Days of Wine and D'oh'ses
Encyclopedia
"Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" is the eighteenth episode of the eleventh season
of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons
. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 9, 2000. In the episode, Barney
realizes how much of a pathetic drunk he is after watching his birthday party video and decides to give up alcohol forever, which does not sit well with his friend Homer
. Meanwhile, Bart
and Lisa
work together to take a memorable photo for a new phone book cover contest. The episode was written by cast member Dan Castellaneta
and his wife Deb Lacusta
. Several staff members opposed to the idea of Barney becoming sober because they did not think a sober Barney would be funny. Several critics, including Chris Turner
, have also criticized the character's change.
sees he is a hideous drunk, and he promises to get sober. At first, he finds sustaining sobriety tough, but he finds his way to an AA
meeting with Homer
's help. Meanwhile, to get their picture on the cover of the new phone book, Bart
and Lisa
decide to enter an amateur photo contest. In the closet, they find an old camera and start to take snapshots. Elsewhere, Barney makes plans to change his life now that he is clean and sober. The Springfield Flight School is his first stop, where he takes helicopter-flying lessons. At Moe's Tavern, Homer is treated as the new Barney and is forced by Moe, Lenny and Carl to perform drunken antics. Barney gives Homer a ride in the helicopter a few lessons later. While in the air, the two men fight about Barney's new sobriety and Homer's unhappiness that they no longer have ridiculous adventures.
Bart and Lisa are taking pictures atop Mt. Springfield when Bart starts a forest fire by carelessly discarding a hot flashbulb. The children are in imminent danger, and Barney and Homer must band together to save them. They hop into the helicopter, but land in the middle of a bridge when Barney panics over the task before him. When a Duff beer truck comes to a sudden stop, spilling its contents in front of a weakening Barney, Homer refuses to let him give up on sobriety and drinks an entire six-pack in his place. Together, Barney and a drunken Homer save the kids.
The next day, at the Simpson house, Marge
tells the children that the new phone books are here, and they have Bart and Lisa's picture on the front cover. Bart and Lisa come down, only to realize that the picture on one of the phone books is not the one of the fire on Mt. Springfield; it is actually a photo of baby Bart and Lisa naked on the toilet, causing them to scream in horror. Marge says that the shot was actually in the film on the camera, and that since she had taken it, she won the prize for them. Bart and Lisa, after accepting that they will be the laughingstock of the entire town, happily hug their mother. Meanwhile, Barney's confidence and his relationship with Homer are restored, and he looks forward to an alcohol-free future, although he is now addicted to double-tall mocha lattes.
"Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", the eighteenth episode of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000), was written by Dan Castellaneta
and his wife Deb Lacusta
, and directed by Neil Affleck
. In the early 1990s, Castellaneta, the voice of Homer, Barney, and many other characters on the show, had conceived the idea to do an episode in which Barney sobers up. He told the idea to Lacusta, who wrote a draft that they then revised together. They presented their script to Al Jean
when he and Mike Reiss
were show runner
s on The Simpsons. Though Jean liked the story, he turned it down because the staff was already working on a similar episode where Homer gives up beer—"Duffless
" (1993). Castellaneta and Lacusta waited several years and presented their script, which they had updated, to then-showrunner Mike Scully
(1997–2000), who liked it but had them make some changes.
Several members of the staff, including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening
, has stated that they were against the episode as they felt Barney being sober was not funny. After a long discussion about how the episode should end, the writers decided that they did not want Barney to return to being drunk at the end of the episode. The character's new addiction to coffee was suggested by writer/producer David Mirkin
, who had friends that had stopped drinking alcohol and became addicted to coffee. For the episode, the animators gave Barney back-slicked hair to indicate his sobriety, a look which Barney maintained in subsequent episodes until he relapsed in "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can
" (2003). Castellaneta altered his voice for the sober Barney by no longer slurring.
for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.
