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VIII (Season 9, Episode 5, Aired October 26th, 1997)
You know, Season 9 had some pretty good episodes. “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”, “Lisa the Skeptic”, “Miracle on Evergreen Terrace”, “Trash of the Titans.” Even the much maligned “The Principal and the Pauper”. Just wanted to mention that.
Anyway, really funny stab (ha, ha) at Fox censors here (who in the 90’s were extremely strict, read about the production of Spider-Man: The Animated Series to see how strict), with some minor jabs at CBS and NBC. The rating killing the censor and going up from TV-G to “TV-666” is still a segment that’s talked about.
Anyway, the first segment, a parody of Richard Matheson’s short story “I Am Legend”, and its 1971 adaptation “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston, is appropriately called “The Homega Man”. (In doing background research, it’s interesting a lot of segments originated with Richard Matheson. Perhaps a testament to his influence on the horror genre). Another classic segment, with really good gags about a Gary Larson calendar, the French blowing up Springfield, Comic Book Guy saying he wasted his life before being blown up (honestly, my exact reaction), Homer’s entire reaction to the apocalypse (including him singing Edwin Starr’s “War” in an empty church, and watching I think Tommy Boy in a theater), him knocking down the Winter brothers. I’d list more gags, but you get the picture. Always a favorite on rewatch.
