The Real Housewives of Fat Tony

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"The Real Housewives of Fat Tony"
Couch gag
The couch and the family are on the cover of a VHS video which is inside an abandoned rental store called "Million Dollar Video." The store (and everything inside it) gets demolished.
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Great Simpsina" 		Next →
"Homer Scissorhands"
The Simpsons season 22
List of episodes

"The Real Housewives of Fat Tony" is the nineteenth episode of the

truffles, which leads Lisa
to attest to her growing greed for eating truffles.

This episode was written by Dick Blasucci, and directed by Lance Kramer. The episode was met with a mixed to negative response from television critics, with much criticism going to the cultural references and the main storyline. It garnered a 2.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The episode featured a guest appearance from Joe Mantegna, as well as several recurring voice actors and actresses for the series.

Plot

DMV, much to her discontent. She makes several sarcastic remarks towards Fat Tony and refuses to let him submit a change of address (initially due to him submitting the wrong form, and then refusing to let him hold his position while he retrieves the correct form), enraging him in the process. This prompts him to order his local mafia to abduct and kidnap her. They set her up for interrogation at an abandoned warehouse, in which she shoots out more sarcastic remarks, and when asked which body part she wants cut off first, requests liposuction. Fat Tony falls in love with her humor and grants her request. Afterwards, the couple begin a romantic relationship and on a boat off the coast of New Jersey
, Fat Tony proposes to Selma. She agrees to the proposal, and they end up getting married.

During the

comare and conclude that he is cheating on her with another woman
, so they tell Selma about this. Selma confronts Fat Tony about the claims, just as another woman abruptly crashes into his yard, claiming to be his real wife, with a ring with a larger diamond on it than Selma's. Fat Tony then confesses to Selma that he initially proposed to her to be his comare and their wedding ceremony reflected such intents. Selma declares that she is done trying to settle down with the right man, just before being insulted by Fat Tony's wife. This triggers into a full-blown fight between the ladies, while Homer sneaks off with Marge, admitting that she was right all along, and they make out in the tanning machine.

Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa are walking in the forest when Bart sniffs out a truffle. After she explains to him that truffles are prized gourmet foods, Bart finds another and both realize he can find them by smell. After talking with Luigi about the truffles for Luigi's restaurant where he offers to pay them for any more truffles found, Lisa then uses Bart to find more truffles. Eventually, when they cannot find truffles, Lisa blinds Bart in order to keep him focused. He ends up sniffing out a truffle in Lisa's bedroom. Instead of selling them as planned before, Lisa has been eating them, bored by her own vegetarian food. They feel sorry for Luigi's pig, Plopper, who did not get to eat any, so give him the last one that Lisa had. The pig then proves this was a bad idea by going berserk and tearing through Luigi's restaurant to eat more of them.

Production

Joe Mantegna made a guest appearance on the show, reprising his role as Fat Tony.

"The Real Housewives of Fat Tony" first aired on May 1, 2011 in the United States.[1] This episode was directed by Lance Kramer who last directed a Simpsons episode in the season twenty-one episode, "To Surveil with Love."[2] It was written by Dick Blasucci, in his first episode of the series.[3][4]

This episode featured a guest appearances from

Patty and Selma Bouvier
.

Reception

“The Real Housewives of Fat Tony” mainly focused on Selma’s marriage to Fat Tony [...]. This gave the show’s writers every opportunity to make a series of tired jokes about

Italian-American
stereotypes. I guess I should be thankful that they didn’t waste more time poking fun of the Jersey Shore’s cast or, worse still, that they didn’t invite the cast of that obnoxious show to play themselves. The show’s writers have gotten so lazy that I didn’t even bat an eye when they busted out a joke about how all the light fixtures in Fat Tony’s mansion had tanning bulbs installed in them."

—Simon Abrams of The A.V. Club, on "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony"[6]

Viewing figures

The episode was first broadcast on May 1, 2011, and it was viewed by 6.109 million viewers upon its original airing.

breaking news coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden.[9]

Critical response

The episode was met with a mixed to negative response from television critics.

Ariel Ponywether of Firefox News was negative about the sub-plot. She felt that it was a decent episode, noting that it was "funny, but not that much."[10] Ponywether ultimately gave the episode a 'B+' grade.[10]

Eric Hochberger of TV Fanatic gave it a 2.5 out of 5 stars, as he gave much criticism to the main plot of the episode.[11] He deemed it as a "mediocre version of Jersey Shore."[11] Hochberger also expressed discontentment for the sub-plot of the episode, stating that it "didn't tie in at all with the main storyline."[11] In his review for this episode, he harshly criticized the jokes featured in the episode. He opined: "While I'm usually a fan of the mob boss jokes that Fat Tony's appearances bring, they've pretty much been beaten to death by this show. Plus, this has been the second weak Fat Tony episode this season after the terrible "Donnie Fatso." Maybe it's time to retire this character from headlining episodes until the writers come up with a story worthy of telling."[11]

Simon Abrams of The A.V. Club reacted negatively to the episode, giving it a 'C' grade.[6] He criticized the writer's capabilities of writing as in his opinion, that they are not funny.[6] However, Abrams was more positive on the subplot, saying that it was decent.[6]

References

  1. ^ "The Simpsons - Episode Guide - MSN TV". MSN. Archived from the original on August 29, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  2. ^ "To Surveil with Love". The Simpsons. Season 21. Episode 20. May 1, 2011. Fox.
  3. ^ "The Simpsons: Cast & Details". TV Guide. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
  4. ^ "Dick Blasucci". TV Guide. May 1, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
  5. ^ "Donnie Fatso". The Simpsons. Season 22. Episode 9. December 12, 2010. Fox.
  6. ^
    Onion, Inc.
    Retrieved May 7, 2011.
  7. ^ a b Gorman, Bill (May 2, 2011). "TV Ratings Sunday: Bin Laden News Scrambles Ratings, But ABC Likely Tops The Night". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on May 3, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  8. ^ Gorman, Bill (April 11, 2011). "TV Ratings Sunday: 'Cleveland Show' Up; 'Family Guy' Stable; As 'Brothers & Sisters,' 'Celebrity Apprentice,' 'Secret Millionaire,' 'Simpsons,' 'American Dad' Fall - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on April 14, 2011. Retrieved April 16, 2011.
  9. ^ Rowe, Douglas J. (May 2, 2011). "Ratings: Bin Laden Coverage Skews Figures; Desperate Housewives Tops Viewership". TV Guide. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  10. ^ a b Ponywether, Ariel (May 3, 2011). "Review -- The Simpsons: "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony"". Firefox News. Archived from the original on April 14, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2011.
  11. ^ a b c d Hochberger, Eric (May 2, 2011). "The Simpsons Review: "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony"". TV Fanatic. Retrieved May 7, 2011.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Real_Housewives_of_Fat_Tony&oldid=1216737698"