"He Loves To Fly And He D'ohs" / "Suite Smell Of Excess" / "Blue Harvest"
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must preface this project by acknowledging my biases when it comes to the four shows in FOX's Sunday night lineup. While I'll do my damndest to give The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad a fair shake every week, I must admit that I hold the former two in much higher esteem than the latter. This doesn't mean I'm not familiar with Family Guy and American Dad–indeed, as they have both had much shorter runs than the other two, their episode histories are probably fresher in my mind. However, while I have been a near-obsessive fan of The Simpsons for roughly two-thirds of my lifetime and I consider King Of The Hill to be one of the most reliably funny, underrated shows on TV, my relationship with the MacFarlaneaverse is a little more guarded. Sure, I'll laugh at Family Guy and American Dad, but I don't always feel good about myself afterwards.
(Please note, this doesn't mean I don't enjoy all four of these shows, nor does it mean I plan on approaching these two hours with any sort of elitism, 'cause c'mon, they're cartoons. I tell you this only in the spirit of transparency.)
So on to the premieres. American Dad gets a pass this time, as it will not return until next week.
The Simpsons was especially flashy this week, which isn't surprising; with the movie and its mountains of hype, The Simpsons never really went away this summer, so I imagine it would be hard to engineer a suitable small-screen return. The writers really dug deep into their bag of tricks though, didn't they? Two celebrity cameos, a destination subplot, an original(ish) song, an Itchy And Scratchy cartoon, and a cheeky one-off reworking of the opening. Some of it worked; but unfortunately, as is all too common with The Simpsons these days, more of it didn't.
One of the main problems with The Simpsons over the past 7 or 8 seasons–are we really approaching the point where the show has been not-as-good longer than it was really-super-good?–has been its tendency to cram way too much into an episode. This episode almost felt like three mini-eps (trip to Chicago; Homer's life coach; Homer's fake job) rather than a fully fleshed-out story, even with the umbrella of the private plane holding it together. Still, I would've gladly sacrificed Lionel Richie for some more Chicago time.
About that Richie cameo; ugh. Simpsons guest appearances can be great (Michael Jackson, Kelsey Grammer) and they can be really half-assed (pretty much every sports figure who has ever appeared on the show). This episode had one of each type. What distinguishes Stephen Colbert as Colby Krauss from Richie's walk-on is that Colbert was actually a part of the story, not just a throwaway pop-culture reference (lord knows there will be plenty of those in the coming hour). In fact, I think most of the best Simpsons guest appearances have been by celebrities not playing themselves. (Though admittedly, Colby was heavily influenced by Colbert's shtick. It worked though.) At any rate, "Hey You, Beer Me" will definitely not make its way onto my list of favorite Simpsons musical moments. (Come to think of it, what was the last great Simpsons musical moment?)
Those of you who were around for The A.V. Club's "Simpsons Week" prior to the movie's release have probably had more than your share of "the show has lost its edge/the show is getting good again/the show has always been and will always be great," and I have little desire to re-enter that black hole of a debate on this blog (though that certainly doesn't mean you all can't.) So I'll just say that, while this premiere certainly wasn't as head-scratching as some recent seasons' ("Bonfire Of The Manatees," anyone?), it didn't exactly whisk me back to the show's so-called glory days. Then again, after nearly two decades, that would be a pretty silly thing to hope for anyway.
Moving on. It's about damn time King Of The Hill gets its shot at the post-Simpsons sweet spot. (Seriously, War At Home? For two seasons?) Granted, it has a pretty healthy life in syndication, but KOTH has always been the bastard child of FOX's Sunday nights. Which is a shame, because as this episode shows, it's never been better.