Marge vs. the Monorail

"Marge vs. the Monorail"
The Simpsons episode
Promotional artwork for "Marge vs. the Monorail".
Episode no.	71
Prod. code	9F10
Orig. airdate	January 14, 1993[1]
Show runner(s)	Al Jean & Mike Reiss
Written by	Conan O'Brien[2]
Directed by	Rich Moore[2]
Chalkboard gag	"I will not eat things for money"[3]
Couch gag	The Simpsons sit on the couch, followed by four rows of Springfield's residents sitting in front of the family.[2]
Guest star(s)	Phil Hartman as Lyle Lanley[2] Leonard Nimoy as himself[1]
DVD commentary	Matt Groening Al Jean Mike Reiss Rich Moore David Silverman Conan O'Brien (Easter Egg)
Season 4 September 24, 1992 – May 13, 1993 "Kamp Krusty" "A Streetcar Named Marge" "Homer the Heretic" "Lisa the Beauty Queen" "Treehouse of Horror III" "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" "Marge Gets a Job" "New Kid on the Block" "Mr. Plow" "Lisa's First Word" "Homer's Triple Bypass" "Marge vs. the Monorail" "Selma's Choice" "Brother from the Same Planet" "I Love Lisa" "Duffless" "Last Exit to Springfield" "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" "The Front" "Whacking Day" "Marge in Chains" "Krusty Gets Kancelled" List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23

"Marge vs. the Monorail" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons's fourth season and originally aired on January 14, 1993. The plot focuses around Springfield's purchase of a monorail from a conman, and Marge's dislike of the purchase. It was written by Conan O'Brien and directed by Rich Moore. Leonard Nimoy guest stars as himself and Phil Hartman guest stars as Lyle Lanley.

Plot

After being caught dumping nuclear waste in the city park by the EPA, Mr. Burns is fined $3 million. A town meeting is immediately held so that the citizens can decide what to spend the money on and Marge suggests that the city use the money to fix up Main Street, which is in poor condition. The town shows enthusiasm for this idea and is about to vote for it when suddenly a sleazy, silver-tongued, fast-talking gentleman named Lyle Lanley suggests that the town construct a city monorail. He leads them in a song, which convinces the town to buy the monorail.

Even though Lanley succeeds in winning over the entire town, including skeptical Lisa, Marge is unhappy with the purchase, believing that the monorail is unsafe. While watching TV, Homer sees an advertisement that suggests he become a monorail conductor, and Homer, claiming it to be a lifelong dream, immediately agrees. After a three-week course described by Lanley as "intensive," Homer is named the monorail conductor. Still feeling uneasy about the monorail, Marge decides to visit Lyle Lanley and discovers a notebook that reveals Lanley’s true intentions of running off with bags of money while everyone else falls victim to a faulty monorail. Marge immediately drives to North Haverbrook, which Lanley mentioned was a previous purchaser of one of his monorails. Once she arrives, Marge discovers that the town is in ruins, and that those still living there deny that they ever had a monorail, despite the fact that the town is covered in advertisements for it. While exploring, she meets Sebastian Cobb, the man who designed Lanley's monorail. He explains that Lanley cut costs everywhere when building it and that the entire thing is a scam.

At the maiden voyage of the monorail, all of Springfield has come out, including Leonard Nimoy. Lanley grabs his money and jumps in a taxi, which takes him to the airport. The monorail leaves just before Marge and Cobb arrive. At first things run smoothly, but the controls malfunction, causing the monorail to accelerate dangerously. Meanwhile, Lanley’s flight makes a brief unscheduled stop in North Haverbrook, where Lanley is immediately recognized and brutally beaten down by the locals. Back in Springfield, Cobb tells Homer that in order to stop the train, he needs to find an anchor. Homer grabs the giant "M" from the side of the monorail and uses it as an anchor. Eventually, it latches onto a giant doughnut, stopping the monorail and saving its passengers.^[1][3][4]

Production

The escalator to nowhere seen in the end. The three people are caricatures of (left to right) Rich Moore, Wes Archer and David Silverman^[5] The popsicle stick skyscraper and magnifying glass can also be seen in the background.

Conan O'Brien first pitched this episode at a story retreat - to Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who said the episode was a little crazy and thought he should try some other material first. Conan had previously pitched episodes where Lisa had a rival and where Marge gets a job at the Plant and Burns falls in love with her; both went well. James L. Brooks "absolutely loved" this episode when Conan presented it.^[6]

Casting

Leonard Nimoy was not originally considered for the role as the celebrity at the maiden voyage of the monorail, as the writing staff did not think he would accept, because William Shatner had previously turned the show down. Instead, George Takei was asked to guest star as he had done the show once before. After demanding several script changes,^[7] Takei declined, saying he did not want to make fun of public transportation as he was a member of the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District. As a result, the staff went to Nimoy, who accepted.^[6]

Cultural references

The episode starts with a tribute song to The Flintstones as Homer heads home from work and crashes his car into a chestnut tree.^[2] Later, Leonard Nimoy makes a guest appearance as himself. References are made to his role in Star Trek, and an allusion to his role as the host of In Search of... from 1976 to 1982. Kyle Darren, the caricature of Luke Perry star of Beverly Hills, 90210, appears as well.^[8] Mayor Quimby uses the phrase "May the Force be with you" from the Star Wars franchise, confusing it with Nimoy's work on Star Trek.^[9] Homer's Monorail conductor uniform is based on uniforms from Star Wars.^[5]

