Natural Born Kissers (S09, E25-203)

Homer wanted danger, but not this much danger!

Plot Summary
Homer and Marge wish to celebrate their 11th anniversary, but with Grampa having gone to the wrong house there's no babysitter.  The two are forced to bring the kids to some gimmicky restaurant and neither really have a good time.  The two try to 'have fun' later that night, but neither can really get it going.

The next day, the motor for the refrigerator has burned out as Homer left the freezer door open overnight.  The two have to drive out to the boondocks to get a new one, but Homer gets the car stuck in some mud.  With a storm approaching, the two take shelter in a nearby barn.  A farmer checks it out for trespassers, but he doesn't find the two.  After he leaves, Homer and Marge get turned on from the danger, and 'trespass' on one another.

While that's happening, Bart and Lisa are stuck at Grampa's place at the retirement home, where they come across a metal detector.  Borrowing it, Bart tries looking around for treasure, though there's nothing of the sort in the backyard.  Searching elsewhere, the two kids find what appears to be an alternate ending for Casablanca.  Viewing it at the retirement home, they find this ending to be a happy ending, albeit in odd fashion.  An old man approaches the two and reveals that his studio had considered adding this ending to the movie because they were idiots, then pays the two $20 to rebury it along with a "killing spree" ending to Its a Wonderful Life.

Homer and Marge continue to get sexual thrills by 'snuggling' in public.  They push their luck by going to the minigolf place.  It was here over a decade ago where the two conceived Bart, and so they're back for more fun.  However, they do so in broad daylight with people watching.  Sure enough, a ball gets stuck in the obstacle the two are hiding in, and they're forced to escape.  Nobody sees them in the chaos, but the two are forced to leave their clothes behind, and are now running naked across town.

Fleeing from police, the two head for a car lot which has a hot air balloon, which they escape from.  In a desperate attempt to get clothes, Homer falls over, hanging on by a rope.  Marge lets the balloon down, but it lands inside a stadium during a football game, during "Camera Day" no less.  The two finally give up and let the crowd take pictures of them.  Later, the two try to explain why it happened to the kids, but while describing how all of those eyes were looking at their naked bodies, the two get excited again and make another trip to the minigolf place

Quick Review
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode.  Homer and Marge's naked adventure was the highlight of the episode, while Bart and Lisa uncovering and viewing the alternate ending was a treat as well.  There was plenty of laughs to be had, leaving Season 9 to end on an extremely strong note.

Final Score: 10

The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular (S07, E10-138)

I wonder how many people looked like this when seeing Good Night for the first time.

Plot Summary
The episode acts like a special, with Troy presenting clips in some sort of order.  The first few clips are actually the full-length 'episodes' of the show that were featured on the Tracy Ullman Show, where The Simpsons originated from.  After that, Troy answers some letters that were mailed in, showing clips that may or may not show "Homer getting stupider" every season and the "real deal" with Mr. Smithers.

Then comes the true gem of the episode: deleted scenes.  The first few shown are nice, but then the last couple are fairly big: an alternate scene in Burns' Heir where Homer tries to retrieve Bart from Burns concludes not with Burns simply locking the door, but rather sicking a Richard Simmons robot on Homer before it goes haywire and blows up.  The other big set of clips occur from the conclusion of Who Shot Mr. Burns?, where its revealed that several scenes of different people shooting Burns (including those who weren't suspects, like Apu) were animated, and an entire ending where Smithers ended up shooting Burns was animated to prevent anybody from leaking the real ending where Maggie did it.  With those scenes revealed, the show ends with what everyone was waiting for: hardcore nudity, though most of it is just ass and more ass.

Quick Review
While this episode is a dressed up clip show, its still a very well dressed up clip show, one very much unlike the last effort where this one takes clips, some of which have never been aired, and wraps it up in a nice package presented by Troy McClure.  As a result we end up with a very strong episode.  The retrospect was, well, okay, but the deleted scenes at the end plus the portrayal of Matt Groening as some kind of right-winged nut were both well done.  Finding a way to get Troy McClure included in this was an excellent move as well.

Final Score: 8.9