Trash of the Titans

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The Simpsons episode
"Trash of the Titans"
Homer rides one of his new garbage trucks.
Episode no. 200
Prod. code 5F09
Orig. airdate April 26, 1998
Show runner(s) Mike Scully
Written by Ian Maxtone-Graham
Directed by Jim Reardon
Couch gag The family appear in Mrs. Krabappel's classroom where Bart is writing on the blackboard : "I will not mess with the opening credits."[1]
Guest star(s) Steve Martin as Ray Patterson
U2 as themselves
Paul McGuinness as himself
Susie Smith as herself
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
Mike Scully
George Meyer
Ron Hauge
Ian Maxtone-Graham
Yeardley Smith
Season 9
September 21, 1997 – May 17, 1998
  1. "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"
  2. "The Principal and the Pauper"
  3. "Lisa's Sax"
  4. "Treehouse of Horror VIII"
  5. "The Cartridge Family"
  6. "Bart Star"
  7. "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons"
  8. "Lisa the Skeptic"
  9. "Realty Bites"
  10. "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace"
  11. "All Singing, All Dancing"
  12. "Bart Carny"
  13. "The Joy of Sect"
  14. "Das Bus"
  15. "The Last Temptation of Krust"
  16. "Dumbbell Indemnity"
  17. "Lisa the Simpson"
  18. "This Little Wiggy"
  19. "Simpson Tide"
  20. "The Trouble with Trillions"
  21. "Girly Edition"
  22. "Trash of the Titans"
  23. "King of the Hill"
  24. "Lost Our Lisa"
  25. "Natural Born Kissers"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

"Trash of the Titans" is the 22nd episode of The Simpsons' ninth season and the 200th overall. It originally aired on the Fox network on April 26, 1998.[1] It was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham, and directed by Jim Reardon.[1] It saw Steve Martin guest star as Ray Patterson, and U2 as themselves (although drummer Larry Mullen has no lines[1]). The band's head of Principal Management Paul McGuinness and Susie Smith, an employee of Principal Management also make brief appearances in the episode.[2] It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less). The title is a pun of the 1981 film, Clash of the Titans.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Linda McCartney.[1] She appeared alongside her husband Paul in the episode "Lisa the Vegetarian".

Contents

[edit] Plot

U2 at Moe's Tavern during "The Garbageman Can". Note that drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. appears along with the band (he is second from right), even though he is the only band member with no speaking roles.
U2 at Moe's Tavern during "The Garbageman Can". Note that drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. appears along with the band (he is second from right), even though he is the only band member with no speaking roles.

A local department store, Costington's, announces the formation of a new summer holiday intended to boost sales: Love Day. The Simpsons celebrate it, but the vast amount of packaging it produces causes the garbage to build up. When Homer eventually takes it out he is infuriated with the garbage men as they drive away without collecting the Simpson family's trash. He insults the men, and in response, the family's garbage service is cut off, leading to the Simpsons' garbage piling up on their front lawn. As the mess continues to grow, Marge tells Homer to apologize for the remark, but he insists on doing things his way.

Homer awakes one morning to find that the pile of trash at the front of the house has been removed and learns that Marge had written a letter of apology to the Springfield Sanitation Commissioner, forging Homer's name. In response, Homer goes to see the Sanitation Commissioner, Ray Patterson, demanding the apology to be returned. Patterson tries to be nice to Homer, but Homer insists on fighting, Eventually Homer decides that he will run for Sanitation Commissioner.

Homer begins to promote his campaign. It starts off badly with Homer being beaten up after interrupting a U2 concert, but picks up when Homer, after prompting from Moe, thinks of a slogan for his campaign: "Can't someone else do it?" Homer spreads his message to the town, which works, leading to his landslide victory in the election. After being sworn in to the office, he shows what he plans to do by singing a parody of "The Candy Man"[3] entitled "The Garbageman Can".

However, fulfilling his promises proves quite costly and after Homer's mass spending spree, Mayor Quimby denounces him for spending the Sanitation Department's yearly budget in only a month. To solve the money problem Homer gets garbage companies from across America to put their excess rubbish in Springfield's abandoned mine shaft. The rest of the family warn Homer that this is endangering the town, but he refuses to listen. Eventually the garbage builds up underground and begins to erupt, pouring trash all over the town. At a town hall meeting Homer is booted out of his post and replaced with Ray Patterson, but Patterson declines reinstatement to the position, expressing his amusement at them "wallowing in the mess [they] made." Quimby then takes extreme measures by moving the entire town five miles down the road from its current site,[4] also known as "Springfield Plan B."

During the end credits, it shows U2 flying in an airplane. Adam Clayton is showing off his spoon collection, Bono snatches a spoon out of announces and throws it behind him. The spoon hits Mr. Burns on head and he exclaims "Wankers".

[edit] Production

Ray Patterson leaves the stage to the Sanford and Son theme music, in the reference to the Redd Foxx incident.
Ray Patterson leaves the stage to the Sanford and Son theme music, in the reference to the Redd Foxx incident.

