R/R The Color Yellow

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bartyboy

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21

--"THE SIMPSONS"(8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1

LISA FINDS A SURPRISING BRANCH OF HER FAMILY TREE ON AN ALL-NEW "THE SIMPSONS" SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, ON FOX

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4599/simpthecoloryellowr2af.jpg

When Miss Hoover asks her students to research their family history, Lisa is horrified to discover that most of her ancestors were bad people a motley crew of horse thieves and deadbeats. But while rummaging through the attic, Lisa happens upon a diary kept by her ancestor, Eliza Simpson. As Eliza's story unfolds, Lisa learns that her family was part of the Underground Railroad, a group that helped slaves escape to freedom. Eliza recounts liberating a slave named Virgil (guest voice Brown), but when Lisa presents her findings at school, some of her classmates refute it, leaving Lisa determined to exonerate her family's name in the all-new "The Color Yellow" episode of THE SIMPSONS airing Sunday, Feb. 21 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (SI-2106) (TV-PG L, V)

Voice Cast: Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson; Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson; Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson; Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson; Hank Azaria as Moe; Harry Shearer as Skinner; Pamela Haden as Milhouse; Tress MacNeille as Dolph

Guest Voice Cast: Wren T. Brown as Daniel
 
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Not my favorite color, but hey--it's the color of the Simpsons and the sun, so I give it a 3.5/5. If you're jaundiced, feel free to lower the rating
 
5/5 by current standards. Not gut-bustingly funny, but still lots of laughs, well-paced, good story, great use of all characters, and nothing fell flat. Best of season, hands down.
 
Act 1- blowing up the school. no wait, a stump. that was good, kinda lame that that's how miss hoover came up with the family tree thing. Lisa looks for something interesting in the families history and comes across a diary of a girl named Eliza Simpson. She opens it and reads something about "getting a slave."

Act 2- Lisa does more research, and discovers that Eliza and her family was trying to help Virgil, the slave, escape to freedom.

3- Ralph {good god, that kid's just plain retarded and literally, his lines feel like they are written by little kids like himself. at least it did in this one} presents, then Lisa does. But wait, are her findings true? Apparently not when Milhouse reveals one of his ancestors witnessed Eliza's father giving away the location of Virgil to Burns' ancestor.

4- Grampa reveals what really happened- Eliza's mother had planned for her father to reveal where Virgil was, and was ready. So then Virgil and Eliza's mother run off, and it is revealed the simpsons are related to Virgil.

A nice episode I thought. I thought it was kind of weird for Milhouse to be the one to act somewhat mean to Lisa {as in ruining her excitement at the end of the third act}, but I liked the episode as a whole, and did not dislike anything in particular. 5/5, and I think it is either my favorite or my second favorite of the season
 
Definately a good episode. Finally a good story. Not as many laughs but the presence of a well thought out and interesting story outweighs that. I also liked Abraham Lincoln in the episode. I thought he was pretty funny. New favorite of the season. I'm giving it a 4/5.
 
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I was pleasantly suprised by this episode. The plot was excellent, even though a little confusing. I love complex, interesting plots like this in The Simpsons, which is why I love Gone Maggie Gone, but I don't think this episode is quite as good. I actually thought that this episode had several great jokes that kept me entertained all the way through. It wasn't boring like I thought it would be. I thought all the characterizations were pretty much spot on and there were maybe two or three Lisa moments in which I was a little bothered. Overall, A-/A (which comes close to the target grade, A/A+) ;)

New best of the season! :)

PS: I thought it was kind of pointless to have a whole scene involving Bart helping Lisa get to the attic if he ended up helping her in the end. Still, nothing terrible.
PPS: I loved the items from past episodes in the attic.
 
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2.5-3/5

Aside from the aforementioned simpsonized look of the ancestors, continuity is fucked up once again. Also, the thought of Homer liking the idea of slavery as business is just sad.
 
Awesome episode! Loved it from start to finish, Plenty of laughs and entertainment,..plus Milhouse! I did nothing to desrve a show this good and yet I got one anyways!..Aren't I the lucky one?

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I gives it 4½ Gators
 
2.5-3/5

Aside from the aforementioned simpsonized look of the ancestors, continuity is fucked up once again. Also, the thought of Homer liking the idea of slavery as business is just sad.

1. Anyone bitching about continuity just needs to get over it. The show has little, if any. There's a generally respected backstory, but they play fast and loose whenever necessary. If you let the fact that one Granpa rant contradicts another Grandpa rant bother you...maybe this isn't the style of show for you, no offense
2. Homer's slavery line was obviously a joke. A good one, IMO. It's not like the show's advocating slavery or anything

Anyway...onto the episode! This season, I've liked every episode except perhaps one (Pranks and Greens), but although I've given out a couple of 15s, I was waiting for one to really blow me away. The wait is over.

