Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming

"Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" is the ninth episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.

At Springfield Minimum Security Prison, Sideshow Bob is disturbed when he hears the other inmates laughing at the inane antics of Krusty the Clown's television show.

Believing that television is a fountain of "mindless drivel" and wanting to rid the world of it, Bob escapes while on work duty at a local Air Force Base.

Krusty, refusing to submit to Bob's demands, takes refuge in a civil defense shack in the desert, which he uses to transmit a heavily improvised show.

Lisa deduces that the unusually high-pitched voice of Bob in his broadcast was due to inhaling helium, and locates him in the envelope of the Duff blimp.

Bob, having lost his patience thanks to Krusty, tries to detonate the bomb, which turns out to be a dud, because it had passed the expiration date of November 1959.

Executive producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein believed that every season of the show should contain an episode featuring Bob.

[3] A character modeled after Fox Network owner Rupert Murdoch briefly appears in a scene set in jail.

[3] There were also several references to Dr. Strangelove: the underground compound resembles the War Room from the film; Professor Frink was redesigned to parody the title character; the tune that Sideshow Bob whistles while preparing the bomb is "We'll Meet Again", as sung by Vera Lynn at the end of the film; and Krusty's acting whilst he defends television is based on George C. Scott's performance as General Buck Turgidson.

[8] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote, "Probably the least satisfying of Sideshow Bob's gleamings – but there's enough slapstick and satire to keep things ticking along nicely.

"[2] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson wrote, "Though it doesn't compete with the best Bob shows, it has more than a few nice moments."

[9] Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best part of the episode to be when Milhouse was playing in the fighter jet at the air show.