"Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'" | |
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The Simpsons episode | |
Episode no. | Season 7 Episode 22 |
Directed by | Jeffrey Lynch |
Written by | Jonathan Collier |
Production code | 3F19 |
Original air date | April 28, 1996 |
Episode features | |
Couch gag | The family sits on the couch. Homer notices a plug in the middle of the floor and pulls it. Everyone and everything gets sucked down the drain.[1] |
Commentary | Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Jonathan Collier David Silverman |
"Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'" is the twenty-second episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 28, 1996.
In the episode, one of Abraham Simpson's fellow World War II veterans, Asa Phelps, dies, leaving him and Mr. Burns as the only living members of Grampa's war squad, the Flying Hellfish. In the final days of the war, the unit had discovered several paintings and agreed on a tontine, placing the paintings in a crate, and the final surviving member would inherit the paintings. As Mr. Burns wants the paintings as soon as possible, he orders Abe's assassination. To escape death, Abe moves into the Simpsons' house, where the family lets him live in Bart's room. Bart eventually joins Grampa in a daring mission to recover the paintings.
Written by Jonathan Collier and directed by Jeffrey Lynch, the episode was inspired by several stories about lost art surfacing. The staging of several scenes was based on DC Comics's Sgt. Rock and Marvel Comics's Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. The episode scored a Nielsen rating of 8.3, making it the second-highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired, and received positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised the animation of its action and underwater scenes.