My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
The ad reading "FLIM SPRINGFIELD" says it all: this, like most good Simpsons episodes, is about the little things. Hollywood's finally shooting a Radioactive Man movie, and Springfield's unpretentious ad in a trade paper draws the producers to the small town where nothing, not even movie screws, can be marked up too much. Giving Milhouse a front-and-center role is always a good thing, and Schwartzwelder makes the most of it here, from the boys' hats flying skyward to Bart's tall boots, slicked up hair and chihuahua dog giving him the inch of growth he needed "plus several feet more." The ending, with Mickey Rooney taking Milhouse's role and the producers retreating broke back to Hollywood, is a little weak, but what comes before is nothing but classic Simpsons.
How about, "The Be Sharps?"
The story of the Be Sharps works so much better if you know the history of The Beatles, but even for someone like me who didn't upon first (and subsequent thirty) viewings, the episode excels as the best of the old Simpsons standby: the flashback told to Bart and Lisa. Starting innocently enough at a flea market ("Wow! Joseph of Arimathea! Twenty six conversions in A.D. 46!") where an old copy of Homer's album is discovered, we learn about the Grammy-winning days of Skinner, Apu, Barney and Homer as well as their Pete Besting of Chief Wiggum. It's an early offbeat story for the series, more typical of a double digit season than in the middle of the show's prime, and is basically written off at the end as the wonder why they'd never heard of their father's success before. Unlike episodes a decade later that would explore The Simpsons' unbelievable exploits, this tempered effort sprinkled with the usual tight gags works wonderfully.
Are you saying "boo" or "Boo-urns"?
Why Matt Groening took his name off of this episode I'll never understand. Yes, it is a cheap crossover between The Simpsons and Fox's newly acquired The Critic, but with the golden script that Simpsons and Critic scribe Ken Keeler turned out, he should have wanted his credit plastered all over the screen. Marge suggests that Springfield hold a film festival, and recruits Jay Sherman to be the guest critic along with Homer, Marge, Quimby and Krusty ("Let's just say it moved me. TO A BIGGER HOUSE!") Jay gets to stay with The Simpsons, prompting belching contests, random performances of the Oscar Mayer wiener song and conversations with Marge's sisters ("You badmouthed MacGyver, didn't you?") The episode peaks with the film festival, featuring Hans Moleman being nailed in the groin ("This contest is over! Give that man the $10,000!",) Burns' attempt to make himself a god, and Barney's triumphant look at his alcoholism rewarded with a lifetime supply of Duff Beer ("Just hook it to my veins!") I understand the hesitation to endorse a network-forced crossover, but the result here is another example of how The Simpsons, in its prime, could do what no other show on television could: turn trash into treasure.