Episode Title: Old Money
Episode Number: 30
Original Air Date: March 28, 1991
Plot Synopsis: Homer, Marge and the kids drop Grandpa off at the Retirement Castle after what is apparently another in a long line of disappointing Sunday "Simpson" family outings. After a slight mix-up with his pills, Grandpa meets a lovely young (old) lady named Bea. They hit it off and quickly become boyfriend and girlfriend. Bea's birthday just happens to fall on a Sunday, which means that Grandpa has to go out with the rest of the family instead of spending it with his new beau. They end up going to a safari, which he hates. When he gets back, Grandpa finds out that not only did he miss Bea's birthday, he also missed her death. Because she died.
Grandpa is super bummed and immediately disowns Homer for making him miss Bea's birthday. During the grieving process, Grandpa quickly finds out that Bea left him $106,000 and a message to go "enjoy life." He does a few things (like buy a fancy fez hat and go on a roller coaster), but he finds absolutely no joy in any of this. At Lisa's insistence, he realizes that the only thing that would give him joy would be to give the money to people who need it. Based on that, he holds interviews where people can come up to him and state their case. Otto, Bart and even Mr. Burns all ask for the money. Right around this time Grandpa also forgives Homer.
Grandpa realizes that he doesn't have all the money he needs to help all the people he wants, so he decides to try to gamble to turn his $106,000 into as much as possible. Horrified, Homer tries desperately to stop this. He does, and ends up saving Grandpa from losing it all on a bad bet. Grandpa then turns around and dumps the money back into the Retirement Castle, complete with a "Bea Simmons Memorial Dining Room." He ends the episode by telling his friends that "dignity is on me."
Grandpa is super bummed and immediately disowns Homer for making him miss Bea's birthday. During the grieving process, Grandpa quickly finds out that Bea left him $106,000 and a message to go "enjoy life." He does a few things (like buy a fancy fez hat and go on a roller coaster), but he finds absolutely no joy in any of this. At Lisa's insistence, he realizes that the only thing that would give him joy would be to give the money to people who need it. Based on that, he holds interviews where people can come up to him and state their case. Otto, Bart and even Mr. Burns all ask for the money. Right around this time Grandpa also forgives Homer.
Grandpa realizes that he doesn't have all the money he needs to help all the people he wants, so he decides to try to gamble to turn his $106,000 into as much as possible. Horrified, Homer tries desperately to stop this. He does, and ends up saving Grandpa from losing it all on a bad bet. Grandpa then turns around and dumps the money back into the Retirement Castle, complete with a "Bea Simmons Memorial Dining Room." He ends the episode by telling his friends that "dignity is on me."
Overall Thoughts: This is another episode that I had literally no memory of. I'm sure I've seen it at some point in the past 21 years, but I wouldn't exactly be able to prove that if you tried to make me right now. Again, that's not really of concern to anyone but myself, but I thought it was interesting. One thing that I'm learning as I go back and watch every episode is that I might not necessarily know this show as well as I thought I did.
What Works: I've always liked Grandpa, and it's nice to spend a full episode with him. We've seen a number of episodes this year devoted to secondary characters, and I think it's really great that the writers were willing to branch off from the core family members almost immediately.
This episode isn't hugely funny by any means, but it does have a few really good lines and gags. My favorite thing in the episode might be a quite bit where Homer initially thinks that Bea is invisible.
I love darkness (again, darkness that isn't bizarre cartoon suicide attempts), and this episode plays to that love pretty well. It's very touching and emotional that Grandpa misses Bea's birthday to go out with stupid Homer on his misguided family bonding trip, and then Bea ends up dying suddenly while he was away. It's just another of the many examples of how this show really is unlike most other shows on television, and certainly all other animated shows of the time.
Also, Grandpa makes a really funny noise during a quick montage of him not having fun in various places after Bea dies. It's hard to describe in text, but it really makes me laugh and I think I'm going to try to start using it as an expression of discontent in my everyday life.
I also like that, from the perspective of the core characters, this is fairly honest portrayal of taking care of an elderly family member. Homer's part of the story is essentially "I feel obligated to spend time with my father but I don't really want to or know how." It's a very relate-able angle to take. Later on, when Grandpa briefly disowns Homer for making him miss Bea's birthday (and eventual death), Homer is legitimately upset and that's really nice.
