Bart After Dark
Encyclopedia
"Bart After Dark" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons
' eighth season
, first aired by the Fox network on November 24, 1996. After accidentally breaking a stone gargoyle at a local house, Bart is forced to work there as punishment. He assumes it will be boring work, but is pleasantly surprised when he learns that it is actually a burlesque
house. Marge is horrified to find out about the burlesque house, and resolves to have it shut down. The episode was directed by Dominic Polcino
and was written by Richard Appel
. It won an Emmy
for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" for the song "We Put the Spring in Springfield".
is interrupted with a news report that an oil tanker
has crashed and spilled millions of gallons of oil on "Baby Seal beach". Lisa
sees the report and asks Marge
if she can go and help save the wildlife. After some begging, Marge agrees and the two go to help out, leaving Bart
and Homer
home alone. The house quickly becomes a mess and Bart goes out to play with his friends. Milhouse
's toy airplane crashes into a house and Bart, despite warnings that the house is inhabited by a witch, goes to retrieve it. While doing so, he accidentally knocks down a stone gargoyle
and Belle, the owner of the house, goes to Homer and says she will not press charges but demands he be punished. Homer originally dismisses this, but Belle threatens to come back and speak with Marge, leading Homer to force Bart to do chores for Belle. Fearing the worst, Bart soon discovers that the house is actually a burlesque house called the Maison Derrière (the "back house" as Belle translates it to Bart) and quickly takes a new enthusiasm to his job.
Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa arrive at the beach, but discover that the ability to help the animals is reserved for celebrities, who are already doing the job. The two are put to work cleaning rocks, and soon abandon the job and drive home.
While picking up Bart, Homer learns about the true nature of the burlesque house, but does nothing about Bart working there. Principal Skinner visits the house and sees Bart as the door greeter. He reports it to the Lovejoys and the Flanders'
who confront Homer about the matter. Homer declares that he has no problem with Bart working there just as Marge returns home.
Marge asks Belle to close down the burlesque house, but Belle refuses saying that the house is a part of Springfield
. At a town meeting, Marge brings up the matter of the house and shows pictures of several prominent citizens leaving. During the town meeting Jasper mentions a bordello that exists somewhere in Springfield, but Grandpa tells him to be quiet. They form a mob so they can go destroy the burlesque house. The mob arrives at the house and immediately start destroying things. Bart and Homer arrive and Homer decides to try to convince the mob to stop. He does so by singing a musical number accompanied by Belle and some of her dancers. The town soon joins in and are convinced to let the house stay. However, Marge arrives with a bulldozer
, having missed the song. The town announces their intentions to let the house stay, but Marge tries to sing her own song about her views. During the opening lines, she accidentally puts the bulldozer into drive and destroys a wing of the burlesque house. She apologizes profusely and, to pay for the damage, she starts a ventriloquist act
at the house, but when Homer demands that Marge remove her clothes, Bart (now a bouncer) gets disgusted and kicks him out of the house.
, who was looking for new locales to put Bart and thought it would be funny to have him work at a burlesque house. The problem was to find a way to put such a house in Springfield, which was solved with the bit with the toy airplane. There were a dozen different possible names for the Burlesque house, some of which were raunchy.
Josh Weinstein
has said that there are so many sleazy characters in The Simpsons that it was easy to find people for the scenes in the burlesque house. A character modeled after John Swartzwelder
can also be seen.
Belle was not modeled after anyone in particular and she was redesigned several times. Belle was voiced by Tress MacNeille
but there had been previous efforts to cast a guest voice for the role.
A lot of the plot is based on The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
. The oil spill is a reference to the Exxon Valdez oil spill
. The Sea Captain was shown to be drunk at the helm, which is a reference to Joseph Hazelwood
, who was the captain of the Exxon Valdez and was accused of being drunk. Reverend Lovejoy says "This house is a very, very, very fine house", a reference to the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
song "Our House
".
of 8.5, equivalent to approximately 8.2 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files
, Melrose Place, and Beverly Hills, 90210
.
Ken Keeler
and Alf Clausen
won an Primetime Emmy Award
for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" for "We Put the Spring in Springfield". The song was also a part of the album Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons
.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 8)
The Simpsons eighth season originally aired between October 27, 1996 and May 18, 1997, beginning with "Treehouse of Horror VII". The show runners for the eighth production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season...
, first aired by the Fox network on November 24, 1996. After accidentally breaking a stone gargoyle at a local house, Bart is forced to work there as punishment. He assumes it will be boring work, but is pleasantly surprised when he learns that it is actually a burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
house. Marge is horrified to find out about the burlesque house, and resolves to have it shut down. The episode was directed by Dominic Polcino
Dominic Polcino
Dominic Polcino is an animation director who has worked on The Simpsons, Mission Hill, King of the Hill, and Family Guy. Dominic worked on the first season of Family Guy, then left to direct for King of the Hill and then returned to Family Guy...
and was written by Richard Appel
Richard Appel
Richard "Rich" Appel is an American writer, producer and former attorney. Growing up in Wilmette, Illinois, Appel developed a love of comedy and dreamt of a career as a comedy writer; he attended Harvard University and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. Following in his mother's footsteps Appel...
. It won an Emmy
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" for the song "We Put the Spring in Springfield".
