Krusty Gets Kancelled

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The Simpsons episode
"Krusty Gets Kancelled"
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Episode no. 81
Prod. code 9F19
Orig. airdate May 13, 1993
Show runner(s) Al Jean & Mike Reiss
Written by John Swartzwelder
Directed by David Silverman
Chalkboard "I will not charge admission to the bathroom"
Couch gag The family steps into a net trap on the way to the couch.
Guest star(s) Johnny Carson
Hugh Hefner
Bette Midler
Luke Perry
Elizabeth Taylor
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Barry White
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
David Silverman
Season 4
September 24, 1992 – May 13, 1993
  1. "Kamp Krusty"
  2. "A Streetcar Named Marge"
  3. "Homer the Heretic"
  4. "Lisa the Beauty Queen"
  5. "Treehouse of Horror III"
  6. "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"
  7. "Marge Gets a Job"
  8. "New Kid on the Block"
  9. "Mr. Plow"
  10. "Lisa's First Word"
  11. "Homer's Triple Bypass"
  12. "Marge vs. the Monorail"
  13. "Selma's Choice"
  14. "Brother from the Same Planet"
  15. "I Love Lisa"
  16. "Duffless"
  17. "Last Exit to Springfield"
  18. "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
  19. "The Front"
  20. "Whacking Day"
  21. "Marge in Chains"
  22. "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

"Krusty Gets Kancelled" is the 22nd episode of The Simpsons' fourth season. It originally aired on May 13, 1993.

Contents

[edit] Plot

One afternoon while Homer and Bart are watching The Springfield Squares, a highly distracting commercial is aired for something named "Gabbo". The advertisement is the start of a viral marketing campaign around Springfield to build interest in whatever "Gabbo" is. At one point, a distressed Rev. Lovejoy expresses his concern that the term "Gabbo" has fallen into common usage, in lieu of religious terms such as "worship" and "Jericho".

Finally, "Gabbo" is unveiled with great fanfare — he is a Howdy Doody-type ventriloquist's dummy with a voice that sounds like Jerry Lewis. Ventriloquist Arthur Crandall announces that Gabbo's new program will air in direct competition with the established Krusty the Klown Show on each afternoon at 4 PM. Gabbo's catchphrase — "I'm a bad wittle boy" — instantly charms his intended audience, and this has a negative impact on Krusty and his show.

The clown vows to withstand the competition from the new program, but Gabbo's cutthroat tactics and fantastic reviews quickly attract Krusty's audience. Gabbo even steals away Krusty's signature cartoon, The Itchy & Scratchy Show, since it would be exposed to far-higher ratings than the fast-fading Krusty. Krusty tries to fight back with a dummy of his own, but due to its gruesome appearance and poor condition, it falls apart on Krusty's lap, and scares off many of the child audience. Eventually, Krusty's ratings hit rock bottom, and after being left to air a poorly produced "Worker and Parasite" cartoon ("Eastern Europe's favorite cat and mouse team"), his show is cancelled.

Left without work, Krusty falls on hard times and begins suffering from depression. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa — all along unimpressed with Gabbo — reveal to him a plan to get him back into the public eye: expose Gabbo as a profane flash-in-the-pan, and plan a huge prime-time special starring Krusty. Believing there still may be hope for himself yet, Krusty agrees.

After Bart begins derailing Gabbo's success, by secretly turning on a studio camera, which catches Gabbo bad-mouthing his audience on-air, he and Lisa begin recruiting major celebrities to appear on Krusty's special: Bette Midler, Johnny Carson, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Luke Perry (in Latin America changed to Robert Redford, Krusty's "worthless half-brother") and Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor declines Bart and Lisa's invitation, much to her later regret.

Bart and Lisa return to Krusty to declare their success, only to find him morbidly obese from drinking several fatty milkshakes after believing them to be weight-losing shakes. Fortunately, the entire Simpson family helps get him back into shape before the special airs.

The show is a success, and later at Moe's tavern, Bart makes a toast; "To Krusty...the greatest entertainer in the world." (With the possible exception, he notes, for Johnny Carson)

[edit] Production

In the commentary on the DVD release of season 4, the producers note that The Simpsons was so popular that a great number of celebrities requested cameos on the program, and so the production staff decided to group a large number of celebrity appearances into this episode.[1] Johnny Carson's voice work for this episode was one of his last performances in television.[2]

In 2000, the episode was released as part of a Twentieth Century Fox boxed set The Simpsons Go Hollywood, commemorating The Simpsons' 10th anniversary.[3] The set included "some of the series' best spoofs of movies and TV", and also included episodes "Marge vs. the Monorail," "A Streetcar Named Marge," "Who Shot Mr. Burns", Parts 1 and 2, and "Bart Gets Famous".[3] The episode was included in a 2003 release of The Simpsons Classics on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.[4]

