Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts
Encyclopedia
"Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" is the second episode of the twenty-third season
of the animated comedy series The Simpsons
. It originally aired on the Fox network
in the United States on October 2, 2011. The episode was the first to feature Superintendent Chalmers as the central character and Chalmers' flashbacks references the films The Breakfast Club
and Fight Club
. In the episode, Principal Skinner challenges Superintendent Chalmers to take over Bart
's education after one of his pranks. Chalmers accepts and starts teaching Bart about Theodore Roosevelt
and manliness. After he takes Bart and his friends on an unauthorized field trip which results in one of the children breaking an arm, Chalmers is fired. Bart and his friends then take over the school in an effort to save his job.
The episode was written by Tim Long
, directed by Steven Dean Moore
, and features the voice of Theodore Roosevelt through archive recordings. The opening sequence was guest directed by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi
, who previously created the animated television show, The Ren & Stimpy Show. In its original American broadcast, it was viewed by approximately 6.19 million people. The show overall received positive reviews for the story. Special praise was given to the guest directed opening sequence by Kricfalusi.
. Every item in the auction is sold to an English widow
named Edith Knickertwist, who is bidding over the phone. When the auction is over, Bart
reveals that he was the real Mrs. Knickertwist and that there is no money for the school. Being frustrated over Bart's latest farce and pressured by his supervisor Superintendent Chalmers, Principal Skinner challenges Chalmers to take over Bart's education. Chalmers accepts and immediately gives Bart his own lesson plan, which primarily consists of former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt
. He makes Bart interested in the subject by talking about Roosevelt's heroic and rebellious nature and classmates Milhouse
, Nelson
, Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph soon join Bart in his education.
With the success of his lessons, Chalmers plans to take them all on a field trip
to Springfield Forest, in which Roosevelt left one of his spectacles. The field trip
does not go well, however, as Nelson breaks his arm when he tries to reach for the spectacles. Since it was an unauthorized field trip, Nelson's mother threatens to sue the school for medical expenses, which leads to Chalmers getting fired. In order to save Chalmers' job, Bart and his friends, who now go by the name "The Brotherhood of the Spectacles", take over the school in a hostage situation and stand up for the teacher who made a meaningful impact to them. They lock all of the teachers out of the school and demand that Chalmers get reinstated. Soon enough, a SWAT team prepares to storm the school, before Chalmers walks up to convince Bart to stop. Luckily, Chief Wiggum accidentally drops his gun, shooting the school representative State Comptroller Atkins in the leg, who thereafter agrees to reinstate Chalmers.
and directed by Steven Dean Moore
. The episode features former American President Theodore Roosevelt
with the use of archival audio recordings. The use of Roosevelt's voice was first announced at the San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California
, on July 23, 2011. Showrunner Al Jean
revealed to the press that "we [the staff] have actual audio of Roosevelt (taken from a speech circa 1918) in the show. I thought, 'Finally! We can put a president in the show.' And a good one too. We're going to give him a little credit at the end."
Even though Superintendent Chalmers was first introduced in the season four
episode "Whacking Day
", the character had never been a central part to an episode. This episode marks the first time in which the entire episode follows Chalmers. In Chalmers' flashback from his teaching days, the scene looks like the library of Shermer High School from the film The Breakfast Club
from 1985. The students however refer to the club as Fight Club
.
Canadian animator and creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, John Kricfalusi
, guest animated the couch gag for the episode. This was the second time The Simpsons had chosen a guest director for its opening sequence
, following last season's episode "MoneyBART
", which was guest directed by British graffiti artist
and political activist Banksy
. Previously, Kricfalusi had criticized The Simpsons staff in the show's early years by saying that "the show succeeded despite the writing" and similarly derogatory comments. The producers responded with the fourth season episode "The Front
" (1993), in which The Ren & Stimpy Show is nominated for a cartoon award. During the award ceremony, the clip from the nominated episode is merely a black screen with the text "Clip not done yet", a comment on the slow production time of the show. The show was mentioned again in the season six
episode "Another Simpsons Clip Show
" (1994), when Lisa claims that Ren & Stimpy recycles animation to make new episodes, while referencing Itchy & Scratchy's habit of doing the same. Despite this, Kricfalusi changed his tone in an interview with Aaron Simpson
in 2007 and claimed that The Simpsons made it easier to do more edgy work: "Well it started with Bakshi
’s Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
and Pee Wee Herman. Those were kid shows, but with layers of perversion in them. Then The Simpsons came along and did edgy material in prime time cartoons."
