Rome-old and Juli-eh

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Rome-old and Juli-eh
episode_no = 393


image_caption = Grampa and Selma's wedding.
prod_code = JABF08
airdate = March 11, 2007
show runner = Al Jean
writer = Daniel Chun
director = Nancy Kruse
guest_star = Jane Kaczmarek as Judge Constance Harm
couch_gag = In a parody of the "Bonanza" opening, a map of frontier-era United States is burned out in the center, revealing the Simpsons on horseback as they gallop away.
season = 18 "Rome-old and Juli-eh" is the 15th episode of "The Simpsons"' eighteenth season, which was originally broadcast on March 11, 2007. It was written by Daniel Chun, and directed by Nancy Kruse. Jane Kaczmarek guest starred as her recurring character, Judge Constance Harm.

Plot

Homer Simpson surprises the family with a newly decorated basement, now a rec room with a pinball machine, a ping-pong table and other luxury items, prompting his wife Marge to ask how Homer could afford all this. He says he has a plan and in the next scene files for bankruptcy before Judge Constance Harm, believing that this will save him from paying his debts. Unfortunately, Judge Harm tells him that the bankruptcy laws have changed and under the new laws, he has to pay everything back. When looking though the family's expenses, Homer decides to save a lot of money by moving his father out of the retirement home and having him live with the family. The rec room now doubles as Grampa's room.

One night Homer and Marge go out, and they ask Abe to babysit. Not entirely trusting Abe's competence as a babysitter, Marge also asks her sister Selma Bouvier to come over and watch Abe watch the kids. During the evening, Abe and Selma end up kissing and eventually fall in love with each other, and are unaware that they are caught by Homer, much to his dismay (Ahh! A bear is eating my father! Selma then says, "I'm Selma, you idiot! This leads to Homer saying, "Ahh! A talking bear is eating my father!), as he wants his dad to end up old and lonely. Abe previously dated Selma's mother Jacqueline Bouvier in "Lady Bouvier's Lover". As is the case in this episode, Marge is happy with the arrangement while Homer is not. Patty is no happier than Homer and she enlists his help to break them up. Patty impersonates Selma and Homer dresses up as "Esteban de la Sexface", a Spanish lover-type, and the two arrange for Abe to catch them kissing. Their plan is foiled though, when the actual Selma comes by and catches them. Angry at being manipulated, Abe proposes to Selma. She accepts; they are married and move in together.

With Abe unable to find work, Selma is the sole breadwinner in the family, working hard in her new, more stressful job as department manager at the DMV. Abe, meanwhile, destroys their kitchen with his ignorance of how things work by misusing the appliances, causing a kitchen fire. This makes Selma realize that maybe love is not everything you need after all, and she dances with him one last time. They presumably divorce with Abe moving back to the retirement home and Selma moving back to her and Patty's room at Spinster Arms Apartments.

Kicked out of the rec room, Bart and Lisa order a lot of complimentary shipping boxes from the A.S.S. (American Shipping Services, not affiliated with the human ass), getting the idea from Ned Flanders, and builds a fort out of them. When the Sarcastic Man becomes angry and asks for them back, they refuse, whereupon he threatens to come back and get them by force. Bart and Lisa think he is bluffing, but in fact he comes back with an army of delivery men and women. Bart and Lisa put up a brave fight, first by releasing a barrage of cardboard tubes to trip the enemies, then using cardboard squares to throw like shuriken. The delivery men and women set up a siege ladder and Lisa wraps the lead man in tape and pushes the ladder down. They are aided by Nelson, who arrives unexpectedly to aid Lisa, who could have been hit by a barrage of cardboard arrows. He dives down with twin cardboard tubes and fends off a large number of delivery men and women, while one of the enemies flies overhead, upon a giant, red Fell Beast.

The army swarms while Bart uses a cardboard tube to shoot down enemies with bricks, beehives, egg cartons and Snowball II. The A.S.S. legion fails and flees, but the kids immediately lose interest in their fort and melt it with the garden hose.

Cultural references

*The title of this episode is a pun on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".
*To save gas, Homer says he's "Flintstoning" the car (cutting a hole in the floor so he can stick his legs through and push the car, as Fred Flintstone does, with the same sound effect but not the same efficiency). Homer also says "Yabba-Dabba-Do!".
*"Is She Really Going Out With Him?" by Joe Jackson plays during Selma and Grampa in love sequence.
*Bart exclaims, "Who knew guys in brown shirts could cause so much trouble?" in reference to the Nazi Brown Shirts.
*The battle sequence with Bart, Lisa, and the box salesmen uses "The Fields of the Pelennor," a portion of the score from the ', and the scene itself is a parody of the Battle of the Hornburg from ' and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from "". Lisa also references the movie when she says to Nelson "you've come to help us in our hour of need." One of the A.S.S. delivery men even flies a Fell beast like the Nazgûl. Lisa also says "So it begins" as the enemy attack begins, as King Théoden says before the Uruk-hai attack Helm's Deep.
*Lisa calls the box fort Boxingham Palace, a reference to Buckingham Palace.

Reception

This episode drew 8.98 million viewers on its first broadcast on Fox.Fact|date=December 2007

External links

* [http://www.tv.com/the-simpsons/rome-old-and-juli-eh/episode/914679/summary.html "Rome-old and Juli-eh"] at TV.com