Simpsons Saturday: Dancin' Homer

Homer Simpson has a brush with the big time in a brilliant gem from The Simpsons' early days.

Welcome to Simpsons Saturday here on The Press Break, where every Saturday until the start of the college football — and possibly beyond — we revisit a sports-themed episode of the classic animated comedy.

The most fondly remembered baseball-themed episode in The Simpsons 35 (and counting)-season is Season 3’s “Homer at the Bat” — and with good reason. “Homer at the Bat” weaves its Major League Baseball star cameos into hilarious subplots, turning what could have been a neat but ultimately forgettable gimmick into some of the most enduring gags in Simpsons history.

Homer at the Bat is a defining classic of the series’ Golden Age and one of my 10 favorite Simpsons episodes ever. However, the previous season’s baseball-themed episode "Dancin’ Homer” is perhaps the more important installment in terms of establishing the voice and presentation style that made The Simpsons so prominent in the zeitgeist for generations.

First, a quick plot summary:

In a rare show of humanity, Mr. Burns — his evil boss persona already well-established by this fifth episode of the second season, having just one episode prior run for governor in “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish” — invites power plant employees out for a night at the local minor league baseball team’s ballpark.

Homer immediately sacrifices the burgeoning friendship he strikes up with Mr. Burns over ballpark beers by leading the crowd in cheers — cheers that urge the Springfield Isotopes to a slump-busting win.

Mr. Burns laments that Homer’s antics ruined his night, but the rest of the crowd eats it up. Homer becomes a full-time Isotopes mascot and outright sensation as the titular Dancin’ Homer.

enough to catch the attention of the big-league Capital City Capitals.

Homer gets his opportunity as the Capitals’ secondary mascot, spelling the legendary Capital City Goofball. Homer’s shtick is met with indifference that devolves into disgust, with one fan saying: “These cornball antics may play in the sticks, but this is Capital City.”

Our protagonist is summarily told he’s not ready and dismissed in the most embarrassing way possible: While wearing nothing but his jock strap.

Borrowing a phrase from Randy Savage, Homer’s cup of coffee in the big time ran empty and the Simpsons returned to Springfield. The story’s presented as a yarn Homer spins to his friends at Moe’s Tavern, culminating in Homer taking solace from his failure in the admiration shown him for even having a brush with greatness.

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Noting when in Simpons history “Dancin’ Homer” first aired is necessary to appreciate its place in the series finding its direction. Anyone who ever watched the series can tell you that Season 1 is dramatically different from every season that followed, both in tone and storytelling approach.

Among the most notable differences is that in Season 1, The Simpsons seemed pretty clearly to be Bart’s show. Even if the plots didn’t focus primarily on Bart, he was used to drive the comedy and thus became the show’s breakout character and an instant pop culture icon.

I was a Kindergartener during The Simpsons Season 1 original run and thus too young to have been plugged into culture enough to describe Bartmania beyond secondhand references I read and heard years later. There were enough lingering vestiges of it as I got older, however, for me to understand just how much of a hit the Bart character was from the outset.

Kids at arcades I frequented argued over who got to play as Bart on the four-player The Simpsons video game, for example — hilarious in retrosepct, given Marge was actually the best character with her weaponized vacuum cleaner.

Bart Simpson t-shirts were past their heyday once I reached a grade level in which my peers cared about the clothes they wore, but hadn’t disappeared entirely. The popularity of these shirts at the beginning of the ‘90s provides material for a quick gag in “Dancin’ Homer.”

That’s all to say Simpsons writers made a bold move shifting the focus and tone after it made an immediate cultural splash. The Simpsons evolved into more of an ensemble show straight away into Season 2:

Episode 1, “Bart Gets an F,” uses Bart as the primary character.

Episode 2, “Simpson and Delilah,” is a Homer episode.

Episode 3 was the inaugural Treehouse of Horror.

Episode 4 is a Lisa episode.

Episode 5, “Dancin’ Homer” is another Homer episode.

Episode 6, “Dead Putting Society” focuses on the relationship between Homer and Ned Flanders.

Meanwhile, Homer fast became the comedic engine, establishing a formula still in tact more than 30 years later.

I emphasize establishing the formula, as the show continued to evolve into its Golden Age style after Season 2. Later seasons focused primarily on humor, while Season 2 is heavy on sentimentality.

“Dancin’ Homer” is one of the less sentimental episodes, but still tugs at the heart strings amid its absurdity. The premise of Homer recounting his rise and fall in a bar came two years before the theatrical release of Glengarry Glen Ross, but viewing “Dancin’ Homer” in hindsight for me brings to mind a specific line from that film.

Now, let’s talk the thematic baseball elements. Perhaps the most memorable is the reference to Lou Gehrig’s famed speech, delivered at Yankee Stadium on Independence Day 1939.

While Homer’s version is presented comedically, it’s respectful to the gravely serious farewell Gehrig delivered as a result of his fight with ALS.

Another true-life reference made in this episode, which I only learned of upon revisiting it and doing some cursory research for the purpose of this newsletter entry, is that the character Dancin’ Homer shared several qualities with real-life Baltimore Orioles super-fan “Wild” Bill Hagy.

The Chicago Sun-Times profiled Hagy during the O’s 1979 World Series appearance and Today Show featured him the following year.

The Baltimore Sun spotlighted Hagy a few years after “Dancin’ Homer” and after an icy relationship between Hagy and the Orioles had thawed.

Dancin’ Homer may not have been ready for the big-time, but Bill Hagy was — so much so, he performed for Cal Ripken Jr.’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2007. The same year, the Orioles established a Wild Bill Hagy Award to honor others who have “inspired” the ball club.

Such subtle nods to baseball’s history and rich culture — and a funny gag with Marge being seated in the Players’ Ex-Wives Section — showcase the writing team’s appreciation for the game. “Dancin’ Homer” may not have the long-term cachet of its baseball counterpart from a year later, but the episode’s references to the sport and its part in shaping The Simpsons direction for generation makes it one of the series’ most important sports-themed endeavors.