Troy McClure’s back from the gutter, and he’s brought someone with him! — Troy McClure, “A Fish Called Selma”

Troy’s posh piscine pad is modeled on the Chemosphere, a classic piece of 60s architecture overlooking the San Fernando Valley region of sunny Los Angeles. Designed by architect John Lautner, the problem of how to pitch a home on such a steep slope was solved by suspending the UFO-like structure on a 30-foot concrete pylon.

The Chemosphere got its futuristic name thanks to the partial sponsorship of a company called Chemseal Corporation of America (now defunct, as far as I can tell), which contributed valuable materials to the process.

Excluding its animated appearance in The Simpsons, the Chemosphere is perhaps best known in the pop culture multiverse as the residence of the protagonist in Body Double, a sexy 80s sex thriller.

Humans, you have stopped eating… — Alien #1, “Treehouse Of Horror”

Homer’s apron in the first-ever Treehouse ep is a quick take on a novelty automobile gewgaw that your uncle may have displayed on one Skylark or another. Bada bing:

See those bullet holes? They’re not actual holes — they’re only printed on to give the illusion as such! Just one of the many clever ideas novelty makers originated in the years before Truck Nutz came along and cheapened the art.

President’s Day … what a rip-off! — Homer, “Two Cars In Every Garage And Three Eyes On Every Fish”

Happy Washington’s Birthday! In honor of our founding father, SHS is off until Wednesday. Until then, allow that other fan favorite’s steely visage to guide you.

I’m gon-na make it af-ter all! — Homer, “And Maggie Makes Three”

I do declare, it’s starting to seem like the Simpsons writers may have watched a fair amount of television growing up. Here’s the full routine:

Fun fact, the Mary Tyler Moore Show was also a James L. Brooks project. Also, Cloris Leachman, who plays the less wacky of Mary’s wacky neighbors, would go on to voice Mrs. Glick for the home team.

And now, my exclusive interview with His Holiness, Pope John Paul II…That’s it, I cannot work under these conditions. If anyone wants me, I’ll be downstairs at MacDougal’s… — Kent Brockman, “Lisa The Beauty Queen”

CBS Evening News certainly got nightly news folk hero Dan Rather‘s goat when in 1987 the network opted to present the final minutes of a tennis match in place of the start of Rather’s on-site broadcast in Miami (where, yes, John Paul II was currently visiting). Rather was pissed, and he opted not to be in his seat when the match ended and CBS cut back to the studio.

Fortunately, YouTube has footage of this awkward moment. Let’s take a look:

Hm. Well, it looks like I’ve been duped yet again. Nonetheless, you can read the New York Times‘s account of things if you like.

Rather, for his part, deeply regretted his decision to leave his post, issuing a public apology the next night:

Alright, that’s it. Call the SHS weekend guy, I don’t care.

Perk up, Prendergast. Profoundly pressing power plant profit projections for Pete Porter in Pasadena. — Smithers

Priority? — Prendergast

Precisely. — Smithers, “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One”

That rapid fire Fedex scene that more-or-less opens WSMBPO is based on a truly well-done commercial that even now makes me want to run out and mail something:

“Fast Paced World”, colloquially referred to as the “Federal Express Fast Talker” bit, features more alliteration and wordplay than you can shake a stick at, and likely led more than one starry-eyed youth to the carnival barker/auctioneer circuit.

The star of the show, John Moschitta Jr. — who, according to the Guinness people, has established the high-water mark with the ability to fire off 568 words in a minute —  also applied his talents to other commercial endeavors, though I don’t think he’s going at quite the same clip for the Micro Machines people:

And many others that also may be worth your time. The term used to describe the ability to speak so quickly and with such articulation is “tachylalia“, for future reference.

He unholied the holy water! — Agnes Skinner, ‘The Canine Mutiny”

Ah, the Wiz. A consumer electronics store whose ubiquitous slogan once played across the Eastern Seaboard like sexy music (?). But don’t take my word for it … ask CSNY:

Though this next one does offer a valuable vocabulary lesson, I’m a bit unsettled by how grabby this couple gets when discussing Wiz-level savings:

And, of course, the Wiz himself was featured prominently on that other beloved 90s sitcom:

If you watch my show, I will send you this book featuring me in a variety of sexually-explicit positions! — Krusty, “Krusty Gets Kancelled”/”The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular”

Though Lady Madonna took a fair amount of ribbing over the Super Bowl weekend due to the unmitigated audacity of a 53-year-old woman being 53 years old, it was not so long ago that the singer was a cultural force to be reckoned with, not to mention top of the pops.

So cast your minds back, if you will, to 1992 or thereabouts, on the eve of the release of Madonna’s fifth studio album, Erotica. And cast your eyes to the coffee table book that Madonna and her team released as a companion piece to the album, featuring she, in a variety of sexually-explicit positions!

Here is the link to every single page of this smutty, stupid book. Very not-safe-for-work, unless you intern for Madonna. Have at it.

*spoiler alert* 90s pop star Robert Matthew Van Winkle, a/k/a Vanilla Ice, is actually in this friggin’ book.

Ice, who was dating Madonna when Sex was put together, was apparently so offput by the salacious nature of the finished publication that he broke things off with Madonna and left the music business forever. More gold records for the rest of us, I says.

Oh, Andy Capp, you wife-beating drunk… — Homer, “Marge vs. The Monorail”

While the character and comic strip Andy Capp may have done little to dispel the myths surrounding Britain’s stereotypically hard-drinkin’ working class, I can’t think of a way to finish this sentence. Launched all the way back in 1957 by a bloke named Reg(inald) Smythe, the Capp (as its fans very well may have called it at some point) paints a humorous portrait of alcoholism and domestic abuse.

Wait a second, that’s terrible. Let’s try again.

Whatever. Anyway, like another strip we recently covered, the Capp has also been churned out for over half a century at this point. Impressive, seeing as how there has to be some limit to jokes about snooker, pints, football, lifts, the vicar, etc. But not today.

That’s actually not bad. Anyway, as you can see, the artwork has evolved from the more New Yorker-ish stylings of the earlier strips to today’s more geometric presentation. This may or may not be a result of the 1987 video game adaptation for the Commodore 64:

Dismal stuff. I’ll stick to Get Carter, thank you very much.

The bear, the bear! — Smithers, “Rosebud”

Of course, much has been written about Soul Train since host Don Cornelius exited this world on Wednesday. I don’t feel particularly compelled to throw in my two cents, as many other pieces since Wednesday have done so.

But I will say that you owe it to yourself to at least check out some of the classic ‘Train clips on YouTube, if only to get a snapshot of a time and place we no longer have access to:

Especially this:

Ah, and it turns out that the Scramble Board was fixed! Cornelius has a pretty great line at the end of this one: