"That '90s Show" is the eleventh episode of the nineteenth season of The Simpsons. In this episode, Homer and Marge reminisce about their relationship in the 1990s (retconning their long-established 1970s background), when he was an aspiring musician and she went to college.
Plot:
On a cold evening, the family shivers by the fireplace, as Homer is too cheap to have the heating fixed, thinking that global warming would be enough. While looking for something for the fire, Lisa finds a college diploma belonging to Marge, who had previously said she and Homer married and had Bart a couple of years after high school. Since she knows that Bart is 10 and her parents are almost 40, Lisa ponders about what happened in the decade in-between. Homer and Marge then proceed to tell their children about the experiences the two of them lived in the 1990s.Having recently moved together, Marge is accepted into Springfield University while Homer, who is part of a light harmony quartet with Lenny, Carl and Officer Lou, takes a demeaning job at Abe's laser tag arcade to pay for her very expensive studies. At college, Marge becomes infatuated with her progressive professor Stefane August, who is a staunch feminist and tells her that Homer is a "townie" who would never really appreciate her. Finding them together, a heartbroken Homer decides to radically change the sound of his group into a new style of rock he calls "grunge" (for Guitar Rock Utilizing Nihilist Grunge Energy). Marge dislikes Homer's new music for its dourness and anger, and after he mocks Professor August, they decide to break up their relationship.
Upon moving in with Stefane, she begins to find his sensitivity rather overblown and sours on him. After he tells her that marriage is an outdated, oppressive and misogynistic institution, Marge (who expects to marry) realizes that the Professor was merely using her and breaks up with him. In the meantime, Homer's band Sadgasm becomes popular, but fame is little comfort for him after his breakup (even after having one of his songs covered by "Weird Al" Yankovic), and he composes "Margerine", a heartfelt song dedicated to Marge, who realizes that Homer still loves her. After finding out that Sadgasm has broken up as Homer has become a recluse and probably an heroin addict, she runs to aid him (turns out that Homer's supposed heroin habit was actually insulin because he got diabetes from drinking too many frappuccinos). After they make up, they both spend the night at the mini-golf course Bart was conceived in.
Tropes:
- Academic Alpha Bitch: The Springfield University students and the elderly professor, who mock the "townie" Homer after he says the name Joan Miro as it's spelled, instead of the correct pronunciation "Juan Me-row."
- Anachronism Stew: The episode takes place in the mid-90s, but on a Sonic the Hedgehog billboard Amy Rose is depicted with her modern design, which she wouldn't have until Sonic Adventure, which wasn't released in North America until 1999.
- Artistic Age: One of the few times Bart and Lisa have commented on the age of their parents in relation to their age, pointing out that being close to 40 means there was a significant gap between the two dating in high school and having 10 year old Bart. Marge actually celebrated her 32nd birthday in the first season, with Homer roughly the same age, but despite having young kids both have been treated as being much older than they realistically would be.
- Artistic License – History: Grunge existed before The '90s, with bands like Green River, The U-Men, and Malfunkshun pioneering the subgenre in the 1980s. The word "grunge" as applied to the sound also predates the early '90s. Sub Pop popularized it by using it to market Green River around 1987, and the first recorded use of the word in relation to the Seattle music scene dates to 1981. Another historical liberty is taken with the "Marvin Cobain" joke since Nirvana had already formed and produced grunge music by 1990, including Bleach.
- Young Homer references the Seinfeld episode "The Sponge", which premiered in 1995, and Kurt Cobain is still alive when in reality he died in 1994.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Homer brings two coats and two pairs of gloves and tells Bart and Lisa they'll keep them warm. He then throws the coats and the gloves at the fireplace.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Frustrated with Marge spending a lot of time with her professor, Homer tells her that she should go with him. Little did he know that Stefane was within earshot and agrees to take Marge.
- The Cameo:
- "Weird Al" Yankovic appears on The Simpsons again, this time doing a parody of one of Sadgasm's "Shave Me", calling his version "Brain Freeze".
- MTV's Kurt Loder delivers a news report about Sadgasm's breakup.
- Chastity Couple: Homer and Marge lived together, Sleeping Single on air mattresses, before they ever had sex, as Marge was waiting either for marriage or until she got extremely drunk (as previously established, it was the second thing).
- Comic-Book Time: This episode (infamously) established Homer and Marge as dating in the mid-to-late '90s, with all cultural touchstones of the time period and changes to their personalities in general, with Homer making a garage band and Marge getting swept up by a new age college philosophy professor. Previous episodes had them graduating high school in the '70s, with Marge already a Granola Girl in the midst of second wave feminism. While Negative Continuity has been part of the show for a long time, given the show was a major part of '90s culture and had already mocked it as a contemporary thing this also hit a Continuity Snarl.
