The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show
Encyclopedia
"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" is the fourteenth episode of the eighth season
of The Simpsons
, which originally aired February 9, 1997. In the episode, The Itchy & Scratchy Show
attempts to regain viewers by introducing a hip new character named Poochie, who will be voiced by Homer
. The episode is largely self-referential and satirizes the world of television production, fans of The Simpsons and the series itself. It was written by David S. Cohen
, and directed by Steven Dean Moore
. Alex Rocco
guest starred as Roger Meyers, Jr. for the third and final time, and Phil Hartman
guest stars as Troy McClure
. Poochie would become a minor recurring character and Comic Book Guy
's catchphrase, "worst episode ever" is introduced in this episode. With "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", the show's 167th, The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones
in the number of episodes produced for a prime-time animated series.
's producer Roger Meyers, Jr. an ultimatum
: come up with a way to fix the sagging ratings, or else Itchy and Scratchy will be replaced by a Chinese
cartoon program. Meyers decides to commission a focus group
to determine the reason why Itchy and Scratchy have lost their popularity.
Bart
and Lisa
participate in the study after wandering away from Marge
at the mall, watching cartoons and answering questions. However, things do not go very well, with the children contradicting themselves when suggesting what they want. Lisa points out that there was nothing wrong with Itchy and Scratchy to begin with; rather, the characters had simply lost the impact they once had with their audience. Meyers thanks Lisa for "saving" Itchy and Scratchy, and decides that a new character is what is needed to salvage his cartoon. He tells Krusty and his team of writers that this new character should be a dog
with attitude, and it is decided his name is to be Poochie.
Bart and Lisa insist Homer
give voice acting
a try when they read there will be open auditions. Homer auditions to read for Poochie's voice, and gets the part. He and June Bellamy, his fellow voice actor, make several publicity stops to promote Poochie, where Homer confronts the show's hardcore fans. Homer invites all of his friends and relatives to the screening of the first Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show. However, the cartoon is full of cliché
s and inane antics, and by emphasizing Poochie, contains none of the show's trademark violence. Homer is the only one who liked the cartoon, while everyone else is unimpressed. Meyers is forced to admit that Poochie's debut was a dud, and he decides to retire the character before he does any further “damage”. Homer learns that Poochie will be killed off and is resolved to keep Poochie alive. At his next recording session, rather than reading from the script, he implores the audience, through lines he himself wrote, to give Poochie a fair chance. The writing team is impressed with Homer's statement, and he is led to believe that the comments will be in the next cartoon. Instead, Meyers dubs
the correct line—"I have to go now. My planet needs me."—into the dialogue, and the animation cel containing Poochie is yanked out of view. A statement attesting to the dog's demise (he died on the way back to his home planet) is hurriedly edited into the cartoon; the in-studio audience cheers wildly as Krusty promises that Poochie is gone for good. Homer feels betrayed but, after realizing he never got paid for his efforts, chalks things up to the nature of show business.
Throughout the episode, a college-aged man named Roy comes to live with the Simpsons. When Lisa remarks that new characters are just a desperate effort to boost shows with low ratings, Roy appears out of nowhere. He has a few minor lines, calls Homer "Mr. S", and at the episode's end, he declares that he is moving out to live with "two sexy ladies".
for the number of episodes produced for an animated series. The episode therefore deals with the issue of longevity and the problems that arise when the producers try to make a show “fresh” again.
The show mainly deals with themes commonly known as "jumping the shark
", instances that usually occur when a failing show adds a new character or twist to boost ratings. The first theme is a commentary on adding a new character, when the show has run for too long. Usually, this is a technique used in shows that involves children, who have grown up. This was the case in "Oliver" in The Brady Bunch
or "Luke" on Growing Pains
. Both Poochie and Roy are used to reflect this, by attempting to keep The Itchy and Scratchy Show and the Simpson family fresh respectively.
Another theme is the notion of network executives forcing ideas onto a show. The interaction between the writers and the network executives in the episode underscore the differences between them. The writers understand the show's inner workings, but the network executives' approach improvements to the show from a business point-of-view. They try to incorporate what they see as a rebellious character with the comment "This is popular with the kids", but the viewers later reject the character. The writers themselves are satirized in the episode, and are depicted as lazy and pretentious with few original ideas.
