Helter Shelter

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Helter Shelter
episode_no = 296
prod_code = DABF21
airdate = December 1, 2002
show runner = Al Jean
writer = Brian Pollack & Mert Rich
director = Mark Kirkland
blackboard = "Milhouse did not test cootie positive."| couch_gag = In a parody of the MacIntosh paint program, Kid Pix, a mouse cursor drags Homer from the left side of the couch to the right, changes the wall color from pink to green, and replaces Marge's boat painting with the Mona Lisa.
guest_star = David Lander as Squiggy
Larry Holmes



image_caption = The Simpsons dressed up in their 1895 clothing ready for the show with Mitch Hartwell the producer in the background
season = 14
color = #EFEFEF

"Helter Shelter" is the fifth episode from the fourteenth season of "The Simpsons" that aired December 1, 2002. This was the last episode that was animated by traditional cel animation.

Plot

After Homer suffers a brain injury at work, Mr. Burns offers his family tickets in a luxury sky box at a hockey game as compensation. Lisa receives a player's hockey stick for shouting advice to him during the game. However, termites, which were living in the stick, end up eating away at the entire Simpson house. An exterminator says their house should be tented and fumigated, and they cannot return for six months. However, the family has no place to go. They tried to stay with Lenny and then Comic Book Guy but their apartments were too weird. At Moe's, their last resort, Barney and Carl inform the Simpsons about a reality show, where a family is put in a Victorian house, where they must live like it was the year 1895. Homer is reluctant at first, but then they go to the reality show.

At the studio, the executives screen many families and finally they settle on the Simpsons, after viewing Homer's overreactions over nothing. They are taken to the Victorian house and shown around by the Network Executive, who says that they will be filmed round the clock. The only thing of the 20th century there is a "Confessional Room", which is a small room with a video camera where they say what they feel about the lifestyle. The family struggles with all of the drastic changes in their daily life and are pretty miserable, much to the delight of the show's audience. Homer tries to lighten up the family, saying they should be glad on TV, and begin to conform to their new lives cheerily. This is not deemed as entertaining, however, and viewership begins to drop. In attempts to save the show, the executives decide to introduce Squiggy from "Laverne and Shirley" into the household. But even his presence (and that of a taser which he uses on Homer) does not boost the ratings. Finally, one of the executives comes up with an idea. The house is airlifted at night and put into a river.

The Simpsons are shocked to find what had happened the next morning, and the house finally washes up on shore and falls apart, with Squiggy in it. The network crew is filming it and loving the drama that unfolds. They then break for lunch, but deny the Simpsons any of it so they go to eat some bugs. Later on, the family is confronted by a bunch of savage-looking people, who turn out to be contestants in other reality shows, whom the network ditched after they failed in their tasks. They decide to overpower the crew and return to civilization. Together with the Simpsons, they attack the crew, overpowering them. Homer then tries to crush the helicopter with a giant boulder but he is pushed into the ground. Finally at home, Homer decides to watch scripted TV shows, as he has had it with reality shows, but the family finds more pleasure in watching him continually spraying himself in the eye with the hose.

Cultural references

* The title could be a play on the Beatles song "Helter Skelter", or merely a reference to helter skelters.
* The name on the back of the hockey player jersey who Lisa gives advice to is Kozlov, which is the name of an actual hockey player Viktor Kozlov, who currently plays in the NHL for the Washington Capitals
* The reality show the Simpsons end up on is a parody of the British reality show "The 1900 House".
* The scene where the Simpsons are waiting for time to fly by mirrors the opening sequence of "King of the Hill".
* "Law & Order: Elevator Inspectors Unit" is a reference to the TV show "Law & Order" and its various spin-offs.
* The label on the exterminator's van says "A Bug's Death", a reference to Pixar's "A Bug's Life".
* The piano number played throughout the sequences in the old house is "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, popularized by Marvin Hamlisch, who arranged a version of the rag for the movie "The Sting" that was also a hit single which reached #3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 music chart in 1974.
* In the confessional room, Bart expresses his disappointment with living in the 1895 house. He displays a "Mutt and Jeff" comic strip and berates it. "Mutt and Jeff", however, was created in 1907, and so should not be present in the 1895 house.
* Apu refuses to sell the Simpsons a package of Oreos, claiming they are from 1896, while Oreos were not actually introduced until 1912.