The Simpsons/Lisa the Greek

Lisa the Greek
Season 3, Episode 14
Airdate	January 23, 1992
Production Number	8F12
Written by	Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky
Directed by	Rich Moore
← 3x13 Radio Bart	3x15 → Homer Alone
The Simpsons — Season Three

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Lisa the Greek is the fourteenth episode of the third season of The Simpsons, and the forty-ninth episode overall.

The episode focuses on the relationship between father and daughter, Homer and Lisa, as they seek to bring their vast differences together. Here, football (and gambling) addict Homer, realizing Lisa is an expert at predicting winners, forms a bond with her to help him on Sundays, calling the day "Daddy-Daughter Day." But what happens when the Super Bowl is fast approaching and Homer declares an end to their special day?

Guest Stars:

Notes

Title Sequence

• Blackboard: none.
• Couch Gag: Homer accidentally sits on Santa's Little Helper.

Trivia

The Show

• In the fictional world of Springfield, the two teams in the Super Bowl were the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins, with the Redskins winning. When produced, the teams were not known, but – aired just days before Super Bowl XXVI – the teams and winner proved correct ... although Washington won by two touchdowns, instead of needing a last-second field goal to win. When re-aired in 1993 in time for Super Bowl XXVII, the voice track was redubbed to have Dallas defeat Washington; the Cowboys indeed defeated the Redskins, but the real-life game was a blowout, as the fictional version of the game used the same outcome as its previous airing (a field goal with time expiring). The episode would be redubbed several more times through the years, with varying results.

Allusions and References

• 1-900 numbers: Pay-per-minute services were increasingly shown to be consumer ripoffs in the early 1990s, and "The Coach's Hotline" – a phone service Homer calls in an attempt to help him improve his accuracy at betting on games – is an obvious example; the commercial, by a fast-talking "coach," promises one thing (bettors would get 100% accuracy on game outcomes) but it is clear just a few seconds in that the real goal is to keep callers on the line until the end of the game, when the outcome is known.
• Apocalypse Now: Homer gloating to Moe at winning big uses the line from the 1979 war drama starring Marlon Brando.
• Barbie: One of several episodes featuring Malibu Stacy, with most of the toys Homer bought her modeled after actual toys from Mattel's famous doll line.
• Bud Bowl: The Duff Bowl commercial that airs during halftime is a reference to Bud Bowl ads for Budweiser; as was the case with the Bud Bowl, the Duff football team easily beats its competition.
• The NFL Today:
  • Brent Gunsilman: The lead host of CBS's Inside Football Today, is based on Brent Musburger.
  • Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder: "Smooth" Jimmy Apollo is an expy.
  • The CGI opening sequence on Inside Football Today(a defensive back using a clothesline to decapitate the running back) is based on the sequence used by The NFL Today from 1983-1986 ... although no computer-generated players were harmed in the real-life version's opening.
  • Apollo's "Pick Of the Week" – and various other pre-game shows – was akin to real-life analysts and prognosticators selecting a game where the outcome was believed to be all but assured, that is, a "sure pick" because the winner was expected to win easily over a weaker opponent. The accuracy of the predictions varied, but by Apollo's admission, his was less than stellar. (Apollo picked Denver to beat New England, but the Patriots go on to an easy 55-10 victory over the Broncos.)
• Troy McClure's new sitcom, Handle With Care:
  • The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories: McClure admits part of the reason for agreeing to the new show was to make money to pay off past-due taxes, much like country music legend Willie Nelson recording and releasing said album to help settle $9 million in past-due taxes.
  • The Odd Couple: McClure refers to the concept as "the original Odd Couple, with roommates with differing personalities and styles, akin to the 1970s sitcom based on the Neil Simon play about a guy who was neat and a guy who was a slob.
  • Sitcom pilots: A recurring programming concept for many years, with networks often using the time slot immediately after the Super Bowl's post-game show to show either a pilot episode of a proposed series or the debut episode of one that has been picked up. Although the hope is often the audience will stay tuned, watch the new show and the show becomes a huge ratings success, actual results have varied, with most new shows lasting a short time – NBC's Brothers and Sisters, a sitcom set at a college and focusing on a group of students, was a famous example, having debuted after Super Bowl XIII – and very few becoming ratings successes (The A-Team, which also aired on NBC and debuted after Super Bowl XVII).
  • Switch: Handle With Care is a detective sitcom pairing a retired officer partnered with a reformed con artist, much like the lighthearted detective series from the mid-1970s starring Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner.
• Two Minute Warning: Bart, bored with an extended halftime show, refers to the 1976 thriller, where a SWAT team tries to stop a sniper from carrying out a mass shooting during a championship professional football game.

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