The last theme is the viewer backlash and obsession with internal consistency. When Comic Book Guy
sees the Poochie episode, he immediately goes on the internet and writes "Worst episode ever" on a message board; a commentary on how the active audience nit picks the episode. The writers respond by using the voice of Bart:
Earlier in the episode Homer and June Bellamy attend an in-store appearance as part of the promotion for the new character Poochie. They are asked a question of internal consistency, like the show does all the time, to which he responds "Why would a man whose shirt says 'Genius at Work' spend all his time watching a children's cartoon show?" This is again a reflection on how the writers feel about the fans obsessing about internal consistency.
episode "Treehouse of Horror V
", living with the Simpsons in one of the alternate realities, as a second, teenage son in the family.
This episode also features the first mention of Comic Book Guy
's soon-to-be catchphrase "Worst. Episode. Ever.", which was taken from the alt.tv.simpsons
newsgroup. The first mention of "Worst episode ever" can be found in this post, which was referring to the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
".
As with other episodes centering around the production of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, such as "The Front", the show's staff are shown. Almost all of them are based on the actual staff of The Simpsons. In the first scene at the production table the person in the lower right corner, wearing a squid T-shirt, is David X. Cohen
. On the left side, the furthest away is Bill Oakley
with Josh Weinstein
next to him. Next to Weinstein is George Meyer
, who is the writer who speaks out and gets fired. The animator shown designing Poochie is supervising director David Silverman
. Silverman is a tuba
player, so one was drawn into the background of the scene. Others who appear include Dan McGrath
, Ian Maxtone-Graham
, Donick Cary
, Ron Hauge
, Ned Goldreyer
, and Mike Scully
, who had to be added in later, as the animators "didn't have his photo" from which to get an accurate likeness.
of the cover collage from The Beatles
' 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Otherwise, the episode refers to other TV shows. Roy calls Homer and Marge Mr. and Mrs. S, which echoes Fonzie
calling the Cunninghams for Mr. and Mrs. C on Happy Days
. Later, he decides to move in with "two sexy ladies", recalling Jack Tripper in Three's Company
. Homer hiding in the closet to hear what the network executives were planning to do with Poochie is a reference to Jay Leno
reportedly hiding in a closet and overhearing that he would replace Johnny Carson
as the host of The Tonight Show
.
Itchy and Scratchy are based on Tom and Jerry
and other cat and mouse cartoons. As a boy, series creator Matt Groening
and his friends would fantasize about an ultra violent cartoon and how much fun it would be to work on a show like that. June Bellamy is a parody of voice actress June Foray
.
s top 25 The Simpsons episodes list. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", calling it "a very neat episode which, like "The Front", is a good parody of the cartooning business." In 2007, Vanity Fair
named it the sixth best episode in the show's history, describing it as "a classic satire of network influence, obsessed TV fans, and programs that survive long after the shark has been jumped, the episode is a meta-celebration, a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to everyone who claimed that the quality of The Simpsons had declined over the years." Todd Gilchrist called it a masterpiece, stating it "could easily be packaged and sold by [itself]." Planet Simpson author Chris Turner describes the episode as "the most contentious and direct counterattack The Simpsons ever unleashed on its fans" and "[harsh] satire of the working world of big-time TV production". Robert Canning of IGN
said it was "laugh-out-loud funny" and describing the introduction of Roy as "a hilarious parody of a classic, overused television device." Alan Sepinwall of The Star Ledger, in a review printed two days after the episode originally aired, praised the writers for not airing a "very special" episode to celebrate the milestone of overtaking The Flintstones. He noted "[the episode is] so self-aware it put the best in-jokes on St. Elsewhere
to shame." The BBC
named it as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show, noting "the writers used the opportunity to pay tribute to the art of animation and rail against network interference in their show."
In its original American broadcast, "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" finished tied for 38th place in the weekly ratings for the week of February 3–9, 1997 with a Nielsen rating of 8.8. It was the third highest rated show on the Fox Network that week.
Comic Book Guy's phrase "Worst. Episode. Ever" was named by The A.V. Club
as a quote that could be used in everyday life, as well as being one of the most popular quotes from the show.
The Simpsons (season 8)
The Simpsons eighth season originally aired between October 27, 1996 and May 18, 1997, beginning with "Treehouse of Horror VII". The show runners for the eighth production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season...
of The Simpsons
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...