- Continuity Nod: While updated to reflect the '90s setting, the episode follows up on how Marge and Homer first had sex inside a windmill obstacle at a mini-gold course.
- Devoted to You: Even though Marge was cruel to him and left him for Stefane, Homer still loved her and sung a heartbroken song about her, mentioning her by name.
- Expy Coexistence: Homer is a parody of Kurt Cobain. To make sure we get the joke (and to make a Shout-Out to a similar scene in Back to the Future), while watching Sadgasm play, a guy makes a phone call, saying "Kurt? This is your cousin Marvin, Marvin Cobain. I've found that sound you were looking for."
- Faux Yay: When Moe got caught trying to steal a patron's wristwatch, he claimed he was trying to flirt. To Moe's horror, his "feelings" were reciprocated.
- Hippie Teacher: Stefane August reflects the new age college professors that had began popping up in the '90s, many who were actual '70s counterculture hippies and would teach their classes to question everything.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Subverted. Homer goes to Moe's for a drink, only to discover that Moe is offering cigars.
- It Will Never Catch On:
- A young Comic Book Guy is heard saying "...and that's why The Lord of the Rings can never be filmed."
- While splitting up their possessions, Homer takes all the stuff that will be worthless in the following decades (vinyl LPs, Enron stock, VHS tapes) and gives Marge all the stuff that will be successful later on (CDs, Microsoft stock, DVDs).
- Jerkass: Marge's college professor, Stefane August. He manipulates Marge into dumping Homer for him and acts like he's a revolutionary feminist, but really he's just a jerk who would sleep with one of his students.
- Mistaken for Junkie: Following the breakup of Sadgasm, Marge bursts into Homer's house and finds him passed out with a syringe stuck in his arm. She throws all his syringes away, thinking he's been using drugs, and nurses him back to health. He'd actually developed diabetes from drinking too many frappuccinos and was injecting himself with insulin.
- Nice Guy: Deconstructed with Marge's professor, who is actually quite haughty.
- The '90s: The Whole Episode Flashback is set during this time period. Curiously, there doesn't seem to be any real defined period; it should ostensibly be taking place between 1993 and 1998, but Homer's band is clearly meant to be a parody or predating of Nirvana, which hit it big in 1991.
- '90s Hair: All over the place. Marge has "The Rachel", while Homer's hair is boyishly tousled like Kurt Cobain, Stefane has his hair in a cross between Hugh Grant's curtains and long Fabio-like hair. Many of the college men have gelled up hair or curtains like N Sync or Backstreet Boys or Freddie Prinze Jr..
- Parental Favoritism: Homer remarks that it's okay for parents to keep secrets, such as who their favorite child is, before adding, "It's Lisa."
- Retcon: This episode attempted to do this Marge and Homer's relationship with them first dating in the '90s rather than the '70s, as previously shown.
- Rule-Abiding Rebel: Played with, Marge becomes enamored with her college professor Stefane because he has the attitude of everything in society being a lie. This appeals to Marge because of her activism and feminist beliefs, but she starts to see the problems with that mindset when he denounces marriage itself as oppressing women, as she is still interested in marriage.
- Second-Act Breakup: The third act focuses on Marge being with Stefane and Homer going through a deep depression.
- Sequel Episode: Of a sort to "The Way We Was," a second season episode with a similar premise of Marge and Homer sharing a story before they have kids (due to something else giving the family a lot of time on their hands).
- Shout-Out:
- The title is an allusion to That '70s Show.
- The apartment complex that Homer and Marge live in is a reference to Melrose Place.
- Homer's first group was a "new jack swing"-flavored R&B quartet in the style of Boyz II Men.
- The scene where Marvin Cobain calls his cousin, Kurt Cobain, telling them about Sadgasm's sound, is a direct parody of the scene from Back to the Future where Chuck Berry's cousin Marvin calls Chuck to tell him about Marty McFly's new sound.
- Sadgasm's songs are reminiscent of Nirvana songs, with the exception of "Margerine", a parody of "Glycerine" by Bush. Weird Al parodying Sadgasm is a reference to his Nirvana parody (numerous artists have said they didn't think they were successful until Weird Al made a parody of their songs). Kurt Loder reporting their breakup is a reference to him reporting on the death of Kurt Cobain on MTV.
- The music video for Margerine features Homer playing to a crowd of crash test dummies, which may be a reference to either the '90s band or the advertising campaign and subsequent toyline.
- Student/Teacher Romance: The whole plot revolves around Marge being involved with one of her professors.