While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that the episode "manages some good bits but not enough to make it a quality program." He also wrote that "If you thought that 'Alone Again, Natura-diddly' would be Season 11’s sole episode that features a big change for a secondary character, you thought wrong. No, Barney’s sobriety isn’t as major an event as Maude’s demise, but it actually has a bigger impact on the series. After all, Maude was a tertiary role; her disappearance affects secondary personality Ned
, but she didn’t appear all that much, so she didn’t really go missed. Making Barney sober affects the series on a much more consistent basis – though probably not in a good way. After all, most of Barney’s appeal came from his drunken idiocy, so he loses his natural kick when he goes on the wagon."
Several other writers have commented on Barney becoming sober. IGN
staff members commented in 2006 that Barney has "been a dependable source of humor through his many drunken asides, burps included...Occasionally he's sobered up...But let's face it, for comedy's sake, The Simpsons is better off with a drunken Barney mouthing off at Moe's." Author Chris Turner
wrote in his book Planet Simpson that "Barney is a good example of what happens when [the staff members] tinker too much. Barney was great as just the town drunk. Making him sober falls into the trap of all the stuff The Simpsons satirizes, all those simple sitcom narratives where everything is wrapped up in half an hour and everyone learns a lesson in the end." In 2001, "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" received a commendation from the Prism Awards
, which honors accurate portrayals of substance abuse, addiction and mental health in entertainment programming.
The Simpsons (season 11)
The Simpsons 11th season originally aired between September 1999 and May 2000, beginning on Sunday, September 26, 1999, with "Beyond Blunderdome". The show runner for the 11th production season was Mike Scully...
of the American animated sitcom 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 April 9, 2000. In the episode, Barney
Barney Gumble
Barnard "Barney" Gumble is a fictional character on the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. The character is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the town drunk and Homer Simpson's best friend. His capacity for...
realizes how much of a pathetic drunk he is after watching his birthday party video and decides to give up alcohol forever, which does not sit well with his friend 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...
. Meanwhile, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and 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...
work together to take a memorable photo for a new phone book cover contest. The episode was written by cast member Dan Castellaneta
Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
and his wife Deb Lacusta
Deb Lacusta
-Personal life:Lacusta is the wife of The Simpsons star Dan Castellaneta...
. Several staff members opposed to the idea of Barney becoming sober because they did not think a sober Barney would be funny. Several critics, including 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...
, have also criticized the character's change.
Plot
After watching his embarrassing birthday party video and being mocked by his friends with gag gifts, BarneyBarney Gumble
Barnard "Barney" Gumble is a fictional character on the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. The character is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the town drunk and Homer Simpson's best friend. His capacity for...
sees he is a hideous drunk, and he promises to get sober. At first, he finds sustaining sobriety tough, but he finds his way to an AA
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
meeting with 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...
's help. Meanwhile, to get their picture on the cover of the new phone book, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and 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...
decide to enter an amateur photo contest. In the closet, they find an old camera and start to take snapshots. Elsewhere, Barney makes plans to change his life now that he is clean and sober. The Springfield Flight School is his first stop, where he takes helicopter-flying lessons. At Moe's Tavern, Homer is treated as the new Barney and is forced by Moe, Lenny and Carl to perform drunken antics. Barney gives Homer a ride in the helicopter a few lessons later. While in the air, the two men fight about Barney's new sobriety and Homer's unhappiness that they no longer have ridiculous adventures.
Bart and Lisa are taking pictures atop Mt. Springfield when Bart starts a forest fire by carelessly discarding a hot flashbulb. The children are in imminent danger, and Barney and Homer must band together to save them. They hop into the helicopter, but land in the middle of a bridge when Barney panics over the task before him. When a Duff beer truck comes to a sudden stop, spilling its contents in front of a weakening Barney, Homer refuses to let him give up on sobriety and drinks an entire six-pack in his place. Together, Barney and a drunken Homer save the kids.
The next day, at the Simpson house, Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
tells the children that the new phone books are here, and they have Bart and Lisa's picture on the front cover. Bart and Lisa come down, only to realize that the picture on one of the phone books is not the one of the fire on Mt. Springfield; it is actually a photo of baby Bart and Lisa naked on the toilet, causing them to scream in horror. Marge says that the shot was actually in the film on the camera, and that since she had taken it, she won the prize for them. Bart and Lisa, after accepting that they will be the laughingstock of the entire town, happily hug their mother. Meanwhile, Barney's confidence and his relationship with Homer are restored, and he looks forward to an alcohol-free future, although he is now addicted to double-tall mocha lattes.
