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The Homer of Seville

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"The Homer of Seville"
The Simpsons episode
File:Simsons Screen Cap.jpg
Episode no.Season 19
Directed byMichael Polcino
Written byCarolyn Omine
Original air dateSeptember 30, 2007
Episode features
Chalkboard gag"The Wall Street Journal is better than ever"[1]
Couch gagRepeat of the "Homer Evolution" couch gag from "Homerazzi"; Marge's "What took you so long?" is changed to "Did you bring the milk?".[2]
Episode chronology
The Simpsons season 19
List of episodes

"Homer of Seville",[2] also known as "The Homer of Seville",[3] is the second episode of The Simpsons' nineteenth season and first aired on September 30, 2007.[4] After gaining an operatic ability to sing, Homer becomes a professional and famous opera star. While running from a mob of his crazed fans, he is saved by Julia, a beautiful and dangerous stalker.[5] It was written by Carolyn Omine and directed by Michael Polcino,[6] while Plácido Domingo guest stars as himself and Maya Rudolph guests as Julia.[5] The episode was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in 2008.[7] The episode averaged 8.4 million viewers, and a 4.2 overnight Nielsen rating and a 11 percent audience share.[6]

Plot

After escaping church, the Simpsons look for a place to eat lunch. Upon seeing that all the restaurants have long lines, the family spots a catering van setting up food at a house. The family sneaks in and gorges themselves, only to find they have snuck into a wake. Homer is wrangled into being a pallbearer. At the cemetery, Homer struggles with the coffin and falls into an empty grave, hurting his back in the process. At the hospital Dr. Hibbert treats Homer and sets up to give him an X-ray to check out his vertebrae. While lying on his back, Homer hears the cost of the X-ray, and lets out a "D'oh!". To the surprise of everyone, Homer's “D’oh!” sounds beautiful and operatic. Dr. Hibbert concludes that when Homer lies on his back his stomach lodges underneath his diaphragm, which in turn helps propel his powerful singing voice.

Dr. Hibbert tours Homer around the hospital while singing "If Ever I Would Leave You", to help alleviate patient suffering. Mr. Burns overhears Homer's voice and hires him to star as Rodolfo in La Bohème at the Springfield Opera House. Homer, despite having to sing on his back, quickly becomes an opera star. Homer's growing fame and success gains him loyal fans, and he gives advice to famous opera singer Placido Domingo.

Homer, Marge, Lenny and Carl share their wedding anniversary dinner at a nice restaurant. Marge tells Homer she is glad he has become famous, but she misses their privacy. After Lenny and Carl leave, Homer is hounded by adoring fans. Marge gets fed up and storms out of the restaurant and Homer follows after her. On the street, Homer tries to make up with Marge, when a large group of fans spots Homer and Marge and chases after them. Homer and Marge are trapped in an alley; just before the mob reaches them, a black clad biker on a motorcycle shows up to drive Homer and Marge to safety.

Back at home, Marge and Homer are surprised to find that the mysterious rider is a woman—Julia (Maya Rudolph). Julia, also a fan of Homer, explains she hates how all the other fans constantly mob him. She proposes they hire her to be Homer's manager, so she can take care of everything. Marge loves the idea, and goes to the kitchen to make a celebratory pie. With Marge gone, Julia reveals her true intentions: standing naked before Homer, she says he can have her anytime he wants. She threatens to tell Marge he attacked her, should he tell.

Although crazily obsessed with Homer, Julia proves to be a great fan club president and Marge is impressed with her efficiency. Her continual sexual advances force Homer to put his foot down and fire Julia, who leaves implying she'll get back at Homer. At breakfast the next day, Homer pours himself a bowl of cereal and a cobra hidden inside the cereal box attempts to attack him. Luckily, he disables the cobra by repeatedly swinging it against the refrigerator. Lisa concludes Julia is trying to kill him for firing her. Springfield's finest are put on bodyguard detail for Homer.

As Homer prepares for his next performance, Marge pleads with Chief Wiggum to cancel the show, but he convinces her that Homer will be safe, explaining that the opera house is under total surveillance. Later, while Homer performs on stage, Marge and the kids remain on the lookout for Julia. Bart spots her disguised as the conductor and Marge watches in horror as Julia loads a poison dart into her conductor’s baton. Just as Julia prepares to use her baton, Marge grabs a French horn and uses it to redirect the dart back at Julia. Upon being hit by the dart Julia falls to the ground and Chief Wiggum calls on his snipers to finish her off. Every bullet misses, except for one; a second later, the giant chandelier falls from the ceiling and crashes on top of Julia. Julia is wheeled into an ambulance, vowing to return. Homer and the family head for home and Homer announces that he is retiring from the opera and explains that he can think of a much more fun thing he can do while on his back: painting. It is shown then that he painted a version of the Sistine Chapel roof on the ceiling of his living room, with him as Adam and Marge as God. This makes Lisa oddly jealous. A classical operatic version of the Simpsons theme plays as the credits roll over a black background.[2]

Cultural references

The title is a reference to The Barber of Seville.[8] The church calls "Jesus: The Real American Idol".[8] Homer mentions Au Jus.[8] The Springfield Opera House resembles the Sydney Opera House.[8] Plácido Domingo claims his nickname is "P Dingo".[8] During Homer's first performance, the shot pans upwards, past all the scenery to Lenny and Carl in the rafters, who comment on Homer's performance, a reference to Citizen Kane. The pan also passes a large red sign saying 'L'amour' referring to Baz Luhrmanns' Moulin Rouge, another adaption of La Boheme, as well as to the director's own production of La Boheme which featured that sign as a scenery piece. Homer's entourage, Lenny and Carl, parody the series Entourage.[8] Lisa claims that tenor Andrea Bocelli recorded an entire song on his back, and demonstrated this technique on an episode of American Idol in 2006.[9] The stores the family pass by are pop-culture parodies.[10] Julia closing her eyes, revealing "Love You" on her eyelids parodies a similar scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.[11]

Reception

The episode originally gained 8.4 million viewers.[12] The episode was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for 2007, but lost to The Simpsons eighteenth season episode, "Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2".[12] Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a poor review (4.5/10), and found the plot contrived and found Homer's rendition of "If Ever I Would Leave You" unfunny. He did enjoy the episode's opening scenes in the church.[10] Richard Keller of TV Squad quotes he thought the episode was decent with several laughs. He praised voice actor Castellaneta's professional voice.[8]

References

  1. ^ Keller, Richard (2008). "Little Orphan Millie". AOL. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  2. ^ a b c "Homer gets a stalker on The Simpsons Sunday, September 30, on FOX". TVGuide. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
  3. ^ "The Homer of Seville". TV.com. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  4. ^ "Homer of Seville". The Simpsons.com. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  5. ^ a b "Homer becomes an Opera star, only to find himself the target of an obsessed fan on The Simpsons Sunday, September 30, on FOX". The Futon Critic. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
  6. ^ a b "Homer of Seville". Yahoo! Canada. Retrieved 2008-08-06. Cite error: The named reference "Yahoo" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ "2008 Writers Guild Awards Television & Radio Nominees Announced". Writers Guild of America. Retrieved 208-08-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g The Simpsons: Homer of Seville - TV Squad
  9. ^ "From 'American Idol' to Boston divo", The Boston Globe, June 11, 2006
  10. ^ a b "Homer the opera singer". IGN. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
  11. ^ Indiana Jones' greatest dilemma - Pro
  12. ^ a b Simpsons Channel | Your Source For Simpsons News
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