Dancin' Homer
Encyclopedia
"Dancin' Homer" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons
' second season
. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 8, 1990. In the episode, Homer
fires up the crowd at a Springfield Isotopes baseball
game and is chosen to be the team's new mascot
. He immediately becomes a popular attraction and the Isotopes start a winning streak. As a result, Homer is promoted to a team in Capital City, the Capital City Capitals. The Simpson family
moves there, but Homer fails to enthrall the crowd, and the family returns home.
The episode was written by Ken Levine
and David Isaacs
and directed by Mark Kirkland
. It was Kirkland's first directing role, and he has since directed many episodes. Singer Tony Bennett
guest starred as himself and actor Tom Poston
guest starred as the Capital City Capitals's mascot, the Capital City Goofball. Homer's chants are a reference to American baseball fan Wild Bill Hagy
, who received fame for his chants at Baltimore
's Memorial Stadium
. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
of 14.9, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
tells the story of how he got his big break. He begins with the family attending "Nuclear Plant Employee, Spouses and No More Than Three Children Night" at the Springfield Isotopes baseball
game at the Springfield
minor league baseball
stadium. At the game, Homer's hopes of letting loose at the ballpark are ruined when his boss Mr. Burns
sits next to him. To Homer's surprise, Mr. Burns buys him several rounds of beer to show good company relations, and the two begin taunting the Isotopes together. The team is expected to lose their twenty-seventh consecutive game, reportedly the longest losing streak in professional baseball. However, when a drunk Homer fires up the crowd with an impromptu dance to the tune of "Baby Elephant Walk
", the Isotopes win the game.
Homer is offered the job as team mascot of the Springfield Isotopes by the team's owner. He accepts, and because of his enthusiasm at the games, the Isotopes go on a winning streak. Homer is soon informed that he is going to be promoted to the "big leagues" in Capital City, where he will fill in for the Capital City Goofball as the mascot of the Capital City Capitals. The Simpson family pack up their things, say goodbye to their friends, and move to the big city. Homer's first performance becomes a disaster as his small-town routine flops before the big-city crowd, and he is booed
off the field and promptly fired. Homer sadly finishes his story, only to find that Moe's regulars are very impressed with his tale.
The episode was written by Ken Levine
and David Isaacs
, and directed by Mark Kirkland
. It was the first episode of The Simpsons Kirkland directed. He has since directed over 50 episodes. Executive producer James L. Brooks
came up with the idea of the Moe's Tavern wraparounds at the beginning and the end of the episode. It was added because the writers did not know how to end the episode. Levine had worked as a minor league baseball announcer before the episode was produced so he was able to give directions to the animators on how the characters and ambients of the episode were supposed to look like.
Many of the new characters introduced in the episode were named after Levine's friends from his announcer career. The minor league announcer in the episode, that Levine voiced, was named Dan Hoard after his broadcasting partner in Syracuse, New York
. The major league announcer was named Dave Glass after Levine's partner in Norfolk, Virginia
, and the Capital City Capitals owner who fires Homer was named Dave Rosenfield after the general manager
of the Tidewater Tides. The episode features a guest appearance by singer Tony Bennett
, who was the first guest star to appear as himself on The Simpsons. Bennett appears in a scene in which the Simpson family meets him while taking a tour of Capital City. He also sings a song called "Capital City" over the closing credits
. The lyrics and music of the song were written by Simpsons writer Jeff Martin
. Tom Poston
guest starred in the episode as the Capital City Goofball. The mascot has appeared in many episodes later on in the show, but he has not spoken since "Dancin' Homer" and has been reduced to making minor background appearances. Ron Taylor
was meant to reprise his role of Bleeding Gums Murphy, who he had played in the first season episode "Moaning Lisa
", but was unable to record the part; Daryl L. Coley filled in for him.
"Dancin' Homer" was, together with "Old Money
", selected for release in a video collection titled The Best of The Simpsons that was released May 3, 1994. In 2000, it was included on video collection of selected episodes, titled: The Simpsons: On Your Marks, Get Set, D'oh!. Other episodes included in the collection set were "Faith Off
", "The Homer They Fall
", and "Lisa on Ice
". The episode was again included in the 2004 DVD release of the On Your Marks, Get Set, D'oh! set. The episode was also included on The Simpsons season two DVD set, which was released on August 6, 2002. Levine, Isaacs, Kirkland, Mike Reiss
, and Matt Groening
participated in the DVD's audio commentary
.
