Some Enchanted Evening (''The Simpsons'')

"Some Enchanted Evening"
The Simpsons episode
Ms. Botz disables the phones after subduing Bart and Lisa.
Episode no. 13
Directed by David Silverman
Kent Butterworth
Written by Matt Groening
Sam Simon
Showrunner(s) James L. Brooks
Matt Groening
Sam Simon
Production code 7G01
Original air date May 13, 1990[1]
Chalkboard gag "I will not yell 'Fire' in a crowded classroom."[1]
Couch gag The family comes in and just sits on the couch in a normal manner.[2]
Commentary Matt Groening
James L. Brooks
Al Jean
David Silverman
Guest appearance(s)
Season 1 episodes
Seasons

"Some Enchanted Evening" is the thirteenth and final episode of The Simpsons' first season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 13, 1990. Written by Matt Groening and Sam Simon and directed by David Silverman and Kent Butterworth, "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first episode produced for season one and was intended to air as the series premiere, but served as the final episode of the season due to significant animation problems. It is also the last episode to feature the original opening sequence starting from "Bart the Genius". In the episode, Homer and Marge spend a night on the town while leaving the children with a diabolical babysitter named Ms. Botz.

The former Laverne & Shirley star Penny Marshall provided the voice of Ms. Botz. 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. Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics; some deemed it the best episode of the season while others regarded it as the weakest. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 15.4, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

Plot

Marge is depressed that Homer takes her for granted. She calls Dr. Marvin Monroe's radio call-in therapy show. Homer, hearing the call on a radio at work, feels bad, goes to Moe's Tavern afterward and, on Moe's advice, brings home a rose and a box of chocolates. Marge's mood softens and Homer invites her to a dinner at a fancy restaurant, dancing, and a night at a motel.

Marge and Homer hire Ms. Botz through a babysitting service to watch the kids. Ms. Botz puts Maggie to bed and has Bart and Lisa watch The Happy Little Elves. Bart and Lisa then learn from a TV show called America's Most Armed and Dangerous that Ms. Botz is a wanted burglar nicknamed "The Babysitter Bandit." Realizing her cover is blown, Botz ties the kids up while packing the family's possessions into her suitcases. After Maggie awakes and frees Bart and Lisa, they knock out Ms. Botz with a baseball bat.

Realizing Botz disabled the phone line, the kids go to the police station and call the TV show. Marge and Homer, unable to reach them as a result, return home early to find Ms. Botz bound and gagged. Homer, unaware of the situation, frees her and pays her handsomely. She flees just as the kids arrive with the police and news media. Homer then realizes his mistake and lies about how he fought Botz, but could not stop her from escaping. Later that night, Homer moans about his blunder on TV, but Marge says if he raised three children who can hogtie a stranger, he must be doing something right.

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.[3] The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and writer/producer Sam Simon (of such television series as Cheers) wrote the script for the episode. Both Groening and Simon are credited with developing the series along with executive producer James L. Brooks. The name of Ms. Botz was based on a real person that once babysat Groening.[4]

James L. Brooks strongly criticized the initial version of the episode

The episode was first directed by Kent Butterworth. Klasky-Csupo, the animation studio that produced the earlier Simpsons shorts, was in charge of the animation, with one exception. During the years of producing the shorts, everything was created in-house. As a budgetary consideration production was subcontracted to South Korean animation studio AKOM.[5] While character and background layout was done in Los Angeles, inbetweening, coloring and filming is done by the overseas studio.[5] A debacle erupted when this episode, the first to return from Korea, was screened in front of the production staff at the Gracie Films bungalow.[4] Brooks' initial reaction to the animation was "This is shit."[4] Afterwards the room almost cleared.[4] A heated argument ensued between Brooks and Klasky-Csupo animation studio head Gabor Csupo, who denied that there was anything wrong with the animation and suggested that the real problem was the quality of the show's writing.[6]

