Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife
Encyclopedia
"Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" is the fifteenth episode of the seventeenth season
of The Simpsons
. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 26, 2006, and was watched by around ten million viewers during that broadcast. In the episode, Homer
signs the Simpson family
up for a reality show in which the mothers of two families switch places. Marge
gets to live with a friendly man named Charles and his perfect son, while Homer, Bart
, and Lisa
must spend time with Charles' strict wife Verity.
British comedian Ricky Gervais
wrote the episode and guest starred in it as Charles. As a big fan of The Simpsons, he felt it was "a dream come true." He was given the offer to write and guest star from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening
, who was a fan of Gervais' British television series The Office
. After meeting Groening and executive producer Al Jean
in early 2004, Gervais set out to come up with the storyline for the episode. He was inspired by the reality show Wife Swap
. Though Gervais contributed a large part to "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", the script was a joint effort with the writing staff of the show.
Gervais' performance has been praised by critics, being listed as one of the best guest appearances on the show by writers for Entertainment Weekly
and The Times
. Groening also liked the performance and invited Gervais to appear on the show again. The episode as a whole, however, received mixed reviews from critics. When "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" was broadcast on Sky1 in the United Kingdom, it drew 2.18 million viewers—the second most-watched broadcast in the history of that channel. A live-action remake of the regular animated opening sequence of The Simpsons
aired at the beginning of the episode.
immediately falls in love with its high-definition
picture, and begins to spend all his time at Lenny's home watching television. Marge
sends over the children to convince him to come back but they too become enthralled. After a few days, Homer is kicked out by Lenny, and when he gets back home he no longer enjoys watching his regular CRT
television. Marge tells him that she has entered the family in a contest where first prize is a plasma screen television. Later, they get a call and learn that instead of first prize, they won the third prize: a trip to the Fox Studio Network
. While on the tour bus at the studio, they run across Dan Castellaneta
. Later on the trip, Homer learns of a reality show called Mother Flippers in which the mothers of two families switch places, and the grand prize happens to be enough money to buy a new plasma screen television. Homer agrees to put his family on the show.
When the Simpson family gets back to Springfield, the show begins. Marge is traded to a nice, easygoing man named Charles Heathbar and his perfect son, while Homer gets Charles' very strict wife, Verity. Charles seems to be a husband who dislikes his wife and is constantly told by her what to do, so he is surprised to see that Marge is understanding and kind. As Marge enjoys her time with Charles, he begins to develop a crush on her. Meanwhile, Homer, Bart
, and Lisa
are having major troubles with Verity, who continues to discipline them and object to everything they do.
Charles writes a love song for Marge, who seems completely oblivious to him until he comes out and tells her that he is in love with her. She explains to him that she loves Homer, and she tells him that he should tell his wife how he feels about her. He agrees, and decides to take Marge back to Homer and then get rid of Verity. When the two arrive in Springfield, Homer and the children are ecstatic to see Marge. However, Verity has already decided to leave Charles, and has found a new partner: Patty. They were brought together by their hatred for Homer and begin to insult him. When an offended Homer threatens to vote in a law that prohibits same-sex couples from adopting children, Patty forces Homer into confessing that he is too lazy to actually do it. At the end of the episode, Homer plays on the guitar, expressing his undying love for his newly bought plasma television and (to a lesser extent) Marge.
and his popular British television series The Office
that he created and starred in. In January 2004, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening
called Gervais to congratulate him on his double Golden Globe win. During the phone call, Gervais was invited to lunch with Groening and executive producer Al Jean
since they were big fans and wanted to meet him. At this lunch, he was offered to appear in and write an episode of The Simpsons. Groening first asked Gervais for just a guest appearance, but figured that he might be interested in writing an episode too. Gervais told The Independent
that when he got the offer, "well, I knew I had to say yes, but fear kicked in at exactly the same time." He became the first person to be credited with simultaneously writing and guest starring in an episode of The Simpsons. He was also the first British person to write an episode for the show. As a big follower of The Simpsons, Gervais saw the experience as "a dream come true."
after a suggestion by his girlfriend Jane Fallon
, and wrote the character Charles to resemble David Brent
, the character Gervais played on The Office. While working on the episode, Gervais made sure to make use of his favorite characters from The Simpsons, such as Lenny. He revealed to the press for the first time in December 2004 that he was writing an episode, commenting that "I've got the rough idea but this is the most intimidating project of my career. The Simpsons is the greatest TV show of all time." When he showed his first work to Groening and Jean, they liked it. Groening told the press that "we could never have written his character the way he did" and that "he caught our tone exactly, and then added his own Ricky Gervais/David Brent patheticness."