Just about everything was fantastic--the jokes were good (Homer in particular had some great one-liners, "I spent my life in the past and there's a reason I left!"), an engaging and amusing story that adds more (not necessarily contradicts) the Simpson backstory. I must also compliment the job the VAs did with voicing the past characters--the Southern accents didn't sound forced at all, it sounded like a natural version of their characters.

So, there's so much I think this episode did right that I'm not going to discuss it all, especially since this review sounds fanboyish enough already, so I'm just going to conclude it by saying that the Billy Kimball/Ian Maxtone-Graham tandem needs to be assigned more episodes, because they haven't missed yet. 15/15, best of the season. Simply a great episode.
 
Some great laughs, an interesting plot, good solid characters, some nice moments, keying in on the Eliza film reel.
Anyone else worried about how much in-breeding Springfield goes through?
Also, once revealed Homer is 1/32 black he then has a drink, I found this racist! :P

No, but seriously, one of the best in the last few years, good effort.
 
"No wonder Febuary is black history month! It's the shortest month of the year and it's the coldest, that keep us from havin' parades!" --Chris Tucker


Well, it's another Sunday and another long and whiny review which nobody will give 2 shits about, but anway...

Our "Color Yellow" adventure begins with Bart characteristically wanting to help Willie use his TNT to lay waste to the Springfield Elementary, but to Bart's chargrin, it's only to remove a stump and make Skiner say: "My Kia!," which Kia is the perfect car and abbreviation for Skinner. Why, because just like Skinner's 'Nam buddies, KIA stands for "Killed in Action."

Anyay, after Ms. Hoover notices the Mykia Stumpcar, she's 'enthusiastic' about assigning a Family Tree, which makes Lisa excitied, of course, even if she has to "go back to Adam and Eve!". Unfortunetly, Grandpa has to add the "let's bury this joke" add-on. You know writers, the ideas is to build jokes to affect the punchline, not to try to hide the distended joke structure. And of course, just when the story gets going, it comes to a halt, again, as Bart decides to 'help' Lisa get into the attic for another time dragging joke...ugh. Just when you thought it was safe for Bart's help to end, they could ve ended the scene with Bart getting a BAM folding step to the eye, but no...

The attic holds a nice array of stuff from Past episodes: Homer's space suit the painting of Ringo, the statue from that Jewish THoH episode, the olmec head, Funzo, the bigger than Jesus album, Bart's I didn't do it shirt, ect...But it would've been hillarious if there was a random strange guy tied up in a corner, bound and gagged. Just Kidding.

Once Lisa crosses the Attic of Past Episodes, she finds a diary buried in the dust of Eliza's corpse, er, I mean dust from nearly 150 years of being at the bottom of the chest. Back in the kitchen, Grandpa and Homer are assaulting Lisa with the notion that digging up the past is a bad idea. Were they worried it would involve digging up a corpse? Did a Simpsons relative murder Jimmy Hoffa? Were we finally going to see whose blue hair was in that grassy knoll? Anway, Lisa is shocked to learn her ancestor was happy to be a new slave owner---"GASP!!!!" COMMERCIAL BREAK--But it turns out that Lisa was wrong to judge her because her ancestor "Eliza" was in the position to help the slave escape. Also, for some strange reason, Eliza's mother looks like Marge. Hmm...and did you notice, that ribbon makes Eliza look like Big Maggie 1860? Oh well, at least Eliza didn't sound like Tress McNeil. Phew!

Astetics aside, Bart's ignorance takes up valuable joke/story time with having to be explained what the underground railroad was. Lisa being annoyed could've just led to: "Go look it up!", but he had to lay it out for Bart and the viewers who hadn't passed the 3rd Grade, yet. Unfortunetly, Homer decides to toss Lisa's Diary up into the ventaltion duct for no reason other than to keep is daughter from learning about the "harsh" realities of the Simpsons family name. Huh? This 'caring and concern" is coming from a man who in all likelyhood cannot remember the last time he went and made poopee, and the man who bet against his daughter in a crossword competition. Um, okay...Maybe Lisa would've found 20 bucks and bribed him into not being such a jerkoff and to get out of her way for the quest of the truth and A plus.

It's called "Dissapointment" Lisa, better learn it while you're young.

