Rome-old and Juli-eh
Encyclopedia
"Rome-old and Juli-eh" is the 15th episode of The Simpsons
' eighteenth season
, which was originally broadcast on March 11, 2007. It was written by Daniel Chun
, and directed by Nancy Kruse
. Jane Kaczmarek
guest starred as her recurring character, Judge Constance Harm.
surprises the family with a newly decorated basement, now a recreation room
with a pinball machine, a ping-pong table and other luxury items, prompting Marge
to ask how Homer could afford all this. He says he has a plan and in the next scene files for bankruptcy
before Constance Harm, believing that this will save him from paying his debts. Unfortunately, Harm tells him that the bankruptcy laws have changed and, under the new laws, he has to pay everything back. When looking though the family's expenses, Homer decides to save a lot of money by moving his father
out of the retirement home
and having him live with the family. The recreation room now doubles as Grampa's bedroom.
Homer and Marge go out one night and ask Grampa to babysit
Bart
and Lisa
. Not entirely trusting Grampa's competence as a babysitter, Marge also asks her sister Selma Bouvier to come over and watch Grampa watch the kids. During the evening, Grampa and Selma end up kissing and eventually fall in love with each other, and are unaware that they are caught by Homer, much to his dismay, as he wants his dad to end up old and lonely. However, just as she was when Abe previously dated Selma's mother Jacqueline in "Lady Bouvier's Lover
", Marge is happy with the arrangement, noting that Selma and Abe are like a yummy hot dog made from the parts of a pig no one wants. Patty is no happier than Homer and she enlists his help to break them up. Patty impersonates Selma and Homer dresses up as "Esteban de la Sexface", a Spanish lover-type, and the two arrange for Grampa to catch them kissing. Their plan is foiled though, when the actual Selma comes by and catches them. Angry at being manipulated, Grampa proposes to Selma and she accepts. They get married and move in together.
With Abe unable to find work, Selma is the sole breadwinner in the family, working hard in her new, more stressful job as department manager at the DMV. Abe, meanwhile, destroys their kitchen with his ignorance of how things work by misusing the appliances, causing a kitchen fire
. This makes Selma realise that maybe love is not everything you need after all, and she dances with him one last time. They presumably divorce
with Grampa moving back to the retirement home and Selma moving back to her and Patty's room at Spinster Arms Apartments.
Kicked out of the rec room, Bart and Lisa order a lot of complimentary shipping boxes from the A.S.S. (American Shipping Services, not affiliated with the human ass
), getting the idea from Ned Flanders
, and build a fort out of them. When the Wiseguy becomes angry and asks for them back, they refuse, whereupon he threatens to come back and get them by force (while using a cliche Lord of the Rings
accent). Bart and Lisa think he is bluffing, but in fact he comes back with an army of delivery men and women. Bart and Lisa put up a brave fight, first by releasing a barrage of cardboard tubes to trip the enemies, then using cardboard squares to throw like shuriken
. The delivery men and women set up a siege ladder and Lisa wraps the lead man in tape and pushes the ladder down. They are aided by Nelson
, who arrives unexpectedly to aid Lisa, who could have been hit by a barrage of cardboard arrows. He dives down with twin cardboard tubes and fends off a large number of delivery men and women, while one of the enemies flies overhead, upon a giant, red Fell Beast.
The army swarms while Bart uses a cardboard tube to shoot down enemies with bricks, beehives, egg cartons and Snowball II. The A.S.S. legion fails and flees, but the kids immediately lose interest in their fort and melt it with the garden hose (ignoring the dead Fell beast nearby).
.
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 18)
The Simpsons 18th season aired from September 10, 2006 to May 20, 2007. The season contained seven hold-over episodes from the season 17 production line. Al Jean served as the Showrunner, a position he has held since the thirteenth season....
