Helter Shelter
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"Helter Shelter" is the fifth episode from the fourteenth season of The Simpsons that aired December 1, 2002.
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[edit] Plot
After Homer is hit by a falling metal beam at work and suffers a serious head injury, Mr. Burns smartly buys him off with tickets at a luxury sky box at a hockey game as compensation. Bart, Marge and Homer enjoy the sushi, caricature artist, and appearance by Larry Holmes, while Lisa leaves in disgust so she can watch the game with real fans in real surroundings. When she gives a Russian player advice which leads to him scoring a goal, she receives his hockey stick as a gift. However, genuine Russian "no-wood-nik" termites, which were living in the stick, end up eating away at the entire Simpson house. An exterminator says their house should be tented and fumigated, and they cannot return for six months. However, the family has no place to go. The only hotel they can afford is booked for months, and when they try to stay with Lenny and then Comic Book Guy, they cannot deal with Lenny's house being next to a jai alai court and CBG's collection of comic book cardboard figures. At Moe's Tavern, their last resort, Barney and Carl inform the Simpsons about a reality show, where a family is put in a Victorian house, where they must live as if it was the year 1895. Homer is reluctant at first, but then they go to the reality show.
At the studio, the executives screen many families and finally they settle on the Simpsons (saying they want a family that has not been on TV forever and ever), after viewing Homer's overreactions over nothing. They are taken to the Victorian house and shown around by the Network Executive, who says that they will be filmed round the clock. The only thing of the 20th century there is a "Confessional Room", which is a small room with a video camera where they say what they feel about the lifestyle. The family struggles with all of the drastic changes in their daily life and are pretty miserable, much to the delight of the show's audience, who cannot wait to see which of them dies first. Homer tries to lighten up the family, saying they should be glad on TV, and begin to conform to their new lives cheerily. This is not deemed as entertaining, however, and viewership begins to drop. In attempts to save the show, the executives decide to introduce Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley into the household, since he's the biggest 1970's TV star whose phone has not been disconnected. But even his presence (and that of a taser which he uses on Homer) does not boost the ratings. Finally, one of the executives comes up with an idea. The house is airlifted at night and put into a river.
The Simpsons are shocked to find what had happened the next morning, and the house finally washes up on shore and falls apart, with Squiggy in it. The network crew is filming it and loving the drama that unfolds. They then break for lunch, but deny the Simpsons any of it so they go to eat some bugs. Later on, the family is confronted by a bunch of savage-looking people, who turn out to be contestants who lost a final challenge on a Survivor-type show and were abandoned in the jungle. They decide to overpower the crew and return to civilization. Together with the Simpsons, they attack the crew, overpowering them. Homer then tries to crush the helicopter with a giant boulder but he is pushed into the ground. Finally at home, Homer decides to watch scripted TV shows, as he has had it with reality shows, but the family finds more pleasure in watching him lose a battle of wits with a high-powered garden hose.
[edit] Production notes
- This is the last episode of The Simpsons to use cel animation. Starting with "The Great Louse Detective," The Simpsons is animated and colored using digital ink and paint.
[edit] Cultural references
- The Comic Book Guy has a Xena: Warrior Princess poster in his wall.
- The title is a play on the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" and the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter".
- The reality show the Simpsons end up on is a parody of the British reality show The 1900 House.
- The scene where the Simpsons are waiting for time to fly by mirrors the opening sequence of King of the Hill.
- "Law & Order: Elevator Inspectors Unit" is a reference to the TV show Law & Order and its various spin-offs.
- The label on the exterminator's van saying "A Bug's Death" is a reference to Pixar's A Bug's Life.
- The piano number played throughout the sequences in the old house is "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, popularized by Marvin Hamlisch, who arranged a version of the rag for the movie The Sting.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: "Helter Shelter" |
- "Helter Shelter" at The Simpsons.com
- "Helter Shelter" at the Internet Movie Database