, who earned the nickname "The Roar from Thirty-Four" for his chants during the 1970s in section thirty-four at Baltimore
's Memorial Stadium
. Homer spells out Springfield just like Hagy spelled O-R-I-O-L-E-S
with his arms. A drunk Homer performs his first dance to the 1961 tune "Baby Elephant Walk" written by Henry Mancini
. Bleeding Gums Murphy makes a 26-minute long performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner
" at the game where Homer performs his first dance. Homer's line, "Today, as I leave for Capital City, I consider myself the luckiest mascot on the face of the earth!" that he says in his farewell speech to the Springfield fans, is a reference to Lou Gehrig
's farewell speech in the 1942 baseball film Pride of the Yankees. The song "Capital City" that Bennett sings over the closing credits is a parody of the 1980 song "New York, New York
".
of 14.9, equivalent to approximately fourteen million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson said it was "probably the best episode" of the season, and commented that "Dancin' Homer" offered a "consistently satisfying show. Like the better episodes, it packed a lot of action into its twenty-three minutes, as Homer’s saga took on a near epic feeling. It also contained more wonderfully bizarre asides than usual at this point in the series’ run. From the Rastafarians who appear in the crowd when Homer performs 'Baby Elephant Walk', to the existence of the Players’ Ex-Wives section at the ballpark, the episode provided a fun and rich program." In a review of the second season, Bryce Wilson of Cinema Blend
said "Dancin' Homer" felt "a bit flat", but "but even in [its] lowest points, humor is easy to find." Dawn Taylor of The DVD Journal thought the best line of the episode was Homer's "Marge, this ticket doesn't just give me a seat. It also gives me the right — no, the duty — to make a complete ass of myself." Jeremy Kleinman of DVD Talk
said lines from the episode such as "A Simpson on a T-shirt, I never thought I'd see the day" show a "humorous self-awareness of the emergence of The Simpsons as cultural phenomenon".
The episode was by Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel
named the third best episode of the show with a sports theme. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
named it second best sports moment in the history of the show. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, wrote: "Understanding baseball isn't really a requirement for this episode, as the humor doesn't come from the games so much as the personalities. Tony Bennett's cameo is great, and Homer's dance has rightly become legendary."
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 2)
The Simpsons second season originally aired between October 11, 1990 and May 9, 1991, and contained 22 episodes, beginning with "Bart Gets an F". Another episode, "Blood Feud" aired during the summer after the official season finale. The show runners for the second production season were Matt...
. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 8, 1990. In the episode, Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
fires up the crowd at a Springfield Isotopes baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
game and is chosen to be the team's new mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
. He immediately becomes a popular attraction and the Isotopes start a winning streak. As a result, Homer is promoted to a team in Capital City, the Capital City Capitals. The Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
moves there, but Homer fails to enthrall the crowd, and the family returns home.
The episode was written by Ken Levine
Ken Levine (TV personality)
Ken Levine is a writer, director and producer in the television and film industry. Levine has worked on a number of television series, including M*A*S*H, Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons, Wings, Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker and Dharma and Greg...
and David Isaacs
David Isaacs (writer)
David Isaacs has been an American TV and Screen writer, and producer since 1975. He has written episodes of M*A*S*H, Cheers, its spin-off Frasier, and The Simpsons with Ken Levine....
and directed by Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...
. It was Kirkland's first directing role, and he has since directed many episodes. Singer Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
guest starred as himself and actor Tom Poston
Tom Poston
Thomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950...
guest starred as the Capital City Capitals's mascot, the Capital City Goofball. Homer's chants are a reference to American baseball fan Wild Bill Hagy
Wild Bill Hagy
William "Wild Bill" Hagy was an American baseball fan and cab driver from Dundalk, Maryland who led famous "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" chants during the late 1970s and early '80s from section 34 in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium....
, who received fame for his chants at Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
's Memorial Stadium
Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)
Memorial Stadium was a sports stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, that formerly stood on 33rd Street on an over-sized block also bounded by Ellerslie Avenue , 36th Street , and Ednor Road...
. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 14.9, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
Plot
One night while drinking beer at Moe's Tavern, HomerHomer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
tells the story of how he got his big break. He begins with the family attending "Nuclear Plant Employee, Spouses and No More Than Three Children Night" at the Springfield Isotopes baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
game at the Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
minor league baseball
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
stadium. At the game, Homer's hopes of letting loose at the ballpark are ruined when his boss Mr. Burns
Montgomery Burns
Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, who is voiced by Harry Shearer and previously Christopher Collins. Burns is the evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is Homer...
sits next to him. To Homer's surprise, Mr. Burns buys him several rounds of beer to show good company relations, and the two begin taunting the Isotopes together. The team is expected to lose their twenty-seventh consecutive game, reportedly the longest losing streak in professional baseball. However, when a drunk Homer fires up the crowd with an impromptu dance to the tune of "Baby Elephant Walk
Baby Elephant Walk
"Baby Elephant Walk" is a piece of music written in 1961 by composer Henry Mancini, for the 1962 release of the movie Hatari! The composer combines brass instruments and woodwind elements to convey the sense of a toddler that is large and plodding, but nonetheless filled with the exuberance of...
