The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show

] Roy was originally conceived for the "Time and Punishment" segment of the season six episode "Treehouse of Horror V", living with the Simpsons in one of the alternate realities, as a second, teenage son in the family.] June Bellamy is a parody of voice actress June Foray.

Reception

This episode was placed twenty-third on "Entertainment Weekly"'s top 25 "The Simpsons" episodes list. [cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,417748_5,00.html|title=The Family Dynamic|accessdate=2007-03-12|date=2003-01-29|publisher=Entertainment Weekly] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book "I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide", praised "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", calling it "a very neat episode which, like "The Front", is a good parody of the cartooning business." In 2007, "Vanity Fair" named it the sixth best episode in the show's history, describing it as "a classic satire of network influence, obsessed TV fans, and programs that survive long after the shark has been jumped, the episode is a meta-celebration, a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to everyone who claimed that the quality of "The Simpsons" had declined over the years." [cite news | author = John Orvted | title = Springfield's Best | publisher = Vanity Fair | date = 2007-07-05 | url = http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/08/top10simpsons200708 | accessdate=2007-07-13] Todd Gilchrist called it a masterpiece, stating it "could easily be packaged and sold by [itself] ." [citeweb|url=http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/725/725343p1.html|title=The Simpsons - The Complete Eighth Season|accessdate=2007-07-31|author=Gilchrist, Todd|date=2006-08-14|IGN.com] "Planet Simpson" author Chris Turner describes the episode as "the most contentious and direct counterattack "The Simpsons" ever unleashed on its fans"Turner, pp. 297–299] and " [harsh] satire of the working world of big-time TV production". [Turner, p. 419] Robert Canning of IGN said it was "laugh-out-loud funny" and describing the introduction of Roy as "a hilarious parody of a classic, overused television device." [cite web|url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/883/883399p1.html|title=The Simpsons Flashback: "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" Review|author=Robert Canning |accessdate=2008-06-23|date=2008-06-23|publisher=IGN] Alan Sepinwall of "The Star Ledger", in a review printed two days after the episode originally aired, praised the writers for not airing a "very special" episode to celebrate the milestone of overtaking "The Flintstones". He noted " [the episode is] so self-aware it put the best in-jokes on "St. Elsewhere" to shame." [cite news|title='Simpsons' as slyly subversive as ever|accessdate=2008-06-24|date=1997-02-11|publisher="The Star Ledger"|page=43|author=Alan Sepinwall]

In its original American broadcast, "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" finished tied for 38th place in the weekly ratings for the week of February 3 - February 9, 1997 with a Nielsen rating of 8.8. It was the third highest rated show on the Fox Network that week. [cite news|title=PRIME-TIME RATINGS|date=February 12, 1997|accessdate=2008-06-24|page=F02|publisher="The Orange County Register"]

Comic Book Guy's phrase "Worst. Episode. Ever" was named as a quote that could be used in everyday life, as well as being one of the most popular quotes from the show, by The A.V. Club. [cite web|url=http://www.avclub.com/content/node/47756/2|title=Beyond "D'oh!": Simpsons Quotes For Everyday Use|author=Bahn, Christopher; Donna Bowman, Josh Modell, Noel Murray, Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, Kyle Ryan, Scott Tobias|date=2006-04-26|accessdate=2007-07-31|publisher=The A.V. Club]

Notes

References

*cite book | last=Alberti | first=John (ed.) | year=2003 | title=Leaving Springfield: 'The Simpsons' and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture | publisher=Wayne State University Press | id=ISBN 0-8143-2849-0
*cite book | last=Turner | first=Chris | title= |publisher=Random House of Canada |id=ISBN 0-679-31318-4

External links

* [http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/0814.htm "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"] episode page at The Simpsons.com
*Snpp capsule|4F12
* [http://www.tv.com/episode/1452/summary.html "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"] at TV.com
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701245/ "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"] at the Internet Movie Database