From: mxg77@po.cwru.edu   
      
   Not too bad secondary-character episode and one that felt a little   
   grounded and classic. (The only thing that really seemed ridiculous to   
   me was the ball pit "drowning" but I guess there was worse even in the   
   golden years.) Amusing, at least if you accept my claim since it   
   certainly wasn't hyped as this, that a milestone episode like this also   
   focuses on Skinner, when the 100th episode did too.   
      
   Previous episode stuff   
   1F18: See above   
   CABF04 (or was there an earlier ep?): Lenny has an eye trauma wing   
   35ABF02: Willie is still married   
      
   A real tangent   
   That music at the halfway point while Skinner and Hub are bonding   
   sounded very familiar (although I did have to cheat by looking it up in   
   the closed captions). It's the theme from Room 222, which is pertinent   
   because of the school and teacher-student connection. But I know it from   
   last year's research into updating my production code history document,   
   and I have some trivia worth sharing. First, it was a James L. Brooks   
   show. But also, back on the subject of production codes, its second   
   season was part of the original wave of alphanumeric production codes   
   when, in 1970, 20th Century Fox Television changed from using cryptic   
   all-numeric codes to using cryptic numbers AND letters, which it's still   
   using 55 years later after several iterations. (In fact, season 1   
   Simpsons codes starting in 7G come from the tail end of only the second   
   such pattern.)   
      
   Speaking of JLB...   
   I guess I spoke too soon about the last 2 episodes' new Co-EP credit.   
   This episode has a Co-EP of Michael Price, between Selman and the big   
   three. Perhaps this means that particular showrunner job is not meant to   
   be "co" to Selman, but a single job split between two (or more) people   
   from episode to episode. TBD.   
      
   And now for my hot take   
   Tonight is the 800th episode of The Simpsons screened to the viewing   
   public. Fight me. There was no publicity for it, and Fox seems to be   
   saving that designation for (half of) a double episode in February that   
   is also, inexplicably, suggested as the end of the season... but I say   
   that's Hollywood hogwash, a fudge for sweeps justified by a handful of   
   factors.   
   First, I count double episodes as two. The Great Phatsby, O C'mon...,   
   and the upcoming Extreme Makeover. They all have two production codes,   
   they all run for an hour with commercials...   
   I'm also counting the 4 (or some would say 3) streaming exclusive   
   episodes, which I have a feeling Fox may be ignoring to get to their   
   count in February, and why shouldn't I? They have normal production   
   codes, they're of normal length, and even though they've never aired on   
   network TV (etc.)... if streaming shows can win Emmys, these can count   
   as episodes of the show.   
   And I'm going in air order. Tonight's episode is actually the 805th in   
   production order (801st if you leave out the streaming episodes; if you   
   really want, consider next week's the 800th in production order minus   
   them or 800th in air order if you won't count C'mon as two, but I don't   
   see the fanfares starting up for that one either!), but the 800th in   
   production order is 36ABF21, which is to be the 2nd half of the Extreme   
   Makeover episode that is being treated as the milestone. And I have a   
   feeling it was planned that way (with a normal air schedule and not   
   holding the last 4 36ABFs way back), based on earlier reports of how it   
   was labeled. But guess what... if you count C'mon as one episode, you   
   don't get to 800 until 36ABF22, and if you count even more as one single   
   episode you get even farther off. So it seems even the producers did the   
   math with hourlong two-parters counting as two each! But there's   
   basically no good reason to go in production order apart from a little   
   bit of wiggle room, and five episodes is not a little bit.   
   The fact is that this is the 800th half-hour chunk of The Simpsons as a   
   TV series (not shorts, not films) that a viewer has seen, and that's   
   good enough for me. I'm... kind of hoping 900 is not in the cards. But   
   happy 800 to all, and the rest of you chumps celebrating in February are   
   too late!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)