, which originally aired February 9, 1997. In the episode, The Itchy & Scratchy Show
The Itchy & Scratchy Show
The Itchy & Scratchy Show is a show within a show in the animated television series The Simpsons. It usually appears as a part of The Krusty the Clown Show, watched regularly by Bart and Lisa Simpson...
attempts to regain viewers by introducing a hip new character named Poochie, who will be voiced by 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...
. The episode is largely self-referential and satirizes the world of television production, fans of The Simpsons and the series itself. It was written by David S. Cohen
David X. Cohen
David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...
, and directed by Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an animation director who has directed 35 episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several episodes of the long running Nicktoon programme Rugrats...
. Alex Rocco
Alex Rocco
Alex Rocco is an American actor. His roles have ranged from comedy to playing gangsters in Mafia movies.-Early life:...
guest starred as Roger Meyers, Jr. for the third and final time, and Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
guest stars as Troy McClure
Troy McClure
Troy McClure is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He was voiced by Phil Hartman and first appears in the second season episode "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment". McClure is a washed-up actor, usually shown doing low-level work, such as hosting infomercials...
. Poochie would become a minor recurring character and Comic Book Guy
Comic Book Guy
Comic Book Guy is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. He is the proprietor of a comic book store, The...
's catchphrase, "worst episode ever" is introduced in this episode. With "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", the show's 167th, The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The 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...
in the number of episodes produced for a prime-time animated series.
Plot
The ratings of the Itchy & Scratchy Show segment of the Krusty the Clown Show fall dramatically. Krusty gives the cartoonCartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
's producer Roger Meyers, Jr. an ultimatum
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests...
: come up with a way to fix the sagging ratings, or else Itchy and Scratchy will be replaced by a Chinese
Chinese animation
Chinese animation or Manhua Anime, in narrow sense, refers to animations that are made in China. In broad sense, it may refers to animations that are made in any Chinese speaking countries such as People's Republic of China , Republic of China , Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.- History :The...
cartoon program. Meyers decides to commission a focus group
Focus group
A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging...
to determine the reason why Itchy and Scratchy have lost their popularity.
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...
participate in the study after wandering away from 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...
at the mall, watching cartoons and answering questions. However, things do not go very well, with the children contradicting themselves when suggesting what they want. Lisa points out that there was nothing wrong with Itchy and Scratchy to begin with; rather, the characters had simply lost the impact they once had with their audience. Meyers thanks Lisa for "saving" Itchy and Scratchy, and decides that a new character is what is needed to salvage his cartoon. He tells Krusty and his team of writers that this new character should be a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
with attitude, and it is decided his name is to be Poochie.
Bart and Lisa insist 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...
give voice acting
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
a try when they read there will be open auditions. Homer auditions to read for Poochie's voice, and gets the part. He and June Bellamy, his fellow voice actor, make several publicity stops to promote Poochie, where Homer confronts the show's hardcore fans. Homer invites all of his friends and relatives to the screening of the first Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show. However, the cartoon is full of cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s and inane antics, and by emphasizing Poochie, contains none of the show's trademark violence. Homer is the only one who liked the cartoon, while everyone else is unimpressed. Meyers is forced to admit that Poochie's debut was a dud, and he decides to retire the character before he does any further “damage”. Homer learns that Poochie will be killed off and is resolved to keep Poochie alive. At his next recording session, rather than reading from the script, he implores the audience, through lines he himself wrote, to give Poochie a fair chance. The writing team is impressed with Homer's statement, and he is led to believe that the comments will be in the next cartoon. Instead, Meyers dubs
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
the correct line—"I have to go now. My planet needs me."—into the dialogue, and the animation cel containing Poochie is yanked out of view. A statement attesting to the dog's demise (he died on the way back to his home planet) is hurriedly edited into the cartoon; the in-studio audience cheers wildly as Krusty promises that Poochie is gone for good. Homer feels betrayed but, after realizing he never got paid for his efforts, chalks things up to the nature of show business.
Throughout the episode, a college-aged man named Roy comes to live with the Simpsons. When Lisa remarks that new characters are just a desperate effort to boost shows with low ratings, Roy appears out of nowhere. He has a few minor lines, calls Homer "Mr. S", and at the episode's end, he declares that he is moving out to live with "two sexy ladies".
Themes
This episode saw The Simpsons surpass The FlintstonesThe Flintstones
The 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...
for the number of episodes produced for an animated series. The episode therefore deals with the issue of longevity and the problems that arise when the producers try to make a show “fresh” again.
The show mainly deals with themes commonly known as "jumping the shark
Jumping the shark
Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery....
