- h4x3d.com

“Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play” is the 22nd episode of the 17th season of The Simpsons that originally aired on May 21, 2006. It was the finale for the seventeenth season.

Chalkboard:Have a great summer, everyone.
Couch gag:Every couch in Springfield comes alive and attacks everyone.
Download: NEW 40MB link (rapidshare.com) | Yes (40MB Xvid) | Try “sape”

Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Open to the family watching a cop drama. As the credits roll, Kent Brockman announces that the Springfield Isotopes are in first place thanks to their new acquisition of Buck “Homerun King” Mitchell. “To the bandwagon!” shouts Homer, as they all head to Springfield Stadium. Tabitha Vixx, Buck Mitchell’s wife, sings the first few bars of the National Anthem at the game, then strips down to lingerie and launches into one of her own songs. After a minute of lascivious dancing, she concludes “…and the home of the brave.” Buck, humiliated, delivers a terrible performance at that night’s game. He later sees Homer and Marge kissing on the Jumbotron; the next day Buck shows up at the Simpsons’ front door and asks for help with his marriage in exchange for season tickets.

Marge doubts their ability to counsel another couple. Her doubts lead to her and Homer flirting, which Buck sees and claims is an example of what he wants with his own wife. At the first session—taking place in the Simpsons’ living room—Buck confesses he assumed Tabitha would give up her recording career to focus on his minor league baseball career, to which she responds she won’t stay in a mismatched marriage. The session concludes with Homer asking Buck to sign baseballs.

The next session takes place at Buck and Tabitha’s mansion, which goes much more smoothly. As a result of his now-steady personal life, his game returns to superior form. Tabitha continues her singing tour, and Homer comes to meet her in the locker room to check up on things. There he gives her a neck rub; her loud moans through the door are overheard by Buck, who barges in enraged and slugs Homer.

Now with his marriage again on the rocks, Buck goes into another slump. Homer wants to get them back together, but Marge refuses to help. He leaves, and a few minutes later Tabitha knocks on the door; she tells a shocked Marge that she plans to leave Buck for good. Marge objects, insisting they stay together.

Flash to Buck Mitchell at the plate in the bottom of the ninth. Homer has hijacked the Duff blimp and spells out a message to Buck, supposedly from Tabitha proclaiming her love. Buck, reinvigorated, hits the ball into the blimp itself, causing it to crash into the field; as Homer alone runs from the wreckage, Buck realizes Tabitha had no part in the message. He charges Homer, bat in hand, but Marge delivers a monologue over the loudspeaker, dissuading him. It also prompts Tabitha to tell Buck she wants to stay together.

The episode closes with another Isotope player, Tito, saying he doesn’t care about the healed marriage because bandits just kidnapped his mother.

Cultural references>

• One of the misplays that Buck made during the first game in this episode is a parody of Bill Buckner’s infamous error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
• One of Tabitha’s songs sounds very similar to Britney Spears’ Toxic.
• The show they are watching is called Hunch and seems to be a poke at the television show Monk. In fact, the first name of the “actor” on Hunch is Tony which is the real life first name of Monk’s main actor Tony Shalhoub.
• Hunch also seems to be a bit controversial, in the same vein as NYPD Blue if Bart’s comment about Hunch’s butt in the shower is accurate.
• At the end credits for Hunch, the city of New York is credited as being played by the city of Lethbridge, Alberta, a small city between Calgary and the USA/Canadian border of approximately 80,000 inhabitants. A strange choice to film a prime time crime drama, although Canada has become a popular filming location for many American movies and some television. This was shown in “The Bart Wants What It Wants.”
• Among the people credited in the cast of Hunch are The Late George C. Scott as Furious Bowler, Anthony Hopkins as Bystander #2, Gwyneth Paltrow as Gloria Huncharella and Heidi Klum as Guy Who Turned Out To Be That Other Guy. J.D. Salinger is credited as the writer.
• The file photo of Marge and Homer references Michelangelo’s famous Pietà.
• The writer for the show Homer and the family are watching at the beginning of the episode is J.D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye.
• Tabitha’s frequent pole-dancing could be a reference to Anna Benson.
• Homer asks “Why couldn’t you marry one of your crummy back-up dancers?”, a reference to notable singers marrying back-up dancers, such as Britney Spears marrying Kevin Federline, and Jennifer Lopez marrying Cris Judd.
• When the zeppelin is above the stadium and showing the text “I love you Buck,” the announcer is saying “Wow, that’s a zeppelin with whole lotta love!” as a reference to Led Zeppelin song “Whole Lotta Love.”
• After accidentally destroying Homer’s dirigible with a home run swing, Buck remarks, “This is the second worst blimp crash ever,” to which Grampa Simpson replies, “Too soon!” This is a reference to the Hindenburg Disaster. This event was also referenced by Kent Brockman in Lisa the Beauty Queen, who after witnessing Barney crash the Duff Blimp exclaimed, “Oh, the humanity!” a la Herbert Morrison.

