Apocalypse Cow

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For the character from
List of minor characters in The Tick
.

"Apocalypse Cow"
Max Pross
Chuck Sheetz
David Silverman
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The Simpsons season 19
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"Apocalypse Cow" is the seventeenth episode of the

Cletus, mistakenly believes it as a token for Mary's hand in marriage, and attempts to get the two married.[2]

It was written by Jeff Westbrook and directed by Nancy Kruse. 7.69 million viewers tuned into this episode.[3]

Plot

Martin Prince driving a combine harvester. Bart asks why someone like Martin would be driving a tractor, and Martin informs him he has joined 4-H
. Lured by the prospect of operating heavy machinery, Bart joins as well and quickly masters driving a tractor. Later, the 4-H volunteer introduces the members to a competition. Taking them to the calf pen, he informs them that they will each pick a calf and raise it over the summer, at the end of which the cattle will be judged at the county fair.

Bart is stuck with the runt of the litter, and is unable to trade it away. He soon meets Mary, and she encourages Bart not to give up in the competition. Bart agrees, and they rename the young bull Lou (previously Lulubelle). Throughout the following weeks, Bart takes good care of Lou and helps him become stronger, while also bonding with him and growing to love him. When the day of the competition arrives, Lou has matured into a large bull and is awarded the blue ribbon. Bart is ecstatic until Lisa informs him that the next step is to send Lou to a slaughterhouse.

Bart tries to convince Marge and Homer to buy the bull, but knowing by experience how expensive it is to care for a large animal, they refuse. That night, Bart hears mooing as he lies in bed and believes it to be a

Cletus Spuckler
is Mary's father.

Bart gives the cow to Mary, and Mary agrees to take it. Cletus then yells for

treated like a god. They save Homer from the slaughterhouse after a close shave, after which Homer vows to cut back on his meat eating, and Bart reflects with pride that he can finally say that, "I had a cow, man."[1]

Cultural references

Trans-Clown-O-Morphs

The episode's title is a reference to the film Apocalypse Now.[4]

"Trans-Clown-O-Morphs" is a parody of Transformers, complete with a cartoon opening reminiscent of actual 1980s cartoons.[4]

On the way to Shelbyville, Bart questions Homer's story about Dean Martin, as it does not match with his Wikipedia entry. Homer replies calmly, "Don't worry about Wikipedia, son. When we get back, we'll change it. We'll change a lot of things."

The scene in which Bart is driving the combine contains a theme song from The Comancheros.

The training of Lou punching meat is similar to a scene in Rocky.[4]

Spider Pig
makes an appearance in the episode, as a present at Bart and Mary's wedding.

Lisa plays a "The Anguished Animals III' CD by Tress MacNeille, MacNeille voices several Simpsons characters.

When Bart is combining, he goes over manure and creates DVD copies of Pirates of the Caribbean 3.[4]

The farming scenes music is from Aaron Copland's "The Red Pony (Copland) - Dream March". The music playing in the pre nuptial party is a yokel version of "Pachelbel's Canon", one of the most famous pieces of wedding music.

Marge stops the wedding just like she does in "Little Big Girl".

When Bart says goodbye to Lou at the airport, he used the same speech Rick said to Ilsa at the end of Casablanca; moreover, the music theme on this scene is "La Marseillaise".

Mary's middle name is WrestleMania.

Reception

7.7 million viewers tuned into this episode, higher than the previous three episodes.[3]

Richard Keller of TV Squad thought of the episode as another decent installment in the Simpsons like other Bart and Lisa centric episodes. He thought "it was unfortunate that these kinds of episodes couldn't have dispersed more evenly throughout the season", and that "episodes that center around Bart and Lisa tend to be more interesting...because those characters have more dimensions, and their diverse personalities and passions there is more to explore about them." He also thought of "the idea of Bart being put into a nature-related environment was unnatural like putting

Academy Award-nominated film."[4]

Robert Canning of IGN also enjoyed the episode. Although he mentioned that the episode's plot had already been done numerous times, he enjoyed the unique way in which it was told and was surprised by some of the plot elements, such as Bart being forced to marry Mary. He gave the episode 7.5 out of 10.[5]

In a 2008 interview, Matt Groening named the episode his favorite of the series, citing the part with Homer in the slaughterhouse as the scene he liked best.[6]

Writers Guild of America Award in the animation category for writing the episode.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "Primetime Listings (April 20 - April 27)". FoxFlash. April 4, 2008. Archived from the original on April 7, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
  2. ^ Snierson, Dan (January 25, 2008). "Zooey Deschanel, Glenn Close to guest on 'The Simpsons'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  3. ^ a b "Ratings: Apocalypse Cow". Simpsons Channel. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008.
  4. ^
    TV Squad. Archived
    from the original on May 1, 2008. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
  5. ^ Canning, Robert. "The Simpsons: "Apocalypse Cow" Review". IGN.com. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
  6. ^ Topel, Fred (June 10, 2008). "Interview with the Creators of The Simpsons". Crave Online. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
  7. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (February 7, 2009). "'Milk,' 'Slumdog' top WGA Awards". Variety. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2009.

External links

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