First, we have American Dad, which has been moved to 7:30 ET, instead of its usual 9:30 ET slot. In "Stanny-boy and Frantastic" Stan and Francine decide they need to befriend a couple. They eventually meet an alcoholic/adrenaline-addicted couple. The couple is younger than them, and lamented hanging out with a previous couple in their 40s, and Stan and Francine decide to lie their true age, and the fact they have kids. The couple eventually wears them out, with the constant benders, and risky activities, including parquor (amazing sequence). Stan and Francine decide to slow them down by ruining their contraceptives. The couple break up, so it's up to Stan and Francine to get them back together. Meanwhile, Roger and Steve order a cotton candy gun (yes, it's exactly what you think) they see on TV, only to get it, and see that it doesn't work. They call the company and are put on hold for a number of days.
This episode had a lot of funny moments, and I was surprised to not find a cringe moment. Some hilarious moments include.
Cirque de Solei Moon Frye.
Cirque de Hey Hey Hey (a tribute to What's Happening)
Stan and Francine coming home drunk, and the morning after.
The parquor scene.
Stan and Francine enter carrying a vacuum cleaner and a hanger, after their new friends break up after getting pregnant. "I know what we have to do, clean up all these clothes first, and then get them back together.
Believe it or not, "Homer the Father" was a strong episode this season. This season has been ridden with a lot of Lisa episodes, that annoy the hell out of me, so this was a welcome change of pace. As always, Bart episodes are usually the better ones. Plus, it was nice to see Homer take a departure from "Homer the Jerk," and trying to be a good father. In this episode, Homer starts watching a TV-land-like TV channel, and becomes addicted to "Thicker than Waters," a parody of almost every 80s family sitcom--overall it seems to parody the Cosby Show (with the sweater the father wears) and Growing Pains. Homer decides to emulate the father on the show by wearing his sweater, and trying to actually be a good father--which upsets Bart, who wants a new bike. After studying and getting good grades, Homer doesn't give Bart his bike, saying to Bart that getting good grades is a reward. Bart then decides to take advantage of Homer's carelessness at the nuclear power plant by offering nuclear secrets to the international community for a bike. Enter the CIA, or the Chinese Intelligence in America, who accept Bart's offer. Bart ends up spending a lot of time with Homer, and manages to get the nuclear secrets, and his new bike, but Homer ends up rewarding Bart for being so nice to him lately, by giving him the same bike. Will Bart take the nuclear secrets back?
Funny parts:
Anytime Homer watches "Thicker than Waters," or any of the related shows on the retro TV channel, including a cross between "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and "ALF," and what looks like to be a parody of "Doogie Hauser" except it's a girl, and she's a Supreme Court Justice.
The behind the scenes special on "Thicker than Waters," which shows the actor playing the father, who apparantly is a British, well-trained actor, swearing immensely and belittling the script of the show. He then hands it to the writer and swears at him. The writer, who is revealed to be a young David Mamet (played by Mamet himself) saying "crap... hmmm...." and begins writing something new.
Bart seeing the cool bike in the bike store window, and exclaiming, "I think I just saw what I'm going to die on."
The chalkboard gag: "Prince is not the son of Martin Luther King."--quick note, even if a Simpsons episode isn't funny, the chalk gag always will be.
The Chinese threatening Bart with toys--that were made in China.
Bob's Burgers isn't for everyone. If you are familiar, like me, with the works of Loren Bouchard (Home Movies, etc.) H. John Benjamin and his frequent collaborators, then you'd like Bob's Burgers. Tonight's episode was pretty good. Bob, about to cook his 10,000th burger (I think, I suck at memorizing numbers), becomes the subject of a documentary about the beef industry. Randy, the documentarian, puts a steer, that they glued a wig on and named "Moo-lissa", outside Bob's restaurant. Bob eventually bonds with the cow, and begins to feel guilty. Meanwhile, Bob's oldest daughter, Tina, believes that the cow is communicating to her through its excrement shaped like emotion-cons. Louise, Bob's youngest, most sadistic daughter, decides to take advantage of this. As well, Bob's son, Gene, tries to get his music on the documentary's soundtrack.
