Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming

"Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"
The Simpsons episode
File:Gleamingbob.JPG
Episode no.	Season 7
Directed by	Dominic Polcino
Written by	Spike Feresten
Original air dates	November 26, 1995
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"Wedgies are unhealthy for children and other living things"
Couch gag	The family appears as Sea Monkeys, swim to a row of clams (in the place of the couch), and watch an open treasure chest (in the place of the TV).
Commentary	Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Dominic Polcino

"Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The title is a reference to the 1977 film Twilight's Last Gleaming, or, more likely, the same phrase in The Star Spangled Banner.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler At Springwood Minimum Security Prison, Sideshow Bob finds the other inmates were laughing at the inane antics of Krusty the Klown. The embittered ex-TV star begins to defame other 'trash TV' shows, all of which he pans as pointless, mindless drivel. While on work duty at a local airfield (which is being cleaned for an annual air show), the quality of television programming eats at Bob's mind, and he forms a plan. Meanwhile, everyone in town goes to the air show. At the same time, Bob, impersonating an Air Force colonel, gains access into the restricted area of a hangar, where he finds a 10-megaton nuclear weapon.

The show begins, but the signal on a giant-screen television is interrupted by Sideshow Bob. Bob suggests life would be better without television and then threatens to detonate the nuclear bomb unless Springfield gives into his demand to shut down all television broadcasts. Everyone flees the airfield in panic but Bart and Lisa are separated from their parents. National Guardsmen frantically search the base for Sideshow Bob. All out of options, Mayor Quimby decides to give in to Bob's ultimatum, despite Krusty's (self-interest motivated) insistence that in a world without television, "the survivors would envy the dead!". Television transmitters are destroyed and television stations hastily plan farewell programs. Bob, who was televising his demands from a stolen Duff Blimp, gleefully celebrates the success of his plan.

Krusty is determined not to give in. He takes refuge in a civil defense shed and, after turning on the transmitter, heavily improvises a show, which he claims will run 24-hours-a-day. Bob finds out and is outraged. Bart and Lisa find their way into the cockpit of the Duff Blimp, where Bob, having lost his patience, tries to detonate the bomb. However, the bomb is a dud and no damage is done. When Chief Wiggum tries to arrest Bob, Bob deflates the blimp, takes Bart to a hangar, where he steals the original Wright Brothers aircraft, which had been an exhibit at the air show. Bob plans a kamikaze mission by crashing the plane into the civil defense shed where Krusty is hiding. However, the plane merely bounces harmlessly off the shack's roof. The authorities quickly tackle Bob and take him into custody. Template:Endspoiler

The Stingy and Battery Show

A fictional show-within-a-show briefly improvised by Krusty the Clown. Determined to stay on air, Krusty broadcast from a small emergency broadcasting system shack in the Springfield alkali flats.

Desperate to fill in time, he invented a substitute for his long-time ratings winner The Itchy & Scratchy Show using a live scorpion and a battery, naming it The Stingy and Battery Show on the spot. He also performed the theme song: "They bite, and light, and bite and light and dite, ligh, ligh, ligh.... yadda yadda, you know what I'm talkin' about". He then accidentally drops the scorpion and looks worried. He also had two sidekicks: a framed picture of former President Dwight Eisenhower and a fuel can named Professor Gas Can.

Trivia

• This episode was due to be shown on BBC Two on 14 September 2001, but was replaced with "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" because of the part where Sideshow Bob steals the Wright Brothers plane at the air show, kidnaps Bart, and plans to crash the plane into the shack where Krusty was doing his "show" was considered "in poor taste" due to the September 11 attacks.
• One of the O's in Ocho is an eight-Ball.
• Milhouse is revealed to have been going to a psychiatrist called Dr. Sally Waxler. She isn't mentioned again until the later episode "Milhouse of Sand and Fog".
• Even though Col. Hapablap stated there's "not a cloud in the sky", there's some stratus clouds shown in the background as Sideshow Bob transports his nuclear warhead.
• Col. Hapablap wears a silver star on his collar (the rank insignia of a General) rather than the corect insignia for a Colonel (a silver eagle).
• Kelsey Grammer required several takes to complete the line regarding Chuck Yeager's Acura when his character was impersonating Col. Hap Hapablap because he was laughing so hard.
• The two planes scrambled to intercept Sideshow Bob were F-14 Tomcats.

