OTH: The Simpsons- "Girly Edition"

Personally, I'm Team Maggie.

Season 9, Episode 21

Aired April 19, 1998

Directed by Mark Kirkland

Written by Larry Doyle

Synopsis: The FCC meet with Krusty and insist that he adds some form of educational content into his program, so he reluctantly agrees to a news segment hosted and ran by local children. Lisa is asked to produce and host it, and she sets up a cast with fellow students. Bart whines his way into hosting the sports section, and his carefree attitude impresses Krusty and his producer enough to bump him up to co-host with Lisa. While Bart’s excited about the promotion, Lisa isn’t happy about having to share in the spotlight, and confides to the producer that she thinks Bart is a little too dumb for the responsibility. Bart hears this and decides that he’ll prove himself to Lisa, meeting with Kent Brockman for advice on how to become a great news anchor. Brockman, who has his own rivalry with his sister, happily agrees and gives Bart his greatest piece of advice- human interest stories are key. Audiences love them, and they’ll make you seem sincere and intelligent. Bart takes this advice and starts his own subseries to the news entitled “Bart’s People”, which becomes the runaway success of the show. Lisa is jealous and isn’t afraid to call out how fake and pretentious his act appears to no avail. When this gets on her last nerves, Lisa has one more trick up her sleeve and sets him up to meet with a special new person, which is actually Groundskeeper Willie, whose shed Bart destroyed earlier in the episode. Willie is out for blood, and while Bart tries to hide, Lisa realizes that she’s gone too far and races to play middleman and save her brother. The two make amends and decide to make a more peaceful, intellectual news show, which ends up canceled.

In this week’s b-plot, Homer discovers that Apu has a helper monkey and applies for his own. Although he’s initially rejected, he uses Grampa to apply and steals the monkey from him. He and Jojo become the best of friends, driving Marge crazy in the process. Unfortunately, it becomes apparent that Homer’s lethargic and gluttonous lifestyle is not good for a little monkey, and he has to return a massively overweight Jojo to his service center.

Bart and Lisa episodes usually hit, as they rely on something most people can relate to- sibling rivalry (sorry only children, you guys never learned how to share, anyway).

It’s a wholly human feeling, the need to compete against your sibling no matter your place in life. You may be best friends most of the time, but only one can be mom’s favorite, or the smartest or the most athletic. Between Bart and Lisa, the first is up for debate who are we kidding it’s Maggie but the other two features are more clearly defined. And while Bart’s ability to command a skateboard is cool, it stings to hear Lisa call him dumb.

And it’s here that the two show off their differing methods. Lisa remains the reliable intellect, sticking to the facts, while Bart has to rely on cheap sentiment to claw his way to the top. What works for me is that I don’t think Bart’s method is any less real than Lisa’s, whose pretentions always make her seem superior to her surroundings. While Bart’s wild nature gets him in trouble, Lisa’s superiority complex makes it hard for her to find friends, and proves to be her own fatal flaw. It makes their competitions engaging and helps to keep the episode entertaining.

“Girly Edition” is the first episode written by the prolific Larry Doyle, who will remain a fixture of the writer’s room for the rest of Scully’s era. Honestly, I know he’s written many things over the years, from acclaimed New Yorker articles to various novels and short stories, but I was impressed to see that he was responsible for the “Naked Tommy” episode of Rugrats. What a classic!

And Doyle does a fine job with his first job for the show, keeping the show’s trademark wit and cynicism alive. The b-plot is on the crazy side, but that happens with most Homer side plots. The show is afraid to keep him out of the limelight for long and usually compensates with an outlandish subplot that’s somewhere between sitcom staple and Jerry Lewis (or some kind of wacky comedy star) territory. At least there’s a monkey to keep the material from monotony.

Nearing the end of the ninth season, I think it’s interesting to note that the show is still hitting, but we haven’t had too many masterpieces. I don’t think we’re entirely done with GOAT-territory episodes, but I can note a subtle decline starting in Scully’s run. This isn’t the right place to get into why, especially since I think that “Girly Edition”, despite the weird title, is a good episode. But with only four episodes left, I don’t see this ranking too high compared to the previous eight seasons.

Homer’s Bar Tab:

• The couch gag is a cute one, a hand (presumably one of the animators) spins the frame of the family on the couch around and turns them into smudge.

• Damn, how much is Kent Brockman worth? A quick Google search suggests that local news anchors generally make a mid-five figure salary, which appears to fluctuate depending on the city. I do recall watching an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show that, when my then-girlfriend and I looked it up, Mary Richards would make about one hundred grand a year as a low-level producer when adjusted for inflation. But that was probably a front to explain her ridiculous wardrobe. All this and more will be discussed when we cover Mary Tyler Moore in… oh, let’s say 2035!

• Something interesting- Eric Stefani, Gwen’s brother and former member of No Doubt, came back to animate Homer and Jojo by Mark Kirkland’s request. This is his last contribution to the series.

• New Character Column: Today we meet the Crazy Cat Lady, a favorite one-dimensional character who lives up to her name. She mainly exists to give Tress MacNeille an excuse to yell profusely, and who doesn’t love that?

• Next Week: We celebrate 200 episodes with Homer campaigning to become Springfield’s sanitation commissioner. That sounds like him. And then he bulks up and climbs a high-top mountain. That doesn’t sound like him.