Production
Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
and his wife Deb Lacusta
Deb Lacusta
-Personal life:Lacusta is the wife of The Simpsons star Dan Castellaneta...
, and directed by Neil Affleck
Neil Affleck
Neil Affleck is an actor, animator and director. Currently directing the children's cartoon, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends on Nick Jr., he has worked on The Simpsons and Family Guy in the past....
. In the early 1990s, Castellaneta, the voice of Homer, Barney, and many other characters on the show, had conceived the idea to do an episode in which Barney sobers up. He told the idea to Lacusta, who wrote a draft that they then revised together. They presented their script to 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...
when he and Mike Reiss
Mike Reiss
Michael "Mike" Reiss is an American television comedy writer. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series The Simpsons and co-created the animated series The Critic...
were show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
s on The Simpsons. Though Jean liked the story, he turned it down because the staff was already working on a similar episode where Homer gives up beer—"Duffless
Duffless
"Duffless" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons fourth season and originally aired on the Fox network on February 18, 1993. After getting arrested for drunk driving, Homer tries to remain sober, at Marge's request. Meanwhile, Lisa attempts to prove that Bart is dumber than a hamster after he...
" (1993). Castellaneta and Lacusta waited several years and presented their script, which they had updated, to then-showrunner Mike Scully
Mike Scully
Mike Scully is an American television writer and producer. He is known for his work as executive producer and showrunner of the animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1997 to 2001. Scully grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts and long had an interest in writing. He was an underachiever at school...
(1997–2000), who liked it but had them make some changes.
Several members of the staff, including 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....
, has stated that they were against the episode as they felt Barney being sober was not funny. After a long discussion about how the episode should end, the writers decided that they did not want Barney to return to being drunk at the end of the episode. The character's new addiction to coffee was suggested by writer/producer 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...
, who had friends that had stopped drinking alcohol and became addicted to coffee. For the episode, the animators gave Barney back-slicked hair to indicate his sobriety, a look which Barney maintained in subsequent episodes until he relapsed in "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can
I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can
I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons fourteenth season. The episode aired on February 16, 2003. Twenty-two million people watched this episode, making it the second-most watched episode since 2002.-Plot:...
" (2003). Castellaneta altered his voice for the sober Barney by no longer slurring.
Release
The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 9, 2000. On October 7, 2008, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, George Meyer, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Dan Castellaneta, Deb Lacusta and Neil Affleck participated in the DVD audio commentaryAudio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.
While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that the episode "manages some good bits but not enough to make it a quality program." He also wrote that "If you thought that 'Alone Again, Natura-diddly' would be Season 11’s sole episode that features a big change for a secondary character, you thought wrong. No, Barney’s sobriety isn’t as major an event as Maude’s demise, but it actually has a bigger impact on the series. After all, Maude was a tertiary role; her disappearance affects secondary personality Ned
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...
, but she didn’t appear all that much, so she didn’t really go missed. Making Barney sober affects the series on a much more consistent basis – though probably not in a good way. After all, most of Barney’s appeal came from his drunken idiocy, so he loses his natural kick when he goes on the wagon."
Several other writers have commented on Barney becoming sober. 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...
staff members commented in 2006 that Barney has "been a dependable source of humor through his many drunken asides, burps included...Occasionally he's sobered up...But let's face it, for comedy's sake, The Simpsons is better off with a drunken Barney mouthing off at Moe's." 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...
wrote in his book Planet Simpson that "Barney is a good example of what happens when [the staff members] tinker too much. Barney was great as just the town drunk. Making him sober falls into the trap of all the stuff The Simpsons satirizes, all those simple sitcom narratives where everything is wrapped up in half an hour and everyone learns a lesson in the end." In 2001, "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" received a commendation from the Prism Awards
Entertainment Industries Council
The Entertainment Industries Council is a United States non-profit organization founded in 1983 that promotes the depiction of accurate health and social issues in film, television, music, and comic books...
, which honors accurate portrayals of substance abuse, addiction and mental health in entertainment programming.
External links
- "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" at The Simpsons.com