After the positive response to the opening sequence by Banksy, creator Matt Groening
and Jean came to Kricfalusi and asked him if he could do something similar. Originally, they only wanted him to do the storyboards and then let their regular crew animate it, but Kricfalusi insisted on doing the animation himself, explaining that "If we had done it that way, no one would even have known that I had anything to do with it because it would have ended up on model and all pose to pose
". On The Simpsons, the animators draws key poses and then let tweeners interpolate between those poses. The interpolation however, is a straight a to b animation. That way the animation ends up having the characters just going from pose to pose. Kricfalusi explains that on The Simpsons he "wanted to try moving the characters in crazy fun ways, not just looking funny each time they come to a stop", and further elaborated "that the way things happened was even more important than what was happening in my work. You can’t write visual performance. You have to actually draw it."
He showed Groening and Jean his Adult Swim
shorts and Groening responded by giving him free hands to do the 35-second-long segment. Groening told him to break all The Simpsons rules, but Kricfalusi explains that he "tried not to break any rules in the characters’ personalities, just in the execution of the visuals. I didn’t follow any models—not even my own". The more rules he broke, the more pleased Groening and Jean were with the result. Contrary to Banksy, who lives a life in secrecy, Kricfalusi was involved in every detail and even oversaw the dubbing
of the final soundtrack. While Kricfalusi animated the 2D parts, he had John Kedzie to help him with the computer graphics
and Sarah Harkey and Tommy Tanner to do the assistant animation.
In an interview by Neil Bennett from Digital Arts Magazine, Kricfalusi revealed that he would have taken a different approach to the animation if he were to animate the entire episode. Primarily, the animation would be slower paced than it was in the 35-second-long segment. The couch gag was done at a faster pace so he was able to include all of his ideas. Kricfalusi explains that "[if I did a whole episode], I would definitely keep on experimenting with the way they move and the acting. I'm sure I would do of my trademark long scenes of two characters interacting with each other without a cut. I would [also] want to do more stuff with Marge. I loved animating her and was inspired by the way the Fleischers animated Olive Oyl
. I couldn't animate a whole half hour myself, so I would hire other animators (and designers, painters, etc) with strong styles and cast them according to which parts of the story would best take advantage of their individual talent."
in the United States on October 2, 2011. It was watched by approximately 6.19 million people during this broadcast. The show received a 3.0 Nielsen rating in the demographic for adults aged 18–49, which was a 23% drop from the season premiere episode, and an eight percent audience share. The Simpsons became the second highest-rated program in Fox's Animation Domination lineup that night in terms of total viewers and in the 18–49 demographic, finishing with a higher rating than The Cleveland Show
and American Dad!
, but a lower rating than Family Guy
. These three other animated shows were part of a crossover
event, called Night of the Hurricane
, in which they shared the same storyline. For the week of September 26 – October 2, 2011, "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" tied for 29th place in the ratings among all network prime-time broadcasts in the 18–49 demographic.
Since airing, "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" has been well-received by television critics. Hayden Childs of The A.V. Club
gave this episode a "B" rating and commented that "The Simpsons episodes that strive to have a little heart without going overboard are generally going to work better than the random-gag episodes, at least at this point in the storied history of The Simpsons, and 'Bart Stops To Smell The Roosevelts' has enough wee little heart to see this episode through", but further wrote that "there were a number of jokes that didn't work, Milhouse's final scene in particular, but the episode had a steady stream of gags to push through the lean times. And that's all we can ask for." Ology
's Josh Harrison was also positive and gave the episode a rating of seven out of ten, while commenting that he "thought this was a definite downgrade from the season premiere in terms of sheer comedic value, but the sincerity of Bart's educational experience, combined with the enthusiasm of his mad quest for justice, definitely made this one a winner."
The couch gag for the episode was critically acclaimed by television critics. Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew called the opening revolutionary and explained that "in 35 short and sweet seconds, he liberates the animation of The Simpsons from years of graphic banality." He continued: "The visual look of the show, which has been so carefully controlled by its producers, becomes a giddy and unrestrained playground for graphic play, and the balance of creative authority is shifted from the writers' room to the animators in one fell swoop." When comparing the segment to Banksy's, Amidi concluded that it is "in fact, far more subversive because he focuses almost exclusively on making a pictorial statement, relegating the show's dominant literary elements to the back seat." Similarly, Television Blend
's Katey Rich wrote that she appreciates "The Simpsons always being willing to push the envelope in different ways", but admitted that it would take her "some time to get the gangly-legged Marge Simpson and the leering Homer Simpson out of [her] brain."
