if you don’t watch violence, you’ll never get desensitised

Colonel Homer

I will not conduct my own fire drills

Director: Mark Kirkland

First appearance of:
Lurleen Lumpkin

Guest Voice:
Beverley D’Angelo as Lurleen

Synopsis: After fighting with Marge, Homer heads to a redneck bar and discovers a singing waitress named Lurleen. He agrees to be her manager, however her failure means the Simpson family is broke and her success means Homer is always away from his family. Lurleen asks Homer to “bunk with her” and Homer refuses, selling her contract and going home to Marge.

Discussion: Homer and Marge’s marriage isn’t perfect. This is one of those things that add to the show’s realism and lead it away from the cartoonish iconography we’re used to. In this episode, Homer manages a country singer who, amazingly, has the hots for him. Maybe she’s attracted to married men, maybe she’s attracted to power… or maybe she has a fetish for overweight and balding men. Who knows? In any case, she doesn’t hide this crush and Marge notices. Homer is 100% faithful to his wife and gives up his new career to be with his family. Lurleen is young, pretty and talented and has the goods to go a very long way with her career, but Homer chooses to be with his family instead.

You know, when this ep first aired, I had no idea Beverley D’Angelo was the voice. I knew her from the National Lampoon movies and here she’s (surprisingly) perfectly cast. Wikipedia tells me that she even wrote two of Lurleen’s songs and performed them herself! It’s really great to see this kind of diversity in a guest role and should be encouraged.

Country music isn’t really my thing, however the songs in the episode are catchy. I don’t find myself singing them to my bowling ball though…