Plot
An Itchy & Scratchy cartoonThe Itchy & Scratchy Show
The Itchy & Scratchy Show is a show within a show in the animated television series The Simpsons. It usually appears as a part of The Krusty the Clown Show, watched regularly by Bart and Lisa Simpson...
is interrupted with a news report that an oil tanker
Oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...
has crashed and spilled millions of gallons of oil on "Baby Seal beach". Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
sees the report and asks Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
if she can go and help save the wildlife. After some begging, Marge agrees and the two go to help out, leaving Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
home alone. The house quickly becomes a mess and Bart goes out to play with his friends. Milhouse
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
's toy airplane crashes into a house and Bart, despite warnings that the house is inhabited by a witch, goes to retrieve it. While doing so, he accidentally knocks down a stone gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
and Belle, the owner of the house, goes to Homer and says she will not press charges but demands he be punished. Homer originally dismisses this, but Belle threatens to come back and speak with Marge, leading Homer to force Bart to do chores for Belle. Fearing the worst, Bart soon discovers that the house is actually a burlesque house called the Maison Derrière (the "back house" as Belle translates it to Bart) and quickly takes a new enthusiasm to his job.
Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa arrive at the beach, but discover that the ability to help the animals is reserved for celebrities, who are already doing the job. The two are put to work cleaning rocks, and soon abandon the job and drive home.
While picking up Bart, Homer learns about the true nature of the burlesque house, but does nothing about Bart working there. Principal Skinner visits the house and sees Bart as the door greeter. He reports it to the Lovejoys and the Flanders'
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
who confront Homer about the matter. Homer declares that he has no problem with Bart working there just as Marge returns home.
Marge asks Belle to close down the burlesque house, but Belle refuses saying that the house is a part of Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
. At a town meeting, Marge brings up the matter of the house and shows pictures of several prominent citizens leaving. During the town meeting Jasper mentions a bordello that exists somewhere in Springfield, but Grandpa tells him to be quiet. They form a mob so they can go destroy the burlesque house. The mob arrives at the house and immediately start destroying things. Bart and Homer arrive and Homer decides to try to convince the mob to stop. He does so by singing a musical number accompanied by Belle and some of her dancers. The town soon joins in and are convinced to let the house stay. However, Marge arrives with a bulldozer
Bulldozer
A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...
, having missed the song. The town announces their intentions to let the house stay, but Marge tries to sing her own song about her views. During the opening lines, she accidentally puts the bulldozer into drive and destroys a wing of the burlesque house. She apologizes profusely and, to pay for the damage, she starts a ventriloquist act
Ventriloquism
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...
at the house, but when Homer demands that Marge remove her clothes, Bart (now a bouncer) gets disgusted and kicks him out of the house.
Production
The episode was written by Richard AppelRichard Appel
Richard "Rich" Appel is an American writer, producer and former attorney. Growing up in Wilmette, Illinois, Appel developed a love of comedy and dreamt of a career as a comedy writer; he attended Harvard University and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. Following in his mother's footsteps Appel...
, who was looking for new locales to put Bart and thought it would be funny to have him work at a burlesque house. The problem was to find a way to put such a house in Springfield, which was solved with the bit with the toy airplane. There were a dozen different possible names for the Burlesque house, some of which were raunchy.
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
has said that there are so many sleazy characters in The Simpsons that it was easy to find people for the scenes in the burlesque house. A character modeled after John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
can also be seen.
Belle was not modeled after anyone in particular and she was redesigned several times. Belle was voiced by Tress MacNeille
Tress MacNeille
Tress MacNeille is an American voice actress best known for providing various voices on the animated series The Simpsons, Futurama, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Disney's House of Mouse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Dave the...
but there had been previous efforts to cast a guest voice for the role.
Cultural references
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (film)
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a 1982 film adaptation of the musical of the same name released by Universal Pictures, which was co-written and directed by Colin Higgins...
. The oil spill is a reference to the Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused...
. The Sea Captain was shown to be drunk at the helm, which is a reference to Joseph Hazelwood
Joseph Hazelwood
Joseph Jeffrey Hazelwood is an American sailor. He was the captain of the Exxon Valdez during its 1989 oil spill. He was accused of being drunk at the time of the accident, though at trial he was cleared of this charge...
, who was the captain of the Exxon Valdez and was accused of being drunk. Reverend Lovejoy says "This house is a very, very, very fine house", a reference to the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
Crosby, Stills & Nash is a folk rock supergroup made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, also known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young...
song "Our House
Our House (CSNY song)
"Our House" is a song written by British singer-songwriter Graham Nash, most famously recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their 1970 album Déjà Vu. It reached #30 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song refers to Nash's brief affair with Joni Mitchell at the time Crosby, Stills Nash and...
".
Reception
In its original broadcast, "Bart After Dark" finished 57th in ratings for the week of November 18-24, 1996, with a Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 8.5, equivalent to approximately 8.2 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
, Melrose Place, and Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
.
Ken Keeler
Ken Keeler
Kenneth "Ken" Keeler is an American television producer and writer. He has written for numerous television series, most notably The Simpsons and Futurama. According to an interview with David X. Cohen, he proved a theorem which appears in the Futurama episode "The Prisoner of Benda".-Career:After...
and Alf Clausen
Alf Clausen
Alf Clausen is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990...
won an Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" for "We Put the Spring in Springfield". The song was also a part of the album Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons
Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons
Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons is the 1999 soundtrack album from The Simpsons. It takes many of the musical numbers from the series which were either not included in the previous album, Songs in the Key of Springfield, or were created since the previous album's release. The album has 53 tracks,...
.
External links
- "Bart After Dark" at The Simpsons.com