Never one to not jump on a craze, with THE SIMPSONS movie opening this weekend I thought I'd post some of "Dancin' Homer" -- one of the episodes my partner, David Isaacs and I wrote. I'm also the voice of the radio announcer. Hopefully this will hold you until you get to the theater.
This aired 11/8/90 according to IMDB. Just seeing that brought back some strong memories. I was a sophomore in college. I was less than one month away from my first true romantic relationship, and my grandfather died about two weeks later. Because we all were devoted Simpsons watchers, I'm guessing that I was in my dorm room that night (with its wonderful view of the Fenway Park scoreboard) watching this on the Fox affiliate in Boston, channel 25, trying to figure out how I could get the damned 38 ghosts out of the picture because there was no cable in the dorm rooms.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how different the animation is. Is it just me or is the show less frantic in this clip, and Homer not the incredible idiot he would become?
Thanks for bringing back a bit of my youth.
Definitely one of my favourites from season 2, not quite as strong as ''Simpson And Delilah,'' but it's right up there. Brilliant work, Ken. :)
ReplyDeleteWatch those split infinitives, Ken...you should have wrote "Never one not to jump on a craze"
ReplyDeleteI love this episode. I don't want to boast about my incredible youth or anything, but when you write about Cheers and MASH it's entertaining but it doesn't tickle me... as a young Dutch fella never really grabbed me.
ReplyDeleteThe Simpsons, on the other hand, most certainly did. And I love the fact that you were responsible for one the most entertaining of the early episodes.
I meant to write, "as a young dutch Fella *IT* never really grabbed me".
ReplyDeleteThat could've been an embarassing faux-pas!
Hey, maybe that's the same guy that was worried about Chris Hansen coming to get him in the last post.
ReplyDeleteI shelled out $400 in the distant past for an original animation cel of Homer dancing on the dugout roof. It was a great investment, as I believe it is now priceless. That's the word to describe something that nobody is willing to buy at any price, right?
ReplyDeleteThanks Ken -
ReplyDeleteOne of my faves.
Best line is that two jumbo beers cost $2.50? That's cheap even for 17 years ago!
ESPN.com's Jim Caple did a long story on Wednesday on the Simpson's baseball-themed episodes, which includes a quote by Ken about Dancing Homer (copy and paste URL):
ReplyDeletehttp://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?
page=caple/070725&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2
26 minutes for the national anthem is a classic!
ReplyDeleteTo thecrutnacker: I must have been just down the road from you on Comm ave. and was in the beginning of my second post-college year in Boston. We always gathered as group and watched the show together.
It was that good. Thanks for bringing back those memories!
Hey thanks for that! I'm having a really hard time finding any Simpsons episodes on television these days.
ReplyDeleteI kid 'cause I love. Go 'Topes!
No school in Springfield tomorrow!
ReplyDeletejust on the verge of being TOO early for fun, despite the great script. The drawing style still just before i became classic form, lacking ability to show nuanced characteristics, instead of just weird angles and two differnet epxressions, and the voices...Homer still not on the sweet spot of his characteristic voice, and BURNS, wow...missing all of his hssssy sound. The script is up to speed with the best, but everyone sounds like weak tryouts for what they will be, a bit slow really. Oh well, the best is yet to come.
ReplyDeleteMiles,
ReplyDeleteI was living at Warren Towers, BU's prison dorm, on the southern corner facing Fenway. The show premiered my freshman year and we all loved it.
For my sitcom writing class (I was a film major) I wrote a spec script for the Simpsons about Homer losing his job. Wonder if they've ever done that one. :) In my class was another guy who took the uncool route and wrote a script for Mad About You, which he absolutely loved.
That guy, Andrew Kreisberg, went on to be a story editor for the Simpsons, and is now an Exec Producer on Boston Legal.
Also in my class was Jennifer Celota (although I didn't know her personally). She's now a producer and writer on The Office.
I used the expertise that I uncovered there to become a project manager for a large insurance company. My only brush with fame was seeing Michael Moore outside my building.
Oh, and I was also an extra in the early 90s in a movie with Courtney Cox, Arie Gross, Kevin Pollak and the non-downtown Julie Brown. It was so bad that I believe it went straight to filmstrip.
And one last brush with fame...... Penn from Penn and Teller called me a dick at an in-store at Strawberry's Records.
Crutnacker,
ReplyDeleteCongrats. It's not everybody who's called a dick by Penn. Usually, it's much worse.
I myself have clawed my way to the middle of the entertainment world and will probably stay there until I get tired of it or it tires of me.
I probably should have taken the Insurance path (I went to Brandeis).
That Dan Hoard character saved the show. Nay, the series. They owe him big time.
ReplyDelete