Cape Feare
Encyclopedia
"Cape Feare" is the second episode of the fifth season
of American animated television series The Simpsons
. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 7, 1993, and has since been featured on DVD and VHS releases. Written by Jon Vitti
and directed by Rich Moore
, "Cape Feare" features the return of guest star Kelsey Grammer
as Sideshow Bob
, who tries to kill Bart Simpson
after getting out of jail. "Cape Feare" is a spoof of the 1962 film Cape Fear
and its 1991 remake
, and alludes to other horror films such as Psycho
.
The episode was pitched by Wallace Wolodarsky
, who wanted to parody Cape Fear. Originally produced for the fourth season
, it was held over to the fifth and was therefore the last episode produced by the show's original writers, most of whom subsequently left. The production crew found it difficult to stretch "Cape Feare" to the standard duration of half an hour, and consequently padded several scenes. In one such sequence, Sideshow Bob continually steps on rakes, the handles of which then hit him in the face; this scene became one of the show's most memorable moments. The episode is generally considered one of the best of the entire series, and the score received an Emmy Award
nomination.
becomes paranoid. It is revealed that the writer is Bart's enemy, Sideshow Bob
, who is incarcerated in Springfield State Prison. The next day, Sideshow Bob's parole hearing is held; Sideshow Bob swears that he is no threat to Bart, and is paroled. When the Simpson family
goes to watch a film, Sideshow Bob sits in front of them. The Simpsons then realize that it was he who sent the letters, and they angrily demand him to stay away from them.
Despite their efforts, Chief Wiggum and the Simpson family are unable to protect Bart from Sideshow Bob. Sideshow Bob drives around Evergreen Terrace in an ice-cream truck, calling out the names of all the people whom he will not kill, unfortunately, Bart's name is not on that list. The Simpsons opt for the Witness Relocation Program and move to Terror Lake, changing their surname to "Thompson" and settling in a houseboat. However, unknown to the family as they drive cross-country to their new home, Sideshow Bob has strapped himself to the underside of the car.
As the Simpsons arrive at Terror Lake and go inside their new houseboat, Sideshow Bob comes out from under the car. In doing so, he steps on the teeth of a number of rakes repeatedly, causing the rakes' handles to swing up and hit him in the face. At this point, Bob develops a hatred toward rakes. As Bart later walks down the road, he hears Sideshow Bob's voice and sees him escape from the underside of another car, only to be stepped on by a parade of elephants. Bart runs home and warns his parents about Sideshow Bob's presence.
During the night, Sideshow Bob reaches the houseboat and cuts it loose from the dock with his machete
. Bob then ties up Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie, so that they will not interfere with his plan. After tying up Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II as well, Bob enters Bart's room, ready to kill him. Bart escapes out the window and tries to hide from Sideshow Bob, but cannot jump off the boat, as there are crocodiles and electric eels in the water, and is cornered. As a "last request", he asks Sideshow Bob to sing the entire score to the H.M.S. Pinafore
to stall for time as the houseboat floats to Springfield. After the performance, Bob advances on Bart again, but the boat runs aground, and Sideshow Bob is apprehended by the police. He is taken away, and the Simpsons return home. Abe Simpson, however, was not aware that they had moved and, without his pills, he ends up becoming a woman.
Sideshow Bob is a recurring character on The Simpsons. Since season three
's "Black Widower
" (1992), the writers have echoed the premise of Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner
from the 1949-1966 Looney Tunes
cartoons by having Bob unexpectedly insert himself into Bart's life and attempt to kill him. Executive producer Al Jean
has compared Bob's character to that of Wile E. Coyote, noting that both are intelligent, yet always foiled by what they perceive as an inferior intellect. The scene in which Bob is stomped on by multiple elephants and bounced right back up is a reference to the Wile E. Coyote character.
In Planet Simpson, author Chris Turner
writes that Bob is built into a highbrow snob and conservative Republican
so that the writers can continually hit him with a rake and bring him down. He represents high culture
while Krusty, one of his archenemies, represents low culture
, and Bart, stuck in between, always wins out. In the book Leaving Springfield
, David L. G. Arnold comments that Bart is a product of a "mass-culture upbringing" and thus is Bob's enemy.
