Homerazzi (S18, E16-394)

This scene is just implausible.  Mayor Quimby with his wife?  Please.

Plot Summary
Homer is so unfit, he can't even blow the candles out on his birthday cake despite numerous attempts.  He keeps trying, even hours later when everyone else is asleep, but he collapses on the cake, sparking a fire.  Firefighters arrive quickly to put it out, but it (and several fires before it) are enough for Marge to get a safe to store precious items.  She puts in a family photo album while the others put in some junk, and from sheer coincidence all the junk interacts with one another in a way where the whole mess explodes, leaving Marge's album in ashes.  Having gone slightly crazy over this loss, Marge forcibly retakes all of her old photos now, recreating every vacation and baby photo regardless of anything.  Eventually, she catches up, but she and the family notices that in one of the photos Duffman is on a romantic date with a woman, even though his character is currently classified as gay.  Homer takes the photo down to a publisher, who buys the photo, and is so impressed by it he hires Homer to take more scandalous photos for profit.

Although he has difficulty at first, soon Homer becomes a pro at taking photos of celebrities at their lowest, getting paid quite handsomely in the process.  It reaches a boiling point when Homer locates and crashes Rainier Wolfcastle's secret wedding, forcing Wolfcastle to take action.  He hires a rather familiar sounding and familiar looking paparazzo to take embarrassing photos of Homer, which is even easier than it sounds.  Getting a taste of his own medicine, Homer decides to quit.

Freed of Homer's shutterbugging, Rainier and the other celebrities go nuts at a fancy bar, right across the street from Moe's.  As Homer hears Lenny and Carl talk about how classless celebrities can be caring more about their lives than they do other people, Homer decides to do one last photo shoot.  He charges into the celebrity party and takes all sorts of embarrassing photos, but then decides he won't sell them, under the provision that celebrities start taking the time to interact with their fans.  Wolfcastle agrees and, as an act of faith, invites him and his family to a barbecue, where Wolfcastle ends up stealing Marge's movie idea.

Quick Review
This ended up being funnier than I was expecting it to be, especially after the too-long couch gag.  The episode picks up nicely once Wolfcastle becomes involved in the plot, and I wasn't expecting the wonderful appearances by Jon Lovitz, Betty White, and J.K. Simmons.  These things basically saved the episode, as an episode about Homer being a paparazzo doesn't exactly scream funny nowadays.

Final Score: 7.3

The Bart Wants What It Wants (S13, E11-280)

"Laughing time is over."

Plot Summary
The Simpsons go to a fair hosted by a prep school which, to Lisa's amazement, exists.  While there, he rescues a girl from a pack of prep school bullies.  The girl, Greta, becomes infatuated with Bart while Bart learns that Greta's father is Rainier Wolfcastle aka the actor who plays McBain.  Greta invites Bart over, and soon the Simpsons become friends with Rainier who is happy Greta has a friend in Bart.

Though Greta clearly likes Bart, and makes several efforts to display as much, Bart is oblivious to it and doesn't return Greta's affection, even bringing Milhouse along for some of Bart's visits.  Greta is able to convince Bart to go to her school dance, but Bart forgets about the dance when he learns Principal Skinner is going to attempt stand up at a comedy night, easily opting to see Skinner than going with Greta.  Lisa confronts Bart over this later in the night, and as Bart admits he doesn't feel the same way about Greta, he decides to break up with her, confident she'll take it fine and the two can remain friends.

Of course, Greta takes it poorly.  Bart feels bad for making Greta cry during the break-up, and goes to apologize, but learns that Greta has already found a new boyfriend: Milhouse!  Though he hadn't really been interested in Greta before, the fact that he can't have her now drives Bart insane, and spies on Greta and Milhouse constantly while trying to find a way to get back with Greta.  Then he learns that Greta is going to Toronto with Milhouse as her father is taping for a new movie.  Unwilling to give up on Greta, Bart convinces the family to go to Toronto to find her.  They get there via bus and, after a few throwaway gags against Canada, Bart finds Greta at a movie set.  Milhouse stops him and the two get into a fight.  Greta intervenes and, after breaking up with Milhouse, swears off dating for a few years because of how bad Bart and Milhouse were.  Bart and Milhouse reconcile and decide that, while they're there, to join the Canadian basketball team because its that easy.

Quick Review
I was hoping this episode would score better than it did.  I recall seeing this when it first aired and I remember enjoying it more than other episodes around that time.  It might've been because the parts featuring Rainier Wolfcastle were pretty good which I remembered, but when the plot focuses on Bart and Greta, also Milhouse, it struggles to stay funny which I had forgotten.  Ah, well, its still about on par as far as Season 13 episodes go.

Final Score: 7.5

King of the Hill (S09, E23-201)

Why haven't you started mountain climbing yet, look how easy it is!

Plot Summary
Homer's weight and inactivity comes back to haunt him one Sunday, as the family is invited to a church picnic.  The kids set up a game of capture the flag, and as Rod Flanders is able to convince his dad to play, Bart does the same with his dad.  Bart and Homer come up with a ploy to win the game, and it works as Homer grabs the flag, but gets too tired and collapses just before achieving victory.  The other kids realize Homer won't be getting back up and pelt him with deviled eggs.