Unfortunetly, for some reason the writers forgot about Marge and her speech a long time ago to Lisa about "Being Herself". Well, either Marge is a hypocrite, or Lisa can't 'be herself' when she's on the verge of finding out some kind of revelation. Oh, well...At this point, I was half expecting Lisa to be a decendent of Jebidiah Sprunfeld.

Anywho, as the story of Eliza's soul baring continues, we're now back to Col. Burns's ball and his Smithereaque assitant is rigging the waltz to be played out-of-time and the dancers are comically falling all over each other. :rolleyes: Of course, they get off on an awkward gag "No you're pointing South!". I see in the 1800's, comedy wasn't invented yet.

After a neatly animated escape, the diary begins to fall apart...and to some extent, the story does, too. After a WTF joke about Pork Butts and Cream, the story continues in of all places...a cookbook written by 1860 Marge Simpson, where 2010 Marge Simpson points out how the story of Eliza was implanted in a footnote.* Uh, writers...pointing out the story as part of the joke doesn't make it funny.

*You see, Jake's review is amazing and by amazing, I mean the only opinion that actually MATTERS, bitches!

So anyway, Eliza and Virgil just happen to stumble upon a weapons factory and 12,000 experience points that enabled them to power up and defeat the slave owners and they were given a magical key to Burns's Gold. Wait, I mean Eliza and Virgil "just happen" to find a nice, Krusty clown who daubes Virgil in white face paint and Krusty manages to explain the currency rates from 1860 and 2010.

Shortly after arriving, Virgil invents them roundy cake things with powerderd sugar and HomerAhHiram decides Virgil can stay and swears to keep his promisie of likeing those roundy cake things with powdered sugar. Feeling vindicated, Lisa let's out a yelp of Joy and is ready to take the story to the world!

Unfortunetly, no one ever pays Lisa in 3 layered gum.

After a slightly amusing bit with Ralph, Lisa takes the stage and has a Mac attack at the start of her report. After quantifying Eliza and setting her legacy, Milhouse's Great, great, great (looks at watch) great, medicore Grandfather 'just happens' to overhear how Hiram 'sold out' Virgil to Mr. Burns' because 'everybody has a price' after a whimsical pokin' and a proddin'. (thank god he didn't do a full body cavity search) When Eliza overhears the happenings between her father and Burns and is given a quick and dirty history lesson about the shackels of 19th century male opression and quickly shuts her face. Not surprisingly, Lisa breaks down at the thought of Eliza being a coward. And in a truly heartbreaking moment the Obama's didn't get their time on stage. 'sigh' This is what's wrong with America!

Back at the Lesbian Library, Lisa tries to find out what happens to Eliza, but instead all she finds is heartbreak as her centurian ancestor regrets never taking any action against 1860 Mr. Burns and how it was her 'only regret'. Maybe she had other regrets, but something doesn't gibe....read on.

At home, when Abe hints he might know something as Lisa is crying in her own sea of self-philosophical mire, Homer threaten's to 'cool' down Abe and Abe goes all "Sunday's with Abie" until Jerkass Homer actually uses his powers of persuasion to get Abe back to semi-reality.

In a twist that an episode promo picture could love, 1860 Marge decides to take Virgil to safety herself and when they reach canada, they start a curling team together. No, wait, they start a new life together and it turns out they have a son, 1870 Bart who turns out to be Abe's Great, great, grandfather.

Anyway, about the partthat didn't gibe from above, how did Eliza not know what happened to "Marge" and Virgil? At some point over the next several decades, they must've have come in contact either through the mail, or takign a trip, or Twitter...okay maybe not.

As a whole "Yellow" wasn't anything special, but since it was a Lisa based story, the writers seem to know when to make the story a bit more tasteful, even if the jokes aren't terrible. Could it have been better? Oh, hell yes, but if this is the last shitty episode of S21, I could live with that and this wasn't a shitfestlike "Curl" and "Thursdays".

3/5: A Definate Ms. "Meh" Hoover.
 
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There were tons more attic items. Can't wait for tomorrows Hulu upload, so I can frame by frame it.

Looks like the Olmec head moved since the house was destroyed and rebuilt in the movie.
 
Argh, this show is driving me crazy now. Last week, I was surprised at how they took a pretty crappy episode concept (curling) and executed it pretty well. And this week they take an interesting episode concept and make a boring snoozefest.