Bob's intelligence serves him in many ways. During this episode, for example, the parole board asks Bob why he has a tattoo that says "Die Bart, Die". Bob replies that it is German for "The Bart, The"; members of the board are impressed by his reasoning. Believing that "nobody who speaks German could be an evil man", they release him. However, his love of high culture is sometimes used against him. In the same episode, Bob agrees to perform the operetta H.M.S. Pinafore in its entirety as a last request for Bart. The tactic stalls Bob long enough for the police to arrest him.
Wallace Wolodarsky
had seen the 1991 version of Cape Fear
and pitched the idea of making a spoof of the film. Jon Vitti
was then assigned to write a spoof of the original Cape Fear film
from 1962 as well as the remake. Instead of using the spoof as only a part of the episode, which could have contained a B-story, the entire episode was devoted to this parody. Sideshow Bob was cast as the villain and Bart became the main victim. The episode followed the same basic plot outline as the films and used elements from the original film's score by Bernard Herrmann
(which was also used in the 1991 version), which, after this episode, became Sideshow Bob's theme. This episode marked the first time a Sideshow Bob episode was not a mystery.
There were difficulties getting this episode up to the minimum length of an episode and many scenes were added in post-production. The episode starts with a repeat of a couch gag that was first used in the episode "Lisa's First Word
", which is considerably longer than the typical couch gag. The crew added an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon and a few misleads as to who was trying to kill Bart. Even with all of these additions, the episode still ran short of time. This led to the creation of the rake sequence, which became a memorable moment of the episode. Originally, Sideshow Bob was only supposed to step on one rake after he stepped out from the underside of the Simpson family's car, but this was changed to nine rakes in a row. According to executive producer Al Jean, the idea was to make the scene funny, then drag the joke out so that it is no longer funny, and then drag it out even longer to make it funny again.
Additions to the end musical number, including visual gags such as Bob appearing in uniform, were added after the animatics. The crew felt that watching the character singing would not be interesting enough and they had to include these gags to make it work. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening
was surprised when he saw the additions, because he originally thought they were silly and would not appear in the final cut, but he has grown to like them.
American actor Kelsey Grammer
was brought in to guest star as Sideshow Bob for the third time. At that time, Grammer had become a household name as the lead of the television series Frasier
, which was in production at the same time as this episode. Grammer did not know that the rake scene was extended, because he had only done the moan once and was surprised when he saw the final product. The show's writers admire Grammer's singing voice, and try to include a song for each appearance including this episode. Alf Clausen
, the primary composer for The Simpsons, commented that "[Grammer] is so great. He's just amazing. You can tell he has this love of musical theater and he has the vocal instrument to go with it, so I know whatever I write is going to be sung the way I've heard it."
Besides borrowing the overall plot structure of the Cape Fear films, the episode made several direct references to specific scenes from the films. References to the original include: Marge
going to Chief Wiggum only to be told that Sideshow Bob has not broken any laws (also references the 1991 remake). References to the 1991 remake include: Sideshow Bob's tattoos; the shot of him leaving the prison gate; the scene with him smoking in the movie theater; part of his "workout" scene; his hiding under the Simpson family's car; Wiggum's rigging wire around the house to a toy doll as an alarm; his suggestion that Homer can do anything to someone who enters his home; Bob, strapped under a car, pulling up beside Bart for a conversation; and Homer's hiring a private investigator who attempts to persuade Bob to leave town.
The episode also contains elements of Alfred Hitchcock
's 1960 film Psycho
with Sideshow Bob staying at Bates Motel. Homer surprising Bart with his new hockey mask recalls the film Friday the 13th Part III and Sideshow Bob's tattoos on his knuckles are similar to those of Robert Mitchum
's character in The Night of the Hunter
(Mitchum also played the villain Max Cady
in the original 1962 version of Cape Fear). Homer's hat and singing of "Three Little Maids From School Are We" from The Mikado
during the car trip to Terror Lake alludes to I Love Lucy
. The scene featuring Ned with his "finger razors" references the 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street
and its villain Freddy Krueger
(with Flanders seemingly threatening Bart with the razors) and the film 1990 Edward Scissorhands
(with Flanders actually using the razors to cut his hedge in the shape of an angel, just as Edward Scissorhands cuts a hedge in the shape of a dinosaur).
of 12.3. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. The musical score for this episode earned composer Alf Clausen
an Emmy Award
nomination for "Outstanding Dramatic Underscore - Series" in 1994.