High-Quality sexy Simpsons titty wallpaper (no idea how to call this)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_and_Homer_Turn_a_Couple_Play

“Girls Just Want to Have Sums” is the nineteenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on April 30, 2006.

Chalkboard: None
Couch gag: The people of Springfield yell out “Surprise!” when the family enters, and Homer has a heart attack and falls to the floor.
Download: NEW 40MB link (rapidshare.com) | Yes, 40MB Xvid | Try “sape”

Synopsis

The Simpsons and many other prominent Springfieldians go to see a performance of Itchy & Scratchy: The Musical. The show features the cat and felicitate mouse doing what they do best, but all in song. The audience is enthralled by the performance and give it a standing ovation. Julianna, the director comes out on stage, accompanied by Principal Skinner, to acknowledge the cheers. Skinner reveals that she used to be a student of Springfield Elementary and, while acknowledging all her accomplishments, says that she wasn’t very good in math, because she is a girl. Everyone is shocked and Skinner’s attempts to defend himself just worsen the situation.

The next day, the teachers of Springfield Elementary and other ladies stage a protest outside the school against Skinner’s remark, much to the displeasure of Superintendent Chalmers. Skinner assures him that he will take care of it and holds a conference in the school’s auditorium, inviting all the protesting ladies to attend. There, he tries to pacify them by wearing a skirt and saying that men and women are equal but not identical. Nothing he says has a good effect on the ladies, so finally he starts hyperventilating and collapses on stage. Chalmers comes out and introduces them to their new principal—lady principal, that is. As her first act as principal, she separates the boys and girls into separate schools. The move is met with mixed reactions.

The next day, Otto drops off the girls at their school, and then drives a few feet ahead and releases the boys from their cage in the bus, so they can attend their school. Lisa seems to feel right at home in the girl-friendly school, with the fountains, paintings, pink paint and all. She attends math class, which will be taught by the new principal herself. However, instead of usual number-crunching or the like, she starts speaking about the philosophy and magic in math. While the other girls seem to go for it, Lisa asks whether they will get down to doing problems, to which the principal replies that problems are how boys look at math. Disillusioned by this “pro-female” (and no-logic) bias toward one of her favorite subjects, Lisa walks off and goes into the boys’ school compound, which looks like it’s been hit by a couple of hurricanes. She peeps into one of the classrooms and sees a math class in session, where actual, accurate math is being taught—exactly how she likes it. She is caught by Skinner, now an assistant to Groundskeeper Willie and told to leave.

After a chat with Marge, she decides to disguise herself as a boy, named “Jake Boyman” (though the boys nickname her “Toilet”) and attend the boys’ school. During the math class, she gets a problem wrong, but she feels happy to have learned something. Unfortunately, being with the boys means having to act like one. She inadvertently gets into a fight with Nelson and, as much as she tries to use her intelligence to escape her situation, she gets beaten up.

When Bart returns home that day, happy to have seen a fight, he is shocked to see Lisa, still dressed as Jake, sitting on her bed, crying quietly. He feels sorry for her and he tells her that he will teach her to act like a boy.