Although Gervais came up with the plot of the episode and wrote parts of it on his own, the whole writing team of The Simpsons worked on the script and pitched ideas, as it is done with all other episodes. He has said in interviews that he thinks he received too much credit for writing the episode, claiming he merely sent his plot ideas, along with some written scenes, to Jean through email, and it was then the staff of the show that "made it look like a Simpsons script." He commented in a Dazed & Confused (magazine)Dazed & Confused article that "I'm going to get the credit, but I think everyone in the industry knows it was a joint effort." One of the scenes that Gervais wrote himself was Charles' love song for Marge, which later appeared on the 2007 soundtrack album The Simpsons: Testify
.
s, but also honor what Ricky does with subtlety and nuance." Jean added that "there was a scene with Ricky and Julie Kavner
[who plays Marge], which was longer than scenes we normally do, and slower-paced, but it got a bigger laugh." According to Don Kaplan, writing for the New York Post
, Gervais said to a British newspaper in late 2005 that as a result of working on The Simpsons and other American shows, his connection with American television is deeper than his connection with British television.
In July 2007, Groening stated that he would like to see Gervais appear on the show again because the staff enjoyed his performance. He also said that Gervais could decide himself if he wanted to return as Charles or a new character, should he choose to lend his voice again. Gervais did make another guest appearance on the show in an episode entitled "Angry Dad: The Movie
" that was broadcast in the United States on February 20, 2011. This time he played himself.
episode from 2000 that was viewed by 2.8 million people. The large amount of viewers of "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" was the result of Gervais' involvement—new episodes of the show were usually seen by approximately one million people on Sky1 at the time.
Instead of the usual animated opening sequence
that is played in front of The Simpsons episodes, this episode began with a live-action opening sequence. The sequence, which mirrors the normal opening but with real-life actors and locations, had already aired in United Kingdom. It was originally created by British Sky Broadcasting
for Sky1's promotion of The Simpsons. The live-action opening had also become an Internet hit before it was aired in front of "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", and it was Groening's decision to use it. Jean commented in a press statement that he was "just amazed there are people who want to be known for looking like the Simpsons."
named Gervais one of the eighteen best The Simpsons guest stars, and in 2007 Simon Crerar of The Times
listed the performance as one of the funniest cameos in the history of the show. Gervais' character Charles was cited by The Guardian
s Johnny Dee as one of the most memorable characters from The Simpsons. The episode, on the other hand, has received mixed response. Larissa Dubecki of The Age
gave it a negative review, commenting that "this cross-pollination of stellar US and British comedies [The Simpsons and The Office] gives rise to great expectations but there's a massive letdown in store for anyone hoping for something approaching even the middling efforts of the two comedic benchmarks." She added that "[...] this effort proves that The Office and The Simpsons are the comedic equivalent of oil and water, with the former's wry observational style sitting oddly with the latter's pop-culture pie-eating competition."
The Guardians Johnny Dee was more positive, writing that he "enjoyed it very much" and that "there were some lovely gags." He noted, however, that he felt it took slightly too much time to set up the episode, though after the wife swap, "it marched along." The Times critic Dominic Maxwell thought the "languid timing that Gervais brings to Extras and The Office was wrong here. Simpsons cameos are normally lean, but Gervais's shtick ran rampant through the second half, turning the regulars into extras." Maxwell did find the episode entertaining though, stating that "it was a decent late-period Simpsons episode" and that it featured "some fine jokes." He concluded that "even a middling Simpsons episode is still bright and tight and brilliantly rendered. So even if this one didn’t really work, it was still a lot more fun than a lot of [other things on television] that do."
The Simpsons (season 17)
The Simpsons' seventeenth season originally aired between September 2005 and May 2006, beginning on Sunday, September 11, 2005. It broke Fox's tradition of pushing its shows' season premieres back to November to accommodate the Major League Baseball games airing on the network during September...
of 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 March 26, 2006, and was watched by around ten million viewers during that broadcast. In the episode, 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...
signs 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...
up for a reality show in which the mothers of two families switch places. 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...
gets to live with a friendly man named Charles and his perfect son, while Homer, 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...
must spend time with Charles' strict wife Verity.
British comedian Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
wrote the episode and guest starred in it as Charles. As a big fan of The Simpsons, he felt it was "a dream come true." He was given the offer to write and guest star from 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....
, who was a fan of Gervais' British television series The Office
The Office (UK TV series)
The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...
. After meeting Groening and 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...
in early 2004, Gervais set out to come up with the storyline for the episode. He was inspired by the reality show Wife Swap
Wife Swap
Wife Swap is a reality television program, originally produced by UK independent television production company RDF Media and created by Stephen Lambert. It was first broadcast in 2003 on the UK's Channel 4. Since 2004, a US version has also been broadcast on the ABC network...
. Though Gervais contributed a large part to "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", the script was a joint effort with the writing staff of the show.