", the Isotopes win the game.
Homer is offered the job as team mascot of the Springfield Isotopes by the team's owner. He accepts, and because of his enthusiasm at the games, the Isotopes go on a winning streak. Homer is soon informed that he is going to be promoted to the "big leagues" in Capital City, where he will fill in for the Capital City Goofball as the mascot of the Capital City Capitals. The Simpson family pack up their things, say goodbye to their friends, and move to the big city. Homer's first performance becomes a disaster as his small-town routine flops before the big-city crowd, and he is booed
Booing
Booing is an act of showing displeasure for someone or something, generally an entertainer, by loudly yelling boo! or making other noises of disparagement, such as hissing. People may make hand signs at the entertainer, such as the thumbs down sign...
off the field and promptly fired. Homer sadly finishes his story, only to find that Moe's regulars are very impressed with his tale.
Production
Ken Levine (TV personality)
Ken Levine is a writer, director and producer in the television and film industry. Levine has worked on a number of television series, including M*A*S*H, Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons, Wings, Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker and Dharma and Greg...
and David Isaacs
David Isaacs (writer)
David Isaacs has been an American TV and Screen writer, and producer since 1975. He has written episodes of M*A*S*H, Cheers, its spin-off Frasier, and The Simpsons with Ken Levine....
, and directed by Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...
. It was the first episode of The Simpsons Kirkland directed. He has since directed over 50 episodes. Executive producer James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
came up with the idea of the Moe's Tavern wraparounds at the beginning and the end of the episode. It was added because the writers did not know how to end the episode. Levine had worked as a minor league baseball announcer before the episode was produced so he was able to give directions to the animators on how the characters and ambients of the episode were supposed to look like.
Many of the new characters introduced in the episode were named after Levine's friends from his announcer career. The minor league announcer in the episode, that Levine voiced, was named Dan Hoard after his broadcasting partner in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
. The major league announcer was named Dave Glass after Levine's partner in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, and the Capital City Capitals owner who fires Homer was named Dave Rosenfield after the general manager
General manager (baseball)
In Major League Baseball, the general manager of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the ballclub during contract discussions with players....
of the Tidewater Tides. The episode features a guest appearance by singer Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, who was the first guest star to appear as himself on The Simpsons. Bennett appears in a scene in which the Simpson family meets him while taking a tour of Capital City. He also sings a song called "Capital City" over the closing credits
Closing credits
Closing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture, television program, or video game to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page, or move smoothly across the...
. The lyrics and music of the song were written by Simpsons writer Jeff Martin
Jeff Martin (writer)
Jeff Martin is an American television producer and writer. He was a writer for The Simpsons during the first four seasons. He attended Harvard University, where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon, as have many other Simpsons writers...
. Tom Poston
Tom Poston
Thomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950...
guest starred in the episode as the Capital City Goofball. The mascot has appeared in many episodes later on in the show, but he has not spoken since "Dancin' Homer" and has been reduced to making minor background appearances. Ron Taylor
Ron Taylor (actor)
Ronald James Taylor was an American actor, singer and writer. He grew up in Galveston, Texas and later moved to New York to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, he began working in musical theater, appearing in The Wiz , before getting his break with the 1982...
was meant to reprise his role of Bleeding Gums Murphy, who he had played in the first season episode "Moaning Lisa
Moaning Lisa
"Moaning Lisa" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons first season, and originally aired February 11, 1990. The episode was written by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, and was directed by Wes Archer. Ron Taylor guest stars in the episode as Bleeding Gums Murphy. The episode deals with Lisa's depression and...
", but was unable to record the part; Daryl L. Coley filled in for him.
"Dancin' Homer" was, together with "Old Money
Old Money (The Simpsons)
"Old Money" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 28, 1991. In the episode, Grampa's new girlfriend at the Retirement Castle passes away and leaves him with $106,000...