", instances that usually occur when a failing show adds a new character or twist to boost ratings. The first theme is a commentary on adding a new character, when the show has run for too long. Usually, this is a technique used in shows that involves children, who have grown up. This was the case in "Oliver" in The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
or "Luke" on Growing Pains
Growing Pains
Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based...
. Both Poochie and Roy are used to reflect this, by attempting to keep The Itchy and Scratchy Show and the Simpson family fresh respectively.
Another theme is the notion of network executives forcing ideas onto a show. The interaction between the writers and the network executives in the episode underscore the differences between them. The writers understand the show's inner workings, but the network executives' approach improvements to the show from a business point-of-view. They try to incorporate what they see as a rebellious character with the comment "This is popular with the kids", but the viewers later reject the character. The writers themselves are satirized in the episode, and are depicted as lazy and pretentious with few original ideas.
The last theme is the viewer backlash and obsession with internal consistency. When Comic Book Guy
Comic Book Guy
Comic Book Guy is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. He is the proprietor of a comic book store, The...
sees the Poochie episode, he immediately goes on the internet and writes "Worst episode ever" on a message board; a commentary on how the active audience nit picks the episode. The writers respond by using the voice of Bart:
- Bart: Hey, I know it wasn't great, but what right do you have to complain?
- Comic Book Guy: As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me.
- Bart: What? They're giving you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possibly owe you? I mean, if anything, you owe them!
- Comic Book Guy: Worst episode ever.
Earlier in the episode Homer and June Bellamy attend an in-store appearance as part of the promotion for the new character Poochie. They are asked a question of internal consistency, like the show does all the time, to which he responds "Why would a man whose shirt says 'Genius at Work' spend all his time watching a children's cartoon show?" This is again a reflection on how the writers feel about the fans obsessing about internal consistency.
Production
The episode was intended to be a commentary on what it was like to work on a television show that had been on the air for a long time but was nearing its end. It was intended to show that The Simpsons could still be good after eight seasons, even though it no longer had the "shock value" it did in the early years. Before production of season 8 began, the Fox executives suggested the staff add a new character to the show, who would live with the Simpsons on a permanent basis. The staff, amused with the idea, decided to write this episode as a commentary on what it was like to work on a television show that had been on the air for several years. Parallel to Poochie being introduced on Itchy & Scratchy they inserted the one-time character Roy, with no explanation as to who he was, or why he was there, as a reference to the executive's proposal. Roy was originally conceived for the "Time and Punishment" segment of the season sixThe Simpsons (season 6)
The Simpsons sixth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 4, 1994 and May 21, 1995 and consists of 25 episodes. The Simpsons is an animated series about a working class family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
episode "Treehouse of Horror V
Treehouse of Horror V
"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons sixth season and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It premiered on October 30, 1994, and features three short stories called The Shinning, Time and Punishment, and Nightmare Cafeteria...
", living with the Simpsons in one of the alternate realities, as a second, teenage son in the family.
This episode also features the first mention of Comic Book Guy
Comic Book Guy
Comic Book Guy is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. He is the proprietor of a comic book store, The...
's soon-to-be catchphrase "Worst. Episode. Ever.", which was taken from the alt.tv.simpsons
Alt.tv.simpsons
alt.tv.simpsons is a usenet newsgroup dedicated to discussing the American television program, The Simpsons. Created in 1990, the newsgroup became a popular community in the early 1990s, and continues to exist as of 2011.The newsgroup is known for reviewing the episodes and nitpicking on minor...
newsgroup. The first mention of "Worst episode ever" can be found in this post, which was referring to the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
"Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons fourth season and first aired on November 3, 1992. The plot follows Bart continually getting in trouble, and how Homer is unable to give him any suitable punishment. Marge gets Homer to agree to make a punishment stick, and he...
".
Original plan for Poochie
David Cohen's initial vision for Poochie was that he would be annoying to fans because he was wealthy, aloof and unlikeable. In the episode's DVD commentary he read his script for the first cartoon featuring Itchy, Scratchy, and Poochie:Caricatures of the show's staff
David X. Cohen
David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...
. On the left side, the furthest away is Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
with Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
next to him. Next to Weinstein is George Meyer
George Meyer
George A. Meyer is an American producer and writer. Raised in Tucson, Arizona in a Roman Catholic family, Meyer attended Harvard University. There, after becoming president of the Harvard Lampoon, he graduated in 1978 with a degree in biochemistry. Abandoning plans to attend medical school, Meyer...
