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43-406: " Simpson Tide " is the nineteenth episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons . It originally aired on Fox in the United States on March 29, 1998. After being fired from the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant , Homer decides to join the U.S. Naval Reserve . The episode was the second and last to be written by Joshua Sternin and Jennifer Ventimilia and

86-604: A Nazi . The opening couch gag is a recreation of the Rocky and Bullwinkle animated bumper seen at the end of each Bullwinkle short. The music accompanying it is also adapted from the original music in the bumper. In the opening scene, Homer dreams of being on "the planet of the doughnuts" and on a criminal trial similar to that from the film Planet of the Apes . In a 2015 retrospective review, Kyle Ryan of The A.V. Club called "Simpson Tide" "the most '90s episode" of The Simpsons due to

129-498: A character in the film who was portrayed by Gene Hackman . Homer mentions that he and his friends joining the Navy is similar to The Deer Hunter , and the Russian roulette scene from the film is later parodied. A scene of Homer and the others having their hair shaved off, and the following scenes at a training camp, are inspired by Full Metal Jacket . Right before the submarine submerges,

172-496: A landslide. Initially, Homer is able is keep his promise, but he uses an entire year's budget in a month, causing the workers to go on strike, fearing they will not be paid. Homer makes a deal with neighboring towns to dump their trash in Springfield's abandoned mines to make money, but when the mines are filled, trash starts to burst out of the ground. The town is then forced to completely move five miles away. In terms of households,

215-551: A mall where every store is converted into a Starbucks ; Reiss said that some animators were unaware of the franchise at the time. Moe says that "blended mocha drinks and David Schwimmer " are "in". The USO Tour is headlined by Bob Hope and Cindy Crawford , while the Naval Reserve Tour has Bob Denver and Cindy Williams . Bart sings a portion of the song " Do the Bartman " and Ralph Wiggum comments that it "is so 1991", which

258-719: A number of contemporary references.A veteran says that he lost his eye in a drinking accident in Haiti; Operation Uphold Democracy was an American intervention in the Caribbean country in 1994. The naval recruiter refers to the recent passing of " Don't ask, don't tell ", and an official on Homer's court martial has been indicted in the Tailhook scandal . In his imagination, Homer exclaims Rodney King 's "Can't we all just get along?" quote. Homer believes he can switch off his light by clapping, despite not having The Clapper . Bart gets his ear pierced at

301-451: A standard rectangular cardboard box featuring Lisa with a backstage pass to a show at a club. The menus continue the same format from the previous four seasons, and the overall theme is various characters waiting in line at a club. Michael Carrington (voice actor) Carrington has also written for The Jamie Foxx Show , The Proud Family , and The Gregory Hines Show and did some voice work for The Critic and appeared in

344-519: Is picked to be the designated driver for that night at Moe's Tavern . However, Barney disappears for two months with the car, and returns without it. Homer searches for his car, and eventually receives a letter from the City of New York . The family is excited to go there to obtain the car, but Homer, who had had a bad experience in New York when he was younger, is reluctant. After reaching New York City, Homer sees

387-498: Is revealed to be an impostor when the real Principal, Sgt. Principal Skinner, shows up. The principal's real name is revealed to be Armin Tamzarian, an orphan from Capital City . Armin soon leaves to return to Capital City, and Sgt. Principal Skinner takes over as principal. However, many, including Agnes Skinner , soon decide they preferred the old Seymour. After persuading him to come back from Capital City to be Principal Skinner again,

430-563: The Berlin Wall rises from the ground, Soviet troops and tanks appear on the streets and a zombie-like Vladimir Lenin rises from his tomb in Moscow . Nuclear war is anticipated until the US Navy drops depth charges on Homer's submarine, aiming either to destroy it or force it to surface. The consequent explosion causes a pinhole leak in the submarine's hull, but Homer uses Bart's earring to plug