Thanks to Bart’s help, she starts acting more like a boy, including Bart forcing her to beat up poor Ralph Wiggum. However, she does well in math class. Finally, at an award ceremony, she is given an award for her outstanding performance in math. She then reveals herself to the whole school, and she explains why she had to disguise herself. Bart gets up and tells everyone that she did well only because she was acting like a boy. Angry at hearing this, she throws her award at Bart, but ends up hitting Ralph. Shocked at how “boy-like” she has become, she apologises to Ralph. In the end, it is assumed that Skinner is reinstated as principal.

Cultural references

• The title is a play on the title of the song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” by Cyndi Lauper.
• The Broadway Version of The Lion King is completely parodied by the Itchy and Scratchy Musical, Stab-a-Lot, even to the point that the musical uses puppets (and puppeteers) that are exactly like the Timon puppet used in said musical. Its title is a parody of Spamalot, which Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria was a cast member of. The song “It’s Symbiotic” is a parody of the song “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar. And the song The Circle of Knife is obviously a parody on The Circle of Life in The Lion King. The name of the director, Julianna, is an obvious reference to Julie Taymor, the director of the actual Broadway musical, known for her stunning visuals and use of puppetry.
• The song that Otto plays after he lets the girls off is “Breaking the Law” by Judas Priest.
• The song that Martin, “The Best Flautist”, plays and continues playing at the end credits is “Thick as a Brick” by Jethro Tull.
• The Waitresses’ I Know What Boys Like is used in this episode.
• The episode’s basic storyline is similar to William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
• The music that plays in scenes featuring the boys’ playground are very reminiscent of the score from Stanley Kubrick’s film version of A Clockwork Orange. Both A Clockwork Orange and the episode feature somewhat apocalyptic, violent settings.
• In the girls’ section of the elementary school, paintings by Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe hang on the walls, joined in humorous juxtaposition by a Cathy cartoon, implying an equivalent position in the female-artist pantheon for Cathy Guisewite.
• In the Springfield Theater District there is a musical entitled $$$ starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. This is probably a parody of The Producers
• One Guy Named Moe: Parody of a Broadway comedy from the late 80s called Five Guys Named Moe.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_Just_Want_to_Have_Sums

The Wettest Stories Ever Told is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons’ seventeenth season. It originally aired on April 23, 2006.

Couch gag: Homer puts together a puzzle that shows the Simpsons sitting on the couch. He places Maggie’s head on Homer’s body and vice versa, then says “D’oh!” and fixes it. He then chuckles.
Chalk board: none

Download: NEW 40MB link (rapidshare.com) | Yes, 40MB Xvid | Try “sape”

Synopsis

A dinner at the Frying Dutchman gone wrong turns into an excuse for another anthology show, this time with a nautical theme—Lisa tells about the Mayflower voyage, Bart tells about mutiny in Tahiti, and Homer tells about capsizing cruise ships.

Lisa’s story (Journey on the Mayflower)

Marge, Bart, and Lisa board the Mayflower to head for the new world, but just as they do, Homer runs ahead of them and hides in a barrel. They see the police looking for him (because he made the mistake of asking why this time is called the “Jacobean era” when the king is called “James” and not “Jacob”), and they take pity on him as they hear him praying (he is actually praying that the police kill them instead of him). Even so, they take him with them and dress him up like them. Marge immediately grows on Homer, but Moe likes her as well (having gone as far as to kill her husband) and is instantly jealous of their friendship. To get Homer out of the way, Moe takes him down to the storage room where all the beer is held and tells him to drink whenever a wave hits the boat. He gets drunk, and Captain “Flandish” (Flanders) and Reverend Lovejoy find him and other passengers partying. Moe blames Homer, and they place him in a stock. Then, a storm approaches, and Flanders gets knocked out. Homer claims that he steers better when he is drunk, and while drinking a bottle of wine, he leads them safely out of the storm. He and Marge get together, and they all make it to the New World. While having the first Thanksgiving with the Native Americans, Flandish says that he’s almost sorry for what the Pilgrims will do to them later (take their land and wipe them out).

