Bart of Darkness
Encyclopedia
"Bart of Darkness" is the first episode of The Simpsons
' sixth season
, which originally aired September 4, 1994. It was written by Dan McGrath
, and directed by Jim Reardon
. In the episode, Bart
breaks his leg; his resultant isolation causes him to believe that Ned Flanders
has committed murder. The episode was produced during the 1994 Northridge earthquake
which held up production by a month, and is largely a parody of the film Rear Window
.
in Springfield
leads Bart and Lisa
to pester Homer
for a swimming pool
; to avoid months of nagging, he gives in easily. Word soon spreads that the Simpsons have a pool and every child in the town comes to use the new facility. After being dared, Bart attempts an ambitious dive into the pool from the top of his treehouse, but is distracted by Nelson
, and falls and breaks his leg. This forces him to spend the rest of the summer wearing a cast
and, unable to socialize with the other children, he withdraws into his bedroom. His isolation slowly makes him more and more irritable and paranoid. Lisa loans Bart her telescope
to entertain him. Soon, Bart hears a girlish scream next door, and witnesses Ned Flanders
burying something in his backyard and screaming "I'm a murderer." He becomes convinced that Flanders has murder
ed his wife Maude, and vows to reveal the truth.
Meanwhile, Lisa basks in the glow of her new popularity. However, Martin Prince
gets a larger pool, and everyone abandons Lisa. After apologizing to her brother for neglecting him Bart asks her to go and look for evidence of the murder while Ned is out of the house. When Ned returns early, Lisa is trapped in the Flanders house, eventually being cornered in the attic; Bart painfully makes his way over there on his own, just in time to discover that Ned is actually putting away an axe, not threatening Lisa with it. Maude, it turns out, is alive and well, and had just gone to Bible camp for the weekend, learning to be more judgmental. The victim of Ned's "murder" was merely her favorite ficus
plant, and the girlish scream came from Ned. Meanwhile, the pool at Martin's breaks due to being crammed with too many children, and everyone abandons him, although Nelson takes the time to steal his bathing suit first, leaving him standing naked in the wreckage of the pool.
was chosen to pen the episode, while Jim Reardon
directed. The episode was originally produced as the season finale of the fifth season
, but was held-over and aired as the premiere of the sixth. This was because, along with "Lisa's Rival
", the episode was in production at the time of the Northridge earthquake
of 1994. The earthquake damaged much of the Film Roman
building in which The Simpsons writing and animation staff worked, forcing them to move out for three months and continue production in a temporary building. David X. Cohen
came in the weekend after the earthquake to see what had happened, as was told that "it was no more dangerous than it was before the earthquake," as the building was "a ninety year old, decrepit shack." The only staff members that came in expecting to work were future show runners Bill Oakley
and Josh Weinstein
. As a result, the staff were given a month more than they would usually have had to work on the episode, which Reardon described as "greatly benefiting" it. Having been a director on the series for five years before this episode, he believed that this "was closer to what [he] was trying to achieve as a director then [he] had done before." He credited this to the extra time, and used it to insert little details, such as having Bart get stuck on the fabric of the chair he was in, and wearing his underwear instead of a swimsuit.
Many of the heat wave jokes at the start of the episode were based on past events of the crew's lives. The sitting in front of the fridge-freezer joke, came from McGrath, who had done a similar thing as a child. The Springfield Pool-Mobile was based on a similar vehicle from David Mirkin
's childhood, where a truck with a "spinning cars" fairground ride on the back would often come around his neighborhood. Flanders' feminine scream was performed by Tress MacNeille
and not his regular voice actor Harry Shearer
. Krusty's mispronunciation of Ravi Shankar
's name was an ad-lib, that Mirkin kept in after the editing process because he liked it so much.
The episode is largely a parody of Alfred Hitchcock
's Rear Window
. As in the film, a wheelchair-using Bart witnesses an apparent murder through his telescope, with musical cues from the film also being used. James Stewart
's character L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies appears twice, caricature
d as he looks in the film. Also, the pictures on the wall of Jeff's room are a racing car accident and a plane, the same as in Rear Window. The barn building scene with the onlooking Amish
man is a reference to Peter Weir
's film Witness
. The Itchy & Scratchy episode's title is a reference to The Planet of the Apes
, with the mutants being a reference to the Star Trek
episode "The Menagerie", as well as Beneath the Planet of the Apes
. At the end of the episode Martin sings Frank Sinatra
's "Summer Wind
". Springfield's wax museum features models of The Beatles
and the cast of M*A*S*H, and Bart plays Stratego
on his own. The pool dance scene sees Lisa in a role like those of Esther Williams
, while Bart's play has similar elements of the works of Anton Chekhov
.
