Trash of the Titans

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"Trash of the Titans" is the Emmy Award-winning twenty-second episode of The Simpsons' ninth season and the 200th overall. It originally aired on the FOX network on April 26, 1998.[1] It was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham, and directed by Jim Reardon.[1] It saw Steve Martin guest star as Ray Patterson,[1] and U2 as themselves,[1] although Larry Mullen doesn't say a word in the episode.[1] The band's head of Principal Management Paul McGuinness and Susie Smith, an employee of Principal Management also make brief appearances in the episode.[2]

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Linda McCartney.[1] She appeared alongside her husband Paul in the episode "Lisa the Vegetarian".

Contents

Plot

Image:U2simpsons.png
U2 at Moe's Tavern during "the Garbageman Can"

A local department store, Costington's, announces the formation of a new summer holiday intended to boost sales: Love Day. The Simpsons celebrate it, but the vast amount of packaging it produces causes the garbage to build up. When Homer eventually takes it out he is infuriated with the garbage men as they drive away without collecting the Simpson family's trash. He insults the men, and in response, the family's garbage service is cut off, leading to the Simpsons' garbage piling up on their front lawn. As the mess continues to grow, Marge tells Homer to apologize for the remark, but he insists on doing things his way.

Homer awakes one morning to find that the pile of trash at the front of the house has been removed and learns that Marge had wrote a letter of apology to the Springfield Sanitation Commissioner, forging Homer's name. In response, Homer goes to see the Sanitation Commissioner, Ray Patterson, demanding the apology to be returned. Patterson tries to be nice to Homer, but Homer insists on fighting, Eventually Homer decides that he will run for Sanitation Commissioner.

Homer begins to promote his campaign. It starts off badly with Homer being beaten up after interrupting a U2 concert, but picks up when Homer, after prompting from Moe, thinks of a slogan for his campaign: "Can't someone else do it?" Homer spreads his message to the town, which works, leading to his landside victory in the election. After being sworn in to the office, he shows what he plans to do by singing a parody of "The Candy Man"[3] entitled "The Garbageman".

However, fulfilling his promises proves quite costly and after Homer's mass spending spree, Mayor Quimby denounces him for spending the Sanitation Department's yearly budget in only a month, To solve the money problem Homer gets garbage companies from across America to put their excess rubbish in Springfield's abandoned mine shaft. The rest of the family warn Homer that this is endangering the town, but he does not listen. Eventually the garbage builds up underground and begins to erupt, pouring trash all over the town. At a town hall meeting Homer is booted out of his post and replaced with Ray Patterson, but Patterson declines reinstatement to the position, telling the town to clean up their own mess. Quimby then takes extreme measures by moving the entire town five miles down the road from its current site.[4]

Production

Image:Redfoxxtott.png
Ray Patterson leaves the stage to the Sanford and Son theme music, in the reference to the Redd Foxx incident.

As the episode is the 200th, at its first table reading David Mirkin joked that the show was "half way there."[5] At the time of the DVD commentary's recording the production team had "just done the 400th ("You Kent Always Say What You Want") about two weeks ago."[5]

The production team wanted the episode to be about trash,[3] and Mike Scully pitched the idea that Homer should run for office.[3] Ian Maxtone-Graham had a friend who had made their way in Chicago politics, through the Sanitation Commission, and so he decided that Homer should run for Sanitation Commissioner.[3] They then spent a lot of time trying to get to the point that Homer would have an "over filled trash can",[3] and through its extensive use of packaging the concept of Love Day was formed.[3] Originally the episode saw Homer running for Mayor, but this idea was abandoned.[5] The ending was talked about for a while, with the originally idea being that the whole town would be raised up and the rubbish be swept underneath.[5] The environmental message at the end wasn't intended, but it played well and is what the creators believe won the episode an Emmy.[3]

U2 contacted the show about doing a guest spot, rather than the other way around.[5] The writers immediately wrote them one, in case they changed their minds.[5]

The episode marked the first appearance of Costington's department store whose slogan is "Over a Century Without a Slogan". It took "a lot of wasted man-hours" to come up with the name and slogan.[6]

The scene where Ray Patterson is reinstated (to which he enters and exits to the Sanford and Son theme song) was a reference to a moment that occurred during a stand up show of comedian Redd Foxx (who starred on Sanford and Son). During a show in Vegas, Redd Foxx came on stage to the Sanford and Son theme song, only to find that there were very few people in the audience (though the exact number is unknown, between 8-12 people). Foxx angrily stated that he refused to do a show with such a small audience and walked off the stage. The house orchestra, puzzled by Foxx's leave simply played him off with the Sanford and Son theme song again.[7] The writers claim that the same incident was the basis for the joke in "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" where Moe walks onto the stage and, without breaking his stride, walks off.[8]

Reception

This episode won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) in 1998.[9] Jim Reardon won the Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production.[10] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "Although not a great episode, this one has a series of high points that keep you amused until the end."[1]

Screening at Toronto City Council

During Toronto City Council deliberations over the proposal to turn the abandoned Adams Mine in Northern Ontario into a massive dump site for Toronto's garbage, then-councillors Jack Layton and Olivia Chow surprised their council colleagues by playing "Trash of the Titans." "It was absolutely stunning," Layton later told The Globe and Mail. "It was so accurate to what was going on." Layton, subsequently leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, called The Simpsons "the single most important influence on progressive social commentary in the world." [11]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 {{
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  2. ↑ Template:Cite video
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Template:Cite video
  4. ↑ Template:Citeweb
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Template:Cite video
  6. ↑ Template:Cite video
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  8. ↑ Template:Cite video
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  11. ↑ Template:Citeweb

External links

Retrieved from "http://www.simpsonswiki.com/index.php/Trash_of_the_Titans"