To Cur with Love

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"To Cur with Love"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 24
Episode 8
Directed by Steven Dean Moore
Written by Carolyn Omine
Featured music"Me and My Arrow" by Harry Nilsson
Production codeRABF01
Original air dateDecember 16, 2012 (2012-12-16)
Episode chronology
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"To Cur with Love" is the eighth episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons . The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Carolyn Omine. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 16, 2012.

Contents

Plot

During an event in downtown Springfield, Professor Frink demonstrates a new invention that he soon loses control of, resulting in the destruction of the Springfield Retirement Castle. This results in Grampa moving in with the Simpsons. Meanwhile, Homer discovers an app game called "Villageville" on his MyPad, which involves constructing a village. His immediate addiction to it causes him to ignore Santa's Little Helper and lead to the dog's sudden disappearance. After minutes of searching, they eventually find Santa's Little Helper hidden in a pantry shelf below the sink. Lisa and Bart realize Homer has not paid any attention to the dog all the time. When Homer states that he does not get along with Santa's Little Helper because he is not a "dog person," Grampa mentions about another dog named Bongo, which upsets Homer. It is revealed that Bongo was Homer's childhood dog and best friend (along with Harry Nilsson singing Me and My Arrow from the cartoon The Point, which the animation also imitates, with cross-hatch shading and a more angular style).

Grampa soon reveals that during a kid's fundraiser Mr. Burns was hosting, Burns insulted Homer and Bongo attacked him in retaliation. Hugely upset, Burns demands that Grandpa turn Bongo over to him so that he can have the dog killed. To save Bongo's life, Grandpa sent him to a farm upstate run by a woman named Ms. Viola, but Homer was devastated, leaving Grandpa to suffer both his son's anger and Burns' making him take on a terrible job and awful wardrobe as punishment for not sacrificing Bongo. Back in the present, Homer has still resented Grampa to this day, realizing he will never see Bongo or that Bongo will never remember his old friend. Grampa then shows Homer a picture of an older Bongo resting on an old sweatshirt Homer gave to Bongo when the dog was left to Ms. Viola, proving that Bongo still remembers him. Homer tries to deny the truth but eventually bursts into tears when he realizes that Grandpa did something noble and suffered badly for it, and he immediately makes amends with his father and spends the following night sleeping on the couch with him and Santa's Little Helper, dreaming about himself walking with Santa's Little Helper alongside a younger Homer with Bongo, Burns with his dogs, and Krusty with a gorilla that was the predecessor of Mr. Teeny.

At the end of the episode, Mr. Burns has a sad (for him) conversation with Smithers where they concede that Mitt Romney lost the 2012 Presidential election, and then explains the fiscal cliff in his own words.

Production

The episode was paired with the short, Montgomery Burns Explains the "Fiscal Cliff" which aired as the tag scene for the episode before the closing credits. [1] The scene was released twelve days earlier on YouTube to address the economic situation at the time. [2] [3]

Cultural references

Homer plays the video game Villageville, which is a parody of the game FarmVille . [1] "Me and My Arrow" by Harry Nilsson plays over the montage of Homer and Bongo bonding.

Reception

Ratings

The episode was watched by a total of 3.77 million viewers, which was Fox's most watched show of the night. [4] Fox repeated "To Cur with Love" in the 8:30 PM timeslot one week later. [5] The repeat was watched by 4.89 million viewers with a 2.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This made it the 3rd most watched show in the Animation Domination line up that night. [6]

Critical reception

Robert David Sullivan from The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, saying, "This is another trip to the past—without many period trappings to chuckle over—that feels like marking time." [1]

Jasper Goodheart from ShowWatcher wrote "Not a hugely funny episode, but certainly a good one to watch if you want something your Family Guys and South Parks can’t do anywhere near as well as The Simpsons: Make you feel for these characters." [7]

Teresa Lopez of TV Fanatic gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars. She enjoyed the story of Homer and Bongo and its use to tell origin stories for other characters. However, she dislikes the inconsistency of Grampa's status and his relationship with Homer. [8]

Jen Johnson of Den of Geek liked the dog story, but would have preferred more of a Christmas theme. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grampa Simpson</span> Recurring character in The Simpsons

Abraham Jebediah "Abe" Simpson II, better known as Grampa Simpson, is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He made his first appearance in the episode entitled "Grandpa and the Kids", a one-minute Simpsons short on The Tracey Ullman Show, before the debut of the television show in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa's Little Helper</span> Dog in The Simpsons animated TV series

Santa's Little Helper is a fictional dog in the American animated television series The Simpsons. He is the pet greyhound of the Simpson family. He was previously voiced by Frank Welker, and is currently voiced by Dan Castellaneta. The dog was introduced in the first episode of the show, the 1989 Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which his owner abandons him for finishing last in a greyhound race. Homer Simpson and his son Bart, who are at the race track in hope of winning some money for Christmas presents, see this and decide to adopt the dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire</span> 1st episode of the 1st season of The Simpsons

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" is the series premiere of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Fox in the United States on December 17, 1989. Introducing the Simpson family into half-hour television in this episode, Bart Simpson disobediently gets a tattoo without the permission of his parents. After Marge spends all the family's holiday budget on having it removed, Homer learns that his boss is not giving employees Christmas bonuses, and takes a job as a shopping mall Santa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bongo Comics</span> Defunct American comic book publisher

Bongo Comics Group was a comic book publishing company founded in 1993 by Matt Groening along with Steve & Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison. It published comics related to the animated television series The Simpsons and Futurama, as well as the SpongeBob SquarePants comics, along with original material. The company was named after Bongo, a rabbit character in Groening's comic strip Life in Hell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simpson family</span> Family of five fictional characters in animation series The Simpsons

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Sullivan, Robert David (December 17, 2012). "The Simpsons: "To Cur With Love"". The A.V. Club . Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ Ramsey, Nick (December 4, 2012). "'Excellent': Simpsons' Mr. Burns explains the fiscal cliff". NBC News . Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  3. ↑ Hsu, Tiffany (December 5, 2012). "Alan Simpson and Mr. Burns from 'The Simpsons' talk fiscal cliff". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  4. ↑ Kondolojy, Amanda (December 18, 2012). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'Bob's Burgers' and 'Bachelorette' Special Adjusted Up, 'The Simpsons' Adjusted Down + Unscrambled Football". TV by the Numbers . Archived from the original on December 21, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  5. ↑ "(SI-2401) "To Cur With Love" (Repeat)". The Futon Critic . Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  6. ↑ Bibel, Sara (December 27, 2012). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'American Dad' Adjusted Up Plus Final Football Numbers". TV by the Numbers . Archived from the original on December 31, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  7. ↑ Goodheart, Jasper (December 19, 2012). "The Simpsons "To Cur with Love" Review". ShowWatcher. Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  8. ↑ Lopez, Teresa (December 16, 2012). "The Simpsons Review: Bongo was His Name-O". TV Fanatic. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  9. ↑ Johnson, Jen (December 19, 2012). "The Simpsons, Season 24, Episode 8: To Cur with Love, Review". Den of Geek . Retrieved August 12, 2023.
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