Gervais' performance has been praised by critics, being listed as one of the best guest appearances on the show by writers for 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...
and 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...
. Groening also liked the performance and invited Gervais to appear on the show again. The episode as a whole, however, received mixed reviews from critics. When "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" was broadcast on Sky1 in the United Kingdom, it drew 2.18 million viewers—the second most-watched broadcast in the history of that channel. A live-action remake of the regular animated opening sequence of The Simpsons
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...
aired at the beginning of the episode.
Plot
Lenny invites his friends in Springfield to a party at his apartment, where he tells them that he has adopted a new faith in the form of a brand new plasma screen television. HomerHomer 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...
immediately falls in love with its high-definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
picture, and begins to spend all his time at Lenny's home watching television. 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...
sends over the children to convince him to come back but they too become enthralled. After a few days, Homer is kicked out by Lenny, and when he gets back home he no longer enjoys watching his regular CRT
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
television. Marge tells him that she has entered the family in a contest where first prize is a plasma screen television. Later, they get a call and learn that instead of first prize, they won the third prize: a trip to the Fox Studio 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...
. While on the tour bus at the studio, they run across 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,...
. Later on the trip, Homer learns of a reality show called Mother Flippers in which the mothers of two families switch places, and the grand prize happens to be enough money to buy a new plasma screen television. Homer agrees to put his family on the show.
When the Simpson family gets back to Springfield, the show begins. Marge is traded to a nice, easygoing man named Charles Heathbar and his perfect son, while Homer gets Charles' very strict wife, Verity. Charles seems to be a husband who dislikes his wife and is constantly told by her what to do, so he is surprised to see that Marge is understanding and kind. As Marge enjoys her time with Charles, he begins to develop a crush on her. Meanwhile, Homer, 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...
are having major troubles with Verity, who continues to discipline them and object to everything they do.
Charles writes a love song for Marge, who seems completely oblivious to him until he comes out and tells her that he is in love with her. She explains to him that she loves Homer, and she tells him that he should tell his wife how he feels about her. He agrees, and decides to take Marge back to Homer and then get rid of Verity. When the two arrive in Springfield, Homer and the children are ecstatic to see Marge. However, Verity has already decided to leave Charles, and has found a new partner: Patty. They were brought together by their hatred for Homer and begin to insult him. When an offended Homer threatens to vote in a law that prohibits same-sex couples from adopting children, Patty forces Homer into confessing that he is too lazy to actually do it. At the end of the episode, Homer plays on the guitar, expressing his undying love for his newly bought plasma television and (to a lesser extent) Marge.
Background
Many The Simpsons staff members were fans of British comedian Ricky GervaisRicky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
and his popular British television series The Office
The Office (UK TV series)
The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...
that he created and starred in. In January 2004, 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....
called Gervais to congratulate him on his double Golden Globe win. During the phone call, Gervais was invited to lunch with Groening and 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...
since they were big fans and wanted to meet him. At this lunch, he was offered to appear in and write an episode of The Simpsons. Groening first asked Gervais for just a guest appearance, but figured that he might be interested in writing an episode too. Gervais told The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
that when he got the offer, "well, I knew I had to say yes, but fear kicked in at exactly the same time." He became the first person to be credited with simultaneously writing and guest starring in an episode of The Simpsons. He was also the first British person to write an episode for the show. As a big follower of The Simpsons, Gervais saw the experience as "a dream come true."
Writing process
After the lunch with Groening and Jean in early 2004, Gervais began coming up with a storyline. Because The Simpsons had been airing for such a long time, he found it difficult to think of a story that had not been done before. He finally based the plot on the British reality series Wife SwapWife Swap
Wife Swap is a reality television program, originally produced by UK independent television production company RDF Media and created by Stephen Lambert. It was first broadcast in 2003 on the UK's Channel 4. Since 2004, a US version has also been broadcast on the ABC network...
after a suggestion by his girlfriend Jane Fallon
Jane Fallon
Jane Fallon is the author of four bestselling novels - Getting Rid of Matthew , Got You Back , Foursome and The Ugly Sister...
, and wrote the character Charles to resemble David Brent
David Brent
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series...
, the character Gervais played on The Office. While working on the episode, Gervais made sure to make use of his favorite characters from The Simpsons, such as Lenny. He revealed to the press for the first time in December 2004 that he was writing an episode, commenting that "I've got the rough idea but this is the most intimidating project of my career. The Simpsons is the greatest TV show of all time." When he showed his first work to Groening and Jean, they liked it. Groening told the press that "we could never have written his character the way he did" and that "he caught our tone exactly, and then added his own Ricky Gervais/David Brent patheticness."
