Saddlesore Galactica

"Saddlesore Galactica"
The Simpsons episode
Homer (left) speaks to a murderous elf-like jockey (right). This scene in particular has been cited in rankings of this episode as one of the worst ever.
Episode no.	239
Prod. code	BABF09
Orig. airdate	February 6, 2000
Showrunner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	Tim Long
Directed by	Lance Kramer
Chalkboard gag	"Substitute teachers are not scabs."
Couch gag	The family act as karate students and chop up the couch and photographs. Homer does a karate flip as he turns the TV on via remote control.
Guest star(s)	Jim Cummings as Furious D. Bachman–Turner Overdrive as themselves Trevor Denman as himself
DVD commentary	Matt Groening Mike Scully George Meyer Ian Maxtone-Graham Tim Long Matt Selman Tom Martin Lance Kramer
Season 11 September 26, 1999 – May 21, 2000 "Beyond Blunderdome" "Brother's Little Helper" "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" "Treehouse of Horror X" "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" "Eight Misbehavin'" "Take My Wife, Sleaze" "Grift of the Magi" "Little Big Mom" "Faith Off" "The Mansion Family" "Saddlesore Galactica" "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" "Missionary: Impossible" "Pygmoelian" "Bart to the Future" "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" "Kill the Alligator and Run" "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" "Behind the Laughter" List of all The Simpsons episodes
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"Saddlesore Galactica" is the thirteenth episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 6, 2000. In the episode, the Simpson family rescues a diving horse named Duncan from abuse and keeps it as a pet, but when the cost of upkeeping the horse rises, Homer and Bart train Duncan to be a racing horse. Meanwhile, Lisa is upset over her school losing the band competition to Ogdenville unfairly at the state fair and writes a letter to Bill Clinton in protest. "Saddlesore Galactica" was written by Tim Long and directed by Lance Kramer and features guest appearances from Jim Cummings, Bachman–Turner Overdrive, and Trevor Denman. The episode is cited by many critics and fans as one of the worst episodes of the series, but it has received some positive reviews too.

Plot

Mr. Largo is helping the Springfield Elementary School band prepare for their big performance at the state fair. After a suggestion by Lisa that they are doing the same old songs, they perform a different song, which is James Brown's "Living in America". They perform the song, but lose to Ogdenville Elementary School, who performs John Philip Sousa's old "Stars and Stripes Forever" using red, white, and blue glowsticks, forming a flag, which was against the rules as the competition forbade use of visual aids. After they win, Lisa accuses Ogdenville of cheating, later writing a letter to President Clinton, complaining that was a "state unfair". At the fair, Homer and Bart see Duncan, the diving horse, who dives into the pool. The Simpsons take Duncan home after his sleazy owner is accused of animal cruelty and flees, but not before the Comic Book Guy points out that the Simpsons have already taken in a horse as a pet, and “the expense forced Homer to work at the Kwik-E-Mart, with hilarious consequences”.

Just as the Comic Book Guy predicted (and how it played out on "Lisa's Pony"), the Simpsons end up having financial issues while keeping Duncan: it costs them $500 a week to keep him. Homer and Bart try to think of a way that Duncan can make money to help offset the costs of keeping him. Duncan makes an excellent placekicker, but National Football League rules forbid horses from competing. After Homer denounces the rules, Bart discovers that Duncan is fast and suggests that he should be a racehorse. Homer enters Duncan at Springfield Downs, with Bart as the jockey; they lose as Duncan, frightened, refuses to leave the stall until all other horses have actually finished.

Homer and Bart find a new strategy for Duncan to win, by making him into a Dennis Rodman look-alike, "Furious D", complete with dyed-purple hair and one of Lisa's bracelets for a nose ring. He intimidates the other horses (and headbutts several of them) and wins the next races. They go on to win a series of races until Homer is invited to have a beer in the jockeys' lounge, but instead, discovers the secret lair of the losing jockeys. They reveal themselves to be murderous elf-like creatures who want him to have Duncan lose the upcoming race. They threaten to eat Homer's brain if he does not comply. Though intimidated at first, Homer cannot bear to tell Bart about it, and instead vows to deal with those "murderous trolls". At the Springfield Derby, Duncan surprisingly wins the race, and the furious jockeys chase after Homer and Bart. Keeping his word to deal with them, Homer gets Marge and Lisa to foil the jockeys by spraying them with a hose and a water gun, and Homer stuffs the jockeys up in hole-proof garbage bags to get them sent to the dump. Afterwards, they search horse pictures for mates for Duncan.

