Overview: This is without a doubt one of my least favorite episodes in the series. I absolutely hated the very simple plot... it makes me wonder if people actually like the episode just because it was written by Conan O'Brien... I'm certainly not going to like something just because it was by someone or just because it has a certain character in an episode. The episode's main idea is to show this guy named Lyle Lanley (a smooth talking con man) who pretty much cons the town into building a monorail which fails. Homer drives the monorail prior to its failure... and that's about it. There wasn't much more to the plot nor was there anything special in terms of character development. They randomly tossed in a guest star appearance of Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek... who did absolutely nothing anyway... so that was a real waste of a character. That may be another reason why people may like the episode... based on a random character appearance or something of this caliber. This is probably one of the worst reasons to rate an episode highly... I'm still confused as to why this episode is highly rated... most of the other episodes amongst the highly rated make more sense to me except for this episode and "You Only Move Twice"... probably the only other episode I despise exceptionally due to failure of providing some form of solid story/plot. In the long run... I'm confused... I tried to break it down...



Story: Well... that's about it... a guy tricks the town into paying for a poorly built monorail... and it fails. Yeah... it's that simple.



Development: There is none... nothing happens in the episode to change or alter the characters... nor does it have any effect on any of the characters.



Lyle Lanley: The character seemed really annoying to me... I completely preferred Hartman's other characters... (for example: Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz)... Hartman's a very good voice actor... so this character definitely isn't the most definitive when it comes to his excellent performances. Overall, Lanley was rather limited in terms of story. He was merely a plot device... and a rather poor one at that... considering I really love well-written plot device characters a lot (they are likely my favorite type of characters, even more than main characters)



Leonard Nimoy: Yeah... uh... he didn't DO anything... even if I was a Star Trek fan (which I'm not)... I wouldn't vote highly JUST because he's on screen. That is completely poor reasoning. Say, for example, one of my favorite Star Wars (which I greatly prefer to star trek) characters (DARTH MAUL) randomly appeared in an episode... I still wouldn't rate the episode highly solely based on this. A character or cameo doesn't make an ENTIRE EPISODE a good episode. This is merely to toss in something extra... not a definitive basis for judgment. I'm neutral for Nimoy, at best. Although I myself don't care about star trek much... I found it rather repetitive and lame in comparison to star wars.



Conan O'Brien: I watched this guy's TV show for a very long time. It was better than his writing... that's for sure. Some people should stick to what they do best. Conan's got a good sense of humor. But this episode wasn't humorous... it was more towards the annoying side if anything. Very poorly written overall. Conan must've just rushed it or something... I know for a fact I wouldn't love an episode JUST 'cause it's by Conan O'Brien... that is just plain stupid reasoning. Even if God wrote an episode... I wouldn't love it JUST 'cause. It has to compel and convince me... it has to move me and soothe me... it must have a climactic impact on me of some type in order for me to feel some form of emotion. Only a hardcore Conan O'Brien fan will love this... JUST because it's by him and nothing else.



The Song: I hated the whole singing scene... just as I hate almost any random singing scenes. Most of the songs are just plain annoying... but this one... this particular one was EXTREMELY annoying. There's a few songs in the series as a whole that I did enjoy (such as "We Do" from "Homer the Great" and the "Dr. Zaius" track from "A Fish Called Selma") but this track was just plain annoying... like those other really annoying tracks from "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious"... those tracks just plain ticked me off.



Overall: I wouldn't recommend this episode... unless for some reason you're a fan of musicals (which I'm not)... there isn't much of a story to it really... okay... so the monorail failed... big deal. It sucked anyway.