Rich Moore: Production-wise, the show hadn’t worked out how to achieve these bigger, more spectacular episodes. Meanwhile, Lanley's plans goes awry when the flight to Tahiti makes a brief unscheduled stop in North Haverbrook. "[28] In 2012, "Marge vs. the Monorail" was the second-place finisher in a Splitsider reader poll to decide on the best episode of any television sitcom, losing to the Community episode "Remedial Chaos Theory". Conan sold three script ideas at that meeting – his first meeting – and I don’t think anyone had ever done that, before or since. Marge suggests they use it to fix Main Street, but a smooth-talking stranger named Lyle Lanley convinces the townspeople into spending the money on a needless monorail... which is built from shoddy materials. He was always in a pleasant mood, always knew his lines and was no trouble. Marge vs. the Monorail With a script by Conan O’Brien – then an energetic young comedy writer – and meticulous yet joyful direction by Rich Moore – who subsequently won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature with Zootopia – the result is a wild ride, as charming conman Lyle Lanley convinces Springfield to spend $3 million on a monorail through the power of song alone. As Chief Wiggum and Mayor Quimby argue over who takes charge, Marge and Cobb contact Homer by radio and Cobb tells him he will need to find an anchor to stop the train.
It was just such a funny joke that we had to do it, but then that opened the door to more absurd jokes. The Last Airbender: 10 Worst Things Azula Did, Ranked, The Simpsons: 10 Classic Moments In "Marge Vs. My niche on the show in those days was to actually write the tunes to the songs. David Silverman: The shot of the monorail, where the camera zips by really fast, is really great. Travel back in time to check out the early roles of some of Hollywood's heavy hitters. Al and I just got to do the show, with the staff, that we wanted to do. I always think, ‘Well, that’s not fair. He then shows Marge the remnants of the town's monorail, which is now broken and in disrepair. I think I’m done!” It’s barely a song. Cobb explains that he was against the town's purchase of the monorail because he suspected that Lanley was a con-artist. "[21] In 2010, Michael Moran of The Times ranked the episode as the ninth best in the show's history. [1] Homer briefly serenades Marge in their bedroom with a line from the folk tune "The Riddle Song". The episode was written by Conan O'Brien and directed by Rich Moore. Conan O'Brien "I will not eat things for money." [2][3][8], Conan O'Brien conceived the idea when he saw a billboard in Los Angeles that just had the word "Monorail" on it, with no other details or explanation. She meets Sebastian Cobb, the engineer who designed Lanley's North Haverbrook monorail, who explains Lanley had embezzled construction funds through shoddy workmanship and materials, confirming that his monorail projects, including the Springfield one, are all scams. It's hard to know where to start dishing out the praise — Leonard Nimoy's guest appearance, the Monorail song, Marge's narration, the truck full of popcorn..."[1] Robert Canning of IGN strongly praised the episode, stating "It is by far one of the most loved episodes of The Simpsons and can safely be called a classic by any fan. It was the first time I’d seen it in 20 years and I went, ‘Holy crap, this thing’s good!’ On the big screen it doesn’t even play like a Simpsons episode, it plays like a movie. [33] When The Simpsons began streaming on Disney+ in 2019, former Simpsons writer and executive producer Bill Oakley named the episode as one of the best classic Simpsons episodes to watch on the service. While initial reactions were mixed, it’s now widely regarded as one of The Simpsons’ best-ever episodes. These are too complex.” Part of me is thinking, ‘We’re asking for a lot.’ But the artist, or even the kid, in me is thinking, ‘No, these are fucking awesome and we just have to figure out how to do them.’ I always leaned more that way, because I liked the ambitiousness of the episodes and where it took the show. Eating my lunch and my dinner in that room, and watching a bunch of relatively young men age quickly and put on weight. This is the episode that defines Springfield more than any other. The fact that we’re having this conversation, and the episode is held in as high regard as it is, I feel like I won that argument now. Josh Weinstein, Story Editor: Working with Conan was like watching a ten-hour episode of his show, every day, in the writers’ room. As a result, the staff went to Nimoy, who accepted. [34], Conversely, the episode was not initially well received by many fans of the show's earlier seasons, as it was a particularly absurd early example of the show taking a more joke-based cartoon approach to comedy, rather than the more realistic situational style of comedy it had employed in its first few years. Some first drafts require a lot of rewriting, but his first draft was excellent. He catches Marge and questions her about her reasons. Celebrating the Star Wars/Simpsons Connection", "The Simpsons Flashback: "Marge vs. the Monorail" Review", "The 10 greatest 'The Simpsons' episodes of all time", "The Simpsons: the five greatest episodes in the iconic show's history", "We Asked Experts for 10 of Their Most Memorable Simpsons Episodes of All Time", "And the Best Sitcom Episode of All Time Is…", "The 20 Best Simpsons Movie-Star Guest Spots", "Here's Conan O'Brien Performing 'The Monorail Song' At 'The Simpsons' Hollywood Bowl Show", The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family, Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation, So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show, Jimmy Guiffre and his Music Men Play The Music Man, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marge_vs._the_Monorail&oldid=983311655, Short description is different from Wikidata, Television episode articles with short description for single episodes, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Marge drives to the town of North Haverbrook, a previous purchaser of one of Lanley's monorails. We were nuts to get it right, or at least I was.
We can focus on Comic Book Guy. He was greatly influenced by Robert Preston’s character in The Music Man and a lot of it came from Phil Hartman [Voice Actor] too.
This is the episode that defines Springfield more than any other. Recurring guest star Phil Hartman provided the voice of Lyle Lanley, while Leonard Nimoy made a guest appearance in this episode. David Silverman: I don’t know if it was a dawning realisation or just an organic sense that the more that we expand, and the more that we invest in characters beyond the five Simpsons, the better it was for the show. I just bypassed the design team and gave the photos to the background layout artist, who was a friend of mine, Nancy Kruse. Directed by Rich Moore. We always tried to evoke them. Share Share Tweet Email. Rich Moore.
We all adored Star Trek and we all adored Spock. [7], Marge gets a job at the power plant and Mr. Burns falls in love with her, Southern California Rapid Transit District, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, "I Bent My Wookiee! We based it on something good. Episode Number Since the show has more than 600 episodes and its early seasons stand among the greatest television to ever hit the airwaves, there are a number of contenders for The Simpsons’ finest half-hour.
Instead, Marge finds the town desolate, and the monorail broken. [5] Homer's lines "I call the big one Bitey" and "Donuts, is there anything they can't do?" He even had that larger-than-life persona. It was worth all the pain to get it there. Josh Weinstein: In my mind it’s this episode that broke new territory. After damaging a large portion of the town—especially the already-derelict roads—the "M" catches on the giant doughnut of the Lard Lad Donut store's sign and the rope holds, stopping the monorail.