473-428: The first episode who had undergone much character development , was an impostor. The episode has been criticized by series creator Matt Groening , and by Skinner's voice actor Harry Shearer . In his 2004 book Planet Simpson , Chris Turner describes the episode as the "broadcast that marked [the] abrupt plunge" from The Simpsons ' "Golden Age", which he says began in the middle of the show's third season . He calls

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516-471: The season four episode " Homer's Triple Bypass " and voiced Sideshow Raheem in " I Love Lisa " in the same season. Bob Denver voices himself in the episode and was directed by Mike Reiss. Rod Steiger guest stars as the captain and was directed by Al Jean. Many parts of the episode, including the title, refer to the 1995 film Crimson Tide . The captain of the submarine is based on Captain Frank Ramsey,

559-625: The "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" award. Clausen was also nominated for "Outstanding Music Direction" and "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" for " Treehouse of Horror VIII ". Season nine was also nominated for a "Best Network Television Series" award by the Saturn Awards and "Best Sound Editing" for a Golden Reel Award . The Simpsons 9th Season DVD was released on December 19, 2006, in Region 1 , January 29, 2007, in Region 2 and March 21, 2007, in Region 4 . The DVD

602-529: The "show became stupid" in 1997, pointing to the episode as the bellwether. "Come again? A major character in a long-running series gets unmasked as a fraud? It was cheap, idle storytelling", he remarks. In a February 2006 article in The Star-Ledger , Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz cite the episode when asserting that the quality of The Simpsons "gets much spottier" in season nine. Alan Sepinwall observes in another Star-Ledger article, "[The episode]

645-535: The United States and Canada on December 19, 2006, eight years after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as every episode from the season, the DVD release features bonus material including deleted scenes , animatics , and commentaries for every episode. As with the two preceding seasons, the set was released in two different packagings: A "Collector's Edition" plastic packaging molded to look like Lisa's head, and

688-417: The biggest laugh comes from Homer being able to talk to penguins and Bart trying to impress his classmates by doing The Bartman." In his 2015 retrospective review for The A.V. Club , Kyle Ryan said that the episode deserves to be mentioned as part of the show's "golden era" for its frequent jokes, as well as a well-written structure despite its outlandish plot. He praised how Homer attempts to avoid trouble at

731-404: The bribe Chief Wiggum was asking for. Homer decides to allow the two carnies to stay at his home. The next day, the family goes to a glass bottom boat ride with the tickets Cooder gave them, only to discover their house has been taken over by the two carnies when they return. After brainstorming on how to get the house back, Homer decides to make Cooder a deal: If Homer can get a hula hoop around

774-470: The car parked near the World Trade Center , where he must wait by so that an officer can remove the wheel clamp . He is distracted from standing watch for the police when he has to go the bathroom, and causes him to miss the police officer. Homer gets angry and leaves the city with the clamp on. When a celebration is held at Springfield Elementary to honor his 20 years as principal, Principal Skinner

817-460: The drop-off actually was." On Rotten Tomatoes, the ninth season of The Simpsons has a 67% approval rating based on 6 critical reviews. The second episode of the ninth season, " The Principal and the Pauper " is often regarded as one of the most controversial episodes of the entire series. Many fans and critics reacted negatively to the revelation that Principal Skinner , a recurring character since

860-453: The ending of the episode inadvertently made you complicit in its viciousness. Ultimately, the citizens of Springfield decide to force things back to normal by tying the real Skinner to a departing train and legally declaring that Tamzarian's theft of an entire life is fine. And, well, yeah we as the viewers wanted things to go back to normal once the episode was over, but…this was just heartless." Homer allows Barney to use his car when Barney

903-622: The episode "[one of] the weakest episodes in Simpsons history", and adds, "A blatant, continuity-scrambling plot twist of this sort might've been forgivable if the result had been as funny or sharply satirical as the classics of the Golden Age, but alas it's emphatically not." Turner notes that the episode "still sports a couple of virtuoso gags", but says that such moments are limited. In July 2007, in an article in The Guardian , Ian Jones argues that

