Alan’s Blog of Monkey Bloginess

In 1987 “The Tracey Ullman Show” aired on a fledgling network called FOX. As bumpers to ease the show in and out of commercials, a short cartoon was produced. Conceived of by Matt Groening, “The Simpsons” quickly won over my 7 year old heart. I would stay up late Sunday nights to watch “The Tracey Ullman Show” with the hopes of catching “The Simpsons” bumpers. It’s not that I didn’t like the rest of the show, ’cause I did, just that “The Simpsons” were the highlight for me. The antics of the Simpsons family resonated with me, along with FOX’s other original program, “Married with Children”. FOX’s dysfunctional family trend was a great balance to NBC & the wholesome “The Cosby Show” (which I also watched and enjoyed).

Then in December of 1989, as if ol’ St. Nick wanted to reward me for having been the best little 9 year old boy in the world (I hadn’t), “The Simpsons” received their own half-hour show for Christmas with “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”. I anxiously awaiting the premiere, counting down the days more anxiously than Christmas morning itself. The day finally arrived and then more, even better news: what I thought was just a Christmas Special was actually the start of a regular series to begin in January 1990. Happy 10th Birthday to me! (”Bart the Genius” aired just 6 days before my birthday)

And thus it began. Here we are, over 22 years later and “The Simpsons” are in their 20th season having already been renewed to 22, and I am still a fan. To the right is a picture of me wearing my favorite t-shirt in 1990. That shirt disappeared one day, I never found out where it went. Presumably my mom threw it away as it was nothing more than technically a shirt after a couple years in that a halo of fabric kinda of wrapped itself around me. I had a plethora of Simpsons related merchandising from Bart Simpson dolls to stickers and posters. As I’ve gotten older, my Simpsons merchandising has simply matured. Instead of a simple t-shirt, I have a Pin-Pals bowling shirt and a Kwik-E-Mart shirt that button up to a Homer Simpson full-head rubber mask. Through gifts I’ve been given puzzles, card & board games, dolls & action figures, post cards, key chains, hula dancers, coasters, Magic 8 Balls … just about a little bit of everything. The one item I’ve always wanted and have never gotten: Simpsons Chess.

Now people may chime in with their idea on when the Simpsons have “jumped the shark”. As in the point in the shows history where it reached its apex of quality and signals that we are now on the slow decline of the show. While the show really experienced its heyday in the mid-to-late ’90s, it’s still managed to hold strong throughout the ’00s. And I’ve always contested anyways: even a bad episode of “The Simpsons” is still better the best episode of most other TV shows. As with a hometown sports team, I stick with the show through good episodes and the bad episodes, ride the low seasons along with the high seasons. In the end, the show still makes me laugh.

One of the greatest aspects of Stargate to me, though it dates the show, are the pop culture references. Particularly O’Neill’s love of “The Simpsons”. I’ve counted three “Simpsons” references in “Stargate SG-1″’s run and Wikipedia enlightens us on a couple more in one episode. I’ve previously blogged about some of them, so I dug up the old posts.

On March 25, 2004 I wrote about Season 4 Episode 10 “Beneath the Surface”:

I noticed a Simpsons reference in Stargate SG-1 tonight. In the episode, ‘Beneath the Surface’, O’Neill, Carter, Daniel, and Teal’c were on this other planet and had their memories replaced, and they were trying to remember their real lives. O’Neill, when remembering someone, says:

“I remember something. There was a man. He’s bald and wears a short-sleeved shirt, and somehow he’s very important to me.”

So far, it sounds like he’s talking about General Hammond, who is bald, wears short-sleeved shirts, and is his General. But, then adds:

“I think his name is Homer.”

On Sept. 17, 2004 I noticed in Season 1 Episode 21 “Within the Serpent’s Grasp”:

Last night, watching Stargate SG-1 on Sci-fi, they showed the “Within the Serpent’s Grasp” episode, and there was yet another Simpsons reference, by Jack O’Neill …

Daniel: (staring at a huge floating sphere) Teal’c, What is this?
Teal’c: It is a Goa’uld long range visual communication device. Somewhat like your television, only much further advanced.
Jack: Mmm… Goa’uld TV…

Though, when looking up the reference, it seems the original line was “Ya think it gets Showtime?”, but was changed by the Sci-fi channel.

In an homage to Homer’s propensity for saying “Mmm … [insert possibly edible object name here]“.

I had previously noticed but not noted in Season 6 Episode 4 “Frozen” this next “Simpsons” reference by Jack O’Neill. Jack and Teal’c are with Hammond in his office when there is an off world activation alarm:

O’Neill: D’oh!
Teal’c: What is it O’Neill?
O’Neill: I forgot to tape the Simpsons!
Teal’c looks unimpressed
O’Neill: It’s important to me!

Lastly, according to Wikipedia in the Season 8 Episodes 19 & 20 “Moebius”:

O’Neill’s last line in “Moebius”, “Close enough” is an homage to The Simpsons episode “Treehouse of Horror V” that involves Homer Simpson time traveling and unintentionally making numerous changes to history; upon returning to a timeline where his family has snake tongues but everything else is otherwise normal, he says “eh, close enough”. In the same SG-1 episode, the name of O’Neill’s boat is “Homer”. This is one of several references to The Simpsons on Stargate SG-1, all centered around O’Neill. Incidentally, in the brief shot of O’Neill boat showing the name, the font used is the same font used extensively in The Simpsons.

In the episode O’Neill had mentioned in a recording from an alternate timeline that his pond didn’t have fish in it, but in the reality that exists there are, in fact, fish in his pond. This prompts the “close enough” line.

Are there any other “Simpsons” references in Stargate episodes I may have missed? Let me know in the comments.