The Simpsons Season 21 Episode 9: Thursdays With Abie

At the water park with the family, Abe meets a journalist named Marshall Goldman. Goldman is interested of hearing Abe old stories, and Abe is happy that someone cares about his stories. Marshall publishes Abe's story in the Springfield Shopper, and Homer is shocked that other people find Abe's stories interesting. 

In his next story, Abe tells of giving a not-yet-famous Clark Gable a shoe shine at the Springfield railway station and lending him a copy of Gone with the Wind, but still remembers his anger at not being paid. Marshall writes up this story as well and Abe's fame grows. Homer decides to visit his father, but Abe tells him off, suggesting that Homer only wants to spend time with him now that he is famous. Marge tells Homer that is angry with himself for not having spent more time with his dad. 

Homer listens to Mr. Burns' story and writes his own column. He takes it to the Springfield Shopper (where it is quickly shredded). While at the newspaper office, Homer sneaks into Marshall's office and discovers a manuscript that Marshall intends to submit for a Pulitzer Prize. The manuscript states that Abe is dead and Homer realizes that Marshall intends to kill Abe. 

He rushes to the railway station, but arrives late. With the help of Lenny and Carl, Homer breaks through a window just as Marshall pulls out a gun. The two fight, but Abe pulls the emergency brake and Marshall is knocked out by a lots of boxes. Homer and his father trap Marshall and they reconcile.

Elsewhere, Bart gets Larry the Lamb, a stuffed sheep toy that each student in Mrs. Krabappel's room takes a turn caring for for the weekend. Bart resents the stuffed toy, so Lisa offers to take care of him. However, she accidentally loses Larry down a drain. Bart goes in to retrieve him, and is chased by sewer rats and sewer cats before finding Larry on a pipe. Bart uses Larry to slide to safety but the toy rips and Bart crashes through a grate to a beach.

My thoughts:

Couch Gag: Homer walks onto a metal circle, it actually is a pinball starter, and he started bouncing eventually going into Moe's. The rest of the family comes out eventually falling down and Maggie shortly comes up then comes back down.

Storyline: I liked the beginning of the episode with the waterpark. The background was nice, and the Slimu scene was funny. Under the radar joke: Lady Announcer: "Let's give a wet and wacky welcome to Springfield's oldest performing mollusk." Homer: "Get to the show!" Lady Anouncer: "This IS the show!" I loved that part.

Back to the plot, I think this was an alright episode starring Grampa Simpson. The main plot that featured him was nice, but it was bland and wasn't so engaging. I didn't like how the main plot ended up with that Marshall trying to kill Grampa; it just felt wierd and didn't make much sense. The humor were average, a few moments such as the gag with Homer's brain deleting his memory files and getting an error message which was the best joke and moment in the episode. Marge's photos and Carl/Lenny on top the train were also fuuny.

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?episode=s21e09

The B-plot was fine, it had a pretty decent start, and Lisa taking it along, but that’s where it lost its base, after she lost it. It was a great turn to see Bart actually holding more morality than Lisa this time. But Bart gets his sewer adventure and that was it… It just ended with the lamb being ripped in two after saving him. Oh well, I wished the B-plot had a resolution. Also, Nelson was annoying in this episode.

Overall, a mediocre episode, only a couple jokes stood out to me, and the B-plot was average.

My grade: C+