[edit] Cultural references

Folk singer Judy Collins' 1975 rendition of the song "Send in the Clowns" is parodied in the episode, and Krusty sings the altered lyrics: "Send in those soulful and doleful, schmaltz-by-the-bowlful clowns" as the closing number of his comeback special.[5] This parody of the song has become more well-known by many than the Collins version.[5]

[edit] Reception

In an article about the 2003 DVD release in The Independent, "Krusty Gets Kancelled" was highlighted along with episodes "When You Dish Upon a Star", "Lisa the Iconoclast", "Dog of Death", "Homer Badman", and "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy".[4] In a 2004 review of the release of The Simpsons season four on DVD, Andrew Pulver of The Guardian highlighted episodes "Kamp Krusty" and "Krusty Gets Kancelled" as part of "TV art at its peak".[6] Mike Clark of USA Today also highlighted "Kamp Krusty" and "Krusty Gets Kancelled" as better episodes of the season, along with "A Streetcar Named Marge" and "Lisa the Beauty Queen".[7] Jen Chaney of The Washington Post described episodes "A Streetcar Named Marge," "Mr. Plow," "Marge vs. the Monorail" and "Krusty Gets Kancelled" as "gems" of The Simpsons' fourth season.[8] Spence Kettlewell of The Toronto Star described season 4 episodes "Krusty Gets Kancelled", "Kamp Krusty," "Mr. Plow," and "I Love Lisa" as "some of the best episodes" of the series.[9] Forrest Hartman of the Reno Gazette-Journal wrote that the large number of celebrity appearances detracted from the episode, commenting: "The result is a boring hodgepodge of scenes with Bette Midler, Johnny Carson, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and more where we're supposed to laugh simply because famous people are interacting with Krusty."[1] The episode is one of co-executive producer Tim Long's three favorites, including "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" and "A Milhouse Divided".[10]

In 2007, Vanity Fair named "Krusty Gets Kancelled" as the ninth best episode of The Simpsons.[11] John Orvet felt, "This is Krusty's best episode—better than the reunion with his father, or the Bar Mitzvah episode, which won an Emmy much later on. The incorporation of guest stars as themselves is top-notch, and we get to see the really dark side of Krusty's flailing showbiz career. Hollywood, television, celebrities, and fans are all beautifully skewered here."[11] Brien Murphy of the Abilene Reporter-News classed "Krusty Gets Kancelled" as one of his three favorite episodes of The Simpsons, along with "Behind the Laughter" and "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase".[12] Though Jim Schembri of The Age put the episode among his top 10 episodes of the series, he also noted "Unfortunately, this signalled the beginning of the show's obsession with star cameos."[13] An article in the Herald Sun placed "Krusty Gets Kancelled" among the top 20 episodes of The Simpsons, and characterized "The sight of Krusty's feeble attempt to fight back with his own gruesome ventriloquist doll, which falls apart on his lap on air" as the highlight of the episode.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Hartman, Forrest. "Small Screen", Reno Gazette-Journal, 2004-06-25, p. 14H. 
  2. ^ Mcfadden, Kay. "Late-night king left enduring mark on TV", The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 2005-01-24, p. A1. Retrieved on 2008-04-27. 
  3. ^ a b Staff. "Home Video", The Star-Ledger, 2000-01-14, p. 51. 
  4. ^ a b Staff. "Lucky Bag", The Independent on Sunday, Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd., 2003-09-07, p. 20. 
  5. ^ a b Dalton, Trent. "jukebox", QWeekend Magazine, 2008-01-19, p. 15. 
  6. ^ Pulver, Andrew. "Friday Review: Little things we like: The Simpsons Season 4", The Guardian, 2004-08-06, p. 19. 
  7. ^ Clark, Mike. "New on DVD", USA Today, 2004-06-11, p. 04E. 
  8. ^ Chaney, Jen (2004-06-01). Bonus Points: The monthly guide to DVD extras. The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
  9. ^ Kettlewell, Spence. "DVD review Simpsons, S4 Simpsons S4 is best box yet", The Toronto Star, Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, 2004-09-09, p. P12. 
  10. ^ Gonzalez, Erika. "D'OH-Mestic Bliss - Writer Loves Life With 'The Simpsons' - Plans on Sticking Around Awhile", Rocky Mountain News, 2003-02-20, p. 10D. 
  11. ^ a b Orvted, John. "The Simpsons - Springfield's Best: Our unscientific survey of the 10 funniest Simpsons episodes ever.", Vanity Fair, CondéNet, 2007-07-05. Retrieved on 2008-04-26. 
  12. ^ Murphy, Brien. "What's so special about this feisty cartoon family?", Abilene Reporter-News, 2007-07-26. 
  13. ^ Schembri, Jim. "What a difference a D'oh! makes - Arts & Culture - Film of the Week", The Age, The Age Company Limited, 2007-07-26, p. 15. 
  14. ^ Staff. "The Simpsons Top 20", Herald Sun, Nationwide News Pty Limited, 2007-04-21, p. W09. 

[edit] External links

The Simpsons Portal
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