Funny moments
Gene's "music" for the soundtrack, which is a MIDI-like track played on his tiny electric piano, that ends with a dog woofing.
Louise is friggin hillarious.
Great performances from H John Benjamin (Bob), Eugene Mirman (Gene), and Kristin Schaal (Louise). Louise is probably the best part of the show for me.
The dramatic chord that plays throughout the episode, sometimes in inappropriate places.
Gene: This is the best dream I ever had. Let's pee on the floor, everybody!
Bob and Randy teaming up to rescue Moolissa from a petting zoo "We'll do it in infa-red!"
Stuff that didn't work:
Mainly the deadpan tone throughout the show--this doesn't work for people who aren't familiar with the works of Loren Bouchard. But, Kristin Schaal's non-deadpan-ness balances it out.
Scatological references--some people hate them, and there are loads of them in this episode.
This was going to be the highlight of my evening--"The Hand that Rocks the Wheelchair." An episode of Family Guy in which next-door neighbor Bonnie goes out of town, and asks Meg to check up on her paraplegic husband, Joe, and her new daughter, Susie. Usually Meg gets a couple of episodes every season (in contrast to the Peter/Stewie/Lois/Brian dominance for the rest of the episodes), and this was one of them. Hopefully, it would have taken advantage of Meg's voice actress, Mila Kunis's, dramatic, and Golden Globe nominated performance in "Black Swan"--great movie, by the way-- and given her a good episode. But, unfortunately, this episode was pushed back (I think for the second time) and "Brian Writes a Bestseller" aired instead. Despite Meg's unpopularity on the show, she has a pretty decent-sized fanbase, so I'm pretty sure they're upset. This has happened before with other episodes of Family Guy. Either what happened was Fox decided to take it out of the line-up last minute, because they thought the episode was too obscene (which, is a cruddy move, considering there were promos airing for it, and the executives or whoever is in charge of deciding if the episode is decent enough, had plenty of time to watch it), or Family Guy's number one enemy, the Parents Television Council, caught wind of the plot early on, and decided to file a complaint with the FCC. The conservative Parents Television Council, has been known to be particularly prejudice towards the liberal Seth Macfarlane, and berate his shows constantly. As well, more than one of their campaigns has resulted in an episode of a TV show they deem inappropriate not airing. The PTC is often hypocritical as well, declaring themselves non-biased, yet purposely targeting liberal and progressive media (the members also work on several other anti-liberal media groups, targeting "liberal biases"). But the PTC usually files complaints after the show airs. Either way, I'm not the only one pissed, and I'm hoping it still airs.
Cleveland used to be a really sweet guy, until he got his own spin-off. Then, in the spirit of other fathers on Fox animated TV shows, he became an a-hole. Compared to the other Macfarlane shows on Fox, Cleveland Show falls dead-last, Family Guy has had a hit-and-miss season, and, despite the fact that Bush isn't in office, American Dad has had a relatively strong season. There were only a few good jokes in tonight's episode, in which Tim the Bear becomes Cleveland's new boss at the cable company, mainly involving the fact that Tim the Bear is afraid of forests, despite being a bear, Rallo messing with Cleveland Jr with the class turtle he (Rallo) had to take home for the weekend, and Rallo finding out the truth about class pets. I wish they'd give the characters more dimension. Cleveland Jr, Tim the Bear and Arianna, and Kendra Crinklesack (the fat woman on the Rascal) have some dimension, so an episode focusing on Tim the Bear, like this one, usually is slightly better. So far the funniest thing that happened on the entire run of the Cleveland Show was Cleveland Jr taking vengeance on his father, and giving him and his friends non-alcoholic beer, causing them to fight.
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