According to Matt Groening, people often include this episode among their top 10 favorites. In Entertainment Weekly
' s top 25 The Simpsons episodes ever, it was placed third. To celebrate the show's 300th episode "Barting Over
", USA Today
published a top 10 chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive
, which had this episode at a ninth place. In 2006, IGN
named "Cape Feare" the best episode of the fifth season. Vanity Fair
called it the show's fourth best episode in 2007, as "this episode's masterful integration of filmic parody and a recurring character puts it near the top." James Walton of The Daily Telegraph
characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes", while The Herald Sun
placed it in their "The Simpsons Top 20". Karl Åkerström of the Swedish newspaper Borås Tidning
called it his "all-time favorite" episode of the show. Michael Moran of The Times
and Todd VanDerWerff of Slant Magazine
both ranked "Cape Feare" as the fourth best in the show's history.
IGN's Robert Canning gave the episode a perfect score of 10 out of 10 and named it the best Sideshow Bob episode of The Simpsons. He added that there are "many, many reasons for its perfection, but what stands out most for me was how savage and single-minded Bob is in the episode. He wants to kill Bart and he makes no secret of it, save for lying to the parole board. Episodes since have made Bob far too wishy-washy. This was Bob in his prime—his vengeful, glorious, hilarious prime." Empire
called Bob's mishaps while strapped under the Simpsons' car the eighth best film parody in the show, and called the rake scene "the best bit of slapstick in Simpson history." The parody of Cape Fear was named the 33rd greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film
' s Nathan Ditum. The Norwegian newspaper Nettavisen
listed Sideshow Bob's "Die Bart, die" tattoo from the episode as the fifth best tattoo in film and television history.
". It was included again in the 2005 DVD release of the Springfield Murder Mysteries set. The episode was included in The Simpsons season five DVD set, which was released on December 21, 2004. Groening, Jean and Vitti participated in the DVD audio commentary for "Cape Feare". Kelsey Grammer's performance of H.M.S. Pinafore was later included on the album Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons
.
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...
of American animated television 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 in the United States on October 7, 1993, and has since been featured on DVD and VHS releases. Written by Jon Vitti
Jon Vitti
Jon Vitti is an American writer best known for his work on the television series The Simpsons. He has also written for the King of the Hill and The Critic series, and has served as a consultant for several animated movies, including Ice Age and Robots...
and directed by Rich Moore
Rich Moore
Rich Moore is an American animation director and a business partner in Rough Draft Studios, Inc., where he serves as Sr. Vice President of creative affairs. He is one of a handful of artists who in the early 90s redefined prime time television animation with his work on The Simpsons...
, "Cape Feare" features the return of guest star Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier...
as Sideshow Bob
Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared briefly in the episode "The Telltale Head". Bob is a self-proclaimed genius who is a graduate of Yale, a member of...
, who tries to kill Bart Simpson
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...
after getting out of jail. "Cape Feare" is a spoof of the 1962 film Cape Fear
Cape Fear (1962 film)
Cape Fear is a 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Polly Bergen. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and released on April 12, 1962...
and its 1991 remake
Cape Fear (1991 film)
Cape Fear is a 1991 thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis and features cameos from Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam, who all appeared in the 1962 original film...
, and alludes to other horror films such as Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
.
The episode was pitched by Wallace Wolodarsky
Wallace Wolodarsky
Wallace Wolodarsky is an American television writer and director. He wrote for The Simpsons during the first four seasons; all of his episodes were co-written with former writing partner Jay Kogen...
, who wanted to parody Cape Fear. Originally produced for the fourth season
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...
, it was held over to the fifth and was therefore the last episode produced by the show's original writers, most of whom subsequently left. The production crew found it difficult to stretch "Cape Feare" to the standard duration of half an hour, and consequently padded several scenes. In one such sequence, Sideshow Bob continually steps on rakes, the handles of which then hit him in the face; this scene became one of the show's most memorable moments. The episode is generally considered one of the best of the entire series, and the score received an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination.
Plot
After receiving multiple death threats in the mail, BartBart 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...
becomes paranoid. It is revealed that the writer is Bart's enemy, Sideshow Bob
Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared briefly in the episode "The Telltale Head". Bob is a self-proclaimed genius who is a graduate of Yale, a member of...
