Singin' in the Lane

"Singin' in the Lane" is the seventh episode of the twenty-ninth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 625th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on November 19, 2017.

Plot

The family is enjoying their dinner when Mr. Burns calls Homer Simpson to invite him at the basketball game, after running through an insanely long list of people (both Springfield residents and celebrities) who declined to spend time with him. Homer accepts, wanting to bring his friends. At Moe's Tavern, Homer invites Lenny, Carl, and Barney Gumble, but excludes Moe Szyslak, as Homer only has four tickets, leaving Moe bereft and teary-eyed.

Back at the Tavern after the game, the regretful Homer and his friends decide to reform the Pin Pals bowling team with Moe as their captain. They become successful immediately and win a tournament that sends them to the state finals in Capital City, which takes place a fancy bowling building.

Their foes, the Fund Bunch, though having lost the first round, bully people, including Moe. To stop them from bullying, they make a wager:

• If the Fund Bunch win, they win the bar and Moe has to change his name.

• If the Pin Pals win, Moe will get something only a rich guy can have, though they find out how really good the rich guys are at bowling.

For revenge on the geeky guys, Lisa Simpson incites them to find the Fund Bunch's weak spots while Bart Simpson is trying the rich, snotty life. Marge tries to teach him that money isn't everything, with no success.

The final round is near, but Moe slips talking about Barney being bad when he's drunk and the Fund Bunch uses that trick to make him drunk so he'll lose the game. Lisa and the other nerds succeed in making them feel bad about their own weaknesses, and Bart and Lisa reconcile.

Barney is drunk, and Homer needs to make three strikes, while Moe imagines his life starting over in France if he loses. Moe tries to stop Homer from striking, but fails, and he has to return to his old life, rejected by his friends for being a bad coach, but back at the tavern they surprise him, saying they're still a team. Since they won, the Fund Bunch get the Pin Pals something only a rich guy would have.

In the final scene, the Fund Bunch are revealed to have given the Pin Pals a zero-gravity plane experience as their prize where Moe, Lenny, Carl, and Barney float while Homer doesn't.

Reception

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C+, stating "Apart from not having a clear purpose, there are pleasures to be found in 'Singin’ In The Lane'. The episode looks especially bright and crisp, and the different locations and the uniforms give the visuals an eye-catching vitality. Azaria really is quite affecting as Moe, even though lines like ‘I just gotta go back to the worst thing in the world—bein’ me’ rely more on performance and character history for their effect, rather than the meager motivation they’re given in the episode. And credit where it’s due, as rehashes go, 'Singin In The Lane' isn’t the stone bummer last season’s long-delayed return to Kamp Krusty was. Instead, this revival is simply too inconsequential to make much of an impression at all, which is its own kind of disappointing".^[1]

"Singin' in the Lane" scored a 1.1 rating with a 4 share and was watched by 2.67 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.^[2]

References

External Links

• "Singin' in the Lane" on IMDb
• "Singin' in the Lane" at TV.com