Episode 3F08
Written by Spike Ferestein
Directed by Dominic Polcino
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor
Special guest voices: Kelsey Grammer (as Sideshow Bob), R. Lee Ermey (as Colonel Habaplap)

Premise: On a day trip from Springwood Minimum Security Prison to an air base, Sideshow Bob conceives a fiendish plot to be rid of his second greatest enemy - television. And his first greatest enemy - Bart. And also his sister Lisa - to whom he's fairly indifferent.

Features: Krusty, Sideshow Mel, Sideshow Bob, Chief Wiggum, Spotty Boy, Lou, Milhouse, Grampa, Martin, Moe, Dr Hibbert, Mayor Quimby, Dr Frink, Bumblebee Man.

Couch: The mer-Simpsons swim into their underwater living room.

Trivia:

• The 'esteemed representatives of television' are Kent Brockman, Bumblebee Man, Doctor Who (the Tom Baker model familiar to US viewers through endless reruns on public broadcast 'pledge' TV stations), and Krusty.

Homage: The nuclear explosion sequence, the bunker refuge of the US Army, and the trigger-happy General all come from Dr Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1963). R. Lee Ermery's role as Colonel Habaplap is a close cousin to his role in Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987). Sideshow Bob is seen at one point of the episode debating with Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

Notes: Probably the least satisfying of Sideshow Bob's gleamings - but there's enough slapstick and satire (on surprising targets, including box kites) to keep things ticking along nicely.