Bart’s story (Mutiny on the Bounty)

The HMAV Bounty sets sail from England, commanded by Captain Bligh (Skinner). Bligh severely mistreats his crew, tossing off their mail. They arrive in Tahiti, where the crew has a wonderful time (Bligh later orders them to forget the vacation). Willie warns him of a mutiny, but Bligh ignores him. Eventually, First Mate Bart Christian leads a mutiny and sends Bligh and Willie off in a lifeboat. Bligh mistreats Willie and is sent away on a sea turtle (which he mistreats, even after it submerges). Captain Bart orders the crews to set sail for Tahiti…then he throws away the ship’s wheel and they crash into Antarctica.

Homer’s story (The Neptune Adventure)

Homer’s story takes place on the luxury liner Neptune on New Year’s Eve. At midnight, Captain Burns fails to notice a massive freak wave and the ship capsizes. Led by Selma, survivors Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge, Lenny, Carl, Comic Book Guy, Old Jewish Man (and his wife), and Sideshow Mel ignore Purser Wiggum’s advice to stay put in the ball room and decide to climb up the decks to the engine room. While climbing up through the smokestack, Lenny panics and falls to his death. They encounter rooms in flame, tigers, and Homer doing his business in an upside-down bathroom. Comic Book Guy swims through a flooded deck to help the others get to the engine room, but he has a heart attack and dies. The group makes it to the engine room, but Sideshow Mel’s hair is set on fire because of a blowtorch from the rescue team and he dies. The rest of the original group makes it off the ship, at which point they encounter the walking skeletons of the Bounty crew, who are still trying to get back to Tahiti.

Cultural references

• This episode also references Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” In the first story, after the storm breaks off, Homer notices an albatross which he eats. Unlike the poem, this action does not lead to unfortunate incidents. The final act with the appearance of the Bounty could possibly be a reference to the appearance of the ghost ship.
• Homer’s story is a parody of The Poseidon Adventure, an action film. There are several similarities between Homer’s story and The Poseidon Adventure. Two characters die in ways similar to the movie: Lenny falls off a ladder into surging water, like Acres; and Comic Book Guy dies while trying to tie a rope underwater, like Mrs. Rosen. This episode also aired just weeks before the remake of the movie, titled Poseidon, premiered.
• The song played at the beginning of Homer’s story is “Rock the Boat” by the Hues Corporation.
• One-eyed “Admiral Nelson” is a reference to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, British hero of the Battle of Trafalgar.
• Comic Book Guy’s “inspirational music” is “Alone Again (Naturally)” by Gilbert O’Sullivan.
• “Island in the Sun” by Weezer plays during the montage of the Bounty crew in Tahiti and Easter Island.
• When the Bounty crew is in Tahiti, the theme instrumental music that is played is similar to that written in the musical movie South Pacific.
• At the end of Homer’s story, the crew of the Bounty reappears as living skeletons, parodying Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
• Lisa sings a parody of The Morning After from The Poseidon Adventure, which (exaggeratedly) foreshadows the upcoming destruction of the S.S. Neptune.
• Burns makes references to Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, The China Syndrome, and The Apple Dumpling Gang, which were popular disaster films of the 1970s (except for The Apple Dumpling Gang).
• The ship in Homer’s story is called the Neptune. “Neptune” was the Roman god of the sea; the Greek name for the same deity was “Poseidon.”
• Scenes of Bart standing on the mast of the Bounty, and the use of music by Luigi Boccherini, are references to the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
• This episode’s title spoofs the title of the film The Greatest Story Ever Told.
• In the final segment, as the survivors leave the ship (just before the Bounty appears) a trumpet plays the melody of ‘Panic in Detroit‘ by David Bowie.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wettest_Stories_Ever_Told

Million Dollar Abie is the sixteenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on April 2, 2006.

Chalkboard: I will not flip the classroom upside down. (The classroom is upside down)
Couch gag: A TiVo menu screen pops up and the “delete this recording now” option is selected
Download: NEW 40MB link (rapidshare.com) | Yes, 40MB Xvid | Try “sape”

Synopsis

When it is announced that the commissioner of pro football (Bud Armstrong) wants to expand the league, Homer leads the charge to get the new franchise in Springfield. At first his family doesn’t think he could do it, but Homer manages to put forth a surprisingly strong package for the Springfield Meltdowns and the new Duff Beer Krusty Burger Buzz Cola Costington’s Department Store Kwik-E-Mart Stupid Flanders Park.