As the episode is the 200th, at its first table reading David Mirkin joked that the show was "half way there."[5] At the time of the DVD commentary's recording the production team had "just done the 400th ("You Kent Always Say What You Want") about two weeks ago."[5]

The production team wanted the episode to be about trash,[3] and Mike Scully pitched the idea that Homer should run for office.[3] Ian Maxtone-Graham had a friend who had made their way in Chicago politics, through the Sanitation Commission, and so he decided that Homer should run for Sanitation Commissioner.[3] They then spent a lot of time trying to get to the point that Homer would have an "over filled trash can",[3] and through its extensive use of packaging the concept of Love Day was formed.[3] Originally the episode saw Homer running for Mayor, but this idea was abandoned.[5] The ending was talked about for a while, with the original idea being that the whole town would be raised up and the rubbish be swept underneath.[5] The environmental message at the end wasn't intended, but it played well and is what the creators believe won the episode an Emmy.[3]

U2 contacted the show about doing a guest spot, rather than the other way around. The writers immediately wrote them one, in case they changed their minds.[5]

The episode marked the first appearance of Costington's department store whose slogan is "Over a Century Without a Slogan". It took "a lot of wasted man-hours" to come up with both the name and slogan.[6]

The scene where Ray Patterson is reinstated (to which he enters and exits to the Sanford and Son theme song) was a reference to a moment that occurred during a stand up show of comedian Redd Foxx (who starred on Sanford and Son). During a show in Vegas, Redd Foxx came on stage to the Sanford and Son theme song, only to find that there were very few people in the audience. Foxx angrily stated that he refused to do a show with such a small audience and walked off the stage. The house orchestra, puzzled by Foxx's leaving simply played him off with the Sanford and Son theme song again.[7] The writers claim that the same incident was the basis for the joke in "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" where Moe walks onto the stage and, without breaking his stride, walks off.[8]

[edit] Reception

This episode won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) in 1998.[9] Jim Reardon won the Annie Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production".[10] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "Although not a great episode, this one has a series of high points that keep you amused until the end."[1] In a 2006 article in USA Today, "The Trash of the Titans" was highlighted among the six best episodes of The Simpsons season 9, along with others including "The Joy of Sect," "The Last Temptation of Krust," "The Cartridge Family," "Dumbbell Indemnity," and "Das Bus".[11]

During Toronto City Council deliberations over the proposal to turn the abandoned Adams Mine in Northern Ontario into a massive dump site for Toronto's garbage, then-councillors Jack Layton and Olivia Chow surprised their council colleagues by playing "Trash of the Titans." "It was absolutely stunning," Layton later told The Globe and Mail. "It was so accurate to what was going on." Layton, who would later become leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, called The Simpsons "the single most important influence on progressive social commentary in the world."[12]

[edit] Controversy

The episode has caused controversy in the United Kingdom for use of the word "wanker". The word is first used by Adam Clayton and later by Mr. Burns at the end of the episode. While the word is not well known in the United States, the word is consider ofensive in the UK. On April 15, 2008, "Trash of the Titans" was broadcast on Channel 4 at 6pm, with both mentions of the word broadcast. Ofcom, which deals with television complaints in the UK, received 31 complaints, who felt that the episode should not have been shown before the 9pm watershed. Channel 4 said that the error was caused by a member of the compliance staff, who had incorrectly certified the programme as suitable to be shown from 6pm. The error was not corrected by the acquisitions department. Ofcom said that while they were "concerned", it would not look into the incident any further because it was "an isolated incident".[13][14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). Trash of the Titans. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
  2. ^ Smith, Yeardley; Scully, Mike. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Trash of the Titans" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Maxtone-Graham, Ian. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Trash of the Titans" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ "Trash of the Titans". The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
  5. ^ a b c d e Scully, Mike. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Trash of the Titans" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ Groening, Matt; Scully, Mike. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Trash of the Titans" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ Meyer, George; Scully, Mike; Maxtone-Graham, Ian; Groening Matt. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Trash of the Titans" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ Scully, Mike; Appel, Richard; Dean Moore, Steven. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  9. ^ Emmy winners in full. BBC News (1998-09-14). Retrieved on 2007-03-01.
  10. ^ 26th Annual Annie Awards. AnnieAwards.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-01.
  11. ^ Clark, Mike. "New on DVD", USA Today, Gannett Co. Inc., December 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-10-24. 
  12. ^ Caldwell, Rebecca; Shoalts David (2003-03-01). My favourite episode. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
  13. ^ Dowell, Ben. "The Simpsons: Channel 4 apologises for pre-watershed swearing", The Guardian, 2008-06-09. Retrieved on 2008-06-09. 
  14. ^ C4 sorry over Simpsons swearing. Chortle.co.uk (2008-06-09). Retrieved on 2008-06-09.

[edit] External links

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