Some Enchanted Evening (The Simpsons)

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The Simpsons episode
"Some Enchanted Evening"
Ms. Botz captures Bart and Lisa.
Episode no. 13
Prod. code 7G01
Orig. airdate May 13, 1990[1]
Show runner(s) James L. Brooks
Matt Groening
Sam Simon
Written by Matt Groening
Sam Simon
Directed by David Silverman
Kent Butterworth
Chalkboard "I will not yell 'Fire' in a crowded classroom."[2]
Couch gag The entire family tightly fits onto the couch. No gag.[3]
Guest star(s) Penny Marshall as Ms. Lucille Botz

Christopher Collins as TV host
June Foray as receptionist
Paul Willson as florist[3]
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
James L. Brooks
David Silverman
Season 1
December 17, 1989 – May 13, 1990
  1. "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"
  2. "Bart the Genius"
  3. "Homer's Odyssey"
  4. "There's No Disgrace Like Home"
  5. "Bart the General"
  6. "Moaning Lisa"
  7. "The Call of the Simpsons"
  8. "The Telltale Head"
  9. "Life on the Fast Lane"
  10. "Homer's Night Out"
  11. "The Crepes of Wrath"
  12. "Krusty Gets Busted"
  13. "Some Enchanted Evening"
List of all The Simpsons episodes
This article is about the Simpsons episode; for other uses see Some Enchanted Evening.

"Some Enchanted Evening" is the thirteenth and final episode of The Simpsons' first season and originally aired on the Fox network on May 13, 1990. Although it aired as the season finale, it was the first episode of the series to be produced, but was aired last due to significant animation problems. The episode features Bart's, Lisa's, and Maggie's encounter with the notorious "Babysitter Bandit". After having trouble finding a babysitter, Homer and Marge find Mrs. Botz. It turns out that Mrs. Botz is really the "Babysitter Bandit" and she robs the family.

The episode features cultural references to such films as The Night of the Hunter and Psycho as well as a musical reference to A Star Is Born. It met mixed reception; some critics deemed it the best episode of the season while others held it as the season's poorest.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Marge is fed up with Homer's thoughtlessness and explains her predicament on Dr. Marvin Monroe's radio call-in show. Monroe urges Marge to confront Homer about her feelings. Homer, who has heard the call on a radio at work, feels bad and brings home a single rose. Marge's mood immediately softens, and a remorseful Homer decides to treat Marge to a night on the town: dinner at a fancy restaurant, dancing, and a night at a hotel.

Marge and Homer now need a babysitter and hire Ms. Botz through a local babysitting service. On Marge's advice, Ms. Botz has Bart and Lisa watching The Happy Little Elves. However, after Ms. Botz leaves the room, Bart tunes into a station airing "America's Most Armed and Dangerous", which is doing a profile of a wanted burglar nicknamed "The Babysitter Bandit." A profile of the suspect shows Bart and Lisa that Ms. Botz is "The Babysitter Bandit." Ms. Botz enters the living room and realizes that her cover has been blown. Bart and Lisa try to hide, but she easily finds them, ties them up and makes them watch The Happy Little Elves tape as she goes about her work uninterrupted. Maggie eventually wakes up and goes downstairs, to discover that her siblings are tied up watching TV. Eventually, Maggie frees Bart and Lisa, and they are able to knock out Ms. Botz with a baseball bat.

After tying up Ms. Botz, the kids find all their telephones disabled and go to a nearby pay telephone to alert the authorities. Meanwhile, Marge decides to try to call home to check up on things at home, but gets no answer. Worried, she and Homer decide to go home and find Ms. Botz bound and gagged. Homer, thinking his children have gotten the best of another babysitter and unaware of her true identity, frees her and pays her handsomely. After advising Homer to keep an eye on Bart, Ms. Botz makes a clean getaway, just seconds before the Springfield police arrive to arrest her. Homer begins to scold Bart for his behavior toward Ms. Botz until he finds a reporter's microphone shoved in his face, telling him he just freed a wanted criminal.[1][2][3]

[edit] Production

Even though this episode aired as the last episode of the first season, it was the first episode in production and was intended to be the first episode to air from the half-hour show. The series is a spin-off from The Tracey Ullman Show in which the family already appeared in a series of animated one-minute shorts. The characters were already created, but had to be further developed in order to carry a half-hour show. The episode was therefore meant as an introduction to the characters.[4] Matt Groening and Sam Simon wrote the script for the episode. Groening is the creator of The Simpsons and Simon is an experienced writer and producer who previously had done work on such television series as Cheers. Both are credited with developing the series. The name of Ms. Botz was based on a babysitter that Matt Groening's once had.[5]

The episode was first directed by Kent Butterworth. Klasky-Csupo animation studio that produced the shorts was in charge of the animation, with one exception. During the years of producing the shorts, everything was created in-house. Due to the increased workload, production was being subcontracted to the South Korean animation studio AKOM.[6] While character and background layout is done by the domestic studio, tweening coloring and filming is done by the overseas studio.[6]

