From: mxg77@po.cwru.edu   
      
   Weird premise, lingered a little long in the "over-sensitive Bart"   
   characterization, but yet a reasonably good entry, with a bit of classic   
   episode flavor. Could do worse for an (early) season finale.   
      
   DYN:   
   ...Milhouse's fighting game name is MILMAN76, not Thrillho(use) as in   
   3F07 (though as it happens, his *egg* is named Li'lhouse)?   
   ...Bart's journal entry is for Thursday, May 14, nonexistent this year   
   (closest matches = 2020, 2026), as if the writers didn't know or care?   
   ..."Professor Pocket Pool" is a pretty dirty joke for TV-PG?   
      
   Previous episode stuff   
   AABF03: State Comptroller Atkins is back (note, though, that the word   
   should still be pronounced as "controller" despite the fancy spelling)   
      
   Season finale?   
   Yep, thanks to the very long writers' strike of 2023, the interruption   
   to the production schedule is finally catching up with us, so this   
   season is only 18 episodes long. Still, no doubt thanks to the hefty   
   holdover group of 7 OABF episodes, it's only 4 short. Other shows also   
   seemed to get to about the 12th production episode in this season before   
   ending early: Family Guy at 15 (with 3 holdovers), ending on a 12 a   
   month ago, about 5 short of its now-typical 20-episode air season, and   
   Bob's Burgers (1 holdover), which abruptly stopped new episodes in March   
   but will have only a 13-episode air season (vs. 22ish) when one more   
   runs tonight, also making it to what I imagine will be a 12, for   
   example. (This is only the 11th 35ABF to air in season 35, but maxing   
   out at number 12 is telling.)   
   And of course, not that it makes The Simpsons special, this short season   
   is the second-shortest air season in the show's history, following the   
   original 13-episode first season. All others have been 21 (×4), 22, or   
   higher, except season 19 (2007-08), which came in at just 20 episodes,   
   also after a historic (shorter) strike.   
   How things go next year remains to be seen. I wonder whether this   
   production season or the next might be significantly shorter, whether   
   air seasons will be a little beefier, or whether the holdover "debt" may   
   just increase permanently yet again. Maybe a little of each.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)