", selected for release in a video collection titled The Best of The Simpsons that was released May 3, 1994. In 2000, it was included on video collection of selected episodes, titled: The Simpsons: On Your Marks, Get Set, D'oh!. Other episodes included in the collection set were "Faith Off
Faith Off
"Faith Off" is the eleventh episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 16, 2000. In the episode, Bart believes he has the power to heal others through faith after removing a bucket glued to...
", "The Homer They Fall
The Homer They Fall
"The Homer They Fall" is the third episode of The Simpsons eighth season and originally aired November 10, 1996. After Homer Simpson realizes he has a bizarre medical condition that renders him unable to be knocked out, he decides to embark on a career as a boxer with Moe Szyslak as his manager. ...
", and "Lisa on Ice
Lisa on Ice
"Lisa on Ice" is the eighth television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on November 13, 1994. In the episode, Principal Skinner hands out academic alerts to the Springfield Elementary students, and Lisa discovers that she is in peril of...
". The episode was again included in the 2004 DVD release of the On Your Marks, Get Set, D'oh! set. The episode was also included on The Simpsons season two DVD set, which was released on August 6, 2002. Levine, Isaacs, Kirkland, Mike Reiss
Mike Reiss
Michael "Mike" Reiss is an American television comedy writer. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series The Simpsons and co-created the animated series The Critic...
, and Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
participated in the DVD's audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
.
Cultural references
Homer's chants and his nickname "Dancin' Homer" is a reference to American baseball fan Wild Bill HagyWild Bill Hagy
William "Wild Bill" Hagy was an American baseball fan and cab driver from Dundalk, Maryland who led famous "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" chants during the late 1970s and early '80s from section 34 in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium....
, who earned the nickname "The Roar from Thirty-Four" for his chants during the 1970s in section thirty-four at Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
's Memorial Stadium
Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)
Memorial Stadium was a sports stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, that formerly stood on 33rd Street on an over-sized block also bounded by Ellerslie Avenue , 36th Street , and Ednor Road...
. Homer spells out Springfield just like Hagy spelled O-R-I-O-L-E-S
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
with his arms. A drunk Homer performs his first dance to the 1961 tune "Baby Elephant Walk" written by Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
. Bleeding Gums Murphy makes a 26-minute long performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
" at the game where Homer performs his first dance. Homer's line, "Today, as I leave for Capital City, I consider myself the luckiest mascot on the face of the earth!" that he says in his farewell speech to the Springfield fans, is a reference to Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
's farewell speech in the 1942 baseball film Pride of the Yankees. The song "Capital City" that Bennett sings over the closing credits is a parody of the 1980 song "New York, New York
Theme from New York, New York
"Theme from New York, New York" is the theme song from the Martin Scorsese film New York, New York , composed by John Kander, with lyrics by Fred Ebb. It was written for and performed in the film by Liza Minnelli...
".
Reception
In its original broadcast, "Dancin' Homer" finished twenty-fifth in the ratings for the week of November 5–11, 1990, with a Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 14.9, equivalent to approximately fourteen million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson said it was "probably the best episode" of the season, and commented that "Dancin' Homer" offered a "consistently satisfying show. Like the better episodes, it packed a lot of action into its twenty-three minutes, as Homer’s saga took on a near epic feeling. It also contained more wonderfully bizarre asides than usual at this point in the series’ run. From the Rastafarians who appear in the crowd when Homer performs 'Baby Elephant Walk', to the existence of the Players’ Ex-Wives section at the ballpark, the episode provided a fun and rich program." In a review of the second season, Bryce Wilson of Cinema Blend
Cinema Blend
Cinema Blend is a website founded and run by Josh Tyler dedicated to news and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films, movie projects, Television Shows, and a newly founded Music section which covers album reviews, band interviews and daily news from the industry. It combines gossip from...
said "Dancin' Homer" felt "a bit flat", but "but even in [its] lowest points, humor is easy to find." Dawn Taylor of The DVD Journal thought the best line of the episode was Homer's "Marge, this ticket doesn't just give me a seat. It also gives me the right — no, the duty — to make a complete ass of myself." Jeremy Kleinman of DVD Talk
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
said lines from the episode such as "A Simpson on a T-shirt, I never thought I'd see the day" show a "humorous self-awareness of the emergence of The Simpsons as cultural phenomenon".
The episode was by Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
named the third best episode of the show with a sports theme. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
named it second best sports moment in the history of the show. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, wrote: "Understanding baseball isn't really a requirement for this episode, as the humor doesn't come from the games so much as the personalities. Tony Bennett's cameo is great, and Homer's dance has rightly become legendary."
External links
- "Dancin' Homer" at The Simpsons.com