By Brandon Nolta
THE SIMPSONS: Whatever else he is, Homer’s got his heart in the right place as a dad. After the last bottle of milk is spilled, he drives all the way to Guidopolis to get some, and ends up on a wild towing adventure. Meanwhile, Marge decides Maggie’s become too clingy, so with Bart and Lisa’s help, she signs up for a counseling program on the Internet designed to help her raise independent children. Considering how the first two turned out, the mind boggles at how Maggie might develop.
Anyway, since Homer isn’t particularly fulfilled as a FUBAR consultant or whatever the hell his official job is, he is enthralled with the romance of driving a tow truck, and takes over the Springfield territory. Surprisingly, despite a few missteps, he’s not too bad at it … although he’s a little overzealous, particularly when he tows that helicopter. In flight. Soon enough, though, the good people of Springfield are in revolt, and things don’t look good for Homer. Marge has other worries than Homer, however; the counseling program for Maggie works too well, and her independence leaves Marge in the sad, lonely dust of obsolescence. But, it all works out: Maggie takes the initiative to rescue Homer from the clutches of the mad tow truck driver that took him prisoner (Matt Dillon).
This one’s a keeper; I chuckled all the way through it, especially with Homer and his inventive approach to keeping the parking spaces legally occupied. Whether towing Bart down the road or using his newfound power to bilk Flanders, Homer seems to be enjoying this career. It’ll be interesting to see if he keeps it, as he hadn’t renounced it by episode end. I hope he does, if for no other reason to see him go up against mad Louie again.
KING OF THE HILL: Once again, Bobby demonstrates how he must have some kind of random WTF field surrounding him at all times. What starts off as a likely ass-kicking in the boys’ room turns into a recruiting pitch for Powder Puff cheerleading, the Sadie Hawkins of football in a sense (i.e. the boys dress up as cheerleaders and do their thing, while the girls play football). Joseph let slip that Bobby was funny, so the coach takes Bobby aside and tells him to live up to the hype or else.
On the other side of the parent-student divide, Peggy gets a form letter from the PTA that essentially demands either her money or her time. She decides to call their bluff and volunteer her time. But, it turns out that the high-powered lawyer running the PTA thinks along the same lines as Peggy, and they hit it off. Meanwhile, Bobby is horrified to find that Hank is 100% behind the cheerleading thing. While Bobby tries to reconcile his views on comedy with the demands of Powder Puff, Peggy finds herself drawn into the world of power PTA projects. All well and good, until the PTA president sets her sights on the Powder Puff cheerleading as an archaic, sexist institution. Whatever works to get Hank to a PTA meeting, I suppose.
The irony of macho conservative men defending cross-dressing isn’t lost on the show’s writers, who have fun tweaking both left- and right-wing views, as usual. Once again, it’s a bonding episode, albeit of a different tack; in an effort to help Bobby get into the spirit, Hank takes his son brassiere shopping. No, that’s not a typo. Anyway, this week’s entry isn’t as strong as last week’s, but it’s worth a gander for Peggy’s oft-delayed entry into the PTA. Although I’m late to the game for KING OF THE HILL, I’m enjoying it more as I go along. Thankfully, however, Judge and the gang knew when to stop with the drag bits. As Bobby put it, “Men in drag … eh.”
FAMILY GUY: Holy crap, it’s an invasion! The women of Spooner Street have moved into the Drunken Clam, and the men are seriously weirded out. So, Peter does what any reasonable drunken moron would do: tear a chunk of his house and build a men’s club in his yard. Unfortunately, the women follow out there as well, irritating Peter no end. There’s another issue, though: Joe’s inability to walk, and thus dance with Bonnie, finally gets to him. Joe’s a man of action, so what does he do?
Well, he does what anybody in his situation would do, of course. He gets a leg transplant, and as would be expected in the cartoon universe, it works great. Joe’s a new man, and promptly goes out to do all the things he hadn’t been able to do for so long. You know, rock climbing, tae kwan do, dancing to “Good Morning” from SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. All too soon, though, the boys are worn out, and Joe dumps them for more able-bodied pals. Good thing, too, as it clears the decks for a Pontius Pilate-Judas Iscariot joke, and you can never have enough of those.
Thankfully, after the relative low-key natures of the first half of the block, viewers can always count on FAMILY GUY to up the tasteless quotient on the back side of the evening. Lots of handicapped jokes, a few scatological digs, and a couple of Nazi digs here and there. Personally, I liked it, but there wasn’t enough Stewie and Brian in this one. Now that I think about it, Chris and Meg were absent as well. Not much family in this one; just a whole lot of guy. If that works for you, saddle up and ride it home, pilgrim.
AMERICAN DAD: Many people find their lives disappointing at times, but the Smiths have raised it to an art form. Stan’s job at the CIA doesn’t lend itself to public glory, so Francine finds herself regretting their social status to her sister after they fail to get into the Parade of Homes, a phone call which Stan overhears. The next day, he gets a parking ticket, which causes him to lose his temper and beat the crap out of the meter maid guy. This gets him two weeks of community service as a meter maid guy, at which point the power-mad side of Stan’s personality asserts itself.
Meanwhile, Haley has taken up work as a nude model, which she finds empowering and many other liberal clichés, right up until Roger shows up in class. Then, it’s not so cool, especially after Roger’s painting becomes a hot commodity, especially among the puberty-stricken male audience. Who’s Roger’s first prospective customer? Steve. Everybody take a minute to get over the creep factor of a teen buying nude paintings of his sister (although, to be fair, he doesn’t know it’s Haley … I hope).
I have to admit, I was completely in Stan’s court on this one; parking has been a long-time burr under my saddle, so Stan’s opening a can of whoop-ass on a parking puke was a cause of great whooping on my part. When he started stealing from parking meters to fuel his and Francine’s ever-more-grandiose lifestyle, I cheered more, because … well, see above. AMERICAN DAD is sometimes a little less amusing than FAMILY GUY because the main character is so bombastic he can be wearying at times, but Stan was in the groove this episode. Francine got to be let out of her suburban housewife pen a little, and Roger got to show off his skills as a painter. All in all, a lot of good, not-so-clean family fun.