, who is incarcerated in Springfield State Prison. The next day, Sideshow Bob's parole hearing is held; Sideshow Bob swears that he is no threat to Bart, and is paroled. When the Simpson family
Simpson 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...
goes to watch a film, Sideshow Bob sits in front of them. The Simpsons then realize that it was he who sent the letters, and they angrily demand him to stay away from them.
Despite their efforts, Chief Wiggum and the Simpson family are unable to protect Bart from Sideshow Bob. Sideshow Bob drives around Evergreen Terrace in an ice-cream truck, calling out the names of all the people whom he will not kill, unfortunately, Bart's name is not on that list. The Simpsons opt for the Witness Relocation Program and move to Terror Lake, changing their surname to "Thompson" and settling in a houseboat. However, unknown to the family as they drive cross-country to their new home, Sideshow Bob has strapped himself to the underside of the car.
As the Simpsons arrive at Terror Lake and go inside their new houseboat, Sideshow Bob comes out from under the car. In doing so, he steps on the teeth of a number of rakes repeatedly, causing the rakes' handles to swing up and hit him in the face. At this point, Bob develops a hatred toward rakes. As Bart later walks down the road, he hears Sideshow Bob's voice and sees him escape from the underside of another car, only to be stepped on by a parade of elephants. Bart runs home and warns his parents about Sideshow Bob's presence.
During the night, Sideshow Bob reaches the houseboat and cuts it loose from the dock with his machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
. Bob then ties up Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie, so that they will not interfere with his plan. After tying up Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II as well, Bob enters Bart's room, ready to kill him. Bart escapes out the window and tries to hide from Sideshow Bob, but cannot jump off the boat, as there are crocodiles and electric eels in the water, and is cornered. As a "last request", he asks Sideshow Bob to sing the entire score to the H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
to stall for time as the houseboat floats to Springfield. After the performance, Bob advances on Bart again, but the boat runs aground, and Sideshow Bob is apprehended by the police. He is taken away, and the Simpsons return home. Abe Simpson, however, was not aware that they had moved and, without his pills, he ends up becoming a woman.
Theme
The Simpsons (season 3)
The Simpsons third season originally aired on the Fox network between September 19, 1991 and May 7, 1992. The show runners for the third production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss who executive produced 22 episodes the season, while two other episodes were produced by James L. Brooks, Matt...
's "Black Widower
Black Widower
"Black Widower" is the 21st episode of The Simpsons third season, originally airing on the Fox network in the United States on April 9, 1992. It was written by Jon Vitti, directed by David Silverman, and saw Kelsey Grammer guest star as Sideshow Bob for the second time. In the episode, Sideshow...
" (1992), the writers have echoed the premise of Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...
from the 1949-1966 Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
cartoons by having Bob unexpectedly insert himself into Bart's life and attempt to kill him. Executive producer 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...
has compared Bob's character to that of Wile E. Coyote, noting that both are intelligent, yet always foiled by what they perceive as an inferior intellect. The scene in which Bob is stomped on by multiple elephants and bounced right back up is a reference to the Wile E. Coyote character.
In Planet Simpson, author Chris Turner
Chris Turner (author)
Chris Turner is a Canadian author. He is the author of Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation, published in 2004...
writes that Bob is built into a highbrow snob and conservative Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
so that the writers can continually hit him with a rake and bring him down. He represents high culture
High culture
High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...
while Krusty, one of his archenemies, represents low culture
Low culture
Low culture is a term for some forms of popular culture. Its opposite is high culture. It has been said by culture theorists that both high culture and low culture are subcultures....
, and Bart, stuck in between, always wins out. In the book Leaving Springfield
Leaving Springfield
Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture is a non-fiction compilation work analyzing the effect of the television program The Simpsons on society, edited by John Alberti. The book was published in 2004 by Wayne State University Press...
, David L. G. Arnold comments that Bart is a product of a "mass-culture upbringing" and thus is Bob's enemy.
Bob's intelligence serves him in many ways. During this episode, for example, the parole board asks Bob why he has a tattoo that says "Die Bart, Die". Bob replies that it is German for "The Bart, The"; members of the board are impressed by his reasoning. Believing that "nobody who speaks German could be an evil man", they release him. However, his love of high culture is sometimes used against him. In the same episode, Bob agrees to perform the operetta H.M.S. Pinafore in its entirety as a last request for Bart. The tactic stalls Bob long enough for the police to arrest him.