The Simpsons (season 23)
The Simpsons twenty-third season is the current season of The Simpsons. It premiered on September 25, 2011. It will include the 500th episode which is expected to air February 19, 2012. Due to financial difficulties, the network was unable to produce the show under its current contract and unless...
of the animated comedy series 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...
. It originally aired on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on October 2, 2011. The episode was the first to feature Superintendent Chalmers as the central character and Chalmers' flashbacks references the films The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American teen drama film written and directed by John Hughes. The storyline follows five teenagers as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.-Plot:The plot follows five students at...
and Fight Club
Fight Club (film)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
. In the episode, Principal Skinner challenges Superintendent Chalmers to take over 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...
's education after one of his pranks. Chalmers accepts and starts teaching Bart about Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and manliness. After he takes Bart and his friends on an unauthorized field trip which results in one of the children breaking an arm, Chalmers is fired. Bart and his friends then take over the school in an effort to save his job.
The episode was written by Tim Long
Tim Long
Tim Long is a comedy writer born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Tim calls Exeter, Ontario, Canada his home town and has written for The Simpsons, Politically Incorrect, Spy Magazine and The Late Show with David Letterman. Currently credited as a consulting producer on The Simpsons, Long was - until...
, directed by Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an animation director who has directed 35 episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several episodes of the long running Nicktoon programme Rugrats...
, and features the voice of Theodore Roosevelt through archive recordings. The opening sequence was guest directed by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi
John Kricfalusi
Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...
, who previously created the animated television show, The Ren & Stimpy Show. In its original American broadcast, it was viewed by approximately 6.19 million people. The show overall received positive reviews for the story. Special praise was given to the guest directed opening sequence by Kricfalusi.
Plot
Springfield Elementary School is hosting a fundraiser auction and invites all the families with children in their classes, including the Simpson familySimpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
. Every item in the auction is sold to an English widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
named Edith Knickertwist, who is bidding over the phone. When the auction is over, 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...
reveals that he was the real Mrs. Knickertwist and that there is no money for the school. Being frustrated over Bart's latest farce and pressured by his supervisor Superintendent Chalmers, Principal Skinner challenges Chalmers to take over Bart's education. Chalmers accepts and immediately gives Bart his own lesson plan, which primarily consists of former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. He makes Bart interested in the subject by talking about Roosevelt's heroic and rebellious nature and classmates 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....
, Nelson
Nelson Muntz
Nelson Mandela Muntz is a fictional character and bully from the animated TV series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Nelson was introduced in Season 1's "Bart the General" as a bully but later turned into a friend of Bart Simpson, who is best identified by his signature laugh .-Role...
, Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph soon join Bart in his education.
With the success of his lessons, Chalmers plans to take them all on a field trip
Field trip
A field trip or excursion, known as school trip in the UK and school tour in Ireland, is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment...
to Springfield Forest, in which Roosevelt left one of his spectacles. The field trip
Field trip
A field trip or excursion, known as school trip in the UK and school tour in Ireland, is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment...
does not go well, however, as Nelson breaks his arm when he tries to reach for the spectacles. Since it was an unauthorized field trip, Nelson's mother threatens to sue the school for medical expenses, which leads to Chalmers getting fired. In order to save Chalmers' job, Bart and his friends, who now go by the name "The Brotherhood of the Spectacles", take over the school in a hostage situation and stand up for the teacher who made a meaningful impact to them. They lock all of the teachers out of the school and demand that Chalmers get reinstated. Soon enough, a SWAT team prepares to storm the school, before Chalmers walks up to convince Bart to stop. Luckily, Chief Wiggum accidentally drops his gun, shooting the school representative State Comptroller Atkins in the leg, who thereafter agrees to reinstate Chalmers.
Production
"Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" was written by Tim LongTim Long
Tim Long is a comedy writer born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Tim calls Exeter, Ontario, Canada his home town and has written for The Simpsons, Politically Incorrect, Spy Magazine and The Late Show with David Letterman. Currently credited as a consulting producer on The Simpsons, Long was - until...
and directed by Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an animation director who has directed 35 episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several episodes of the long running Nicktoon programme Rugrats...
. The episode features former American President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
with the use of archival audio recordings. The use of Roosevelt's voice was first announced at the San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, on July 23, 2011. Showrunner Al Jean
Al Jean
Al Jean is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on The Simpsons. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss...
revealed to the press that "we [the staff] have actual audio of Roosevelt (taken from a speech circa 1918) in the show. I thought, 'Finally! We can put a president in the show.' And a good one too. We're going to give him a little credit at the end."
