Talking Simpsons - Fear of Flying

Always loved this episode, the first I ever saw at the age of nearly 22 in 1995 (on Sky One in UK). Before I saw this I thought Simpsons was a trashy kids show (all I'd seen was 'Do the Bartman'). Ah, the pre-internet age.

"Fear of Flying" is an interesting choice for a title (and plot) of a Marge-centric episode since it's also the title of a somewhat infamous 1973 novel by Erica Jong about a woman in an unfulfilling marriage. Yet this is not one of the Marge-centric episodes in which she fantasizes about or comes close to cheating on Homer, despite the title similarity.

Robert Flaxman

RE: whether there's a stereotype about pilots being drunks: yes, alcohol abuse in pilots is a pretty serious issue.<br><a href="https://www.northpointwashington.com/blog/airplane-pilots-alcohol-pilots-drink-big-problem/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.northpointwashington.com/blog/airplane-pilots-alcohol-pilots-drink-big-problem/</a><br>There's also a pilot character in the (wonderful, 27-episode) British radio sitcom <i>Cabin Pressure</i> who is eight years sober, presumably due to alcoholism, but goes so far as to pretend to drink during off-hours social gatherings in order to preserve his reputation as a "hard-boozing sky god". ETA: Also, something I just realized is how great it is that the magazine cover photo of Skinner features that deer-in-the-headlights expression. I know it's just funnier if it matches his current expression, but on another level, it seems appropriate that that would be the most relaxed photo of Skinner the magazine managed to get.

Nina C.

I'm appreciative of Henry making the effort to dispel the incorrect adage of how Chinese uses the same word for opportunity and crisis. Without going too much in-depth, it is essentially correct that the last character for "crisis:" 危機 is the first character for "opportunity:" 機會. But the character on its own does not mean either, it actually means "machine." Chinese is very much a metaphorical language, so we tend to create new words by putting old characters in new combinations together. We don't have letters. One final thing is that Cantonese and Mandarin are the main spoken dialects (which are very different), but we read and write the same Chinese language. There are of course regional variations of certain terminology, but for the most part, we can understand each other in writing. Now that goes into a newer debate of simplified versus traditional versus pinyin Chinese. But that's for another time!

Jessica Lovejoy

I hope everyone living in those States finds out. Kidding

Dragon Trainer Alan

Lest anyone think I'm, being a jerk, this is in response to the offhand joke made by Chris about the whole Bouvier family sucking.

Andrew Bouvier

One of my all time favorite episodes. and I love me some Kenny G.

Anita

Oh, well you know what Chris? Maybe every member of the Antista family sucks! Huh? You ever think of that?

Andrew Bouvier

It's ok to have older references. Citizen Kane is a much older referenced movie on The Simpsons. There's always something people have or haven't heard about.

Dragon Trainer Alan

They really are.

Dragon Trainer Alan

Although no individual moment is better than the evil Krusty Doll from Treehouse of Horror 3

Jack Sharpe

I've been rewatching later episodes of Season Six and noticed that so many of the moments me and my brother always quote were from this season. Monster Island from Lisa on Ice, Guy Incognito from this episode and tons The PTA Disbands, 'Round Springfield and other episodes. Season six is my favourite season and might just be the best season of the Simpsons. Have up to Eleven on DVD though (got them as presents when I was young and they still work) so will see if that opinion holds up.

Jack Sharpe

You're raisin' 'em right!

Michael Hashizume

I always think the same thing when I find a not perfect episode in seasons 3-8, "If this was in season 10+, it would be like water in the desert" My kids are refusing to watch past season 10. Good kids.

Ironjoe99

I'm a pilot in the Air Force, so the first half of this episode has a special place in my heart and daily lexicon! I'll always hover my hand over certain switches in the aircraft and say to myself, "We'll need that to live..." Also, being out of Northern California, we'll always fly to Alaska and Hawaii.... the freak states.

Joseph Rush

They don’t have an Indiana Jones ride in Florida (just the stunt show), buuut they have a ride in Animal Kingdom called “Dinosaur” that is a carbon copy of the Jones (same type of ride vehicle, movements, etc). It’s such an underrated thrill ride. It’s dark and loud and still scares me as a grown man!

It's another great underrated Simpsons episode. It fills in some Marge character. It's funny. It helps people feel like going to a psychologist is a normal thing. There aren't many episodes about overcoming a very real fear.

Dragon Trainer Alan