, which was originally broadcast on March 11, 2007. It was written by Daniel Chun
Daniel Chun
Daniel Chun is an American comedy writer. He has written for The Office and The Simpsons. He received a Writers Guild Award nomination and an Annie Award for his work on The Simpsons. He is now Head Writer and Co-Executive Producer of The Office...
, and directed by Nancy Kruse
Nancy Kruse
Nancy Kruse is a former animation director on The Simpsons. She started working on the show during the first season as a background clean-up artist. After that she did background layout and character layout for several years on the show before becoming an assistant director...
. Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. Kaczmarek is a three-time Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy Award nominee...
guest starred as her recurring character, Judge Constance Harm.
Plot
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...
surprises the family with a newly decorated basement, now a recreation room
Recreation room
A recreation room is a room used for a variety of purposes, such as parties, games and other everyday or casual use. The term is common in the United States and Canada, but is less common in the United Kingdom where the preferred term is games room...
with a pinball machine, a ping-pong table and other luxury items, prompting Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
to ask how Homer could afford all this. He says he has a plan and in the next scene files for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
before Constance Harm, believing that this will save him from paying his debts. Unfortunately, Harm tells him that the bankruptcy laws have changed and, under the new laws, he has to pay everything back. When looking though the family's expenses, Homer decides to save a lot of money by moving his father
Abraham Simpson
Abraham J. "Abe" Simpson, often known simply as Grampa, is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and he is also the patriarch of the Simpson family, the father of Homer Simpson, and the grandfather of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson...
out of the retirement home
Retirement home
A retirement home is a multi-residence housing facility intended for senior citizens. Typically each person or couple in the home has an apartment-style room or suite of rooms. Additional facilities are provided within the building, including facilities for meals, gathering, recreation, and some...
and having him live with the family. The recreation room now doubles as Grampa's bedroom.
Homer and Marge go out one night and ask Grampa to babysit
Babysitting
Babysitting is the practice of temporarily caring for a child on behalf of the child's parents. Babysitting is commonly performed as an odd job by teenagers for extra money.-General:...
Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
. Not entirely trusting Grampa's competence as a babysitter, Marge also asks her sister Selma Bouvier to come over and watch Grampa watch the kids. During the evening, Grampa and Selma end up kissing and eventually fall in love with each other, and are unaware that they are caught by Homer, much to his dismay, as he wants his dad to end up old and lonely. However, just as she was when Abe previously dated Selma's mother Jacqueline in "Lady Bouvier's Lover
Lady Bouvier's Lover
"Lady Bouvier's Lover" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 12, 1994. In the episode, Grampa Simpson falls in love with Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, and they start dating. However, on a night out in town,...
", Marge is happy with the arrangement, noting that Selma and Abe are like a yummy hot dog made from the parts of a pig no one wants. Patty is no happier than Homer and she enlists his help to break them up. Patty impersonates Selma and Homer dresses up as "Esteban de la Sexface", a Spanish lover-type, and the two arrange for Grampa to catch them kissing. Their plan is foiled though, when the actual Selma comes by and catches them. Angry at being manipulated, Grampa proposes to Selma and she accepts. They get married and move in together.
With Abe unable to find work, Selma is the sole breadwinner in the family, working hard in her new, more stressful job as department manager at the DMV. Abe, meanwhile, destroys their kitchen with his ignorance of how things work by misusing the appliances, causing a kitchen fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
. This makes Selma realise that maybe love is not everything you need after all, and she dances with him one last time. They presumably divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
with Grampa moving back to the retirement home and Selma moving back to her and Patty's room at Spinster Arms Apartments.
Kicked out of the rec room, Bart and Lisa order a lot of complimentary shipping boxes from the A.S.S. (American Shipping Services, not affiliated with the human ass
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
), getting the idea from Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
, and build a fort out of them. When the Wiseguy becomes angry and asks for them back, they refuse, whereupon he threatens to come back and get them by force (while using a cliche Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
accent). Bart and Lisa think he is bluffing, but in fact he comes back with an army of delivery men and women. Bart and Lisa put up a brave fight, first by releasing a barrage of cardboard tubes to trip the enemies, then using cardboard squares to throw like shuriken
Shuriken
A shuriken is a traditional Japanese concealed weapon that was generally used for throwing, and sometimes stabbing or slashing...