Bart shows massive disappointment in Homer, and Homer vows to change that, deciding to lose weight though Marge is skeptical.  Sure enough, Homer struggles to even jog from his house to the Flanders' house, but his energy is renewed as he remembers its for Bart's sake.  Homer makes a stop at the Kwik-E-Mart, looking for something healthy, and sees a new item: Powersauce, an energy bar that harnesses the power of apples apparently.  Homer decides to buy it, then back on his jog he sees a gym.  There he meets Rainier Wolfcastle, and he helps Homer work out.  In two month's time, Homer is much, much more fit than he was before.

Homer reveals his results to the family, who are more than impressed.  Homer also reveals that his diet pretty much consists of Powersauce bars and nothing else.  One day at the gym, a pair of representatives from Powersauce go up to Wolfcastle, who sponsors the product, hoping he'll climb the Springfield Murderhorn, a large mountain of considerable height and danger where no man has reached its top, for the sake of promotion.  Rainier declines, but Bart claims his dad could do it because he eats nothing but the bar.  The two Powersauce guys realize the marketing potential, and agree to have Homer climb the mountain, Homer only agreeing to do so to make Bart proud.

Preparing for the climb, Homer is warned by Grampa, who reveals he tried to climb the mountain when he was young.  He was accompanied by a man named McAllister, but supposedly McAllister betrayed Abe and pushed him off the mountain to his death (which of course isn't true).  Homer ignores Grampa, like usual.  An event is held to support Homer as he begins his climb.  The Powersauce guys send along two Sherpas to help Homer with his climb.  However, its learned that the Sherpas drag Homer's sleeping body further up to increase his chances of success.  The plan backfires, as Homer wakes up in one instance and upon learning the scheme, fires the Sherpas.  Homer then calls the Powersauce guys to state that he'll finish the climb solo, much to the horror of the Powersauce guys.

The climb leaves Homer delirious, and he starts to hallucinate.  Still, he climbs, and he thinks he's reached the top, but there's still a bit more to go.  Homer gives up, and takes shelter in a cave.  There, he finds a frozen body, that of McAllister, who in his diary notes that it was Abe that was the betrayer, and even tried to bite McAllister.  Homer is saddened that both his dad and Bart's dad (him) are disgraces, and plants a "Simpson" flag at where he is in concession.  Upon planting the flag, Homer inadvertently causes the mountain to split in such as way where the tip of the mountain breaks off, leaving Homer standing on what is now the new top of the mountain.  Homer slides back down on McAllister's corpse to safety and tries to show Bart the flag, but its since flown off.  Still, Bart is proud of Homer though Homer also forgot his wallet at the summit.

Quick Review
This was another good episode with some good moments in it.  The two celebrity-voiced Powersauce guys, while not the first instance of the "corporate shills making a mess of things by not understanding basic empathy" character in the show, still reminds me of what's to come as the overabundance of that character type has yet to occur.  Homer's path to weight loss, the McBain bit at the beginning of the episode, and Grampa's involvement were some of the highlights of the episode.

Final Score: 8.8

Radioactive Man (S07, E02-130)

"My eyes!  The goggles do nothing!"

Plot Summary
Bart and Milhouse learn from the comic book store owner that a movie about comic book hero Radioactive Man is in pre-production.  When learning to see who is going to be in the title role, comic book guy learns that it'll be Rainier Wolfcastle (of McBain fame), and that the movie will be filmed in Springfield, as it possesses a nuclear plant, a gorge and support from public officials.  Despite that, as soon as that news hits everyone in town starts price gouging at incredible rates.  In addition, the producers of the movie look to the elementary school to find a young man to become the movie's Fallout Boy (Radioactive Man's 'Robin', as it were).

Bart feels this is a dream opportunity for him, and makes every effort to not let it escape.  He more than dazzles at his audition for the part, however he's turned away by the otherwise impressed director for being an inch too short.  Bart attempts to grow that inch overnight, but grows 'only' half an inch instead.  He tries to go back wearing thick-heeled shoes to make up the height difference, but its too late and the direction has found his Fallout Boy: Milhouse, who only auditioned because his parents made him.  Instantly the fame is too much for Milhouse to handle, while Bart is advised by Lisa to be a good friend to Milhouse by sucking up to him now.

As filming of the movie goes on, Milhouse becomes all the more tired and irritated of the process and repetition of filmmaking.  Before a major, one-time scene, where Fallout Boy is supposed to save Radioactive Man from an incoming wave of real acid, Milhouse goes missing, running away from the scene, and the shot is ruined.

Production is halted as the search for Milhouse begins.  Bart eventually finds Milhouse in his treehouse, but neither he nor the incoming Mickey Rooney can convince Milhouse to return to his role.  Despite Mickey's best attempts at filling in the role instead, combined with having their entire budget gouged by the town, the producers are forced to stop production and head back to Hollywood where, as they say, "people treat each other right" apparently.

Quick Review
Radioactive Man, another good, fun episode, was also the first episode to use digital coloring, whose effects can clearly be seen as everything looks crisper, cleaner, if slightly not as smooth.  Its something that would be used once more in Season 12 before the series switches to it permanently in Season 14.  The jokes in this episode, not to mention the references to comics, were excellent, and continues Season 7's strong start.

Final Score: 9.1