Even though Superintendent Chalmers was first introduced in the season four
The Simpsons (season 4)
The Simpsons fourth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 24, 1992 and May 13, 1993, beginning with "Kamp Krusty." The show runners for the fourth production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season...
episode "Whacking Day
Whacking Day
"Whacking Day" is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons fourth season, and originally aired April 29, 1993. It concerns the fictional holiday "Whacking Day", celebrated annually May 10, in which the citizens of Springfield drive snakes into the town square, then club them to death...
", the character had never been a central part to an episode. This episode marks the first time in which the entire episode follows Chalmers. In Chalmers' flashback from his teaching days, the scene looks like the library of Shermer High School from the film The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American teen drama film written and directed by John Hughes. The storyline follows five teenagers as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.-Plot:The plot follows five students at...
from 1985. The students however refer to the club as Fight Club
Fight Club (film)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
.
Opening sequence
John Kricfalusi
Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...
, guest animated the couch gag for the episode. This was the second time The Simpsons had chosen a guest director for its opening sequence
The Simpsons opening sequence
The Simpsons opening sequence is an element that begins almost every episode of the American animated television series The Simpsons. Starting with the season 20 episode "Take My Life, Please", the opening sequence was redone to go with the high-definition format of the show, and replaced the...
, following last season's episode "MoneyBART
MoneyBART
"MoneyBART" is the third episode of The Simpsons twenty-second season that premiered in the United States on October 10, 2010, on the Fox network. In this episode, Lisa coaches Bart's Little League baseball team to a record winning streak by using her book smarts in statistics and probability...
", which was guest directed by British graffiti artist
Street art
Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives...
and political activist Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...
. Previously, Kricfalusi had criticized The Simpsons staff in the show's early years by saying that "the show succeeded despite the writing" and similarly derogatory comments. The producers responded with the fourth season episode "The Front
The Front (The Simpsons)
"The Front" is the nineteenth episode of The Simpsons fourth season, and originally aired in the United States on the Fox network on April 15, 1993. In the episode, Bart and Lisa decide to write an episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show; after their script is rejected, they resubmit it under the name...
" (1993), in which The Ren & Stimpy Show is nominated for a cartoon award. During the award ceremony, the clip from the nominated episode is merely a black screen with the text "Clip not done yet", a comment on the slow production time of the show. The show was mentioned again in the season six
The Simpsons (season 6)
The Simpsons sixth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 4, 1994 and May 21, 1995 and consists of 25 episodes. The Simpsons is an animated series about a working class family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
episode "Another Simpsons Clip Show
Another Simpsons Clip Show
"Another Simpsons Clip Show" is the third episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 25, 1994...
" (1994), when Lisa claims that Ren & Stimpy recycles animation to make new episodes, while referencing Itchy & Scratchy's habit of doing the same. Despite this, Kricfalusi changed his tone in an interview with Aaron Simpson
Aaron Simpson
Aaron Simpson, an Emmy-nominated animation producer, is the founder and editor of Cold Hard Flash. A native of Birmingham, Michigan, he recently served as a producer for Warner Bros. Animation's Flash-animated series Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island. Producing more than a dozen development shorts...
in 2007 and claimed that The Simpsons made it easier to do more edgy work: "Well it started with Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote...
’s Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures is a 1987 revival of the classic Mighty Mouse cartoon character. Produced by Bakshi-Hyde Ventures , it aired on CBS on Saturday mornings from fall 1987 through the 1988-89 season...
and Pee Wee Herman. Those were kid shows, but with layers of perversion in them. Then The Simpsons came along and did edgy material in prime time cartoons."
After the positive response to the opening sequence by Banksy, creator Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
and Jean came to Kricfalusi and asked him if he could do something similar. Originally, they only wanted him to do the storyboards and then let their regular crew animate it, but Kricfalusi insisted on doing the animation himself, explaining that "If we had done it that way, no one would even have known that I had anything to do with it because it would have ended up on model and all pose to pose
Pose to pose
Pose to pose animation is a term used for animation. The animators draws key poses for the characters and then let tweeners generating intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image. The interpolation however, is a straight...
". On The Simpsons, the animators draws key poses and then let tweeners interpolate between those poses. The interpolation however, is a straight a to b animation. That way the animation ends up having the characters just going from pose to pose. Kricfalusi explains that on The Simpsons he "wanted to try moving the characters in crazy fun ways, not just looking funny each time they come to a stop", and further elaborated "that the way things happened was even more important than what was happening in my work. You can’t write visual performance. You have to actually draw it."
