The X-Files Friday Feature: The Springfield Files

Yup, I've finally seen 'The Springfield Files'.

It only occurred to me recently that maybe I could find this episode of The Simpsons online, rather than trying to find it on Netflix or borrow the disc from someone who has all the Simpsons DVDs, and it turns out I was right. It's on Vimeo, and possibly some other sites.

It's been years since I watched this show. I probably gave up on it at least ten years ago, thinking it had played out most of the better ideas and that they had pretty much reduced all the characters to narrow caricatures and the plots became incredibly formulaic.

Not so in 'The Springfield Files', which I'm certain I watched when it first aired - in fact, I pretty vividly remember the scene where Mulder and Scully are greeted by Marge at the door, it just didn't register to me at the time who the hell Mulder and Scully were. (Though I'm just as certain that other people I was watching this episode with would have been very excited to see their guest appearances.)

But even not knowing that, this was a very good episode of The Simpsons, and also would have been a pretty typical episode of The X-Files, too. Sometimes the explanations on the show are as mundane as a misunderstanding. I do think the fact that The Simpsons episodes are half the length of episodes of The X-Files may have taken a little away from this, but maybe that's just because I always want more of Mulder and Scully.

Because otherwise, this was pretty quick to develop and resolve.

The setup was good, and the various references, both to The X-Files itself and to David Duchovny, for example, in the very disturbing FBI badge Mulder was holding, were highly entertaining. I enjoyed Bart's "THE TRUTH IS NOT OUT THERE" on the chalkboard in the intro, which I suppose might give away to X-Philes the fact that this episode would parody the show, but I'm guessing people who were paying attention to say, the internet or TV columns, would have already known David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were guest voices, and seeing "THE TRUTH IS NOT OUT THERE" would confirm that their presence together was not a coincidence.

The resolution at the end was kind of silly, except that it confirmed Scully's skepticism rather than Mulder's belief, which at the time (I think this aired during season four) was very uncommon in The X-Files, itself. It's certainly better now, though rather than confirm Scully's skepticism, the show seems to have just made her more willing to believe, so I'm not sure that's such a good thing, either.

Still, I'm glad I finally got the chance to see this and include it in my journey through The X-Files. (While I'm at it, I really should look into The Lone Gunmen, too, which I think started during Season 8 of The X-Files. Maybe I'll watch it and just do a single post on it at some point. I know it's short.)