Krusty Gets Busted

"Krusty Gets Busted" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons' first season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 29, 1990.^[2] The episode was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, and directed by Brad Bird.^[1] In the episode, Krusty the Clown is convicted of armed robbery of the Kwik-E-Mart. Convinced that Krusty has been framed, Bart and Lisa investigate the incident and discover that Krusty's sidekick, Sideshow Bob, was the culprit.

This episode marks the first full-fledged appearance of Kent Brockman,^[1] and Kelsey Grammer makes his first guest appearance on the show as the voice of Sideshow Bob.^[4] The episode was well received by critics, and it was the highest rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

Plot

Homer stops by the Kwik-E-Mart on the way home from work and witnesses a masked clown resembling Krusty committing a robbery. He identifies the clown as Krusty to the police, and Krusty is arrested, upsetting Bart, who idolizes him. At the trial, Homer points out Krusty as the robber and he is convicted and sentenced to jail. The community then burns much of Krusty's merchandise. Krusty's sidekick Sideshow Bob becomes the new host of his show, retooling it to focus on education and classic literature. Still refusing to accept that his hero could have committed the crime, Bart enlists the help of a reluctant Lisa to prove Krusty's innocence.

At the crime scene, the pair deduce Krusty could not have been the robber, who used a microwave unsuitable for those with a pacemaker and read at the magazine rack (Krusty was revealed to be illiterate during the trial). They go to Sideshow Bob to find out if Krusty had any enemies, but are given tickets to his show. At the live broadcast, Bart is invited up on stage with Bob, who dismisses Bart's points on the microwave and magazine (although he does get quite sore for a few seconds after Bart points out Krusty also shot him out of a cannon). When Bob says he has "a lot of big shoes to fill", Bart remembers how the robber screamed in pain when Homer stepped on his foot and realizes that despite wearing big clown shoes all the time, Krusty would not have felt Homer stepping on them due to his small feet. Bart then deduces that Sideshow Bob is the real robber since he had the most to gain through Krusty's downfall. To prove this, he hits Bob's shoes with a mallet, making Bob scream in pain and exposing his large feet. The police, having watched the show, head down to the studio to arrest Bob.

Arrested and his crime exposed, Bob confesses the reason why he framed Krusty is because he hated spending years being on the receiving end of the clown's humiliating gags. He vows revenge on Bart while being taken away. Krusty regains the trust of the community after the charges against him are dropped. The residents and the Police also apologize to Krusty, one of the residents was Homer, for fingering him in court. Krusty says "thank you" to Bart for standing up for the truth and sticking to his convictions. A picture is taken of the two shaking hands, which Bart later hangs in his bedroom, refilled with Krusty decor.

Production

Kelsey Grammer voiced Sideshow Bob in the episode.

Director Brad Bird wanted to open the episode with a close up of Krusty's face.^[5] The staff liked the idea and he then suggested that all three acts of the episode, defined by the placement of the commercial breaks, should begin with a close up shot.^[5] Act one begins with Krusty's face introducing the audience at his show, act two begins with Krusty's face being locked up behind bars, and act three begins with Sideshow Bob's face on a big poster.^[5] Krusty's character is based on a television clown from Portland, Oregon called Rusty Nails, whom The Simpsons creator Matt Groening watched while growing up in Portland.^[6] The original teleplay, written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, was 78 pages long and many scenes had to be cut.^[7] One scene that had to be cut down was the scene where Patty and Selma show the slideshow of their vacation; it originally contained images of them being detained for bringing heroin into America.^[7]

Sideshow Bob's first major appearance on The Simpsons was in this episode, but he first appeared in the season one episode "The Telltale Head".^[8] In that appearance, his design was more simple and his hair was round in shape. However near the end of the episode he appears with his more familiar hairstyle. Bob's design was updated for "Krusty Gets Busted", and the animators tried to redo his scenes in "The Telltale Head" with the re-design, but did not have enough time.^[8] The script for "Krusty Gets Busted" called for James Earl Jones to voice Bob, but the producers instead went with Kelsey Grammer, a cast member on Cheers at the time.^[4] Kent Brockman, Judge Snyder, and Scott Christian make their first appearances on The Simpsons in this episode.^[9]

Chief Wiggum's order during the suspect line-up to "send in the clowns" is an allusion to the Stephen Sondheim song "Send in the Clowns" from the 1973 musical A Little Night Music. The Sondheim musical took its name from Mozart's Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which is the theme tune to Sideshow Bob's show.^[1] The close up shot of Krusty's face behind bars in the beginning of act two is a reference of the closing credit motif of the British television series The Prisoner from the 1960s.^[1] The background music in that scene resembles the theme of the television series Mission: Impossible at one point.^[1] The line "The Day the Laughter Died", shown during the newscast, is a reference to the Andrew Dice Clay album released the previous month. Sideshow Bob is reading The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexander Dumas to the studio audience.^[10] The song "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Cole Porter is featured in the episode.^[1] Following Sideshow Bob's arrest, he mutters: "I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for these meddling kids.", which is a reference to a catchphrase from Hanna-Barbera's animated television show Scooby-Doo which was airing on ABC as A Pup Named Scooby-Doo when this episode aired.^[6]

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Krusty Gets Busted" finished thirteenth place in the ratings for the week of April 23–29, 1990, with a Nielsen rating of 16.4. It was the highest rated show on the Fox network that week.^[11] The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. Series creator Matt Groening listed it as his ninth favorite episode of The Simpsons and added "I have a peculiar love of TV clownery".^[12] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised the episode: "The invention of the Simpsons' arch enemy as a lugubrious yet psychotic Englishman in dreadlocks succeeds wonderfully in this super-fast, super-funny episode that works by constantly reversing the audience's expectations."^[1] In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 3/5.^[13] Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that "throughout the episode we found great material; it really seemed clear that the show was starting to turn into the piece we now know and love. It's hard for me to relate any deficiencies" and added that "almost every Bob episode offers a lot of fun, and this episode started that trend in fine style."^[14]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Krusty Gets Busted

• "Krusty Gets Busted" at The Simpsons.com
• "Krusty Gets Busted episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Krusty Gets Busted" on IMDb
• "Krusty Gets Busted" at TV.com