The commissioner narrows down the choice of the two cities to either Springfield or Los Angeles. L.A. puts forth an anti-Springfield video hosted by Rob Reiner and features a song sung by celebrity impersonators that ends with them singing “Springfield Blows”. All the owners decide that Springfield is the lesser of two evils, and the Commissioner awards the new team to Springfield. The town gets “Meltmania” and “Downs syndrome” and quickly builds Homer’s new park and paints the town in the team colours (orange and purple) and changes all of the street names to football-related names.

On the day when Springfield is officially announced as the new team, the Commissioner gets confused by all of the new street names and gets lost. He stops for directions at the Simpsons’ house and is greeted by Grampa Simpson, who welcomes him in. However, Grampa starts to fear that the commissioner is a burglar and attacks him and ties him up. The rest of the family arrives home disappointed that the commissioner didn’t show and is shocked to find him tied up in their living room. The commissioner is so angry that he declares that the Meltdowns will never be and leaves, never to return.

The entire town starts to hate Grampa, and the expensive stadium has to be used for farmers’ markets. Grampa is so depressed that he decides to seek out a doctor who will help him commit suicide. The doctor tells Grampa to reconsider, and Grampa decides that if anyone calls him in the next 24 hours, he won’t go through with his plan. When Abe is waiting for someone to call him, the simulated time lapse effect and music parody the movie Koyaanisqatsi, a movie parodied less than seven years earlier in the episode “Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder”. The call never comes and Grampa goes back to the clinic the next day. Grampa comes very close to being killed but the police show up just in time to stop it.

Grampa thinks he’s dead and runs through the town, seeing “Hamburger Heaven” and a Charlie Chaplin impersonator. He soon learns that he isn’t dead, gets a new lease on life and decides to live it up. Meanwhile, the city decides to turn the unused football stadium into an arena for bull fighting. Despite Lisa’s protests, Grampa decides to become a matador. Grampa wins his first fight with a bull, but at home, Lisa tells Grampa that she is disappointed. Grampa tells her that people are cheering him for his success, but Lisa tell him that she always cheers for him until now. Grampa isn’t sure about that, but in the next fight he sees the bull that he’s about to kill and decides to spare its life. He releases all the bulls, which immediately start running through the streets of Springfield, causing a great deal of destruction. Lisa is proud of Grampa and the two reconcile, but they both became in danger by two bulls flying with balloons.

Cultural references

• The title of this episode is a play on the 2004 movie Million Dollar Baby.
• The celebrities who appear in the “Springfield Blows” video, a parody of the song ” We Are the World “, include Michael Jackson, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Courtney Love, Jim Jam Bonks (The Simpsons’ parody of Jar Jar Binks), The Who, Keith Richards, Biff Tannen, Sting, Barbra Streisand, Sylvester Stallone, Freddy Krueger and El Kabong.
• The euthanasia center is a spoof of the one in Soylent Green.
• One of the options on the diePod’s menu is “Megadeath”, an allusion to the thrash metal band Megadeth.
• Dr. Egoyan, the doctor that helps Grampa try to kill himself an obvious reference to Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
• The name of the Glenn Miller Orchestra song that Grampa requested is Pennsylvania 65000.
• The song that plays when Abe goes down is “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)” by John Lennon from the 1974 album, Walls and Bridges.
• The song that plays when Abe ‘lives it up’ is ‘Superman’ by R.E.M. from their 1986 album, Lifes Rich Pageant.
• The euthanasia clinic is right next to a Howard Johnson just like in Kurt Vonnegut‘s Welcome To The Monkey House.
• The song Lisa sings as she tries to convince Springfield citizens not to participate in the bull fighting is a parody of the song Blowin’ in the Wind by Bob Dylan.
• Wiggum says to the doctor that is trying to kill Abe Simpson that he’s a natural born killer: this is a reference to the 1994 film Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Abie

The Seemingly Never-Ending Story is the thirteenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons, and the ninth Emmy Award-winning episode. It originally aired in the United States on March 12, 2006. The title is a take-off from the novel The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende, and the 1984 Wolfgang Petersen film of the same name.This episode was rated TV14-DL in the US, the ninth time for The Simpsons.

