The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show

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The Simpsons episode
"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"
Poochie in Itchy & Scratchy's car.
Episode no. 167
Prod. code 4F12
Orig. airdate February 9, 1997
Show runner(s) Bill Oakley
Josh Weinstein
Written by David S. Cohen
Directed by Steven Dean Moore
Couch gag A parody of the Sgt. Pepper's album cover.[1]
Guest star(s) Alex Rocco as Roger Meyers, Jr.
Phil Hartman as Troy McClure
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
Josh Weinstein
David X. Cohen
Yeardley Smith
Alex Rocco
Steven Dean Moore
Season 8
October 27, 1996 – May 18, 1997
  1. "Treehouse of Horror VII"
  2. "You Only Move Twice"
  3. "The Homer They Fall"
  4. "Burns, Baby Burns"
  5. "Bart After Dark"
  6. "A Milhouse Divided"
  7. "Lisa's Date with Density"
  8. "Hurricane Neddy"
  9. "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)"
  10. "The Springfield Files"
  11. "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson"
  12. "Mountain of Madness"
  13. "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious"
  14. "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"
  15. "Homer's Phobia"
  16. "Brother from Another Series"
  17. "My Sister, My Sitter"
  18. "Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment"
  19. "Grade School Confidential"
  20. "The Canine Mutiny"
  21. "The Old Man and the Lisa"
  22. "In Marge We Trust"
  23. "Homer's Enemy"
  24. "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"
  25. "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" is the fourteenth episode of the eighth season of The Simpsons, which originally aired February 9, 1997.[2] It was written by David S. Cohen, and directed by Steven Dean Moore.[2] Alex Rocco guest starred as Roger Meyers, Jr. for the third time, and Phil Hartman guest starred as Troy McClure.[2] The episode saw the introduction of the short-lived character Poochie. This episode also saw The Simpsons surpass The Flintstones in the number of episodes produced for an animated series.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The ratings of the Itchy & Scratchy Show segment of the Krusty the Clown show fall dramatically. Krusty gives the cartoon's producer Roger Meyers, Jr. an ultimatum: come up with a way to fix the sagging ratings, or else. Meyers decides to commission a focus group to determine the reason why Itchy and Scratchy have lost their popularity.

Bart and Lisa participate in the study, watching cartoons and answering questions. However, things do not go very well, with the children contradicting themselves when suggesting what they want. Lisa points out that there was nothing wrong with Itchy and Scratchy to begin with; rather, the characters had simply lost the impact they once had with their audience. Meyers thanks Lisa for "saving" Itchy and Scratchy, and decides that a new character is what is needed to salvage his cartoon. He tells Krusty and his team of writers that this new character should be a dog, one with attitude and it is decided his name shall be Poochie.

Bart and Lisa insist Homer give voice acting a try when they read there will be open auditions. Homer auditions to read for Poochie's voice, and gets the part. He and June Bellamy, his fellow voice actor, make several publicity stops to promote Poochie. Homer invites all of his friends and relatives to the screening of the first Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show. However, the cartoon is full of clichés and inane antics, and by emphasizing Poochie, contains none of the show's trademark violence. Homer and Ned Flanders are the only ones who liked the cartoon, while everyone else is unimpressed. Meyers is forced to admit that Poochie's debut was a dud, and he decides to retire the character. Homer learns that Poochie will be killed off and is resolved to keep Poochie alive. At his next recording session, rather than reading from the script, he implores the audience to give Poochie a fair chance. The writing team is impressed with Homer's statement, and he is led to believe that the comments will be in the next cartoon. Instead, Meyers dubs the correct line—"I have to go now. My planet needs me."—into the dialogue, and a statement attesting to the dog's demise (he died on the way back to his home planet) is hurriedly edited into the cartoon. The in-studio audience cheers wildly as Krusty promises that Poochie is gone for good. Homer feels betrayed but, after realizing he never got paid for his efforts, chalks things up to the nature of show business.[3]

Throughout the episode, a college-aged man named Roy comes to live with the Simpsons. When Lisa remarks that new characters are just a cheap effort to boost crappy shows' ratings, Roy appears out of nowhere. He has a few minor lines, calls Homer "Mr. S", and at the episode's end, he declares that he is moving out to live with "two sexy ladies."

[edit] Production

The episode was intended to be a commentary on what it was like to work on a television show that had been on the air for a long time but was nearing its end, and it meant to show that The Simpsons could still be good after eight seasons, even though it no longer had the "shock value" it did in the early years.[4] Before production began on the episode, a Fox executive made a suggestion that a new character should come and live with the Simpsons, on a permanent basis, and that it would "liven up the show like Cousin Oliver did for The Brady Bunch".[5] The unexplained appearance from the character Roy was a reference to this.[6] Roy was originally conceived to appear in the "Time and Punishment" segment of the season six episode "Treehouse of Horror V", living with the Simpsons in one of the alternate realities,[4] as a second, teenage son in the family.[7]

This episode also features the first mention of Comic Book Guy's soon-to-be catchphrase "Worst. Episode. Ever.", which was taken from the alt.tv.simpsons message boards.[4] The first mention of "Worst episode ever" can be found in this post, which was referring to the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie".

