Lisa The Greek Turns 30: Al Jean On Super Bowl XXVI, Gambling And The First Simpsons Sports Episode – Forbes

MINNEAPOLIS - JANUARY 26: Coach Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins is held up by his teammates ... [+] after winning the Super Bowl XXVI against the Buffalo Bills at the Metrodome on January 26, 1992 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Redskins defeated the Bills 37-24. (Photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images)

Thirty years ago Wednesday, Mark Rypien threw a pair of touchdown passes and the NFL team that played its home games in Washington, D.C. cemented its status as the closest thing professional football had to a dynasty in Pete Rozelles era of parity as it beat the Buffalo Bills, 37-24, in Super Bowl XXVI.

Washingtons win (more on the lack of a nickname shortly) also marked perhaps the first and nowhere near the last time The Simpsons accurately predicted the future.

Lisa the Greek, the first heavily sports-themed episode in the potentially never-ending run of The Simpsons, celebrated its 30th anniversary of its first airing Sunday. Three days before Washington rolled to its third Super Bowl win in 10 years, an estimated 23.2 million people watched Homer and Lisa bond over the latters uncanny ability to correctly pick NFL games.

Lisa, frustrated after Homer declined her invite to go hiking the Sunday after the Super Bowl in favor of going bowling with fellow barfly Barney, initially declined to pick a Super Bowl winner but eventually said Washington if she still loved Homer and Buffalo if she didnt.

After a fitful afternoon and evening of enduring long pregame shows, strange halftime shows and a Duff Bowl (won by Duff Dry because, as Moe puts it, they wanted it more), Homer cheered with relief as Washington won on a last-second touchdown. (As it turns out, in an era of Super Bowl blowouts, The Simpsons could not will into existence a second straight classic finish) The show ended with father and daughter climbing Mt. Springfield the following Sunday.

I find its very well-liked and well-regarded, longtime Simpsons show runner Al Jean said during a phone interview last week. It doesnt have as many lines that people give back to you, like I choo choo choose you or cromulent or embiggens. But every time somebody mentions it, its always like Oh yeah, that was really sweet. They love that show.

The football aspects of Lisa the Greek serve as an affectionate ode to the era that turned Jean and his fellow writers and staffers into big football fans one that helped football emerge as Americas most popular sport for television viewers and gamblers alike while turning Super Bowl Sunday into an unofficial national holiday.

Only viewers of a certain age will get the obvious references to The NFL Today featuring Jimmy the Greek, the first oddsmaker to appear on television, as well as Phyllis George, who had a card catalog entry as Lisa investigated the history of professional football at the Springfield Public Library and understand why Homer sat glued to the couch because getting up might have meant missing the rare display of all the days NFL scores.

You didnt know what the scores were you started watching Headline News to see the scores scroll, Jean said. Now on the Internet, you can find out whats going on at any game at any time. But at that point, it was a lot harder to get a result. It was a very different world.

Settling on Washington and Buffalo as the Super Bowl teams shortly before the episodes air date was another chance for the staff to put its football knowledge to use to a degree, anyway. While it would have been easy to dub in Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson, picking another team or teams if either of her picks lost prior to the Super Bowl, staffers were confident Washington and Buffalo the top seeds in their respective conferences as well as the only two teams to score more than 400 points in 1991 would make the big game.

But while the staff decided Lisa would pick Washington to prove her love for Homer, Jean and many of his co-workers recalling teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Colts, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders, all of whom lost an early Super Bowl before winning one within the first 15 years of the Super Bowl era ended up making friendly wagers on Buffalo, which lost Super Bowl XXV when Scott Norwoods 46-yard field goal sailed just right in the final seconds of a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants.

Alas, that was the first of four straight Super Bowl losses for the Bills, making them a super-sized version of the Minnesota Vikings, who lost four Super Bowls between the 1968 and 1976 seasons. Lisa called Buffalos last two losses as well: In January reruns of Lisa the Greek in 1993 and 1994, Lisa picked the Cowboys.

I dont know why anybody ever picked Buffalo, Jean said with a chuckle. I remember, as a kid, a team would lose, theyd come back and they would win. With Buffalo, youre thinking OK, they lost the first one, now theyll win the second. And they just kept getting worse every year.

(Here we should note Jean said the Bills wouldnt win this year but that Lisa would pick Green Bay over Kansas City. Lets call it a half-correct prediction?)

While the Bills are back in annual Super Bowl contention, much of what aired on Lisa the Greek serves as a time capsule for the NFL and the Super Bowl circa the early 90s.

Washingtons nickname was dropped prior to the 2020 season after decades of protests by Native American groups. After two seasons of going as Washington Football Team, the organization is slated to announce a new nickname next week.

The idea of a three-hour pregame show was mocked on Lisa the Greek, but the Super Bowl 55 pregame show began on CBS last Feb. 7 at 11:30 AM.

And the Super Bowl XXVI halftime show dubbed Winter Magic and paying tribute to the upcoming Winter Olympics on CBS and including a pair of songs performed by Gloria Estefan ended up being the last of the hokey era. With networks looking to hold viewers who left in droves at halftime in 1992 for Foxs live telecast of In Living Color, the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show by Michael Jackson heralded the start of the extravagant concert era. The trailer for this years halftime show was released last week, when the playoff field still consisted of eight teams.

Fewer than two years after Super Bowl XXVI, Fox went from thumbing its nose at the NFL to becoming part of the establishment by outbidding CBS for the rights to NFC games. Fox began airings NFC games in the fall of 1994, when The Simpsons moved from Thursdays to Sundays, where it has remained ever since. For 10 straight seasons from 2009-10 through 2018-19 the seasons highest-rated episode was one airing immediately after an NFC playoff game.

Theres no question The Simpsons ratings success is hugely due to a football lead-in, Jean said.

And in January 1999, seven years after Troy McClures Handle With Care parodied the idea of launching a dud of a new show in the post-Super Bowl slot (heres to your moment in the sun, MacGruder and Loud and Davis Rules), Fox used the window following its second Super Bowl telecast to launch Family Guy, which was followed by a football-themed Simpsons episode, Sunday Cruddy Sunday. Another superstar-packed Simpsons episode Homer And Neds Hail Mary Pass aired immediately after Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, followed by the premiere of American Dad.

Nothings changed as much over the past 30 years as gambling itself, which has moved from the periphery into the mainstream. With gambling advice available on innumerable websites and on shows broadcast on every sports network, bettors no longer have to make their picks by relying on a Jimmy the Greek type or cartoonish pitchmen touting their impossibly high success rates via 1-800 lines.

In January 1992, when Homer tried convincing Marge gambling was illegal only in 48 states, a mere $50 million was legally bet on Super Bowl XXVI in Nevada. Today, gambling is legalized in 30 states plus Washington D.C. and casinos and sports books are advertising partners with leagues. More than $500 million was legally bet on Super Bowl 55.

They used to talk about it on Monday Night Football they would be very elliptical, though: So some of you are wanting this kick to go over the crossbar, Jean said with another laugh. But now its like Theyre 3 1/2 point favorites. They know. Its just the line is completely blurred.

Theres a lot more to wager on today, too so much so that with the love of his daughter at stake in 2022, Homer would have plenty of prop bets to consider beyond the point spread or a straight-up winner.

I think he would just make the stupidest prop bet like total number of missed two-point attempts or something where theres no possible way you can think about it and calculate it, Jean said. Its just random.

Will the first player to score a touchdown have a name starting with H? Thats the bet he would make and put a lot of money on.

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Lisa The Greek Turns 30: Al Jean On Super Bowl XXVI, Gambling And The First Simpsons Sports Episode - Forbes