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946-448: The episode fifth on his list "Ten Times The Simpsons Jumped the Shark", calling it a "nonsensical meta-comedy" and arguing that it "seemed to betray the reality of the show itself". On the 25th anniversary of the episode airing, Fatherly looked back negatively at the episode, described the plot twist as the moment the show stopped being perfect, saying: "It wasn't funny, it was just mean, and

989-410: The episode is partly based on the film Crimson Tide , the original episode pitch was made before the film was released. After the release of the film, the writers decided to start incorporating things from the movie in the script. In the original draft, Bart sneaked on board the submarine with Homer. They were trying to do it "for the comedy of it", but could not get the draft to work, so it was cut. It

1032-452: The first broadcast season to include holdover episodes from two previous production seasons. Season nine won three Emmy Awards : " Trash of the Titans " for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour) in 1998, Hank Azaria won "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" for the voice of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon , and Alf Clausen and Ken Keeler won

1075-443: The house collects a huge amount of trash, Marge writes an apology letter to the sanitary commission, signing with Homer's name. However, Homer finds out and goes to city hall to rescind it. Following an angry meeting with the commissioner, Homer decides to run for his position. Homer's campaigning fails to win much support, until he promises the town that they will no longer need to do any garbage-related work. This causes Homer to win in

1118-423: The house's chimney, he can have his house back, but if he does not, he will sign the deed of the house to Cooder. However, the family fool the two carnies, and rush back into the house before the two can do anything. When Homer is unable to take all of his trash to the curb, barely missing the garbage truck , Homer insults the garbage men, leading the family to have their garbage collection service cut off. After

1161-592: The last episode Al Jean and Mike Reiss executive produced together, although Jean became showrunner again in season 13 . After Homer nearly causes the nuclear plant to go into meltdown by putting a doughnut into the reactor core to enlarge it, he is fired by Mr. Burns . While at home he sees a recruitment advertisement on television for the Naval Reserve and decides to enlist, with Moe , Barney , and Apu deciding to join him. Meanwhile, Bart purchases an earring , which an outraged Homer confiscates. Homer and

1204-449: The leak and saves the submarine. The vessel surfaces and Homer is taken to be court-martialed, but the officers on the review committee have themselves been indicted on unrelated charges, and Homer's punishment ends up being a mild dishonorable discharge . He immediately forgives Bart, as the earring saved his life. "Simpson Tide" was one of two season nine episodes that was executive produced by Al Jean and Mike Reiss , who together were

1247-489: The others are placed on a nuclear submarine . While participating in a military exercise, Homer unintentionally has the captain fired out of a torpedo tube and pilots the submarine into Russian waters, which is seen by the United States government as an attempt to defect. This event creates a political schism between the United States and Russia, with a Russian representative revealing that the Soviet Union never dissolved ;

1290-428: The prediction rumors by claiming that now 24-year-old gag was “very sad” and that “There is the kind of prediction, where we reference something that has happened, happening again — we hope it wouldn’t, but sadly, it does.” In its original broadcast, "Simpson Tide" finished 29th in ratings for the week of March 23–29, 1998, with a Nielsen rating of 9.2, equivalent to approximately 9.0 million viewing households. It

1333-450: The show ranked just outside the Top 30, coming in at No. 32 with a 9.3 household rating and a 15 percent audience share. However, in terms of total viewers, the show ranked within the Top 20, coming in at No. 18 for the season, (tying with Dateline Tuesday ) and being watched by an average of 15.3 million viewers per episode. The DVD boxset for season nine was released by 20th Century Fox in

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1376-455: The showrunners for the third and fourth seasons. Although Jean would later return to run the show from season 13 , it was the last episode for which Reiss received an executive producer credit. Joshua Sternin and Jennifer Ventimilia , the episode writers, were working on Jean and Reiss's show The Critic at the time, and pitched an episode where Homer joins the Naval Reserve. Although

