Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield
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"Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" is the 14th episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The title is an allusion to the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills.
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Plot
The family's TV breaks down (thanks to Grampa trying to fix it), and they go buy a new one at an outlet mall in Ogdenville. While the family is there, Marge sees a $90 Chanel suit (marked down from $2800). After some coaxing from Lisa, she buys it, and is wearing it at the Kwik-E-Mart when she meets an old high school acquaintance, Evelyn Peters, who invites her to the Springfield Country Club. Marge begins visiting the country club with the family, and works hard to fit in with the snobbish members, finding less time for her children and spending it all socializing and altering her suit to appear like multiple outfits.
Meanwhile, Homer takes a fondness to the game of golf, meeting PGA Tour pro Tom Kite, who considers Homer to be a natural. When he discovers Homer showing off his impressive skills in a bathroom at work, Mr. Burns has Waylon Smithers schedule a match for the two. Burns appears to be an amazing player before it is revealed that Smithers has been cheating on his behalf for decades by secretly placing a ball on the green for each shot, leading Burns to believe that he has reached the green himself. Homer wants to reveal the truth, but is told that Mr. Burns will block the family's Country Club entry if he goes public. He reluctantly obliges to keeping the secret.
On the eve of the gala ball in which the Simpsons will be granted membership in the country club, Marge accidentally destroys the suit when Lisa is distracting her, and rushes back to the outlet mall to find another dress. Being unable to find one, she heads to a Chanel store to purchase an expensive replacement. As they approach the country club, Marge realises how she has changed to fit in and decides that she wouldn't want to join a club that would have the fictional, snobbish Marge, anyway. (It is revealed in a cutaway scene that the country clubbers really did like them, and were really looking forward to their joining.) The Simpsons then have dinner instead at Krusty Burger, reveling in the lower-class surroundings.
Trivia
- Ogdenville was one of the towns that Lyle Lanley had sold a monorail to in "Marge vs. the Monorail".
- Due to legal issues, the Chanel-sign was never shown completely.
- This was the first Simpsons episode to have both a female writer and director.
- All the women in the club have normal names but the stress is on the wrong syllable, such as Su-San and Eliza-Beth.
- Maggie does not appear when the family buys the new television in Ogdenville.
Cultural references
- This episode features an appearance of the fictional electronics brands Panaphonics, Sorny and Magnetbox.
- Marge's Chanel suit is similar to the one Jackie Kennedy wore to Dallas when her husband was killed. Marge's mother is named Jacqueline Bouvier.
- Mr. Burns' having his assistant help him cheat at golf using new balls is a possible reference to Goldfinger, where the title character does the same.
- While Marge is vacuuming, there is a scene on television of an opera. The opera is clearly La Traviata, by Giuseppe Verdi. The aria being sung is called "Sempre Libera".
- After Homer steps on Krusty's head, Krusty mentions that his kind isn't welcomed at the country club, referring to his Jewish heritage.
- In the episode The Turtle and the Hare of Sex and the City, the grandmother of Carrie's friend Staford Blatch is wearing a sweater very similar to the top part of Marge's suit and is also a Chanel.