Cultural references

• Double Dare – The sloppy slide shown on the Krusty the Clown Show is similar to the Sundae Slide that appeared in some episodes of this game show during the final round with the obstacle course.
• Twilight's Last Gleaming - Title and similar plot.
• Fail-Safe – At the beginning of the third act, we see scenes of everyday life across Springfield. One by one, with a "zooming" sound effect, they all freeze-frame in anticipation of the (supposedly) imminent nuclear blast. Such was the ending of the 1964 Cold War thriller by Sidney Lumet.
• "Daisy" political ad – The montage of scenes mentioned above ends with Maggie picking at a daisy - a parody of the famous political ad for the American presidential candidate Lyndon B. Johnson.
• Wright Brothers – A vintage aircraft, said to be the plane used for the historic flight, is on display at the Springfield Air Show.
• Dr. Strangelove – The underground compound resembles the War Room from the film; also Professor Frink appears as the title character from the film. The tune that Sideshow Bob whistles while preparing the bomb is "We'll Meet Again," as sung by Vera Lynn at the end of the film.

Also, Krusty's line that "the survivors would envy the dead" is similar to a line spoken by one of the generals in the War Room, in reference to living in a postapocalyptic world

• Tom Baker arrives in character as the Doctor (from Doctor Who), as part as a delegation of esteemed TV representatives. Other representatives include:
  • Krusty the Clown
  • Bumblebee Man
  • Kent Brockman
  • Steve Urkel
• Raleigh-Durham International Airport – An airport in Raleigh, NC, which is about three hours from where the Wright Brothers' first flight was.
• "High Flight" sonnet quoted by the purportedly American Air Force general, which is actually more affiliated with the Royal Canadian Air Force. It is a similar jab to the British-made Harrier joke.
• Col. Leslie "Hap" Hapablap (voiced by R. Lee Ermey) says, "What is your major malfunction?" to Sideshow Bob, which is a line delivered by Ermey's character in another Stanley Kubrick war movie, Full Metal Jacket.
• Col. Hapablap also exclaims, "What in the World According to Garp?", which is a reference to the famous John Irving novel and film adaptation, "The World According to Garp".
• At the time of this episode, a woman named Awilda Lopez was arrested for killing her adoptive daughter. When she was arrested, Lopez admitted to using her child as a mop to clean the floors of her house, similar to how Krusty the Clown uses Sideshow Mel in the beginning of this episode. Many fans found the joke to be in bad taste due to the timing of the events, but the joke has not been edited out and is included on the season seven DVD set.
• An alien is found in Hangar 18 which could be a reference to the 1980s film.
• Kent Brockman ends his farewell speech by announcing that he will be writing a column for PC World magazine.
• The colonel asserts that he will be on Sideshow Bob like "Garfield [the comic-strip cat] on lasagna."
• Rock You Like a Hurricane -- The song played during the airplane show; by German rock band the Scorpions
• Krusty the Clown thinks of a way to stay on the air while the TV station was conducting an Emergency Broadcast System test. Though FCC regulations prohibited the actual EBS tone from airing on that show, the tone heard on this episode is actually used as an Emergency Alert System attention signal on NOAA Weather Radio. When Krusty started airing his show in a civil defense shack, the EBS was activated as if there were an actual emergency.
• In the sequence where all of the prisoners are being rounded up on to the bus to the prison, Chief Wiggum states, "Hey, where's Sideshow Bob, and that guy who likes to eat people and take their faces?" an obvious reference to the notorious murderer Ed Gein, known for his habit of killing people and taking their faces after he finished consuming them.

External links

• "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "The Stingy and Battery Show" theme song