The Seemingly Never-Ending Story
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The Seemingly Never-Ending Story is the thirteenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons, and the ninth Emmy Award-winning episode. It originally aired on March 12, 2006. This episode was rated TV-14 for suggestive dialogue and offensive language in the US, the ninth time for The Simpsons. After getting trapped in a cave, Lisa tells Homer a story within a story of a hidden treasure.[1] Written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Raymond Persi, the episode guest stars Maurice LaMarche and Michael Dees. The title of the episode is a take-off from the 1984 Wolfgang Petersen film, The Neverending Story, based on the novel of the same title by Michael Ende.
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[edit] Plot
For "Family Day", the Simpson family visits Carl's Dad Caverns (a parody of Carlsbad Caverns). While navigating through the cave, they discover a massive, but very fragile stalactite, from which Homer tries to take a shard. This makes the stalactite fall through the ground, causing the entire Simpson family to be pulled into an unknown cavern below the main-tour. However, Homer gets stuck in the narrow hole, half in, and half out, upside down. Noting that the cave is not on the tour's map, Marge, Bart, and Maggie go off to find an exit, but since Homer is afraid to be left alone in his position, Lisa offers to stay with him. To pass the time, Lisa begins to tell a story (no unicorns).
The week before visiting the cave, Lisa has been out for a walk, when she runs into a bighorn sheep, which is supposedly a very docile creature. Unfortunately, the beast doesn't know the meaning of "docile", and inexplicably attacks Lisa and proceeds to chase her; she begins running to the nearest shelter: the mansion of Charles Montgomery Burns. Running inside, she runs into Mr. Burns and informs him of a murderous sheep outside, though a sarcastic Burns becomes shocked when the animal bursts in, and together, they both attempt to escape the creature. Finally, with difficulty, they wind up in the attic and block the entrance with old boxes. While waiting for the sheep to disappear, Lisa searches the attic and finds a photo of Mr. Burns as an employee at Moe's Tavern. To kill the time there, Burns recounts the story of his fall from grace.
This begins Mr. Burns's story. All the local millionaires attend the Exclusionary Club, where Mr. Burns and the Rich Texan (who had developed a rivalry with Mr. Burns after saying "sticking a pole in the ground and praying for goo" isn't a worthwhile endeavor) decide to settle their differences with a scavenger hunt, the winner of which will get all the loser's assets and possessions. The list consists of retrieving ridiculous things like Frank Grimes's tombstone and a single strand of Homer's hair. After both of them retrieve both of Homer's hair strands, Homer purchases an identical wig. Mr. Burns and the Rich Texan both speed along to get the last item: "a picture of yourself with a smiling child". While the Texan gains a picture of himself with a smiling Jimbo Jones, Mr. Burns has trouble finding a child who expresses anything but terror around him (Milhouse screams "It's the boogeyman's grandfather!" when confronted by him). As a result, Mr. Burns loses his entire fortune to the Rich Texan. According to Burns, to work his way back up to the top, he had to start from the bottom, but to get to the bottom, he had to start at Moe's. He worked at Moe's for a minimum wage (minus taxes and "Moe's Special FICA"). One night while cleaning up, he discovers a letter from Moe to be opened only when Moe died. The letter tells Moe's own story about a hidden treasure.
This now begins Moe Szyslak's story. The summer before Edna Krabappel began teaching, she and Moe meet when he is hit by Edna's bus. They fall in love, without Edna knowing he owns a bar. At the time, she hated bar owners since her ex-husband was an alcoholic. Moe, scared to lose Edna, claims to be an alcoholic therapist. Scared that Edna will find out the truth about him eventually, Moe wants to leave Springfield with her but has no money. He then discovers that Snake Jailbird — who used to be an idealistic archaeologist — has discovered a large batch of Mayan coins he was going to donate to the museum. Moe steals them, turning Snake to a life of crime (a.k.a. regularly robbing the Kwik-E-Mart). Moe is then about to leave town with Edna, but when she goes to school to explain that she is quitting, she sees Bart.