, who is the writer who speaks out and gets fired. The animator shown designing Poochie is supervising director David Silverman
David Silverman
David Silverman is an animator best known for directing numerous episodes of the animated TV series The Simpsons, as well as The Simpsons Movie...
. Silverman is a tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
player, so one was drawn into the background of the scene. Others who appear include Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath is an American television writer. He has written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Mission Hill, The PJs and King of the Hill.- The Simpsons episodes :He wrote the following episodes:...
, Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Maxtone-Graham is an American television writer and producer. He has written for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons , and has also served as a co-executive producer and consulting producer for The Simpsons...
, Donick Cary
Donick Cary
Donick Cary is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons, Just Shoot Me!, Complete Savages, Late Night with David Letterman and served as head writer on The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show....
, Ron Hauge
Ron Hauge
Ron Hauge is an American television writer and executive producer. In his earlier career Hauge was a contributor to National Lampoon. After this he wrote for Seinfeld, In Living Color, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and a short lived reincarnation of The Carol Burnett Show...
, Ned Goldreyer
Ned Goldreyer
Ned Goldreyer is a television writer, television producer and comedian who currently lives in Los Angeles.-Career:He began his career as a freelance writer for Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and went on to join the staffs of Late Night with Conan O' Brien, The Simpsons, Dilbert, Grounded for...
, and Mike Scully
Mike Scully
Mike Scully is an American television writer and producer. He is known for his work as executive producer and showrunner of the animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1997 to 2001. Scully grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts and long had an interest in writing. He was an underachiever at school...
, who had to be added in later, as the animators "didn't have his photo" from which to get an accurate likeness.
Cultural references
The opening couch gag shows a pastichePastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of the cover collage from The Beatles
The Beatles
The 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...
' 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Otherwise, the episode refers to other TV shows. Roy calls Homer and Marge Mr. and Mrs. S, which echoes Fonzie
Fonzie
Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli is a fictional character played by Henry Winkler in the American sitcom Happy Days . He was originally a secondary character, but eventually became the lead...
calling the Cunninghams for Mr. and Mrs. C on Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
. Later, he decides to move in with "two sexy ladies", recalling Jack Tripper in Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
. Homer hiding in the closet to hear what the network executives were planning to do with Poochie is a reference to Jay Leno
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...
reportedly hiding in a closet and overhearing that he would replace Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
as the host of The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
.
Itchy and Scratchy are based on Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
and other cat and mouse cartoons. As a boy, series creator 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....
and his friends would fantasize about an ultra violent cartoon and how much fun it would be to work on a show like that. June Bellamy is a parody of voice actress June Foray
June Foray
June Foray is an American voice actress, best known as the voice of many animated characters...
.
Reception
This episode was placed twenty-third on Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s top 25 The Simpsons episodes list. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", calling it "a very neat episode which, like "The Front", is a good parody of the cartooning business." In 2007, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
named it the sixth best episode in the show's history, describing it as "a classic satire of network influence, obsessed TV fans, and programs that survive long after the shark has been jumped, the episode is a meta-celebration, a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to everyone who claimed that the quality of The Simpsons had declined over the years." Todd Gilchrist called it a masterpiece, stating it "could easily be packaged and sold by [itself]." Planet Simpson author Chris Turner describes the episode as "the most contentious and direct counterattack The Simpsons ever unleashed on its fans" and "[harsh] satire of the working world of big-time TV production". Robert Canning of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
said it was "laugh-out-loud funny" and describing the introduction of Roy as "a hilarious parody of a classic, overused television device." Alan Sepinwall of The Star Ledger, in a review printed two days after the episode originally aired, praised the writers for not airing a "very special" episode to celebrate the milestone of overtaking The Flintstones. He noted "[the episode is] so self-aware it put the best in-jokes on St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
to shame." The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
named it as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show, noting "the writers used the opportunity to pay tribute to the art of animation and rail against network interference in their show."
In its original American broadcast, "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" finished tied for 38th place in the weekly ratings for the week of February 3–9, 1997 with a Nielsen rating of 8.8. It was the third highest rated show on the Fox Network that week.
Comic Book Guy's phrase "Worst. Episode. Ever" was named by The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
as a quote that could be used in everyday life, as well as being one of the most popular quotes from the show.
External links
- "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" at The Simpsons.com