The Simpsons Flashback: "The Springfield Files" Review

July 21, 2008 - During the summer months, IGN has be taking a look back at The Simpsons with weekly flashback reviews. Up till now, we've been letting the Los Angeles syndication schedule help narrow down the choices for us. This week, however, with the new X-Files movie hitting theaters on Friday, we thought we'd look back at Mulder and Scully's guest appearance in "The Springfield Files" from the series' eighth season.

Several of FOX's animated characters have crossed over to The Simpsons. Hank Hill and his family showed up for a football game. Movie critic Jay Sherman arrived in town as a guest judge for the Springfield film festival. Even Peter Griffin made an appearance in a "Treehouse of Horror" as a Homer clone. But the network crossovers haven't been limited to animation. In 1997, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, the FBI agents assigned to The X-Files, arrived with new, glorious yellow skin to investigate an alien sighting. It may have been network self-promotion, but "The Springfield Files" is still a memorable and funny episode.

And Mulder and Scully aren't even the best parts. As fun as David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's cameo appearance is, it's Leonard Nimoy who delivers the best guest performance. Playing himself, as he often does, Nimoy opens the episode with some brilliant nonsensical narration: "The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by 'true,' I mean 'false.'" From there, the Friday nights of several of the townsfolk are established. Homer is getting wasted on Red Tick beer at Moe's. Walking home because he's too drunk to drive, Homer becomes easily spooked. It doesn't help that the Springfield Philharmonic are being driven around town on a bus while playing music from Psycho. Hurrying through the woods to get home, Homer witnesses a glowing alien being. Terrified, Homer races through a cornfield leaving a "Yahhh!"-shaped crop circle behind him.

Homer tries to convince his family and friends that he saw a being from another planet, but only the FBI seem interested. Mulder and Scully arrive on the scene. The episode does a great job of satirizing The X-Files, including simple things, like the trench coats and having Cigarette Smoking Man in the background, to more obscure references, like Mulder having a picture of himself in a Speedo in his wallet. I found the voice acting, however, to be a bit bland. The pair's dry, wry delivery isn't much different from what you would get in an episode of The X-Files, but the simple animation doesn't allow for the subtle facial expressions (the raised eyebrows, the sideways glances) that work so well in the live-action sci-fi hit.

Still, their appearance set-up some fantastic gags. Scully had Homer try and pick his alien out of a line-up that included Marvin the Martian, Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, Chewbacca, Alf and "Treehouse of Horror" regular Kang. Or is it Kodos? I also love the comedic timing in the scene where Scully explains the lie detector test to Homer. After calmly making the process very clear to Homer, she asks him if he understands. Homer cheerfully responds, "Yes," and the lie detector machine explodes. Brilliant. And I can't forget to mention Moe needing to get rid of the killer whale he's been storing in his back room. The sight of Moe and two of his cronies lugging the whale through the open field is priceless.

As involved as Mulder and Scully's appearance is, their time on screen is mostly limited to the second act, letting the regular characters carry the rest of the story. And it's a well-told tale with a satisfying explanation as to what Homer's "alien" actually is: a disoriented, drugged-up, medically manhandled Mr. Burns. Mystery solved, and after a booster shot from Dr. Nick, the characters end the episode with a rendition of "Good Morning Starshine," with Mulder, Scully, Chewbacca and even Leonard Nimoy joining in. It's an odd, silly, funny episode that would have worked even without the X-Files crossover, but having Spooky and Dana involved just made it that much cooler.