The Twisted World of Marge Simpson
From Simpsons Wiki
{{Infobox Simpsons episode | episode_name = The Twisted World of Marge Simpson | image = Image:Thetwistedworldofmargesimpson.png | image_caption = Homer and Marge hand out pretzels. | episode_no = 164 | prod_code = 4F08 | airdate = January 19, 1997 | show runner =
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"I am not licensed to do everything"[1] Josh Weinstein expressed his wish that the ideas had been changed to something more "fun", as both snacks have since "gone out of fashion".[2] The Fleet-A-Pita chef was an early version of the "Khlav-Kalash" man from "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson".[2] At the Expo, many of the franchises were based on real franchises and Get-rich-quick schemes.[2] In the scene where Homer is inspecting pretzels, there was originally a shot where he gave thumbs down to Maggie's pretzels.
The episode was written by Jennifer Crittenden who wrote four other episodes. Homer's line "yeah Homer's right" during the scene where the pretzel wagon arrives was ad-libbed by Dan Castellaneta.[2] In another scene, Cletus calls for his many children to come out of the house; the names of which were all "trendy names from the nineties".[2] The 1997 Pontiac Astro Wagon that Mr. Burns wins was designed to accurately resemble one.[2] The scene where Whitey Ford is knocked unconscious by the barrage of pretzels was animated so that Ford was not shown being hit. He is merely shown standing, pleading with the crowd, the camera then cuts to the commentators, and then cuts back to Ford laying on the ground.[2] The scene received a "huge" laugh at the animatic. The episode's final scene, the mob war, was conceived by Matt Groening as no one else could come up with an ending.
Cultural references
The scene in which the Springfield Mafia destroy all of the competition to "Pretzel Wagon" is based on a scene from Goodfellas. Frank Ormand's "you'll be there" speech mirrors that of Tom Joad at the conclusion of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.[1] Lemmon's portrayal of Frank Ormand is based on the character Shelley Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross, also played by Lemmon.[2] The character Gil Gunderson, who would not be introduced until the episode "Realty Bites", was also based on Levene.[3] Rumer and Scout, two of Cletus's children, are named after Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's children.[2]
Reception
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 clever, and rather unusual, idea for an episode that shows a frightening bitchiness beneath the middle-class veneer of smalltown businesswomen."[4] The scene with Cletus's children is one of two scenes from this episode that Josh Weinstein considers to be "classic", with the second being the sequence when the crowd throw their free pretzels onto the baseball field, knocking Whitey Ford unconscious.[2] The Ford scene was placed twenty-fourth on ESPN.com's list of the "Top 100 Simpsons sport moments", released in 2004. Greg Collins, the author of the list, added that "Every time it looks like a fight is about to start at a baseball game, I start quoting this scene.