The finale of the episode is a lovely sequence in which Grandpa puts all of his/Bea's money back into the Retirement Castle. It's lovely sentiment and not at all what I expected to happen when a Simpson inherits hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This episode isn't hugely funny by any means, but it does have a few really good lines and gags. My favorite thing in the episode might be a quite bit where Homer initially thinks that Bea is invisible.
I love darkness (again, darkness that isn't bizarre cartoon suicide attempts), and this episode plays to that love pretty well. It's very touching and emotional that Grandpa misses Bea's birthday to go out with stupid Homer on his misguided family bonding trip, and then Bea ends up dying suddenly while he was away. It's just another of the many examples of how this show really is unlike most other shows on television, and certainly all other animated shows of the time.
Also, Grandpa makes a really funny noise during a quick montage of him not having fun in various places after Bea dies. It's hard to describe in text, but it really makes me laugh and I think I'm going to try to start using it as an expression of discontent in my everyday life.
I also like that, from the perspective of the core characters, this is fairly honest portrayal of taking care of an elderly family member. Homer's part of the story is essentially "I feel obligated to spend time with my father but I don't really want to or know how." It's a very relate-able angle to take. Later on, when Grandpa briefly disowns Homer for making him miss Bea's birthday (and eventual death), Homer is legitimately upset and that's really nice.
The finale of the episode is a lovely sequence in which Grandpa puts all of his/Bea's money back into the Retirement Castle. It's lovely sentiment and not at all what I expected to happen when a Simpson inherits hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What Doesn't Work: The safari trip early on in the episode (the trip that makes Grandpa miss Bea's birthday) isn't funny and breaks with the believability for no great reason. Now, as I said, I really love that Grandpa misses Bea's birthday because of Homer's misguided attempt to spend time with him. I just wish that misguided attempt was funnier.
Speaking of, the whole episode really isn't that funny. I'm not sure if I should necessarily hold that against it, though. I will, because it's still a comedy show, but for the most part "laughter" is replaced by something I often enjoy just as much: pain. So it's a kind of give and take thing with this episode, I guess.
From the "Small nitpick" category: Mr. Burns begging for Grandpa's money doesn't make sense, and the writers don't make any attempt to justify it. It feels like it's an excuse to have a popular character show up for a second and little else. Though, to be fair, I can't see Burns ever being so popular that they would try to shoehorn him into an episode like this. If anything, I think they just assumed that one old man begging another old man for money would be funnier than it really is.
Speaking of, the whole episode really isn't that funny. I'm not sure if I should necessarily hold that against it, though. I will, because it's still a comedy show, but for the most part "laughter" is replaced by something I often enjoy just as much: pain. So it's a kind of give and take thing with this episode, I guess.
From the "Small nitpick" category: Mr. Burns begging for Grandpa's money doesn't make sense, and the writers don't make any attempt to justify it. It feels like it's an excuse to have a popular character show up for a second and little else. Though, to be fair, I can't see Burns ever being so popular that they would try to shoehorn him into an episode like this. If anything, I think they just assumed that one old man begging another old man for money would be funnier than it really is.
Closing Thoughts: Wikipedia tells me that this episode isn't really liked by a lot of people. It has its supporters, which I now consider myself among, but a lot of people think this is the worst episode of season two. It's been called overly sentimental to its detriment, which I absolutely don't agree with. I like the sentimentality on display here, so I think that's probably why I like it more than most. I don't love it, though, as I wish it was funnier.
One thing that I keep noticing throughout all these season two episodes:
Jacques from "Life on the Fast Lane," who is by far my least favorite character from the show's history, keeps appearing in the background of episodes as if to taunt me. It happens again in this episode. Quite frankly, it's happening so often that it's getting hard not to take it personally. They even added him to the main credits sequence in season two.
Final Grade (out of 10): 8One thing that I keep noticing throughout all these season two episodes:
Jacques from "Life on the Fast Lane," who is by far my least favorite character from the show's history, keeps appearing in the background of episodes as if to taunt me. It happens again in this episode. Quite frankly, it's happening so often that it's getting hard not to take it personally. They even added him to the main credits sequence in season two.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Am I right on the money and/or a giant, meandering idiot? Feel free to let me know.