Although Gervais came up with the plot of the episode and wrote parts of it on his own, the whole writing team of The Simpsons worked on the script and pitched ideas, as it is done with all other episodes. He has said in interviews that he thinks he received too much credit for writing the episode, claiming he merely sent his plot ideas, along with some written scenes, to Jean through email, and it was then the staff of the show that "made it look like a Simpsons script." He commented in a Dazed & Confused (magazine)Dazed & Confused article that "I'm going to get the credit, but I think everyone in the industry knows it was a joint effort." One of the scenes that Gervais wrote himself was Charles' love song for Marge, which later appeared on the 2007 soundtrack album The Simpsons: Testify
The Simpsons: Testify
The Simpsons: Testify is an album that features songs from the animated television series The Simpsons. It was released on September 18, 2007 and includes songs from season 11 to season 18...
.
Impact
When asked in an interview if the Simpsons staff learned anything from the experience of having Gervais contribute to the show, Groening said they found out "that we could stay true to The Simpsons sensibility, with high-velocity visual gagVisual gag
In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humor visually, often without words being used at all.There are numerous examples in cinema history of directors who based most of the humour in their films on visual gags, even to the point of using no or minimal dialogue...
s, but also honor what Ricky does with subtlety and nuance." Jean added that "there was a scene with Ricky and Julie Kavner
Julie Kavner
Julie Deborah Kavner is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, and Patty and Selma Bouvier.Born in Los...
[who plays Marge], which was longer than scenes we normally do, and slower-paced, but it got a bigger laugh." According to Don Kaplan, writing for the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, Gervais said to a British newspaper in late 2005 that as a result of working on The Simpsons and other American shows, his connection with American television is deeper than his connection with British television.
In July 2007, Groening stated that he would like to see Gervais appear on the show again because the staff enjoyed his performance. He also said that Gervais could decide himself if he wanted to return as Charles or a new character, should he choose to lend his voice again. Gervais did make another guest appearance on the show in an episode entitled "Angry Dad: The Movie
Angry Dad: The Movie
"Angry Dad: The Movie" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons twenty-second season. It aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 20, 2011...
" that was broadcast in the United States on February 20, 2011. This time he played himself.
Release
"Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" was originally broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on March 26, 2006. With a total of 10.09 million viewers, the episode finished 38th in the ratings for the week of March 20–26, 2006. It was the seventh highest-rated program on the Fox network that week. During the episode's first airing in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2006, it was watched by 2.18 million viewers. This made it second most-watched broadcast in the history of the Sky1 channel, after a FriendsFriends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
episode from 2000 that was viewed by 2.8 million people. The large amount of viewers of "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" was the result of Gervais' involvement—new episodes of the show were usually seen by approximately one million people on Sky1 at the time.
Instead of the usual animated 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...
that is played in front of The Simpsons episodes, this episode began with a live-action opening sequence. The sequence, which mirrors the normal opening but with real-life actors and locations, had already aired in United Kingdom. It was originally created by British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
for Sky1's promotion of The Simpsons. The live-action opening had also become an Internet hit before it was aired in front of "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", and it was Groening's decision to use it. Jean commented in a press statement that he was "just amazed there are people who want to be known for looking like the Simpsons."
Critical reception
Gervais has been praised by critics for his performance in the episode. In a 2010 article, Mike Bruno of Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment 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...
named Gervais one of the eighteen best The Simpsons guest stars, and in 2007 Simon Crerar 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...
listed the performance as one of the funniest cameos in the history of the show. Gervais' character Charles was cited by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Johnny Dee as one of the most memorable characters from The Simpsons. The episode, on the other hand, has received mixed response. Larissa Dubecki of The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
gave it a negative review, commenting that "this cross-pollination of stellar US and British comedies [The Simpsons and The Office] gives rise to great expectations but there's a massive letdown in store for anyone hoping for something approaching even the middling efforts of the two comedic benchmarks." She added that "[...] this effort proves that The Office and The Simpsons are the comedic equivalent of oil and water, with the former's wry observational style sitting oddly with the latter's pop-culture pie-eating competition."
The Guardians Johnny Dee was more positive, writing that he "enjoyed it very much" and that "there were some lovely gags." He noted, however, that he felt it took slightly too much time to set up the episode, though after the wife swap, "it marched along." The Times critic Dominic Maxwell thought the "languid timing that Gervais brings to Extras and The Office was wrong here. Simpsons cameos are normally lean, but Gervais's shtick ran rampant through the second half, turning the regulars into extras." Maxwell did find the episode entertaining though, stating that "it was a decent late-period Simpsons episode" and that it featured "some fine jokes." He concluded that "even a middling Simpsons episode is still bright and tight and brilliantly rendered. So even if this one didn’t really work, it was still a lot more fun than a lot of [other things on television] that do."
External links
- Storyboard images of the episode from Gervais' official website