By Brandon Nolta
THE SIMPSONS, “Funeral for a Fiend”: Tonight marks a watershed moment in the Simpson household, a moment from which there is no going back: The Simpsons discover TiVo. Yes, thanks to Homer not paying attention on a trip to the electronics store, he finds himself the latest proud owner of life-changing technology. However, it’s Marge who finds her life changed to the greatest degree, falling asleep in front of the tube and getting hectored by Keith Olbermann for not watching commercials.
Scared straight by the devilish Olbermann, the Simpsons are persuaded to go to a rib house for dinner by a commercial seemingly designed for them. Unfortunately, once they arrive, the trap closes; the commercial actually was designed for them, all part of an ingenious snare set by Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) to destroy everyone’s favorite fellow-hued family. Of course, since this is the tenth time or so he’s tried to kill the Simpsons, place your bets on whether it will work or not, although it’s probably the first time one of his plans was countered by an exploding laptop combined with Lisa’s superior knowledge of Shakespeare.
Still, Sideshow Bob has learned a little subtlety since his last encounter, as becomes apparent during his trial. Will his plan to destroy Bart work? Will Krusty actually rupture eardrums with his funeral performance? Is Sideshow Bob actually dead? All these and more are answered by episode’s end, and even better, David Hyde Pierce makes a return as Cecil, Bob’s jailbird brother. Good, clean, twisted fun.
KING OF THE HILL, “Tears of an Inflatable Clown”: School’s gotten a wee bit boring at Tom Landry Middle School, and Bobby’s got an idea about how t liven things up: bring in a carnival. After some fine-tuning tips from Hank, Bobby gets the student council onboard with the idea, but that’s just the beginning of the fun. Bobby has to head things up with the carnival committee, while simultaneously putting up with the district’s diversity exercises from the fluffy-headed superintendent’s rep.
Meanwhile, Lucky (Tom Petty), who had the absence of mind to catch a Frisbee made of barbed wire, is steadfastly refusing to go to the hospital for his wounds. Hank, who finds this attitude a little south of stupid, does his best to get Lucky medical treatment, but Lucky turns out to be surprisingly cunning for a moron. Speaking of morons, the diversity rep manages to get Bobby and his committee so guilt-ridden over the various crimes of their ancestors that they decide to cancel the carnival and stage a learning experience for all. The possibilities for failure are mind-boggling, and the good students of TLMS do not disappoint.
As always, Mike Judge and his crew manage to take gentle but accurate aim at a number of satirical targets, and they do it with warmth and sympathy. As usual, good sense wins the day, as implemented by Hank and Bobby, and even Lucky gets a happy ending (although he had to pass out to get there). Still, as Bobby points out near the end, it’s all about the results.
FAMILY GUY, “Peter’s Daughter”: Like Bob Dylan said, a hard rain’s gonna come, and it looks like it’s started with Quahog. Flash floods have hit the area, and the Griffin house is quickly turning into a houseboat. Peter sends Meg into the kitchen to rescue his beer, and due to an accident, Meg nearly drowns in the process. A comatose Meg is brought to the hospital, where she stays out until a handsome young doctor shows up on rounds. Will romance blossom? Who knows, but Peter’s attitude seems to have taken a turn for the better.
On the shorter side of the family, Stewie convinces Brian to go into real estate investing with him, starting with a rundown house in the neighborhood. Somebody’s been watching HGTV again. Anyway, the terrible twosome grab their tools … not remotely what I meant, you pervs … and start working on the house. This can’t go wrong in any way. In a completely unrelated development, Peter’s overprotectiveness drives Meg’s latest potential boyfriend away. Unfortunately, it turns out that Meg is not only rejected, she’s pregnant. The mind boggles at where this will go.
While Peter, Meg, Meg’s boyfriend, and Peter’s shotgun get everything sorted out, Stewie and Brian find themselves over their heads with the house renovation. Stewie, being the practical type, decides to burn the place down for the insurance, neglecting to warn the electrician in the house before doing so. There’s probably a trip to hell in this plot development for somebody, but by episode’s end, you might have a hard time figuring out who’s booked. Anyway, it’s a funny bit of caper, although ending with a Conway Twitty performance raised the cornpone level to dangerously high levels.