1419-731: The song " In the Navy " is played and the Village People can be seen dancing. The Captain of the submarine is named Captain Tenille, a reference to the musical duo Captain & Tenille . When aboard the submarine, Homer refers to one of the crew members as Mr. Sulu , a reference to the Star Trek character. Grampa Simpson claims that he attacked John F. Kennedy on the PT-109 when Kennedy stated " Ich bin ein Berliner ", leading to Grampa mistaking him for

1462-910: The start and end of the episode by saying it was his first day. The Simpsons season 9 The ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 21, 1997 and May 17, 1998, beginning on Sunday, September 21, 1997, with " The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson ". Mike Scully served as showrunner for the ninth production season. The ninth broadcast season contained three episodes with 4F-series production codes, indicating that they were hold-over episodes from production season eight , and two episodes with 3G-series production codes, which are not explicitly confirmed to be part of any production season but are speculated to be relabeled 3F-series ( seventh production season ) episodes. This makes it

1505-452: The television series Martin and made appearances as the host of the first season of the children's game show Think Fast! and appears as one of the journalists in the film screened in the queue area of the theme park ride Space Mountain . He has been a writer and producer of That's So Raven . This article about an American screenwriter is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Simpsons -related article

1548-401: The townspeople send Sgt. Skinner out of town on a railroad. While the family is at a traveling carnival , Bart accidentally crashes Adolf Hitler 's car. To pay off the debts, Homer and Bart get jobs at the carnival by helping with the booths and exhibits, where they befriend Cooder and Spud, a father-and-son carny team. Homer causes their booth to get shut down, when he does not recognize

1591-442: Was difficult for them to figure out how to get the captain off of the sub and they eventually decided to have him shot out of the torpedo tube. In the DVD commentary, Al Jean says that Steiger claimed that he really did get stuck in a torpedo tube once, but the plot device was not related to his experience. The Navy drill instructor, along with the announcer to "Exploitation Theater", was voiced by Michael Carrington , who had written

1634-457: Was released in two different forms: a Lisa -shaped head, to match the Maggie , Homer and Marge shaped heads from the three previous DVD sets, and also a standard rectangular shaped box. Like the previous DVD sets, both versions are available for sale separately. This is the last season to feature the character Lionel Hutz , voiced by Phil Hartman . Following Hartman's death on May 28, 1998, Hutz

1677-551: Was retired along with Hartman's other recurring character Troy McClure ; his final speaking role as Hutz was five months earlier, in the episode " Realty Bites ", and has since occasionally appeared as a background character. The ninth season is considered by some fans and critics to be the end of the Golden Age of The Simpsons . Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club said: "From here on out, we're in The Simpsons' decline phase, though there's plenty of room to disagree just how stark

1720-509: Was so implausible that even the characters were disavowing it by the end of the episode." Jon Hein , who coined the term " jumping the shark " to refer to negative changes in television series, writes in Jump the Shark: TV Edition , "We finally spotted a fin at the start of the ninth season when Principal Skinner's true identity was revealed as Armin Tamzarian." James Greene of Nerve.com put

1763-458: Was the final episode directed by Milton Gray. It guest-starred Rod Steiger as Captain Tenille and Bob Denver as himself, with one-time The Simpsons writer Michael Carrington making an appearance as the Drill Sergeant. The episode makes many references to popular culture, especially contemporary culture, with its title and plot elements coming from the 1995 film Crimson Tide . This was

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1806-556: Was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files . Michael Schiffer , one of the writers of the film Crimson Tide , is said to have enjoyed this episode. Mike Reiss considers the sequence where Russia returns to being the Soviet Union to be "the nuttiest the show has ever been". 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 "a fairly straightforward episode where

1849-608: Was when the music video for the song was released. In 2014, it was alleged that the episode's Soviet Union revival joke predicted the recent Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, rumors began spreading that the joke also predicted that this war between Russia and Ukraine, both of which were previously part of the Soviet Union, would happen. In an interview with Hollywood Reporter , Simpsons showrunner Al Jean responded to

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