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In an episode parodying the process of TV comedy writing, we welcome back WGA writer Nick Wiger (also from the podcasts Doughboys and Get Played)! Bart and Lisa get hired to secretly write Itchy & Scratchy in a plot referencing Tiny Toons/the blacklist, all while Abe does the iggy. Meanwhile, Homer goes back to high school for a short time before a Ned Flanders adventure. Listen now to learn all the big changes and deleted scenes in this classic show!

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Galileo908

This was the exact opposite of “Brake My Wife, Please,” where I have clear memories of watching this when it aired 31 years ago. It’s probably the earliest episode I can remember watching. The Ned Flanders short killed six year old me, as did the scene of Grampa taking off his underwear without taking off his pants. I actually wrote “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” under my picture in quite a few yearbooks back in the day thanks to this episode.

Vance Jericho

You know what? I always thought The Front was kind of a mediocre episode (in comparison to the rest of the season), but after listening to this podcast, you guys are right, it's a pretty solid ep with some amazing jokes in it. Anyway, here's some absolutely fascinating trivia about this episode: 1) While bored during the PNW ice storm this year, I made an Excel listing the timeline of all known scripts (either from my own collection, the ones on archive.org, or the George Meyer script files). And one thing I noticed was that the first draft of this script was actually submitted relatively early in the season, in March (alongside Homer the Heretic, a Treehouse of Horror III segment, Lisa the Beauty Queen, and unsurprisingly, Krusty Gets Kancelled). Most scripts need maybe a few weeks to go from First Draft to Table, so I wonder if this was one of the problematic scripts Mike Reiss mentioned on one of the commentaries that Conan was assigned to rewrite. This is all assuming that entry from the George Meyer script files is correct, of course. 2) Now brace yourself, this may be one of THE most obscure bits of Simpsons trivia, but during the Ned Flanders segment at the end, the producers mistakenly left in a bit of sloppy audio editing. For at least the first airing, syndication, and Disney+ versions of this episode, after Todd says, "We're not going to church today", you can hear one of the producers (I think Mike Reiss again) start to say the word "church" before Ned starts talking. They apparently caught this for the DVD version and cleaned up the audio there. 3) One last bit of trivia: This wasn't mentioned on the commentary, but Sam Simon is the one whipping tomatoes at the end. So there you go. If Simpsons bar trivia starts asking some VERY obscure questions from "The Front", you'll be prepared.

bakarina

May I see this excel listing of the scripts' timelines?

Cody C.

During the first year I lived with my then girlfriend (now wife) I used to torment her every Saturday with different methods of transmitting the Ned Flanders short. I’d send voice notes, pre-load it on the TV, Emails, videos of our cat that would then cut to “we’re not going to church today”. It’s actually one of the fondest memories of our early time together - so yeah, this episode has given a lot.

deranged hermit

I’m only two minutes into this episode but makin copies guy at the Branch Davidian compound is such a grim memory

Ian Fermaglich

A possible explanation for the Krusty patch joke, George Beckerman was on my podcast and he told a story about being a writer on The Jackie Thomas Show with Adam Lapidus and playing tennis with Norm MacDonald, who was writing for Roseanne. Norm played the whole match with a cigarette in his mouth and took off his shirt and had nicotine patches all over his body

Rhomega

Speaking of movies that have a ton of production logos, check out the 2023 movie The Inventor, which has like 10 of them. I thought it was a good movie too.