Couch gag: The couch and family are delivered on a conveyor belt. Homer is added with a metal claw.
Chalkboard: none
Download: NEW 40MB link (rapidshare.com) | Yes, 40MB Xvid | Try “sape”

While Homer is trapped in a cave, Lisa tells him a story from her past, vaguely similar to the episode “22 Short Films About Springfield.”

Synopsis

While visiting a cave (called “Carl’s Dad Caverns, a parody of Carlsbad Caverns), Homer meddles with a very fragile stalactite, with the result that the whole family ends up in a hidden cavern below the main tour—with Homer stuck in a narrow hole, half in and half out of the cavern. Noting that this cave is not on the tour’s map, Marge and Bart go off to find an exit. Homer is afraid to be left alone in his position, so Lisa stays with him. To pass the time, she begins to tell a story.

Lisa tells how, the week before, she had been out for a walk when a big-horned goat inexplicably attacked her; she ran to the nearest shelter, Charles Montgomery Burns’ house. The animal bursts in, and she and Mr. Burns wind up in the attic and block the entrance with boxes. There, Lisa finds a photo of Mr. Burns as an employee at Moe’s, and he tells her the origins of it.

Mr. Burns explains that once, he and the Rich Texan were involved in a scavenger hunt, the winner of which would get all the possessions of the loser. The items consisted of ridiculous things like Frank Grimes’ tombstone. Mr. Burns was unable to find the last item on the list—a picture of himself with a smiling child. (Every child was terrified of him. Milhouse exclaimed “It’s the boogeyman’s grandfather!”) The Texan won, and Mr. Burns had to go and work at Moe’s. While there, he found a note hidden under a pickled egg jar to be opened when Moe Szyslak died, which led to Moe’s story of a hidden treasure.

The summer before Edna Krabappel began teaching, she and Moe meet when he is hit by a bus. They fall in love, without Edna knowing he owns a bar (at the time, she hated bar owners since her ex-husband was an alcoholic). Scared that Edna will find out the truth about him, Moe wants to leave Springfield with her but has no money. He then discovers that Snake Jailbird — who used to be an idealistic archaeologist — had discovered a large batch of Mayan coins he was going to donate to the museum. Moe steals them, turning Snake to a life of crime. Moe is then about to leave town with Edna, but when she goes to school to explain that she is quitting, she sees Bart. (This leads to her story.) Bart explains he had all-summer detention, and feels he is a lost cause because no one believes in him. Edna declares that come the next year, when she teaches fourth grade, she will help him to succeed. (It turns out, however, that Bart was actually just distracting Edna while he and Nelson steal microscopes and computers.) After explaining her decision to Moe, he flies into a rage and screams at her while dumping out her luggage before driving away to his tavern.

Utterly depressed, Moe puts priceless coins in his jukebox, playing their love theme over and over again. Mr. Burns (here ends Moe’s story) opened up the jukebox and gave the coins to the Texan to buy back his things, but the Texan demanded that Mr. Burns produce a picture of himself with a smiling child before he could get the plant back. (The Texan, he explained, has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, thus feeling the need to complete the scavenger hunt.) Mr. Burns ends his story and he explains to Lisa that he cannot get the plant back.

Just then, the goat bursts into the attic. Mr. Burns hurts himself defending Lisa by placing himself in front of Lisa. It turns out that the goat doesn’t want to kill them—in its story (which lasts but a few seconds) it explains that it found Lisa’s pearl necklace on a branch and was merely trying to return it. Lisa, in gratitude to Mr. Burns for his attempted rescue, takes a photo of the two together with her smiling. This exits to the cave scene.

Homer breaks free of his trap, and reveals that he had an ulterior motive for bringing the family to the caves. He tells a story, explaining that while in the woods (hiding from babysitting duty), he saw the Texan hide the gold coins in the cave while singing a song, and brought the family so they could search for the gold to pay an operation for Bart, (about which no one knows, including Bart). Just then, the Texan shows up, and the gold is found behind a rock by Mr. Burns, Moe, and Snake (in that order), and they enter a Mexican standoff. Everyone has guns except for Moe, who makes gun noises with his mouth. Snake had also brought his son as it is their weekend together. Marge grabs the bag and threatens to drop it down a deep pit if they don’t end their standoff. When she discovers the depth of their greed, she drops it—and instantly, everyone realizes how greedy they had been, and go out to volunteer as a way of atoning for their sins, with the exception of Mr. Burns, who attempts to climb down to get the gold.