The episode is also a partial spoof of The Music Man, with "The Monorail Song" strongly resembling the Music Man's "Trouble" and with Lyle Lanley being a doppelganger for Harold Hill.^[2] When Mr. Burns is brought into the court room, he is restrained in the same way as Hannibal Lecter in the film The Silence of the Lambs.^[2]

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Marge vs. the Monorail" finished 30th in the ratings for the week of January 11 to January 17, 1993, with a Nielsen rating of 13.7.^[10] The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.^[10]

"Marge vs. the Monorail" has frequently been selected in lists of the show's best episodes. In 2003, Entertainment Weekly released a list of its Top 25 episodes, ranking this episode in fourth, saying "the episode has arguably the highest throwaway-gag-per-minute ratio of any Simpsons, and all of them are laugh-out-loud funny."^[11] In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner named the episode as being one of his five favorites.^[12] In 2006, IGN.com named the episode the best of the fourth season.^[13] John Orvted of Vanity Fair called it the third best episode of the show, due to, "An amazing musical number; Leonard Nimoy in a random guest appearance... Besides being replete with excellent jokes, this episode reveals the town's mob mentality and its collective lack of reason. This is the episode that defines Springfield more than any other."^[14] In 2010, Michael Moran of The Times ranked the episode as the ninth best in the show's history.^[15]

The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "an unsurpassed episode. It's hard to know where to start dishing out the praise - Leonard Nimoy's guest appearance, the Monorail song, Marge's narration, the truck full of popcorn..."^[2] Robert Canning of IGN strongly praised the episode, stating "It is by far one of the most loved episodes of The Simpsons and can safely be called a classic by any fan. From beginning to end, there's joke after joke after hilarious joke. There's nothing in this half-hour that doesn't work, and no matter how many times I watch this episode, it never, ever gets old."^[16] Todd VanDerWerff of Slant Magazine named it the show's best episode, stating "It's the one you think of when you think of a Simpsons episode," and is "maybe the show's funniest, and it most perfectly encapsulates what may be the show's overriding theme: People are really stupid and self-serving, but if you give them long enough, they'll eventually bumble toward the right answer."^[17]

Leonard Nimoy's appearance as himself has been praised as being one of the show's best guest appearances.^[7] In a list of the 25 greatest guest voices on the show, released September 5, 2006, IGN.com ranked Leonard Nimoy at 11th.^[18] Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked his performance as the 13th best guest appearance in the show's history.^[19] Nimoy would make a second guest appearance in season eight's "The Springfield Files".^[18]

O'Brien has said that of all the episodes of The Simpsons he wrote, this is his favorite.^[20] Homer's lines "I call the big one Bitey" and "doughnuts, is there anything they can't do?" are among series creator Matt Groening's favorite Simpsons lines.^[21]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Marge vs. the Monorail" The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on February 14, 2007
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Marge vs. the Monorail BBC.co.uk. Retrieved on February 14, 2007
3. ^ ^{a b} Martyn, Warren; Adrian Wood (2000). I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0495-2. 
4. ^ Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. p. 173. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Moore, Rich (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Jean, Al (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Reiss, Mike (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 
8. ^ Mullen, p. 74
9. ^ Scott Chernoff (2007-07-24). "I Bent My Wookiee! Celebrating the Star Wars/Simpsons Connection". Star Wars.com. http://www.starwars.com/community/news/media/f20070724/index.html?page=3. Retrieved 2011-08-28. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "NIELSEN RATINGS /JAN. 11-17". Long Beach Press-Telegram: p. C5. January 20, 1993. 
11. ^ The Family Dynamic EW.com. Retrieved on February 13, 2007
12. ^ Turner, Chris. Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. ISBN 0-679-31318-4. 
13. ^ The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes IGN.com. Retrieved on February 14, 2007
14. ^ John Orvted (2007-07-05). "Springfield's Best". Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/08/top10simpsons200708?currentPage=2. Retrieved 2007-07-13. 
15. ^ Moran, Michael (January 14, 2010). "The 10 best Simpsons episodes ever". The Times. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6988097.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1. Retrieved 2010-01-14. 
16. ^ Canning, Robert (2009-06-09). "The Simpsons Flashback: "Marge vs. the Monorail" Review". IGN. http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/992/992808p1.html. Retrieved 2011-09-08. 
17. ^ VanDerWerff, Todd (2007-08-01). "5 for the Day: The Simpsons". Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2007/08/5-for-the-day-the-simpsons/. Retrieved 2011-09-08. 
18. ^ ^{a b} Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances IGN.com
19. ^ Ditum, Nathan (March 29, 2009). "The 20 Best Simpsons Movie-Star Guest Spots". Total Film. http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the-20-best-simpsons-movie-star-guest-spots. Retrieved 2009-08-02. 
20. ^ O'Brien, Conan (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 
21. ^ Groening, Matt (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 

References

• Mullen, Megan (2004). "The Simpsons and Hanna-Barbera's Animation Legacy". In Alberti, John. Leaving Springfield. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814328490. http://books.google.com/books?id=n6vZJnxK1XYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Leaving+Springfield. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 

External links

The Simpsons portal

• "Marge vs. the Monorail" at The Simpsons.com
• "Marge vs. the Monorail" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Marge vs. the Monorail" at TV.com
• "Marge vs. the Monorail" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Marge vs. the Monorail" at BBC.co.uk