given show, and that would be   
   the same issue    
   for any new code letters. (And I'm still confused why the first letter jumped   
   to L instead of B when AZZ was passed.)   
   Well, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough, when new episodes are announced   
   through official channels. I still can't help but wonder, especially since I   
   wonder how well the scheme is understood overall!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)