Suddenly, it is revealed that the whole episode has all been a story by Bart, being told to Seymour Skinner as an explanation for why he didn’t have time to study for a geography test. The principal finds this ridiculous — until he sees Moe and Edna kissing outside, meaning they’ve finally got back together.

The Stories

Lisa‘s Story 1

• Lisa was walking home from school when a goat came up to her. She ran to Mr. Burns’s house and he let her in. The goat got through the window and chased them through Mr. Burns’s house. They run up the stairs and go up the attic. Lisa finds out that Mr. Burns worked at Moe’s.

Mr. Burns‘ Story 1

• Mr. Burns was a member of a club. A new member, The Texan, came in and he challenged him to a duel. They both get a list of 10 items. The first person to get all the items is the winner and gets all the other person’s stuff. The last item was a photo with a child smiling. Mr. Burns went in the school bus to get the picture. He couldn’t get it. The Texan wins all Burns’ stuff. Mr. Burns started working at Moe’s as a bar boy. He wasn’t getting enough money. One day he was cleaning Moe’s bar when he found a letter beneath the jar with those eggs.

Moe‘s Story 1

• Moe was walking downtown and was hit by a bus. Edna came out and helped him. To impress her, Moe steals a bag full of rare, antique coins from Snake Jailbird, who was not yet a criminal, but an archaeologist. Moe closes the tavern. He and Edna decide to leave town. Edna goes to the school to tell them that she wouldn’t be teaching there in the fall.

Edna‘s Story

• Edna went into the school and found Bart with detention all summer. She decides to stay at Springfield Elementary School as a fourth grade teacher.

Moe‘s Story 2

• Edna tells Moe that she is staying in Springfield to teach the children. Moe gets angry at Edna and drives off. Depressed, he uses the coins he stole to listen to the jukebox in his bar rather than spend them.

Mr. Burns‘ Story 2

• Mr. Burns finishes the letter and steals the money out of the jukebox. He then goes to the Texan and gives him the money but the Texan won’t give everything back until he gets a photo of Mr. Burns with a smiling child.

Lisa‘s Story 2

• The goat gets up to the attic and attacks Mr. Burns. The goat gives Lisa her pearl necklace.

The Goat‘s Story

• The goat was walking one day and found Lisa’s pearl necklace on a tree.

Lisa‘s Story 3

• Lisa gets the camera and takes a picture of her with Mr. Burns and Mr. Burns gets his plant back.

Homer‘s Story

• Homer discovers that the Texan has hid the gold in the caves and brings the family with him so they can help him search for the gold to pay for an operation for Bart.

Bart‘s Story

• Bart explains the reason he was sitting in the desk when Edna Krabappel found him there, it was because he was helping Nelson.

Cultural references

• The episode’s title, “The Seemingly Never-Ending Story”, is a parody of the book The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.
• Commander McBragg (Maurice LaMarche), a character from the 1960s cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, calls the scavenger hunt duel. He had pink skin in the original version, but of course in the Simpsons’ world, was recoloured yellow.
• When we see the club Mr. Burns was a part of for the first time, you can see Rich Uncle Pennybags, mascot of the game Monopoly. He was previously seen in “Thirty Minutes over Tokyo” and “A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love.”
• Moe and Edna’s love theme song (which Moe played in the jukebox) is “Fly Me to the Moon” by Bart Howard, as sung by Frank Sinatra.
• Numerous scenes feature music from Beethoven’s 6th Symphony (when Lisa has to deal with the big horn sheep) and Aaron Copland’s “Hoe Down.”

Reception

This episode won an Emmy in 2006 for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour), beating out South Park‘s “Trapped in the Closet” and Family Guy‘s “PTV.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seemingly_Never-Ending_Story