"So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April Fools' Day, 1993. In the episode, Homer plays a series of practical jokes on Bart, and to get even, Bart shakes up a can of Homer's beer with a paint shaker. Homer opens the can, resulting in a huge explosion that lands him in the hospital, where he goes into a coma. At Homer's bedside, the Simpson family reminisce, mainly about moments relevant to Homer's life.
The episode was written by Jon Vitti, and directed by Carlos Baeza. This is The Simpsons first clip show, and it features clips from the first three seasons of the series. It was created to relieve the long hours put in by all of the show's overworked staff. The episode features cultural references to films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Fantastic Voyage.
The episode received positive reviews from critics. It was called "as good as a clip show ever gets" and acquired a Nielsen rating of 14.9.
Plot
On April Fools' Day, Homer plays multiple pranks on Bart, including blinding Bart with tape over his eyes and spoiling a milk carton by placing it near the radiator. Angered by the numerous tricks he has fallen for, Bart decides to get revenge. He shakes up a Duff beer can (using a paint shaker at a hardware store) and turns up the thermostat in the house, causing Homer to sweat and go to the fridge for the booby-trapped beer. When Homer opens the beer, its massive explosion puts him in the hospital, paralyzed and placed in a wheelchair. While everyone waits for Homer to get well, the family remembers surviving similar hardships, shown in the form of clips from past episodes.
At the hospital, Homer sees a candy machine and, trying to get chocolate, accidentally tips it on himself. The machine crushes him and puts him in a coma. Mr. Burns then tries to pull the plug on Homer's life support system, to save paying for his health insurance. As Homer lies unconscious in the hospital bed, Bart tearfully confesses that he was the one who put him in the hospital with his shaken beer can prank. Hearing this, Homer comes out of the coma and strangles Bart. Marge and the others are happy, seeing Homer behaving normally again. The episode ends with Homer, still under the assumption that it is April Fools' Day, trying to fool the family by saying he is taking them to Hawaii. However, Bart, Lisa, and Marge tell Homer that the current date is May 16, that Homer was in a coma for 7 weeks, and that he lost 5% of his brain as a result. The family laughs it off, although Homer is not sure why he is laughing.
Production
The episode originally aired on April Fools' Day, 1993 on the Fox network. It was directed by Carlos Baeza, and written by Jon Vitti with contributions from Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky, John Swartzwelder, Jeff Martin, George Meyer, and Nell Scovell. The idea for the 32 "D'oh!s"-in-a-row footage was from David Silverman's montage that he had assembled for his traveling college show.
"So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" was The Simpsons first clip show, created to relieve the long hours put in by all of the show's overworked staff. There was intense pressure on producers of the show to create extra episodes in each season and the plan was to make four clip shows per season to meet that limit. However, writers and producers felt that this many clip shows would alienate fans of the series. The Fox network's reasoning was that clip shows cost half of what a normal episode cost to produce, but they could sell syndication rights at full price. Despite the nature of the clip show, the episode still contained an act and a half of new animation, including the extra scene from "Bart the Daredevil" in which Homer falls down Springfield Gorge a second time after the ambulance crashes into a tree.
The network censors initially refused to let the phrase "beer causes rectal cancer" into the show. The censors eventually relented when they found a medical textbook which stated the link between beer and cancer, but still asked them to "go easy" on beer in the future.
Referenced clips
This flashback episode uses clips from episodes released during the first three seasons: four are from the first, five from the second, and six from the third season.