Mike Duffy praised the episode, stating it showed that The Simpsons was "just as strong and funny as it ever was." Elaine Liner of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times
praised the writing as "crisp, hilarious and multi-layered", praising its many cultural references and noting the "biting commentary" of Maude Flanders' line "I was at Bible camp learning to be more judgmental." Later reviews shared these sentiments. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, called it a "fine episode" and found that the "eventual explanation for [Flanders'] murderous behavior is hilarious." Tim Knight called it "a terrific opener to the season."
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 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...
, which originally aired September 4, 1994. It was written by Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath is an American television writer. He has written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Mission Hill, The PJs and King of the Hill.- The Simpsons episodes :He wrote the following episodes:...
, and directed by Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an animation director and storyboard consultant, best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series, and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15...
. In the episode, 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...
breaks his leg; his resultant isolation causes him to believe that Ned 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...
has committed murder. The episode was produced during the 1994 Northridge earthquake
Northridge earthquake
The Northridge earthquake was a massive earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds...
which held up production by a month, and is largely a parody of the film Rear Window
Rear Window
Rear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...
.
Plot
A heat waveHeat wave
A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. There is no universal definition of a heat wave; the term is relative to the usual weather in the area...
in 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...
leads Bart and 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...
to pester 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...
for a swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
; to avoid months of nagging, he gives in easily. Word soon spreads that the Simpsons have a pool and every child in the town comes to use the new facility. After being dared, Bart attempts an ambitious dive into the pool from the top of his treehouse, but is distracted by 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...
, and falls and breaks his leg. This forces him to spend the rest of the summer wearing a cast
Orthopedic cast
An orthopedic cast, body cast or surgical cast, is a shell, frequently made from plaster, encasing a limb to hold a broken bone in place until healing is confirmed...
and, unable to socialize with the other children, he withdraws into his bedroom. His isolation slowly makes him more and more irritable and paranoid. Lisa loans Bart her telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
to entertain him. Soon, Bart hears a girlish scream next door, and witnesses Ned 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...
burying something in his backyard and screaming "I'm a murderer." He becomes convinced that Flanders has murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed his wife Maude, and vows to reveal the truth.
Meanwhile, Lisa basks in the glow of her new popularity. However, Martin Prince
Martin Prince
Martin Prince, Jr. is a recurring character in the Fox animated series, The Simpsons, and is voiced by Russi Taylor. Martin is Bart Simpson's classmate, and is Lisa Simpson's rival in intelligence, as well as Nelson Muntz's favorite target for bullying...
gets a larger pool, and everyone abandons Lisa. After apologizing to her brother for neglecting him Bart asks her to go and look for evidence of the murder while Ned is out of the house. When Ned returns early, Lisa is trapped in the Flanders house, eventually being cornered in the attic; Bart painfully makes his way over there on his own, just in time to discover that Ned is actually putting away an axe, not threatening Lisa with it. Maude, it turns out, is alive and well, and had just gone to Bible camp for the weekend, learning to be more judgmental. The victim of Ned's "murder" was merely her favorite ficus
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
plant, and the girlish scream came from Ned. Meanwhile, the pool at Martin's breaks due to being crammed with too many children, and everyone abandons him, although Nelson takes the time to steal his bathing suit first, leaving him standing naked in the wreckage of the pool.
Production
Dan McGrathDan McGrath
Dan McGrath is an American television writer. He has written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Mission Hill, The PJs and King of the Hill.- The Simpsons episodes :He wrote the following episodes:...
was chosen to pen the episode, while Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an animation director and storyboard consultant, best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series, and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15...
directed. The episode was originally produced as the season finale of the fifth season
The Simpsons (season 5)
The Simpsons fifth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 30, 1993 and May 19, 1994. The show runner for the fifth production season was David Mirkin who executive produced 20 episodes. Al Jean and Mike Reiss executive produced the remaining two, which were both hold overs...
, but was held-over and aired as the premiere of the sixth. This was because, along with "Lisa's Rival
Lisa's Rival
"Lisa's Rival" is the second episode of The Simpsons sixth season, and originally aired September 11, 1994. It was the first episode to be written by Mike Scully, and was directed by Mark Kirkland. Winona Ryder guest stars as Allison Taylor, a new student at Springfield Elementary School...
