"FOX Sunday Animation Block" Recap & Review

The Simpsons
King of the Hill
Family Guy
American Dad

Original Air Date: September 30, 2007

Jeff L. - TwoCents Staff Writer


The Homer of Seville:
The Simpsons beings this week with a nod to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch’s “Wall Street Journal” being better than ever on Bart’s chalkboard. The family races from church to find a restaurant with a short line but end up crashing a catered funeral. Homer ends up being a pallbearer and falls into the open grave, hurting his back. At the hospital he finds out that laying on his back his organs align perfectly to give him a perfect operatic singing voice. Homer serenades the hospital where Mr. Burns overhears his singing and offers him the lead in La Bohéme which he performs while lying on his back. Homer contributes to the culture of Springfield which he says makes up for him showing up drunk to the father/daughter dance (which isn’t until next week). “Sorry, Lisa. You can’t change the future.” Placido Domingo praises Homer’s singing and Lenny and Carl go all Entourage. Homer even lands himself a stalker (Maya Rudolph) who ends up trying to kill him after he spurns her advances. The action culminates at Homer’s The Barber of Seville where his stalker plays maestro and tries to shoot Homer with a poison dart. Marge saves the day with little help from the Springfield police and their snipers and his stalker winds up in the hospital. Homer retires from opera to spend time on his back painting the roof of the house to look like the Sistine Chapel. 3 out of 5 stars.

Bobby Rae:
King of Hill finds Bobby enjoying the sugar high he gets from the six new soda machines at Tom Landry Middle School. It seems the teachers are using the machines to raise money for an all inclusive trip to Cancun. Bobby realizes that carbonated beverages are the closest thing he has to a girlfriend and seeks advice from Hank. Hank tells him that if he wants to find a date he needs to talk to girls and find out what they are interested in. There are some funny moments in the lunch room, where a rejected Bobby and his root beer end up sitting with the outcast kids. One of the kids tells Bobby that the high fructose corn syrup he’s drinking could be contributing to his not getting a date. He demands that the soda machines be removed. His protest is seen by a member of the school board, who makes the teachers stop selling soft drinks. The school board aren’t the only ones taking an interest in Bobby’s soda pop protest. He meets Olivia, a young journalist, who writes Bobby up as “The Boy Who Cares.” The teachers replace the vending machines with a news ticker that only advertises energy bars, which Bobby agrees to protest in order to land a date with Olivia. The teachers refuse to back down and Bobby leads a walk-out. The students look to Bobby for leadership, but he doesn’t know what to do. He leads them to Strickland Propane where Hank scares the kids into going back to school. Olivia runs off with one of the other kids because Bobby doesn’t have any passion. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Moving Out (Brian’s Song):
The show begins with Brian and Jillian (Drew Barrymore) and Stewie watching television. Brian ends up canceling a date to see Disney on Ice with Jillian, by pushing her off on Peter. Meg lands a job at the Quahog Mini Mart. Brian is enjoying his time away from the smothering Jillian and working on his novel “Faster than the Speed of Love” which according to Lois is just a rip off of Iron Eagle and it’s three sequels. Peter convinces Brain that he’s going to lose Jillian unless he takes the next step and moves in with her. He moves in with her and brings Stewie along to pay the bills since he took over Chris’ paper route since Chris has joined Meg working at the Mini-Mart. Jillian finds out that Brian can’t pay the bills and breaks up with him. Meg is having to do all the hard work at the store while Chris and the boss play Mr. Skin and she gets fired. Stewie tries to cheer Brian up with a party where Brian realizes that he wants to win back Jillian, but it’s too late. She’s moved in with Adam West. 3 out of 5 stars.

Vacation Goo:
Vacation Goo refers to the green goop in the CIA articial memory chambers that Stan uses every year for the Smith family “Vacation.” It turns out that all the happy vacation memories the family enjoys are all fake. Stan drugs them and watches college football while the family is on vacation. Francine demands a real vacation. Meanwhile, Roger the Alien is trying to become the greatest actor of all time, but cannot cry on cue. That doesn’t stop him from landing a part on a soap opera ala Tootsie. The family is enjoying their ski vacation until they realize that Steve has plopped the family into the goo to enjoy is own vacation away from the family. The men in this family can’t be trusted to plan a vacation so Francine and Haley plan a trip to Italy. This time it’s Haley who drugs the family and puts them in the memory chambers so she can enjoy some kinky alone time with Jeff. The family wakes up and Francine demands a real vacation. The Smiths embark on a cruise after convincing Francine that this time it’s for real. Stan shows her the memory chambers being returned to the CIA and they set sail for real. The cruise is too good to be real to Francine who thinks she MUST be back in the memory chamber goo and jumps off the cruise ship to try to prove it’s fake. Turns out it’s real and the family board a life boat along with Becky from the cruise ship to search for Francine. They find her and end up shipwrecked and hungry on an island where the locals are hunting them for sport. After being at sea for four days and trapped in a cave-in (which kills Becky) the Smiths become cannibals only to find out that the hunt was actually just Jimmy Buffet’s Most Dangerous Game Family Retreat and the hunters were just using paintballs. Meanwhile Roger quits the soap opera and through his trials and tribulations as a dancer/prostitute learns to cry on cue. When the Smiths return home they vow to never vacation for real again. As the show ends we see them hot air ballooning over the Grand Canyon drinking champagne and quick cut back the Smith family basement where they are all really in the goo. 3.5 out of 5 stars.