A debacle erupted when this episode, the first to return from animation in Korea, was screened in front of the production staff at the Gracie Films bungalow.[5] The executive producer and developer James L. Brooks' initial reaction to the animation was, "This is shit."[5] After that reaction the room almost cleared.[5] The heated argument that ensued between him and Klasky-Csupo animation studio head Gabor Csupo, who denied that there was anything wrong with the animation and suggested that the real problem lay with the quality of the show's writing.[7]

The problem with the animation from the producers' point-of-view was that it did not go by a distinct style envisioned for the show. At the time there were only a few choices for animation style. Usually, they would either follow the style of Disney, Warner Brothers or Hanna-Barbera. Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons had a universe that was bendy and the characters seemed to be made of rubber.[5] The producers wanted a realistic environment in which the characters and objects could not do anything that was not possible in the real world. One example with the early animation being cartoonish was that the doors behaved liked rubber when slammed. The style of Hanna-Barbera featured the use of cartoon sounds, which they did not want either.[5]

The producers considered aborting production on the series if the next episode, "Bart the Genius" turned out as this episode, but fortunately it turned out to suffer only a few, easily fixable problems.[7] Afterwards, the producers entreated Fox to push the air date for the series premiere back several months, which was then switched to "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which had to be aired in December, being a Christmas special.[8] This ensured that more time could be spent fixing the animation problems with this episode. Directorial duties for the retakes were handed from Kent Butterworth to David Silverman, who already had considerable experience directing the shorts.[5]

Silverman estimates that about 70% of everything had to be redone. Most of these retakes consisted of changing the backgrounds. The result is an episode where the animation is uneven, because it shifts between the early animation and the retakes.[4] It is still possible to see the doors slam like they were made of rubber.[5] The Fox censors wanted to replace the sentence "the blue thing with the things", which they believed to be too sexual.[5] Due to the fledgling position of the Fox network, Jim Brooks had obtained an unusual contractual provision that ensured the network could not interfere with the creative process by providing show notes,[9] so this was ignored by the producers.[5]

The episode featured a few early character designs. Moe Szyslak has black hair in this episode, which was later changed to grey. Barney Gumble has blonde hair in this episode, which was later change to brown, in order to not have the character's hair color the same as his skin.[4] There is also a few continuity errors, because of the episode being moved back to the last episode of the season. Santa's Little Helper does not appear in this episode, despite being introduced in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".[4]

Hank Azaria was at the time credited as a guest star for portraying Moe Szyslak.[10] In this episode Moe was originally voiced by Christopher Collins, but when Azaria came with his version, they decided to overdub his voice.[4] He became a regular in the second season.

[edit] Cultural references

Ms. Botz pursuit of Bart into the cellar is reminiscent of Robert Mitchum's pursuit of a young boy in the film The Night of the Hunter.[5] Moe's Tavern plays "The Man That Got Away" from A Star Is Born in the 1954 remake version directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason.[3]

[edit] Reception

The episode has been received with mixed results. According to Al Jean people thought this episode to be the greatest episode of the first season after the season ended.[8] However in 2006, IGN.com named "The Crepes of Wrath" the best episode of the first season.[11] The episode finished 12th for the week in the Nielsen Ratings with a rating of 15.4, being seen by approximately 14.2 million homes.[12]

The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "It's quite a shock to discover that this confident, fully rounded episode was the first to be made. The perfect template."[3] In a DVD review of the first season David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 1.5/5.0, placing it as one of the worst of the season.[13] Another DVD review from The Digital Bits calls the behind the scenes story more interesting than the actual episode.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Some Enchanted Evening. The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
  2. ^ a b Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-00063-8898-1. 
  3. ^ a b c d e Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). Some Enchanted Evening. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
  4. ^ a b c d e Silverman, David. (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Groening, Matt. (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ a b Deneroff, Harvey. "Matt Groening's Baby Turns 10", Animation Magazine, Vol. 14, #1, January 2000, pp. 10, 12. 
  7. ^ a b Brooks, James L.. (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ a b Jean, Al. (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  9. ^ Kuipers, Dean (2004-04-15). Harry Shearer. Los Angeles: City Beat. Retrieved on 2006-09-01.
  10. ^ End credits
  11. ^ Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski (2006-09-08). The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
  12. ^ Richmond , Ray. "CBS wins the week as networks' ratings hit record low", The Orange County Register, May 16, 1990, p. L06. Retrieved on 2008-05-09. 
  13. ^ Grelck, David B (2003). The Simpsons: The Complete First Season. WDBG Productions. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
  14. ^ Doogan, Todd (2001-09-21). The Simpsons: The Complete First Season. The Digital Bits. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.

[edit] External links

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