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The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants
The Ten-Per-Cent Solution
Holidays of Future Passed

"The Ten-Per-Cent Solution" is the eighth episode of Season 23.

Synopsis[]

Krusty is down on his luck when his show gets cancelled and he also loses his talent agent. To help him out, the Simpsons find a veteran agent, who happened to be his first one, Annie Dubinsky. Despite their troubled past, Krusty gives Annie another chance. The move to bring the retro style helps revive his show. However, it has downside, Krusty must choose of getting help afterwards, from his agent or the network.

Full Story[]

Krusty becomes depressed after getting fired from his television show for being unpopular with children. The Simpson family encourages him to make a comeback, suggesting that he seek help from an agent they met earlier at a television museum. This agent turns out to be Annie Dubinsky, who was Krusty's first agent. Krusty left her when he became successful but now he begs her to take him as a client again. She accepts the offer and together they are able to get him back on television, hosting a show for adults that features his clown tricks. However, Annie soon begins to interfere too much, which frustrates the network executives.

Production[]

"The Ten-Per-Cent Solution" was written by Dan Castellaneta and his wife Deb Lacusta. Late actress Joan Rivers guest starred in the episode as Annie. In an interview with E! News at that time, Rivers noted that this was not her first animated voice-over role, although it was her biggest one yet. She further added that she is a fan of the show because it is "so clever and so funny on so many levels. So when they called and said, 'Do you want to do it?' without even reading a script I said, 'Absolutely.'" Adam Buckman, a former television columnist at the New York Post, noted on his blog that the story of the episode is similar to a period in Rivers' life in the late 1980s. At that time, she was hosting The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers on the Fox network. When Rivers challenged Fox executives who wanted to fire her husband Edgar Rosenberg as the show's executive producer, the network fired them. Rosenberg committed suicide just three months later. Buckman wrote that the story of "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution" was "no doubt devised with Rivers’ approval and possibly with her input", and that "only a comedian of her stature and experience" would attempt to spoof a personal tragedy such as this one. Other guest stars in the episode include actor Kevin Dillon and stand-up comedian Janeane Garofalo as themselves, and standup comedian Jackie Mason in a minor reprisal of his role as Krusty's father Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky, speaking only one line.

Citations[]

Krusty The ClownKrusty the Clown Show Characters, Locations and Key Episodes
Krusty the Clown | Sideshow Bob | Sideshow Mel | Sophie Krustofsky | Mr. Teeny

Krusty Burger | Clown College | Kamp Krusty
Krusty Gets Busted | Itchy & Scratchy & Marge | Like Father, Like Clown | Kamp Krusty | Krusty Gets Kancelled | Bart Gets Famous | Homie the Clown | Bart the Fink | The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show | The Last Temptation of Krust | Insane Clown Poppy | Day of the Jackanapes | Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington | Today, I Am a Clown | Yokel Chords | All About Lisa | Once Upon a Time in Springfield | The Ten-Per-Cent Solution | Clown in the Dumps | The Nightmare After Krustmas | Fears of a Clown | Krusty the Clown (episode) | The Clown Stays in the Picture

Season 22 Season 23 Episodes Season 24
The Falcon and the D'ohmanBart Stops to Smell the RooseveltsTreehouse of Horror XXIIReplaceable YouThe Food WifeThe Book JobThe Man in the Blue Flannel PantsThe Ten-Per-Cent SolutionHolidays of Future PassedPolitically Inept, with Homer SimpsonThe D'oh-cial NetworkMoe Goes from Rags to RichesThe Daughter Also RisesAt Long Last LeaveExit Through the Kwik-E-MartHow I Wet Your MotherThem, RobotBeware My Cheating BartA Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do AgainThe Spy Who Learned MeNed 'N Edna's BlendLisa Goes Gaga
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