Production
Even though the episode aired during the beginning of the fifth season, it was produced by the crew of the fourth season. A large part of the original crew left the show after season four to pursue new challenges. This led to the addition of several scenes, which normally would not have been considered, because the mentality of the departing crew was "what are they going to do, get us fired?" Although most of the episode was completed by the staff of season four, the end was rewritten by the team of season five.Wallace Wolodarsky
Wallace Wolodarsky
Wallace Wolodarsky is an American television writer and director. He wrote for The Simpsons during the first four seasons; all of his episodes were co-written with former writing partner Jay Kogen...
had seen the 1991 version of Cape Fear
Cape Fear (1991 film)
Cape Fear is a 1991 thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis and features cameos from Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam, who all appeared in the 1962 original film...
and pitched the idea of making a spoof of the film. Jon Vitti
Jon Vitti
Jon Vitti is an American writer best known for his work on the television series The Simpsons. He has also written for the King of the Hill and The Critic series, and has served as a consultant for several animated movies, including Ice Age and Robots...
was then assigned to write a spoof of the original Cape Fear film
Cape Fear (1962 film)
Cape Fear is a 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Polly Bergen. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and released on April 12, 1962...
from 1962 as well as the remake. Instead of using the spoof as only a part of the episode, which could have contained a B-story, the entire episode was devoted to this parody. Sideshow Bob was cast as the villain and Bart became the main victim. The episode followed the same basic plot outline as the films and used elements from the original film's score by Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
(which was also used in the 1991 version), which, after this episode, became Sideshow Bob's theme. This episode marked the first time a Sideshow Bob episode was not a mystery.
There were difficulties getting this episode up to the minimum length of an episode and many scenes were added in post-production. The episode starts with a repeat of a couch gag that was first used in the episode "Lisa's First Word
Lisa's First Word
"Lisa's First Word" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons fourth season. It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on December 3, 1992. In the episode, as the Simpson family gathers around Maggie and tries to encourage her to say her first word, Marge reminisces and tells the story of...
", which is considerably longer than the typical couch gag. The crew added an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon and a few misleads as to who was trying to kill Bart. Even with all of these additions, the episode still ran short of time. This led to the creation of the rake sequence, which became a memorable moment of the episode. Originally, Sideshow Bob was only supposed to step on one rake after he stepped out from the underside of the Simpson family's car, but this was changed to nine rakes in a row. According to executive producer Al Jean, the idea was to make the scene funny, then drag the joke out so that it is no longer funny, and then drag it out even longer to make it funny again.
Additions to the end musical number, including visual gags such as Bob appearing in uniform, were added after the animatics. The crew felt that watching the character singing would not be interesting enough and they had to include these gags to make it work. The Simpsons 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....
was surprised when he saw the additions, because he originally thought they were silly and would not appear in the final cut, but he has grown to like them.
American actor Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier...
was brought in to guest star as Sideshow Bob for the third time. At that time, Grammer had become a household name as the lead of the television series Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
, which was in production at the same time as this episode. Grammer did not know that the rake scene was extended, because he had only done the moan once and was surprised when he saw the final product. The show's writers admire Grammer's singing voice, and try to include a song for each appearance including this episode. 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...
, the primary composer for The Simpsons, commented that "[Grammer] is so great. He's just amazing. You can tell he has this love of musical theater and he has the vocal instrument to go with it, so I know whatever I write is going to be sung the way I've heard it."
Cultural references
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...
going to Chief Wiggum only to be told that Sideshow Bob has not broken any laws (also references the 1991 remake). References to the 1991 remake include: Sideshow Bob's tattoos; the shot of him leaving the prison gate; the scene with him smoking in the movie theater; part of his "workout" scene; his hiding under the Simpson family's car; Wiggum's rigging wire around the house to a toy doll as an alarm; his suggestion that Homer can do anything to someone who enters his home; Bob, strapped under a car, pulling up beside Bart for a conversation; and Homer's hiring a private investigator who attempts to persuade Bob to leave town.