[edit] Original plan for Poochie

David Cohen's initial vision for Poochie was that he would be annoying to fans because he was wealthy, aloof and unlikeable. In the episode's DVD commentary he read his script for the first cartoon featuring Itchy, Scratchy, and Poochie:

“ Itchy and Scratchy are laborers in Poochie's gold mine. Poochie sits on a velvet throne surrounded by bags of money. He drinks champagne as he whips Itchy and Scratchy and lectures them on the value of hard work in a capitalist society. Finally, Itchy and Scratchy get fed up and plan their revenge. They decide Scratchy will present a fake money bag to Poochie. Itchy will secretly be hiding in the bag. When Poochie raises the bag to inhale the sweet smell of money, Itchy will jab him in the nose with a syringe of poison. Itchy gets in the bag and Scratchy presents it to Poochie, but the plan backfires because Poochie is offended by how small the money bag is. To demonstrate how worthless it is to him, he sets it on fire and uses it to light his cigar. Itchy's flaming skeleton falls out of the burning bag, and the syringe lands on Scratchy's toe and kills him, too. Poochie says, "Oh, well, I can always use my millions of dollars to hire more workers. That's the power of money." The end.[4] ”

[edit] Caricatures of the show's staff

As with other episodes centering around the production of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, such as "The Front", the show's staff are shown. Almost all of them are caricatures of the actual staff of The Simpsons.[4] In the first scene at the production table the person in the lower right corner, wearing a squid T-shirt, is David X. Cohen. On the left side, the furthest away is Bill Oakley with Josh Weinstein next to him. Next to Weinstein is George Meyer, who is the writer who speaks out and gets fired. The animator shown designing Poochie is supervising director David Silverman. Others who appear include Dan McGrath, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Donick Cary, Ron Hauge, Ned Goldreyer, and Mike Scully, who had to be added in later, as the animators "didn't have his photo" from which to get an accurate likeness.[4]

[edit] Cultural references

In a rap sequence, Poochie explicitly likens himself to the character: "I'm half Joe Camel / And a third Fonzarelli".[8]

[edit] Reception

The Itchy & Scratchy Show writing staff, caricatures of the staff of The Simpsons, along with Roger Meyers, Jr., Krusty, and the prototype Lindsey Naegle.
The Itchy & Scratchy Show writing staff, caricatures of the staff of The Simpsons, along with Roger Meyers, Jr., Krusty, and the prototype Lindsey Naegle.

This episode saw the The Simpsons surpass The Flintstones for the number of episodes produced for an animated series.[9] It was placed twenty-third on Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episodes list.[10] The Quindecim, a college newspaper, made their own top 25, placing "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" in seventeenth place.[11] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", calling it "a very neat episode which, like "The Front", is a good parody of the cartooning business." In 2007, Vanity Fair named it the sixth best episode in the show's history, describing it as "a classic satire of network influence, obsessed TV fans, and programs that survive long after the shark has been jumped, the episode is a meta-celebration, a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to everyone who claimed that the quality of The Simpsons had declined over the years."[12] Todd Gilchrist called it a masterpiece, stating it "could easily be packaged and sold by [itself]."[13] Comic Book Guy's phrase "Worst. Episode. Ever" was named as a quote that could be used in everyday life, as well as being one of the most popular quotes from the show, by The A.V. Club.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  2. ^ a b c Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, p. 226, 227. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
  3. ^ "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show". The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Cohen, David. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ Groening, Matt. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ Smith, Yeardley. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ Daniels, Greg. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ Simpsons Archive Episode 4F12. The Simpsons Archive. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
  9. ^ 1997 TIMELINE. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
  10. ^ The Family Dynamic. Entertainment Weekly (2003-01-29). Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  11. ^ Culp, Sarah (2003-03-12). The Simpsons' Top 25 Episodes. The Quindecim. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
  12. ^ John Orvted. "Springfield's Best", Vanity Fair, 2007-07-05. Retrieved on 2007-07-13. 
  13. ^ Gilchrist, Todd (2006-08-14). The Simpsons - The Complete Eighth Season. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.
  14. ^ Bahn, Christopher; Donna Bowman, Josh Modell, Noel Murray, Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, Kyle Ryan, Scott Tobias (2006-04-26). Beyond "D'oh!": Simpsons Quotes For Everyday Use. The A.V. Club. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.

[edit] External links

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