", the episode was in production at the time of the Northridge earthquake
Northridge earthquake
The Northridge earthquake was a massive earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds...
of 1994. The earthquake damaged much of the Film Roman
Film Roman
Film Roman is an animation studio founded by Phil Roman, best known for producing the animation for The Simpsons, King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox, as well as the Garfield and Peanuts animated TV specials....
building in which The Simpsons writing and animation staff worked, forcing them to move out for three months and continue production in a temporary building. David X. Cohen
David X. Cohen
David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...
came in the weekend after the earthquake to see what had happened, as was told that "it was no more dangerous than it was before the earthquake," as the building was "a ninety year old, decrepit shack." The only staff members that came in expecting to work were future show runners Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
and 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...
. As a result, the staff were given a month more than they would usually have had to work on the episode, which Reardon described as "greatly benefiting" it. Having been a director on the series for five years before this episode, he believed that this "was closer to what [he] was trying to achieve as a director then [he] had done before." He credited this to the extra time, and used it to insert little details, such as having Bart get stuck on the fabric of the chair he was in, and wearing his underwear instead of a swimsuit.
Many of the heat wave jokes at the start of the episode were based on past events of the crew's lives. The sitting in front of the fridge-freezer joke, came from McGrath, who had done a similar thing as a child. The Springfield Pool-Mobile was based on a similar vehicle from David Mirkin
David Mirkin
David Mirkin is an American feature film and television director, writer and producer. Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University. After graduating, he became a stand-up...
's childhood, where a truck with a "spinning cars" fairground ride on the back would often come around his neighborhood. Flanders' feminine scream was performed 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...
and not his regular voice actor Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
. Krusty's mispronunciation of Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
's name was an ad-lib, that Mirkin kept in after the editing process because he liked it so much.
Cultural references
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Rear Window
Rear Window
Rear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...
. As in the film, a wheelchair-using Bart witnesses an apparent murder through his telescope, with musical cues from the film also being used. James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
's character L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies appears twice, caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
d as he looks in the film. Also, the pictures on the wall of Jeff's room are a racing car accident and a plane, the same as in Rear Window. The barn building scene with the onlooking Amish
Amish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
man is a reference to Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
's film Witness
Witness (1985 film)
Witness is a 1985 American thriller film directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. The screenplay by William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, and Earl W...
. The Itchy & Scratchy episode's title is a reference to The Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...
, with the mutants being a reference to the Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
episode "The Menagerie", as well as Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes is a 1970 American science fiction film directed by Ted Post and written by Paul Dehn. It is the second of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs...
. At the end of the episode Martin sings Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
's "Summer Wind
Summer Wind
"Summer Wind" is a 1965 song, with music by Heinz Meier and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Original german lyrics by Hans Bradtke. The song is a nostalgic tale of a fleeting romance, first recorded by Wayne Newton who had the first national chart hit with the song in 1965, peaking at number 78."Summer...
". Springfield's wax museum features models of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and the cast of M*A*S*H, and Bart plays Stratego
Stratego
Stratego is a board game featuring a 10×10 square board and two players with 40 pieces each. Pieces represent individual officers and soldiers in an army. The objective of the game is to either find and capture the opponent's Flag or to capture so many of the opponent's pieces that he/she cannot...
on his own. The pool dance scene sees Lisa in a role like those of Esther Williams
Esther Williams
Esther Jane Williams is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star.Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team...
, while Bart's play has similar elements of the works of Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
.
Reception
For season six, Fox moved The Simpsons back to its original Sunday night time of 8 p.m., having aired on Thursdays for the previous three seasons. It has remained in this slot ever since. In this original American broadcast, "Bart of Darkness" finished 44th in the ratings for the week of August 29 to September 4, 1995, with a Nielsen rating of 8.9 and an audience share of 17%. The episode was the third highest rated show on the Fox network that week.Mike Duffy praised the episode, stating it showed that The Simpsons was "just as strong and funny as it ever was." Elaine Liner of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times is the newspaper of record for Corpus Christi, Texas.-Brief history:There has been a newspaper in Corpus Christi for almost as long as there has been a town. In 1883, the Caller was started in a frame building at 310 North Chaparral, now the site of Green's Jewelers....
praised the writing as "crisp, hilarious and multi-layered", praising its many cultural references and noting the "biting commentary" of Maude Flanders' line "I was at Bible camp learning to be more judgmental." Later reviews shared these sentiments. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, called it a "fine episode" and found that the "eventual explanation for [Flanders'] murderous behavior is hilarious." Tim Knight called it "a terrific opener to the season."
External links
- "Bart of Darkness" at The Simpsons.com