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park. He is forced to pay a $3 million fine (which to him is pocket change),
which leaves the people of Springfield to decide how to spend the money.
A town hall meeting ensues, at which slick con man Lyle Lanley (voiced
by Phil Hartman in a scene that recalls the film The Music Man) convinces
the citizenry to spend the money to build a new monorail—despite the fact
that they have no need for it and that the town’s existing infrastructure
is in a sad state of disrepair. The monorail is built and looks impressive,
though it may not be a good sign that Homer, always looking for an easy
gig, manages to land the job as the “conductor” of the high-tech train. It
also doesn’t look good when Homer discovers a family of possums living in
a compartment of the train. Suspicious, Marge travels to the town of North
Haverbrook, where Lanley built his last monorail. When she learns that the
project was dangerously unsafe and never actually worked, she rushes back
to Springfield to try to save Homer. Amid great media hoopla, the Springfield
Monorail is launched on its maiden voyage, with passengers including such
notables as Krusty the Clown and Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy (who serves as
grand marshal of the opening ceremonies, at which Mayor Quimby mistakes
him for one of the Little Rascals). Homer, with Bart at his side, cranks up
the train, which promptly goes out of control and seems unstoppable. All
aboard seem doomed, until Homer manages to stop the train through the
ludicrous expedient of dropping an anchor that lodges in a giant doughnut
that serves as the sign for a local doughnut shop.
While such episodes seem rather innocuous, The Simpsons has some-
times veered into controversial territory. For example, the irreverence of the
satire in The Simpsons has often brought the program in for criticism from
the Christian right. Thus, many felt that the episode “There’s Something
About Marrying”—in which Marge’s sister Patty admits to being a lesbian
and announces her intention to marry a lesbian pro golfer (who turns out
secretly to be a man, much to Patty’s chagrin)—endorsed lesbianism and
same-sex marriage. The Christian right has also frequently complained
about the representation of religion in The Simpsons, one of the few net-
work programs that has dared to tackle that topic, perhaps the most sen-
sitive in American culture. Religion is, in fact, a bigger part of the lives of
the Simpsons than of virtually any other family on network television. For
example, the Simpsons regularly go to church, even if they aren’t really all
that into it. In “Homer the Heretic” (October 8, 1992), Homer discovers how
Animation’s New Age: Meet The Simpsons
65
relaxing it is to stay home on Sundays when the rest of the family has gone
to church. So he decides to found his own religion, which requires him to
stay home and wallow in sloth every Sunday. Even God (a conventional,
deep-voiced, white-bearded man who comes to Homer in a dream) admits
that this lifestyle has a certain attraction. Then Homer’s house catches fire
while he is napping on one of his restful Sundays and he is saved only by
the intervention of his Christian neighbor Flanders, causing him to return
to the fold. In “Simpsons Bible Stories” (April 4, 1999), the Simpsons all fall
asleep in church and then have dreams that are fractured versions of well-
known biblical tales. They then emerge from the church, relieved to find
that it had all been a dream. Unfortunately, they inexplicably emerge into
the apocalypse. The Flanders family ascends to heaven, while the Simpsons
trudge down a stairway to hell. The apocalypse doesn’t hold, of course, and
Springfield is back to normal in the next episode.
In general, The Simpsons is quite moderate in its treatment of religion,
never quite daring the kind of biting religious satire that would eventually
mark such animated series as South Park and Family Guy. Nevertheless,
the program does sometimes explore potentially dangerous territory.
For example, the big problem with the Flanders family in “Home Sweet
Homediddly-Dum-Doodily” (and elsewhere) is their excessive religiosity.
Thus, as the episode draws to its mock-dramatic close, Homer must rush
to the Springfield river to rescue Bart and Lisa from being baptized in the
river by the overzealous Flanders—the baptism being treated as a horrifying
event. The very next week, in the episode “Bart Sells His Soul” (October 8,
1995), the Reverend Lovejoy attempts to terrorize the local children by mak-
ing them recite a graphic litany of the torments their souls will suffer in hell
if they misbehave. Later, Bart assures Milhouse that there is no such thing
as a soul, to which Milhouse responds by asking what religions would have
to gain by lying about such things. The episode then cuts immediately to a
scene of Rev. Lovejoy counting his cash. The implication that religions fab-
ricate their mythologies in order to extort money from believers could not
be more clear. On the other hand, as the episode proceeds, Bart mockingly
sells his soul to Milhouse, and then discovers that his life suddenly feels
empty and incomplete, suggesting either that the soul is real or that it is at
least a useful fiction.
Other episodes are even more skeptical about religion. In “HOM ,” the
momentarily intelligent Homer constructs an ironclad proof that God doesn’t
exist. He presents his findings to Flanders, who examines them carefully,
admits that Homer’s work is irrefutable, and then quickly burns the evidence
to prevent the fall of Christianity. In “Lisa the Skeptic” (November 23, 1997),
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Drawn to Television
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