1. I'm very surprised to be saying this since Ian Maxtone-Graham co-wrote this, but the jokes didn't do anything for me. Almost none of them. This kind of episode isn't intrinsically going to be as jokey as, say, the curling one... But still. The jokes were really uninspired. They did a lot of the typical Civil War era jokes and threw in Lincoln for good measure. The flashback jokes seemed pretty paint-by-numbers overall and didn't really surprise me in any way. Even Mr. Burns, who should really shine in an old-timey episode, was a bore.

2. I did, however, like the 4/4 waltz joke. That was great. From having to play a lot of waltzes and 3/4 stuff in band, that would really mess me up.

3. The central story was interesting enough, which saves the episode from being a 1/5. I kind of wish I hadn't seen the preview art (thanks D'ohmer ;)) because it ruined the surprise ending for me. The flashback plot was fluid and made sense all the way through.

4. The present day stuff felt a little contrived, though. I value that they went for something different in this episode by not just having the whole story in the diary. It allowed the episode to allow both plots to move forward in time instead of pausing the present day like most flashbacks do. I wasn't really wowed by the way they connected all the strings together (the recipe book, Milhouse, the film, Grampa). It seemed a little tenuous after awhile.

The Milhouse part seemed a little weird in how, as others have mentioned, mean-spirited Milhouse was about Lisa's presentation... And also that he just so happened to have the rest of the story dug up and ready to go. Struck me as being a little too "set up" and coincidental. Maybe they were going for meta-humor there like with the recipe. Still, that plot turn felt kinda weird.

I would've liked it better if Milhouse did his presentation and his relatives were linked to Lisa's (living in the same town)... Maybe a joke about how his whole family, generation after generation, has tried to hook up with the Simpsons, failing every year... And he'd mention Eliza Simpson as part of the failures. Then Lisa confronts him to learn more, they quickly dig a little deeper, and learn the rest. It kinda bugged me how Milhouse had everything ready to go like he knew he'd need it.

5. It doesn't mess up continuity. They never established the Civil War era Simpsons, so they can do whatever they want with it.

Overall, 2/5. I think I need to re-watch this one again to be sure.
 
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wow what a terrific episode.

i just saw it and was blown away with it.

i didn't expect much based on last week's episode. in fact, i assumed the worst.

here's my review-

coach gag- a little uncomfortable.....seeing homer floating on top of the water....let's just say he was "sleeping". but great olympic themed one... im not sure if it's a repeat of one during the summer games...but if it wasn't.....very interesting how they have this one instead of say a snow skiing one or something. heck, at least throw in the snowglobe repeat if you are gonna repeat couch gags.

first act- glad to see willie with a tractor budget. i laughed at the simpsons family tree. "They're all horrible". haha. and when homer saying, "there's a few alcoholics" cracked me up. I liked the part when lisa was hanging from the attick rope. weird moment with bart, but those little things help make the show. I was expecting bart to push lisa around. and probably one of the highlights of the episode... the stuff in the attic.....wow, i have to freeze frame that baby and circle all the things from past episodes...upon seeing it just once I was able to spot marge's ringo painting... the funzo .....homer's astronaut suit and other items that where mentioned above. great act break.

second act- i loved the dance. good to see ancestor flanders/ lindsay naegel/ burns etc. Bart's comment, - "they should have called it teh above ground normal road" and the family in approval was awesome. marge's, QUIT WHILE YOUR AHEA- haha. this is why i'm giving this 5 stars....even though it wasn't the best episode, little jokes like this helped earn this rating. The animation of the horse scene cracking was brilliant. great to see krusty.... Krusty- "rule number 1- never be better than me....i'm pretty bad" - briliant.

third act- ralph still cracks me up. the funniest moment for me had to be with all those obamas....i don't know why it was so funny....but seeing nelson say, "yes we can" . hahah

fourth act- seeing mabel hook up with virgil in the end was really neat. good to see there is some diversity in the simpson bloodline.

very momentous episode. this episode won't be "buried" like many episodes before. I forgot most episodes from season 18-present. but this episode will stick in my head forever.

as far as continuity.... that went out the window for me from that 90s show. but little things occassionally piss me off when they change certain things from the simpsons past i.e. - skinner and his mom being pregnant with him. but for the most part i just realize that there are some decent simpsons ancestors/relatives. The women in the bloodline are pretty successful if I recall. (wasn't one of them a doctor?? or like a chief architect?). also, grandpa was a war hero so that is respectable. plus homer's mom is something lisa admires....an activist.

but i'll overlook that and give this a solid 5/5. this was the kind of episode I was waiting for.
 
4/5

The only problem this episode has is that it messes up with continuity. Other than that, it was interesting. Lisa's research just seems to end in the middle of nowhere. Hovever, I did like how this episode ends.
 
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