6. Cape Feare
Season Five
1993
Sideshow Bob had plenty of appearances fighting Bart and his cohort Lisa. He even teamed with his brother Cecil, in a hilarious guest spot from David Hyde Pierce. But the best and pure quintessential battle that defined the immortal feud between Sideshow Bob and Bart begins and ends with “Cape Feare.”
There was an unusual rise of Christian based television shows in the mid to late eighties, and my absolute favorite as a child was “Highway to Heaven.” I already was a huge fan of Michael Landon in “Little House on a Prairie,” so as a young boy I tuned right in to see Landon team up with old co-star Victor French in what was one of the best hours of television during my youth. Even as an atheist, “Highway to Heaven” can be appreciated for being an interesting and entertaining drama as Landon plays the enigmatic Jonathan Smith.
The “Christmas with Carol” DVD from Time Life isn’t much of a visit to the show’s best comedy offerings, as it’s mainly a singing and dancing compilation, but it definitely puts on display why Carol Burnett is such a wonderful comedian with a humongous fan base. This compilation of two “Carol Burnett Show” Christmas specials, along with chosen holiday segments in the extras features really isn’t based around the comedy of the show, so much as the whimsy. Carol Burnett has a love for Christmas, and doesn’t partake in the classic segment comedy, but fills her two episodes with musical numbers and sweet comedy skits.
This hour long special I fondly recall sleeping through in the nineties thanks to a country music obsessed mom, is now available in all of its uncut glory. Truth be told, time has been kind to this special, and tapping Kenny Rogers’ popularity in the decade, we get to see him have a ball with a group of kids.
7. Itchy & Scratchy Land
Season Six
1994
The writers on “The Simpsons” pull off one of their many excellent satires of classic films with “Itchy & Scratchy Land,” this time spoofing “West World,” and “Jurassic Park.” Much in the realm of “The Shinning,” the episode doesn’t so much mock the films as they twist the conventions of the narrative to fit the comic elements of the series. With summer now on its way, Bart and Lisa are convinced by Krusty the Klown to go to Itchy and Scratchy Land. Bart and Lisa do whatever it takes to go there, even convincing them that Bart’s dead. Dead serious about going to Itchy and Scratchy Land.
8. Behind the Laughter
2000
Season Eleven
“Behind the Laughter” is one of those episodes of “The Simpsons” where nearly every single word of the teleplay is quotable. You could pick out your favorite lines, and go through the entire script from beginning to end. It’s a lightning in a bottle spoof of the popular “Behind the Music” series. The often self important VH1 Documentary series gets the Simpsons treatment, profiling America’s favorite family. Ad hilarity.
It also presents a tongue in cheek satire of “The Simpsons” and how they went from a cute animated show to a worldwide phenomenon in the nineties. With immense exaggerations, of course. “Behind the Laughter” is a look at how the family grew in popularity and their inevitable saturation on pop culture. The writers are never afraid to mock the actual Simpsons’ over abundance of popularity in the nineties, profiling their goofy music albums (they actually had albums), enormous roster of guest stars, and their often contrived episodes that put new twists on characters. Including the episode where we find out Principal Skinner is not actually Skinner.
There are numerous hilarious moments to be mined here, from the creation of Homer strangling Bart as a popular gag, Richie Rich replacing Bart in future episodes of “The Simpsons,” Bart’s paying Lenny and Carl to kiss, to their pondering “Hey, did we ever get that money?” There’s also Homer’s declaration “Fame was like a drug, but what was even more like a drug, were the drugs.” Host of “Behind the Music,” Jim Forbes, even takes part in the fun with nuggets like “But reckless spending and interracial homoeroticism were just volume one of the Encyclopedia Self-Destructica.”
With a guest spot from Willie Nelson, “Behind the Laughter” is never afraid to take shots at stunts from “The Simpsons,” mocking them with sharp writing, all the while fabricating endless bits of witty and laugh out loud gags. That includes the Simpsons living in MC Hammer’s old mansion, Marge singing her version of “I Shot the Sheriff” (with a smile!), and Lisa’s accusation that the family gave her anti-growth hormones. Prompting Homer to argue “That’s ridiculous. How could I even get all five necessary drops into her cereal…? What?”
I think it’s time for a resurgence of “Generation X” back to television. Back in the nineties FOX Television in the US aired weekly television movies of the genre variety hoping for a big television show to hit the airwaves. One of them was “Generation X.” Suffice it to say, though the announcement was never official, if the hip comic series was a hit television movie, we may have seen a hit television series very soon. Among the myriad problems of the TV movie is what almost all of FOX dramas suffered from: It’s incredibly murky.