A Tale of Two Springfields

"A Tale of Two Springfields" is the second episode from season twelve of the animated TV series The Simpsons. The title is a spoof of Charles Dickens' classic book, A Tale of Two Cities.



Plot
While feeding Santa's Little Helper, Bart finds a badger in his doghouse. Bart and Lisa Simpson try to get rid of it themselves, but are unsuccessful. After Homer suggests they blow up the doghouse with dynamite, Lisa tells him to call animal control instead. When Homer calls them, he gets a tri-tone and a recording indicating that he did not enter the correct area code. Marge informs him that the phone company ran out of numbers, so they had to split Springfield into two area codes. One half keeps the old 636 and the Simpsons' half get the new 939. He is outraged that they changed the code so suddenly (even though Lenny and Carl say that they had weeks of advance warnings, including two weeks at area code camp). While at a town meeting, with Homer wearing a suicide belt, Lindsey Naegle shows a film (starring talking telephone Phony McRing-Ring) that attempts to convince the audience two area codes are better. The whole town agrees with it. However, Homer stands up, reminding them how terrible it was and points out that the original 636 code was kept by the rich side of town. When Homer fails to blow himself up, he leads a rebellion of the poor and goes off to form a new town.

Homer names the town with the new 939 code "New Springfield", while the half of the town with 636 is now called "Olde Springfield". Homer is appointed mayor of New Springfield, but shows disrespect for the office by using his sash as a napkin. Rivalry quickly ensues between the two towns. When Olde Springfield insults the inefficiency of his half of town, Homer cuts power to Olde Springfield. Olde Springfield retaliates by hijacking a beer truck and dumping its contents in the river. Homer and New Springfield strike back by cutting off the river into Olde Springfield; however this causes its inhabitants to find gold in the riverbed and buy the Evian bottled water factory. Homer decides to build a giant wall right through town, just like the one Berlin had. When he tells his citizens they do not have enough supplies to get past tomorrow, and that a wave of disease will kill the weak (afterwards, they'll be forced to eat certain breeds of dogs), everyone except the Simpsons leave.

Now the mayor of a empty town, Homer boasts to himself that The Who is coming to their town, when they are actually performing in Olde Springfield. Together, he and Bart get them to perform in New Springfield. When Olde Springfield is waiting for the band, they find them in New Springfield and prepare to riot. Just before a major conflict, The Who suggests they get speed-dial to solve their rivalry. They also agree to play if Springfield tears down the wall, which Pete Townshend (voiced by his brother, Paul Townshend) ends up destroying by playing the famous outro to "Won't Get Fooled Again]".

Cuts
Several parts of this episode are cut when it airs in syndication on Sky1 in the UK and Ireland:


 * When KBBL are talking about a mattress on the freeway, the line 'Joan Collins must be in town' is cut.
 * When Homer phones the radio station, it cuts from that scene to the town hall, missing out the scene with Homer strangling Bart, and Bart retaliating by hitting Homer on the head with the phone.
 * Kent's 'Golden Showers' line is cut.
 * All of the badger scenes (with the exception of the first) are cut.
 * In other parts of the world, there is a scene right after the guard throws Homer and Bart Simpson into The Who's room, where Homer smashes a lamp to the ground, and Bart starts to kick the drum set.
 * The entire episode was in fact heavily cut for syndication. Originally 22 minutes and 11 seconds long, two minutes and 10 seconds were cut, and the episode was expanded 46 seconds to a length of 20:47. This is still about a half-minute shorter than most syndicated versions.
 * A deleted scene on the season 12 DVD shows that when Marge says that it's a little chilly,the singer replies "Oh,shut the fuck up,Marge." before smacking her with the microphone. That was probably cut because of the profanity.