. The delivery men and women set up a siege ladder and Lisa wraps the lead man in tape and pushes the ladder down. They are aided by Nelson
Nelson Muntz
Nelson Mandela Muntz is a fictional character and bully from the animated TV series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Nelson was introduced in Season 1's "Bart the General" as a bully but later turned into a friend of Bart Simpson, who is best identified by his signature laugh .-Role...
, who arrives unexpectedly to aid Lisa, who could have been hit by a barrage of cardboard arrows. He dives down with twin cardboard tubes and fends off a large number of delivery men and women, while one of the enemies flies overhead, upon a giant, red Fell Beast.
The army swarms while Bart uses a cardboard tube to shoot down enemies with bricks, beehives, egg cartons and Snowball II. The A.S.S. legion fails and flees, but the kids immediately lose interest in their fort and melt it with the garden hose (ignoring the dead Fell beast nearby).
Cultural references
- The title of this episode is a pun on ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
. - To save gas, Homer says he is "FlintstoningThe FlintstonesThe Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
" the car (cutting a hole in the floor so he can stick his legs through and push the car, as Fred FlintstoneFred FlintstoneFrederick Joseph “Fred” Flintstone, also known as Fred W. Flintstone or Frederick J. Flintstone, is the protagonist of the animated sitcom The Flintstones, which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960-66. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles...
does, with the same sound effect but not the same efficiency). Homer also says "Yabba-Dabba-Do!". - "Is She Really Going Out with Him?Is She Really Going Out with Him?"Is She Really Going Out with Him?" is the first single released by Joe Jackson in September 1978. The track was included on Jackson's debut album, Look Sharp!, the following year...
" by Joe JacksonJoe Jackson (musician)Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer-songwriter now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001...
plays during Selma and Grampa in love sequence. - The battle sequence with Bart, Lisa, and the box salesmen uses The Fields of the Pelennor, a portion of the score from the The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and the scene itself is a parody of the Battle of the HornburgBattle of the HornburgThe Battle of the Hornburg is a fictional battle in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. The battle pitted the forces of the Wizard Saruman against the Rohirrim under King Théoden, who had taken refuge in the mountain fortress of the Hornburg at Helm's Deep...
from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and the Battle of the Pelennor FieldsBattle of the Pelennor FieldsIn J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy fiction, the Battle of Pelennor Fields is the battle for the city of Minas Tirith between the forces of Gondor and its allies, and the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron...
from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
. Lisa also references the movie when she says to Nelson "you've come to help us in our hour of need." One of the A.S.S. delivery men even flies a fell beast like the NazgûlNazgûlThe Nazgûl are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium...
. Lisa also says "So it begins" as the enemy attack begins, as King ThéodenThéodenThéoden is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings. He appears as a major supporting character in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.-Appearances:...
says before the Uruk-haiUruk-haiThe Uruk-hai are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth. They are introduced in The Lord of the Rings as an advanced breed or breeds of Orcs that serve Sauron and Saruman...
attack Helm's Deep. - Lisa calls the box fort Boxingham Palace, a reference to Buckingham PalaceBuckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
. - When Selma is admitting to Abe that their marriage will not work, she claims that The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
may not have been right, and that maybe, "love isn't all you need." This is a reference to the Beatles song, All You Need Is LoveAll You Need Is Love"All You Need Is Love" is a song written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first performed by The Beatles on Our World, the first live global television link. Watched by 400 million in 26 countries, the programme was broadcast via satellite on 25 June 1967...
. - Right before the battle Bart asks Lisa "Who knew guys in brown shirts could cause so much trouble". This is a reference to the brown shirts of the NSDAP's Sturmabteilung.
Reception
The episode drew 8.98 million viewers on its first broadcast on FoxFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
.