From: garvey@simpsonsarchive.com   
      
   As modern episodes with unexplored and possibly inconsistent (recent)   
   backstories of side characters go I guess this wasn't bad. It's a little silly   
   seeing Ned and Fat Tony paired up (and Ned so oblivious) but it was coherent.   
   It was also shorter than    
   the 21.5 minute "standard" of the last few years, by about 10 seconds, and I   
   wonder whether the time slot is being chipped away again. We'll see.   
      
   (It's also been 7 weeks since the last new episode, which is not even as long   
   a gap as a similar one last year, BUT there have been no REPEATS in that time   
   either. Maybe the longest gap between network airings in history?)   
      
   DYN:   
   ...apparently you can say "Dr. Jerkoff" on TV (and have it still be rated   
   TV-PG)?   
      
      
   Previous episode stuff   
   3F02: ALF is back... in TV guide form   
   4F07: The alternate cloud opening is reminiscent of "the hurricane" but then   
   all the misfortune befalling Ned, including the destruction and rebuilding of   
   his house, combined with a reappearance of Ned's beatnik dad, really adds up!   
   Movie: A musical motif from the movie shows up a lot in this episode as   
   something of a Ned theme, though it was not that specific in the movie (Hans   
   Zimmer scored that, and now his company scores the show by committee or   
   whatever, but it's unusual to use    
   his themes instead of Alf Clausen's in the show)   
      
      
   Meta   
   Ned says that there was a period when he was Bart's teacher, and encourages   
   Marge to look it up, "CADF12". This has the rhythm of a production code, even   
   though he goes on to explain it as Bart's grades, and that's the joke, that he   
   would be citing a    
   previous episode... but of course it's NOT one. (Actually I can't place a   
   scene with him specifically filling in as teacher right at the moment.) It   
   would be simple enough to use the season-10-and-up ABF series code with an A-F   
   season code, since B is    
   obviously a grade, but referring to a nonexistent episode makes sense if it's   
   not a real fact (he certainly didn't teach Bart in CABF12, and may not even   
   have been in it). Compare other plausible-sounding production codes in BABF01,   
   although the series    
   has used real production codes for fake things in the past too (e.g. an I&S   
   "DABF06" with an odd pause in the middle).   
   Also, a reference to the "sitcom thing" of a fat man having a hot wife,   
   blackboard gag, etc.   
      
      
   Tonight's airing also included a dedication to David Crosby (who died a month   
   ago, but again, no episodes for a while), with an image from what I think is   
   9F20. Hope you didn't miss it!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)