| Season: | 19 |
| Episode: | 12 |
| Director: | Raymond S. Persi |
| Production: | KABF05 |
| Couch Gag: | Each family member rushes into the living room and attaches themselves to a giant-size baby mobile. |
| Commentary: | Matt Groening Al Jean Matt Selman Tim Long Tom Gammill Max Pross Raymond S. Persi Yeardley Smith |
| Prev: | That '90s Show |
| Next: | The Debarted |
"Love, Springfieldian Style" is the twelfth episode of the nineteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 17, 2008, three days after Valentine's Day. It includes three self-contained stories about romance. The three tales are parodies of Bonnie and Clyde, Lady and the Tramp and Sid and Nancy.[1]
The episode begins on a Valentine's Day afternoon. As a Valentine's Day treat, Homer takes Marge to a carnival, where they leave the kids in order to spend the day with one another in the Tunnel of Love. Inside, the two enjoy each other's company; however, Bart attempts to spoil his parents' happiness by filling the water with Jell-O, causing Homer and Marge's boat to stop. Trapped, Homer decides to pass time by telling Marge the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
In 1933, during the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker (Marge) rejects a man trying to get her attention (Cletus), saying she is looking for someone exciting. Clyde Barrow (Homer) then arrives, and after robbing a store (which he ironically co-owns with his father), the two run off. Clyde discovers Bonnie's passion is violence, and the two go on a crime spree by robbing banks.
After tricking a citizen (Flanders) into helping them, the two garner intense popularity across the country. The citizen they tricked soon realizes what had happened and betrays them to the police after learning they are an unmarried couple. The Texas officers soon arrive, and the police gun Bonnie and Clyde down. While being shot, Bonnie tells Clyde that she is looking for a man with more excitement, and that they would never have been together.
Back at the Tunnel of love, Bart and Lisa arrive at Homer and Marge's boat and want them to tell a child-friendly story. Marge tells the story of Shady and the Vamp.
Vamp (Marge) is a royal and luxurious female dog. Shady (Homer) is in love with Vamp and eyes her from a distance, vowing that he will win her. After Shady is trampled by a mob of children, Vamp comforts him, and he asks her out for dinner. The two go to Luigi's, where, after a romantic pasta dinner (Except for the part were Shady nearly swallows Vamp over a string of spaghetti), the two run off onto a hill when the health inspector comes. In the morning, Vamp wakes up with nauseous feelings, and Shady leaves her, claiming that a fox hunter is near, knowing she is actually pregnant.
In a musical number entitled "Any Minute Now" (featuring canine versions of Lenny, Carl and Barney backing up for Shady), the two dogs await for one another's return, though the cats living with a now-pregnant Vamp (Patty and Selma) convince her that Shady would never come back, whilst the dog who is friends with Shady (Moe) convinces him that he should stay with them rather than be "stuck" with Vamp and their puppies. Two of her puppies (Bart and Lisa) decide to go look for their father, and after being kidnapped by the dog catcher (Groundskeeper Willie), Shady arrives to save his children. Shady returns them home and reunites with Vamp, choosing to stay with her, but then Vamp informs Shady that there were actually nine other puppies in the litter (all of whom resemble Bart and Lisa with the exception of one, who resembles Maggie).
When Homer eventually gets bored with Marge's story, Bart tells the story of Sid and Nancy.
Nancy Spungen (Lisa), a young model student, walks into a rock concert by the Sex Pistols with her friend Milhouse, where she is enamored by the eccentric bassist, Sid Vicious (Nelson). After viewing him throw his bass at a fan at his concert, she decides to go after him. A chocolate dealer (Otto), who is in fact an undercover policeman and arrests Nancy's friend shortly afterwards, sells her a chocolate bar which she gives to Sid, who soon begins dating her. As shown in a montage, the two begin having their lives spiraled out of control while gaining a chocolate addiction. Sid soon begins ditching the Sex Pistols, angering lead singer Johnny Rotten (Bart) and guitarist Steve Jones (Jimbo).
Sid arrives in the middle of a performance after a major chocolate spree, and knocks into an amplifier which topples over and crushes their drummer, Paul Cook (Dolph). Nancy arrives to defend Sid, and informs the Pistols that Sid does not need them, and the two go off trying to sing a soft type of music, performing at CBGB (Comic Book Guy's Bar). When they are kicked out for playing music against everything that punk rock represents (which, according to the Comic Book Guy, is nothing), the two decide to go back to their addiction and kiss in the alley as garbage (emptied by Homer) rains down on them. Homer wishes everyone a Happy Valentine's Day and to "shut your gob."
This episode was first broadcast in the UK and Ireland on Sky1 on December 21, 2008 at 9.30pm. It was the second episode of The Simpsons to be broadcast after the watershed hour (after "Weekend at Burnsie's") because the adult content was deemed too strong to be shown before then. The Bonnie and Clyde story ends with Homer and Marge being shot multiple times, though they do not bleed or die. The Sid and Nancy story includes repeated use of the word "bollocks" by Bart as he sings, as well as depictions of Nelson and Lisa buying and consuming chocolate as if it were an illegal substance.
It has since been repeated on Channel 4, where it was heavily edited. The Bonnie and Clyde section ends just as the police begin firing at the car, missing Bonnie's final comments to Clyde. The Shady and the Vamp section cuts the scene where the Goofy-like character enters the gas chamber, although he is seen in the dog pound. The Sid and Nancy section was also edited in a way that was similar to the edits in the Sky1 broadcast.
7.81 million viewers watched this episode.
Richard Keller of TV Squad enjoyed the episode. He said that, "This time around they seemed to focus on the stories themselves rather than overload them with gags as they tend to do. The result were some pretty nice stories." His favorite was the second story.[2]