Bart explains he has all-summer detention, and feels he is a lost cause because no one believes in his abilities. Edna declares that come the next year, when she teaches fourth grade, she will help him to succeed. It turns out, however, that Bart has actually just been distracting Edna while he and Nelson steal microscopes and computers.
After Edna explains her decision to Moe, he has no choice but to go nuts. He immediately flies into a rage and screams at her while dumping her luggage into the street and storms into his tavern. Utterly depressed, Moe puts the priceless coins in his jukebox, repeatedly playing 'their' song, which is "Fly Me to the Moon" by Bart Howard, as sung by Frank Sinatra.
Mr. Burns opens up the jukebox and gives the coins to the Texan to buy back all of his things, but the Texan demands that Mr. Burns produce a picture of himself with a smiling child before he can get the plant back. Burns's rival explains that he has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, thus feeling the need to have Burns complete the scavenger hunt.
After Mr. Burns ends his story, he explains to Lisa that he cannot get the plant back because no child will smile at him. Just then, the sheep bursts into the attic. Mr. Burns hurts himself defending Lisa. It turns out that the sheep does not want to kill them. The sheep found Lisa's necklace on a tree branch. It then put it on one of its horns and sets off to find her.
Lisa, in gratitude to Mr. Burns for his attempted rescue, takes a photo of the two together with her smiling, allowing Burns to win back his plant from the Texan. This exits to the cave scene.
Homer breaks free of his trap, and reveals that he had an ulterior motive for bringing the family to the caves.
Homer hides from babysitting duty in the woods. He then sees the Texan hide the gold coins in the cave while singing a parody song, and brings the family so they could search for the gold to pay for an operation for Bart. Nobody, not even Bart, knows about this operation.
Just then, the Texan shows up, and the gold is found behind a rock by Mr. Burns, Moe, and Snake (in that order). They enter a four-way Mexican standoff. Marge grabs the bag and threatens to drop it down a deep pit if they do not end their standoff. When she discovers the extreme depth of their greed, she drops it down the pit. Instantly, everyone realizes how greedy they had been, and go out to volunteer as a way of atoning for their sins at a youth center in Shelbyville, with the exception of Mr. Burns, who attempts to climb down to get the gold.
Suddenly, it is revealed that the whole episode has all been a story by Bart, being told to Seymour Skinner as an explanation for why he did not have time to study for a recent geography test. The principal finds this ridiculous until he sees Moe and Edna kissing outside, meaning they finally got back together. At this point in her life, Edna is so desperate, all she is looking for is a "guy with a healthy libido," to which Moe responds "And this is where it gets awkward," implying that this relationship will not last long, either.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title is a take-off from the 1984 Wolfgang Petersen film, The Neverending Story, based on a novel with the same title by Michael Ende.
- In the episode, the family visits "Carl's Dad's Caverns", a spoof of Carlsbad Caverns National Park located in New Mexico.
- Rich Uncle Pennybags (mascot of the Parker Brothers' perrenial hit board game Monopoly) and Commander McBragg (character from the 1960s cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales) both appear in Mr. Burn's exclusionary club; Commander McBragg is also seen as the master of ceremonies at the beginning of the scavenger hunt.
- The camera Burns is using to take pictures is a Polaroid OneStep from the 80s.[2]
[edit] Soundtrack
- Ludwig van Beethoven - 6th Symphony (when Lisa deals with the goat)
- Aaron Copland - Hoe Down
[edit] Reception
This episode garnered 9.72 million viewers on its first run. In 2006, this episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour), beating the nominated episodes from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Camp Lazlo, Family Guy, and South Park.
[edit] References
- ^ http://animatedtv.about.com/od/picturegalleries/ig/Simpsons-Pictures---Season-17/simpSeeminglyNeverend.htm AnimatedTV: OD Pictur Galleries of The Seemingly Never-Ending Story
- ^ http://www.rwhirled.com/landlist/landdcam-sx70.htm The Land List -- SX-70 Cameras