The episode also contains elements of Alfred Hitchcock
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 1960 film Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
with Sideshow Bob staying at Bates Motel. Homer surprising Bart with his new hockey mask recalls the film Friday the 13th Part III and Sideshow Bob's tattoos on his knuckles are similar to those of Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
's character in The Night of the Hunter
The Night of the Hunter (film)
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Laughton...
(Mitchum also played the villain Max Cady
Max Cady
Max Cady is a fictional character in the John D. MacDonald novel The Executioners. The character was portrayed by Robert Mitchum in the 1962 film adaptation Cape Fear and by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of the same name....
in the original 1962 version of Cape Fear). Homer's hat and singing of "Three Little Maids From School Are We" from The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
during the car trip to Terror Lake alludes to I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
. The scene featuring Ned with his "finger razors" references the 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
and its villain Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
(with Flanders seemingly threatening Bart with the razors) and the film 1990 Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
(with Flanders actually using the razors to cut his hedge in the shape of an angel, just as Edward Scissorhands cuts a hedge in the shape of a dinosaur).
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Cape Feare" finished 32nd in the ratings for the week of October 4–10, 1993, 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 12.3. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. The musical score for this episode earned composer 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...
an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination for "Outstanding Dramatic Underscore - Series" in 1994.
According to Matt Groening, people often include this episode among their top 10 favorites. In Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
Barting Over
"Barting Over" is an episode of The Simpsons advertised by Fox, and indicated on-screen, to be the 300th episode of the show . It aired on February 16, 2003. In this episode, Bart discovers that he used to be a child star in commercials—and that Homer blew all the money he earned...
", USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
published a top 10 chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive
The Simpsons Archive
The Simpsons Archive, better known as snpp.com or simply SNPP , is a Simpsons fan site that has been online since 1994...
, which had this episode at a ninth place. In 2006, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
named "Cape Feare" the best episode of the fifth season. Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
called it the show's fourth best episode in 2007, as "this episode's masterful integration of filmic parody and a recurring character puts it near the top." James Walton of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes", while The Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
placed it in their "The Simpsons Top 20". Karl Åkerström of the Swedish newspaper Borås Tidning
Borås Tidning
Borås Tidning is the daily newspaper of Borås, Sweden. The newspaper was founded in 1826 and has nowadays a circulation of about 50,000 copies and is politically conservative . It is owned by Gota Media AB and has Stefan Eklund as chief editor....
called it his "all-time favorite" episode of the show. Michael Moran of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and Todd VanDerWerff of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
both ranked "Cape Feare" as the fourth best in the show's history.
IGN's Robert Canning gave the episode a perfect score of 10 out of 10 and named it the best Sideshow Bob episode of The Simpsons. He added that there are "many, many reasons for its perfection, but what stands out most for me was how savage and single-minded Bob is in the episode. He wants to kill Bart and he makes no secret of it, save for lying to the parole board. Episodes since have made Bob far too wishy-washy. This was Bob in his prime—his vengeful, glorious, hilarious prime." Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
called Bob's mishaps while strapped under the Simpsons' car the eighth best film parody in the show, and called the rake scene "the best bit of slapstick in Simpson history." The parody of Cape Fear was named the 33rd greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
Nettavisen
Nettavisen was the first Norwegian online newspaper that was not established in relation to a pre-existing real-life newspaper. It started up on 1 November 1996...
listed Sideshow Bob's "Die Bart, die" tattoo from the episode as the fifth best tattoo in film and television history.
Merchandising
"Cape Feare" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 7, 1993. It was selected for release in a 1997 video collection of selected episodes titled: The Simpsons: Springfield Murder Mysteries. Other episodes included in the collection set were "Who Shot Mr Burns (Part 1)", "Who Shot Mr Burns (Part 2)" and "Black WidowerBlack Widower
"Black Widower" is the 21st episode of The Simpsons third season, originally airing on the Fox network in the United States on April 9, 1992. It was written by Jon Vitti, directed by David Silverman, and saw Kelsey Grammer guest star as Sideshow Bob for the second time. In the episode, Sideshow...
". It was included again in the 2005 DVD release of the Springfield Murder Mysteries set. The episode was included in The Simpsons season five DVD set, which was released on December 21, 2004. Groening, Jean and Vitti participated in the DVD audio commentary for "Cape Feare". Kelsey Grammer's performance of H.M.S. Pinafore was later included on 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
- "Cape Feare" at The Simpsons.com