Take My Life, Please
"Take My Life, Please" | ||
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Couch gag The Simpsons travel around the world and into outer space to find their couch. The new plasma television that displays the credits promptly falls off the wall. | | |
"Take My Life, Please" is the tenth episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 15, 2009. In the episode, Homer finds out that the class presidential election he lost in high school was rigged, and he gets the opportunity to find out what his life would have been like if he had become class president.
The episode was written by
Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics.
6.82 million people watched the episode, and coupled with an episode of King of the Hill, it won its hour in the 18–49 demographic.
Plot
A man named Vance Connor is inducted into the Springfield Wall of Fame, and Homer recounts how he ran against Vance for class president in high school and lost. Later, at
During a family dinner at Luigi's Restaurant,
Homer remains at home for the next couple of days. Marge convinces a reluctant Homer to take a walk with her to the Springfield Wall of Fame, where he learns that his name has been put up after Marge confronted Dondelinger and forced him to do the right thing. A boy then has his picture taken with him. Homer, now much happier, goes to a Korean restaurant that Bart says "sells beef that spells the date of your death".[1]
Production
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/DonPayneJuly08.jpg/220px-DonPayneJuly08.jpg)
"Take My Life, Please" was written by
Cultural references
When Marge takes Homer to the wall of fame for the second time, Homer says, "Is that why you brought me here, spirits?", a reference to
The songs "Rock the Boat" by The Hues Corporation and "Jive Talkin'" by the Bee Gees are played in the episode, while he selects "Colour My World" by Chicago as the class song.[5]
Reception
6.82 million people watched the episode. Coupled with
Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics.
Rene Rosa of UGO wrote: "When the self-referential jokes about the episode's switch to HD were the things that made me laugh the most, and they last only a few seconds, I realized something was not good. This may be 'The Sharpest. Episode. Ever.' but is definitely not the funniest. Still, there are some genuinely endearing bitter-sweet moments in the episode, [...] but still it's not enough to drive the show into the un-chartable funny waters that it used to live in."[8]
Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club wrote: "If it seems like there's a lot going on, that's because there is. The episode could have easily been just one thing—Homer deals with his Vance inferiority complex, or he sets out to discover the truth of the election from the former principal, or it could have been entirely a flashback episode. But instead, The Simpsons tries to do all three, one for each commercial break. The show has been around for 20 years; I would imagine that there would be plenty to mine from digging deep into a simpler story line for 19 minutes. Instead, 'Take My Life, Please' crushes under the weight of its bloated plot—not to mention that the overexplanation of jokes wasn't helping matters."[9]
IGN's Robert Canning thought it was a fun episode, and said that it "helped that the major flashbacks involved took place in a fantasy world as to not effect the whole of the show. But even in those flashbacks, the jokes stayed true to what we know of the series. Add to that the great new look of the series and you get a memorable episode from season twenty of The Simpsons."[10]
Erich Asperschlager of TV Verdict said he had always liked flashback and alternate future episodes, and he thought "Take My Life, Please" put them together in a "clever way". He added: "Maybe it's all the shiny newness, but I thought this was one of the best episodes this season. It took full advantage of the new widescreen format to cram in a ton of background detail and blink-and-you'll-miss-'em jokes. The finale dragged a bit, and they could have spent more time with the surreality of Homer's almost-the-same alternate past, but those are minor quibbles."[11]
Don Payne was nominated for a
References
- ^ a b c "Primetime Listings (February 8 - February 14)". FoxFlash. January 23, 2009. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
- ^ Adalian, Josef (February 12, 2009). "Sunday's 'Simpsons' Goes HD, Updates Title Sequence". TVWeek. Archived from the original on August 1, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
- ^ ""The Simpsons" now in high-def and new adequate intro". HDTV Total. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
- ^ Getlen, Larry (February 22, 2009). "Q&A: MATT GROENING". New York Post. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-00-738815-8.
- ^ Bates et al., p. 1024
- ^ Fienberg, Daniel (February 16, 2009). "TV Ratings: ABC splits sluggish Sunday with CBS". HitFix. Archived from the original on February 22, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ^ "The Simpsons In HD: "Take My Life, Please" Review". UGO. February 13, 2009. Archived from the original on February 17, 2009. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
- ^ Heisler, Steve (February 15, 2009). "Take My Life, Please". A.V. Club. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
- ^ Canning, Robert. "IGN: Take My Life, Please Review". Tv.ign.com. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
- ^ "The Simpsons 20.10: "Take My Life, Please"". TV Verdict. February 15, 2009. Archived from the original on February 19, 2009. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
- ^ "Winners Announced for 2010 Writers Guild Awards". Writers Guild of America. February 20, 2010. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Wikinews-logo.svg/40px-Wikinews-logo.svg.png)
- "Take My Life, Please" at IMDb