Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming


While watching The Krusty the Clown Show, Homer asks what happened to Sideshow Bob, Krusty's former sidekick. Bart and Lisa remind their father of Bob's attempts to frame Krusty, kill Selma, rig an election and kill Bart. Meanwhile, at Springfield Minimum Security Prison, Sideshow Bob is disturbed when he hears the other inmates laughing at the inane antics of Krusty's television show. He believes that television is a fountain of "mindless drivel" and wants to rid the world of it. Bob hatches a plan and escapes while on work duty at a local Air Force Base, which is being cleaned for an annual air show. He impersonates Air Force colonel Leslie "Hap" Hapablap in order to gain access to a restricted area of the hangar, where he finds a 10-megaton nuclear weapon.

The air show begins, with the Simpson family in attendance, but the signal on the big screen is interrupted by Bob. Bob announces that life would be better without television and so he threatens to detonate the nuclear bomb unless Springfield gives in to his demand to shut down all television broadcasts. Upon hearing the announcement, everyone flees the airfield in panic except for Bart and Lisa, who get separated from their parents during the crowd's mad rush to evacuate. National Guardsmen frantically search the base for Sideshow Bob to no avail. All out of options, Mayor Quimby decides to give in to Bob's ultimatum — despite Krusty the Clown's objections. In accordance with Bob's demands, television transmitters are destroyed and studios hastily plan farewell programs. Bob, who was televising his demands from a stolen Duff Blimp, celebrates the success of his plan.

Krusty, refusing to submit to Bob's demands, takes refuge in a civil defense shed in the desert. He uses the emergency broadcast system to transmit a heavily improvised show. Bob finds out about this and becomes outraged. Bart and Lisa find their way into the cockpit of the Duff Blimp, where Bob, having lost his patience thanks to Krusty, tries to detonate the bomb. However, the bomb turns out to be a dud (there was a label inside the bomb saying "Best Before November 1959") and does not blow up. The police eventually find Bob, thanks to Lisa, who uses the controls inside the blimp to print a message on its electronic ticker outside. When Chief Wiggum tries to arrest Bob, Bob deflates the blimp and kidnaps Bart. Bob steals the original Wright Brothers aircraft, which had been an exhibit at the air show. He then reveals to Bart that he plans to start out a kamikaze attack into the civil defense shed where Krusty is hiding. However, the plane ends up merely bouncing harmlessly off the shack. The authorities quickly arrest Bob and take him into custody while Bart is reunited with his family.

The Day the Violence Died
During a parade honoring The Itchy & Scratchy Show, Bart meets an elderly homeless person, Chester J. Lampwick, who claims to be the creator of Itchy. He insists Roger Meyers, the supposed creator of the characters Itchy and Scratchy, stole the idea from him and proves this claim to Bart with his animated short Manhattan Madness from 1919. The film, however, is suddenly destroyed by the projector. To shelter Lampwick, Bart lets him live at his house. However, the Simpson family want Lampwick to leave, but Bart does not want him to live on the streets. Suddenly coming up with an idea to properly compensate Lampwick for creating Itchy, Bart and Chester go to Roger Meyers Jr., CEO of Itchy & Scratchy Studios, and ask him for $800 million. They are quickly thrown out.[3]

Lampwick then decides, with the help of Bart and lawyer Lionel Hutz, to sue Itchy and Scratchy Studios. His case is not solid, until Bart remembers that he saw an original animation cel created by Lampwick for sale by Comic Book Guy. Buying the cel, Bart shows its inscription, proving that Lampwick is the creator of Itchy. Roger Meyers Jr. then admits that his father stole Itchy from Lampwick, but still rebuffs him by saying that animation is based on plagiarism. The judge rules in favor of Lampwick and orders Meyers to pay Lampwick the $800 million, which was apparently the entire corporation’s welfare. While Bart is happy that Lampwick is no longer poor, he is sad when he realizes that by helping Lampwick, he has helped take The Itchy & Scratchy Show off of television because the studio is bankrupt and forced to close down.[3]

When Bart and Lisa discover that The Itchy & Scratchy Show has been replaced by a parody of Schoolhouse Rock!'s "I'm Just a Bill" segment, they search for a way to resurrect the cartoon. They find a legal precedent that could help, but discover that two other kids, Lester and Eliza, have beaten them to it. Discovering that the post office mascot Mr. Zip had been ripped off from Itchy & Scratchy Studios, Lester and Eliza helped secure a large cash settlement from the government for Itchy & Scratchy Studios. Despite being happy that Itchy & Scratchy are back on the air, Bart and Lisa leave, disturbed that their spotlight has been stolen.[3] Later that day as Marge tries to comfort her kids, Lester skateboards by the Simpson household and glares at Bart through the window.

I should watch both of these again.

Gleaming was the first episode I ever watched. It gets my vote despite Kirk Douglas being my favorite actor ever.

I'm :30 into Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming, and this opening scene is fantastic. Forgot all about this.

The "ambassadors of television" bit was pretty great too.

And the Goya ad was solid.

The whole ending battle -- from inside the blimp to the old-timey airplane -- was excellent.

I've been watching all the other eps in this tournament that demanded it, but this is the first one that really surprised me at how funny it actually was.

Now I'm watching The Day the Violence Died.

There's a great early moment between Bart and Lisa, in which they ironically share their love of violent television, to then be simultaneously subdued into passive silence by a Kent Brockman piece on the Itchy & Scratchy parade. These sorts of interactions between them became commonplace, but it wasn't always like that.

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The Itchy & Scratchy Meets Fritz the Cat bootleg is awesome.

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"...a mouse named Itchy with a cat name Scratchy..."

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The character design of Chester Lampwick with Kirk Douglas's voice acting makes a really strong one-off character.

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"Look out Itchy, he's Irish!"

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"A chance for more mis- awww...."

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This is awesome:

Spoiler: show

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"Animation is built on plagiarism! If it weren't for someone plagiarizing The Honeymooners, we wouldn't have The Flintstones. If someone hadn't ripped off Sergeant Bilko, there'd be no Top Cat. Huckleberry Hound, Chief Wiggum, Yogi Bear? Hah! Andy Griffith, Edward G. Robinson, Art Carney."

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I think my favorite part is:

"How about...Ghost Mutt?"

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The School House Rock spoof is no Werker and Parasite

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"Wait, kids. You can't give up on Itchy and Scratchy. You're always so good at these things. Why, together you've reunited Krusty with his father; gotten Principal Skinner his job back; and helped Dr. Riviera perform open heart surgery on your father. You've even foiled Sideshow Bob on five separate occasions, and he's an evil genius!"

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The Lester and Eliza deus ex machina is brilliant.

I'm real confident in The Day the Violence Died being the stronger episode.

You've convinced me