The Exact Moment The Simpsons Lost Us
Celebrity For Celebrity's Sake
Season ten’s fifth episode, When You Dish Upon A Star, follows Homer’s accidental discovery of Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, and Ron Howard (all playing themselves) holidaying on the remote outskirts of Springfield.
Although Homer initially convinces the trio to allow him to be their assistant, he soon blabs about their presence to the townspeople and falls out of favour with them. By the episode’s end, Homer has a court order banning him from being within 500 miles of any living or dead celebrity, whilst for Baldwin, Basinger, and Howard it’s back home to Hollywood where happy days are here again (sorry).
It’s a silly, funny premise, and one which Bart After Dark writer Richard Appel wrings some inspired laughs out of (Homer’s thwarted screenplay idea about a “killer robot driving instructor and his best friend, a talking pie” is a stand-out). It’s also an episode which operates on two assumptions: that viewers know who the celebrities in question are, and that they empathise with these celebrities as much as Homer.
Fabulously wealthy, powerful guest stars were nothing new on The Simpsons, but the show’s only mention of George HW Bush portrayed the president as a cranky, embarrassingly out-of-touch curmudgeon, whilst Bill Clinton’s appearance had him grin and admit “hey, I’m a pretty lousy president.”
The show was unafraid of pot shots and unimpressed with power, quick to side with the often ignorant and small-minded but genuinely well-meaning family, rather than an attention-grabbing guest star.
When Marge became a police officer she was not only horrified by the endemic corruption throughout the force, but had no answer when Lisa asked “but aren’t the police a protective force that maintains the status quo for the wealthy elite?”
In contrast, when billionaire emerald mine heir Elon Musk appeared on the series in 2015, the show rolled out the red carpet and fawned, never referencing any of his professional and personal scandals and controversies.
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