The Front

After being disappointed by a new episode of Itchy & Scratchy, Bart and Lisa decide that they can write a better one themselves. Inspired by the sight of Homer accidentally slicing Marge's hair off with hedge shears, they write a script titled "Little Barbershop of Horrors", but their episode is rejected by Roger Meyers Jr., head of Itchy & Scratchy International. Correctly guessing that Meyers did not take them seriously because they were children, they resubmit the manuscript under Grampa's name, leading Meyers to hire Grampa as a staff writer. Bart and Lisa inform Grampa about what they did and the three of them conspire to continue passing off Bart and Lisa's scripts as Grampa's own, splitting the money three ways.

For his work on Itchy & Scratchy, Grampa is nominated for an award for Outstanding Writing in a Cartoon Series. When Grampa sees Itchy & Scratchy for the first time in a clip show introducing the award, he is appalled at the violent humor, and turns his acceptance speech into an assault on both the cartoon and the audience amused by it. He storms off the stage amidst boos and thrown vegetables. Grampa gives the award to Bart and Lisa, and Bart swears never to watch an award show again, unless Billy Crystal is featured.

In the subplot, Homer and Marge attend their "Class of 1974" high school reunion, where they have a great time and Homer wins a variety of humorous awards. However, Principal Dondelinger interrupts the ceremony to announce that Homer never graduated high school because he failed a remedial science course, leading Dondelinger to revoke Homer's awards. Determined to win back the accolades, Homer retakes the course and passes the final exam, finally graduating.

The conclusion of the episode features a brief segment, complete with its own theme song, entitled "The Adventures of Ned Flanders". In the sketch, Ned is upset with his sons for not wanting to go to church, until they inform him that it is Saturday and the family laughs together

Old Money

After another Sunday with the Simpsons, Grampa meets Beatrice "Bea" Simmons, a resident at the Springfield Retirement Castle. They go on a date and fall in love. When Bea's birthday arrives on a Sunday, Homer makes Grampa come on a family outing to the Discount Lion Safari, because he thinks Grampa is making up that he has a girlfriend. The outing causes Grampa to miss Bea's birthday. At the safari, the family's car becomes stuck and the lions begin circling it, trapping the family overnight. After the workers help chase the lions away, Grampa returns home expecting to see Bea. However, Homer pulls up just in time for the ambulance to pull away. Jasper tells Grampa that Bea died of a burst ventricle (Grampa comments that they may say Bea died of a burst ventricle, he knows she "died of a broken heart", both symbolically and literally). while Grampa was out with the family. Left deeply depressed by her death, Grampa attends her funeral, where he angrily lashes out at Homer and refuses to speak to him, as he blames Homer for preventing him from attending Bea's birthday party and being with Bea in her final moments and swears never to forgive Homer, leaving Homer miserable.

Grampa receives Bea's inheritance of $106,000 from Lionel Hutz. First, he looks at buying things for himself, but doing so brings him no joy. While on a roller coaster, Bea's ghost appears and suggests that he should spend the money with other people, and also tells him to forgive Homer because deep down Grampa still loves him. After interviews with many people across Springfield (including Mr. Burns, ironic, given his obvious wealth) who only want to spend Grampa's money on things for themselves, Lisa suggests that he should give the money to worthy causes. Feeling he does not have enough money to help as many in need of help as he can, Grampa attempts to double his money by gambling at a casino but Homer stops him—and just in time, since Grampa would have lost the entire inheritance at the roulette wheel. Grampa forgives Homer, and decides to spend the rest of the inheritance on improving the retirement home, including a new dining hall named after Bea.

Hey, two Granpa episodes! I gave Old Money a sympathy vote because I remember it being so sweet. The scenes at the reunion in The Front are good, but besides that it's not too memorable (I'm not the biggest fan of Itchy-and-Scratchy-centric episodes, for some reason, either).

Old Money is too schmaltzy and sentimental for me. I know a lot of people praise the "heart" of the early seasons but I'm glad they lightened up on that stuff eventually.

Old Money by a nose. It's one of the truly sad episodes, and it adds a lot to the overall scope of the series. But the "Hens love roosters / Geese love ganders / Everyone who counts loves Ned Flanders" jingle almost puts The Front on top.

Old Money barely even feels like comedy.

so?

So it just becomes schmaltzy, uninteresting drama. Not what I want from The Simpsons.