He showed Groening and Jean his Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
shorts and Groening responded by giving him free hands to do the 35-second-long segment. Groening told him to break all The Simpsons rules, but Kricfalusi explains that he "tried not to break any rules in the characters’ personalities, just in the execution of the visuals. I didn’t follow any models—not even my own". The more rules he broke, the more pleased Groening and Jean were with the result. Contrary to Banksy, who lives a life in secrecy, Kricfalusi was involved in every detail and even oversaw the dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
of the final soundtrack. While Kricfalusi animated the 2D parts, he had John Kedzie to help him with the computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
and Sarah Harkey and Tommy Tanner to do the assistant animation.
In an interview by Neil Bennett from Digital Arts Magazine, Kricfalusi revealed that he would have taken a different approach to the animation if he were to animate the entire episode. Primarily, the animation would be slower paced than it was in the 35-second-long segment. The couch gag was done at a faster pace so he was able to include all of his ideas. Kricfalusi explains that "[if I did a whole episode], I would definitely keep on experimenting with the way they move and the acting. I'm sure I would do of my trademark long scenes of two characters interacting with each other without a cut. I would [also] want to do more stuff with Marge. I loved animating her and was inspired by the way the Fleischers animated Olive Oyl
Olive Oyl
Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar in 1919 for his comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was later renamed Popeye after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however Olive Oyl was a main character for 10 years before Popeye's 1929...
. I couldn't animate a whole half hour myself, so I would hire other animators (and designers, painters, etc) with strong styles and cast them according to which parts of the story would best take advantage of their individual talent."
Release
The episode originally aired on the Fox networkFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on October 2, 2011. It was watched by approximately 6.19 million people during this broadcast. The show received a 3.0 Nielsen rating in the demographic for adults aged 18–49, which was a 23% drop from the season premiere episode, and an eight percent audience share. The Simpsons became the second highest-rated program in Fox's Animation Domination lineup that night in terms of total viewers and in the 18–49 demographic, finishing with a higher rating than The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show is an American animated television series that premiered on September 27, 2009, as a part of the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox in the United States...
and American Dad!
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
, but a lower rating than Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. These three other animated shows were part of a crossover
Fictional crossover
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...
event, called Night of the Hurricane
Night of the Hurricane
Night of the Hurricane is a three-part crossover event in the Animation Domination block on Fox with all three animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane: Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. The event depicts a storm which hits the towns of Stoolbend, Quahog and Langley Falls...
, in which they shared the same storyline. For the week of September 26 – October 2, 2011, "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" tied for 29th place in the ratings among all network prime-time broadcasts in the 18–49 demographic.
Since airing, "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" has been well-received by television critics. Hayden Childs of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
gave this episode a "B" rating and commented that "The Simpsons episodes that strive to have a little heart without going overboard are generally going to work better than the random-gag episodes, at least at this point in the storied history of The Simpsons, and 'Bart Stops To Smell The Roosevelts' has enough wee little heart to see this episode through", but further wrote that "there were a number of jokes that didn't work, Milhouse's final scene in particular, but the episode had a steady stream of gags to push through the lean times. And that's all we can ask for." Ology
Ology
Ology is an entertainment and social media website based in New York City. It is run by Beth Haggerty and Vivian Moran, both of whom founded it. The company focuses on helping users to find and share content about their interests.-History:...
's Josh Harrison was also positive and gave the episode a rating of seven out of ten, while commenting that he "thought this was a definite downgrade from the season premiere in terms of sheer comedic value, but the sincerity of Bart's educational experience, combined with the enthusiasm of his mad quest for justice, definitely made this one a winner."
The couch gag for the episode was critically acclaimed by television critics. Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew called the opening revolutionary and explained that "in 35 short and sweet seconds, he liberates the animation of The Simpsons from years of graphic banality." He continued: "The visual look of the show, which has been so carefully controlled by its producers, becomes a giddy and unrestrained playground for graphic play, and the balance of creative authority is shifted from the writers' room to the animators in one fell swoop." When comparing the segment to Banksy's, Amidi concluded that it is "in fact, far more subversive because he focuses almost exclusively on making a pictorial statement, relegating the show's dominant literary elements to the back seat." Similarly, Television Blend
Cinema Blend
Cinema Blend is a website founded and run by Josh Tyler dedicated to news and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films, movie projects, Television Shows, and a newly founded Music section which covers album reviews, band interviews and daily news from the industry. It combines gossip from...
's Katey Rich wrote that she appreciates "The Simpsons always being willing to push the envelope in different ways", but admitted that it would take her "some time to get the gangly-legged Marge Simpson and the leering Homer Simpson out of [her] brain."