The producers felt the animation did not exhibit a distinct style envisioned for the show. At the time there were only a few choices for animation style. Usually, they would follow the style of either Disney, Warner Bros., or Hanna-Barbera. Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons had a universe that was bendy and the characters seemed to be made of rubber.[4] 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 of AKOM's early work that was considered by the producers to be too cartoonish was that the doors throughout in the episode were animated with the same rubber effect that they wanted to avoid. The style of Hanna-Barbera featured the use of cartoon sounds, which they did not want either.[4]

The producers considered aborting 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.[6] Afterwards, the producers entreated Fox to postpone the series premiere for several months. The premiere then switched to "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which had to be aired in December, being a Christmas special.[7] This ensured that more time could be spent fixing the animation problems and rewriting much of this episode. Directorial retakes were handled by David Silverman, who already had considerable experience directing the shorts.[4] 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.[3] It is still possible to see the doors slam like they were made of rubber.[4] The Fox censors wanted to replace the sentence "the blue thing with the things", which they believed to be too sexual.[4] Due to the fledgling position of the Fox network, Brooks had obtained an unusual contractual provision that ensured the network could not interfere with the creative process by providing show notes,[8] so the producers simply ignored the censors.[4]

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 yellow hair, which was later changed to brown in order to differentiate the character's hair color from that of his skin.[3] Because of the delayed airing, there are also a few continuity errors. Santa's Little Helper, for example, does not appear in this episode, despite being introduced in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".[3] Hank Azaria was at the time credited as a guest star for portraying Moe Szyslak.[9] In this episode Moe was originally voiced by Christopher Collins, but when Azaria came with his version, they decided to overdub Collins' voice.[3] Azaria became a regular cast member in the second season.

Ms. Botz's 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.[4] Moe's Tavern plays "The Man That Got Away" from the 1954 remake of A Star Is Born directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason.[2]

Reception

Penny Marshall was named one of AOL's 25 favorite guest stars

In its original broadcast, "Some Enchanted Evening" finished 12th for the week in the Nielsen ratings with a rating of 15.4, being seen by approximately 14.2 million homes.[10] The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.[10]

Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics. 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."[2] Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that he "thought 'Evening' was a reasonably good episode." and added that "Still, it’s an awkward piece, and not one I enjoyed a great deal. To be sure, 'Evening' was generally entertaining, but it's nothing special."[11] In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 1.5/5.[12] Another DVD review from The Digital Bits calls the behind the scenes story more interesting than the actual episode.[13]

According to Al Jean, viewers thought this episode was the best episode of the first season after the season ended.[7] However in 2006, IGN.com named "The Crepes of Wrath" the best episode of the first season.[14] Penny Marshall, who played Ms. Botz, ranked on AOL's list of their favorite 25 Simpsons guest stars.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 Richmond & Coffman 1997, pp. 30-31.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Some Enchanted Evening". BBC. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Silverman, David (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Groening, Matt (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  5. 1 2 Deneroff, Harvey (January 2000). "Matt Groening's Baby Turns 10". Animation Magazine, Vol. 14, #1. pp. 10, 12.
  6. 1 2 Brooks, James L. (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  7. 1 2 Jean, Al (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  8. ↑ Kuipers, Dean (2004-04-15). "Harry Shearer". Los Angeles: City Beat. Archived from the original on July 17, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-01.
  9. ↑ End credits
  10. 1 2 Richmond, Ray (May 16, 1990). "CBS wins the week as networks' ratings hit record low". The Orange County Register. p. L06.
  11. ↑ Jacobson, Colin. "The Simpsons: The Complete First Season (1990)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
  12. ↑ Grelck, David B. (2001-09-25). "The Complete First Season". WDBGProductions. Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2011-09-15.
  13. ↑ Doogan, Todd (2001-09-21). "The Simpsons: The Complete First Season". The Digital Bits. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  14. ↑ Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski (2006-09-08). "The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes". IGN. Archived from the original on 2007-03-02. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
  15. ↑ Potts, Kimberly. "Favorite 'Simpsons' Guest Stars". AOL. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
Bibliography

  • Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia, eds. The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M.
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