President Clinton comes to see Lisa at home and presents her with a plaque, saying that Ogdenville was wrong to use glowsticks and that Springfield Elementary's band is the true champion. He also breaks the fourth wall when he thanks Lisa for giving a moral lesson to children in the audience: "If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true", but when Marge complains that this is a lousy lesson, the President simply replies "Hey, I'm a pretty lousy President".

Production and themes

"Saddlesore Galactica" was written by Tim Long and directed by Lance Kramer as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000). The episode features guest appearances from Jim Cummings as Duncan/Furious D, Bachman–Turner Overdrive (Fred Turner and Randy Bachman) as themselves, and Trevor Denman as himself.

The episode is heavily self-referential and contains a number of meta-references. When the Simpsons take Duncan home from the fair, Comic Book Guy points out that the Simpsons have already taken in a horse as a pet (as seen in "Lisa's Pony"), and that "the expense forced Homer to work at the Kwik-E-Mart, with hilarious consequences." In another scene later in the episode, when Lisa points out to Marge that Marge is showing signs of gambling problems, Comic Book Guy shows up again and tells Lisa: "Hey, I'm watching you!" This refers to the fact that Marge's gambling problems have already been explored in the episode "$pringfield". Jonathan Gray analyzed the self-referentiality in The Simpsons in his 2006 book Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, writing that "Sitcoms constantly 'reset' themselves, living in [...] an 'existential circle' in which nothing really changes, and every episode starts more or less where the last one started; and The Simpsons frequently plays with this sitcom clock, and with the amnesia of sitcom memory. The family members often forget important events in their 'history' [...]". Gray noted that in "Saddlesore Galactica", "the action continues as normal, as sitcom memory (or lack thereof) is pointed out but comically not acted upon. Thus, where Grote (1983: 67) notes that sitcom episodes 'live in a kind of time-warp without any reference to the other episodes,' producing a situation whereby everything 'remains inviolate and undisturbed, no matter what transitory events may occur' (1983: 59), The Simpsons comically reflects upon this."

Reception

The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 6, 2000. On October 7, 2008, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Matt Groening, Mike Scully, George Meyer, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Tim Long, Matt Selman, Tom Martin, and Lance Kramer participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.

According to writer Tim Long on the audio commentary, "Saddlesore Galactica" is considered by many critics and fans as one of the worst episodes in the history of the show, particularly for the scenes featuring the jockey elves. Maclean's writer Marco Ursi named it his least favorite episode of The Simpsons, and elaborated that "This is the one where The Simpsons get a horse – again – and the plot devolves into something involving the secret land of the jockeys. Making meta-references to the fact you’ve just made your 'worst episode ever' doesn’t make it any funnier." Nancy Basile of About.com listed the episode as one of the worst episodes of the season—the episodes that "made me cringe because they included blatant gimmicks and outlandish plots".

"Saddlesore Galactica" has received some more positive reviews too, though. While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented on the episode, noting: "I remember that 'Saddlesore' was much despised when it first aired, though I can’t recall if I joined that chorus as well. Maybe the many iffy episodes since early 2000 have made it look better, but I think that 'Saddlesore' offers a decent number of laughs. It goes off onto some dopey tangents and displays an unnerving tendency toward self-awareness, but it provides reasonable entertainment." DVD Talk's Ian Jane noted in his review of the eleventh season that "Bachman Turner Overdrive have a fun cameo" in the episode.

External links

• "Saddlesore Galactica" at The Simpsons.com
• "Saddlesore Galactica" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Saddlesore Galactica" at the Internet Movie Database