She of Little Faith
Encyclopedia
"She of Little Faith" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons
thirteenth season
. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network
on December 16, 2001. In the episode, Bart Simpson
and his father Homer
accidentally launch a model rocket into the Springfield church, causing the church council to accept funding plans from Mr Burns for reparation.
Discontent with how commercialized the rebuilt church has become, Lisa
abandons Christianity
and seeks out to follow a new religion.
The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore
and written by Bill Freiberger
, whom executive producer and show runner
Al Jean
had met while working on the television series Teen Angel. The plot idea for the episode was pitched by Jean, who wanted to expand on Lisa's personality, even though some of the Simpsons writers were concerned over the episode's originality. Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode. The episode features actor Richard Gere
, who agreed to star as long as Buddhism was portrayed accurately, and as long as Lisa would say "Free Tibet" in the episode, though this last requirement did not occur.
The episode was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award
for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour) in 2002, which it ultimately lost to Futurama
. Following the thirteenth season's release on DVD
and Blu-ray, the episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
movie, Bart
and Lisa
see a commercial for a model rocket kit and Bart orders it by using Homer
's credit card number. Homer helps Bart and Milhouse
build it, but it blows up before launching. Jealous that Ned Flanders
built a superior rocket, Homer enlists the help of his former nerdy college roommates, Gary, Doug, and Benjamin, to build a rocket piloted by the hamster Nibbles. The rocket lifts off successfully, but it develops complications and Nibbles bails out, leaving the rocket to crash into the church. The church council meets up to decide how to come up with money to fund the repairs to the church, and with no other aid available they accept help from Mr. Burns
and Lindsay Naegle. The two rebuild the church as a commercial monstrosity, complete with advertising signs, a Lard Lad statue, and a Jumbotron
. Lisa is appalled at this and abandons the church, feeling her religion has lost its soul.
That night, Lisa prays to God and assures him she has not turned her back on him, but plans to seek a new path to him. While on a walk around town passing many sacrilegious signs, she finds Springfield
's Buddhist temple. Inside she sees Lenny and Carl meditating, and Hollywood actor Richard Gere
preaches the core concepts of Buddhism to her. Intrigued Lisa takes a pamphlet on the religion and studies it at home. It convinces her of the virtues of the faith, and Lisa announces out her window she has become a Buddhist. Lisa plants her own bodhi tree
in the back yard and begins to meditate, but Marge grows increasingly worried about Lisa's soul
and tries to convince her to come back to Christianity.
At the church council, Reverend Lovejoy tells Marge to use Christmas
to bribe her back. Marge bakes cookies, decorates the home, and has Ralph
and Milhouse dress as a pony in wrapping paper to tempt her, but Lisa runs from the home when she realizes what is happening. At the Buddhist temple she tells Richard Gere her family tried to trick her, but Gere informs her that while Buddhism is about one finding inner peace, it is also about respecting the diversity of other religions based on love and compassion - thus, Lisa is free to celebrate any holiday with her family including Christmas. Lisa goes back home and tells everyone that she will be celebrating Christmas with them and continue paying lip service to Christianity while practicing Buddhism. As Marge takes her to the kitchen to get some cookies for her, Lisa asks about her pony, and Marge tries unsuccessfully to change the subject as Lisa calls out for her gift.
and was the first and only episode Bill Freiberger
wrote for The Simpsons. It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on December 16, 2001.
Before returning to work full time on The Simpons, Jean had worked on a television series called Teen Angel together with Mike Reiss
and Freiberger. While working on Teen Angel, Freiberger suggested that, if Jean was ever to run The Simpsons, he should hire Freiberger as a writer on the series. For the thirteenth season, Jean became show runner and assigned Freiberger to write the episode. Freiberger wrote the first draft as a freelance script
at his parents' barn in Pennsylvania
, and when he returned to the writing staff to rewrite the story, Freiberger took so many notes that the script became 106 pages long. As a result, Freiberger spent more time editing down the script rather than writing it. The episode's main plot, in which Lisa becomes a Buddhist, was pitched by Jean, who wanted to expand Lisa's personality. When he pitched the plot idea to the Simpsons writing staff, they became concerned about the episode's originality. They argued that the series had already explored religious themes in earlier episodes, but Jean assured them that the episode would be about Lisa first-and-foremost, rather than Buddhism. Unlike several other episodes in the series in which a character undergoes a change in their personality, Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode.
Freiberger pitched the subplot
involving the model rockets in the beginning of the episode. He based it on a real-life experience, in which he, as a child, accidentally launched a model rocket into a window in his house. A scene from this subplot was removed from the episode following the September 11 attacks. The scene would show a man named Hassan Jay Salam being arrested by policemen, who think the rocket Bart and Homer launched was launched by him (The rocket bears the abbreviation HJS, which stands for Homer J Simpson). After the attacks, the scene was considered too offensive by the Fox censors
, so the scene was removed. Originally, the subplot would involve Marge trying to get Homer to build model rockets with Bart. Homer would not want to at first, but after Marge convinces him, he would soon get more into it than Bart. The plot idea was encouraged by some of the writers who thought that Marge had "gotten short shrift," and, according to Freiberger, Marge would have had a "really big part motivating the story" had the subplot remained intact.
The renovated church in the episode is built like a mall; several stores and merchandising is located inside, and Reverend Lovejoy plugs products and television programs during his sermons. The scene is used to satirize the so-called "megachurches" and the commercialization sometimes associated with these institutions. The episode also argues that, even if Christmas has lost most of its meaning, it is more important to "keep these thoughts to oneself in order to make the family happy." It also comments on what the writers believe to be the "all or nothing, we're right, you're all going to hell mentality" of some Christian movements. Even though "She of Little Faith" is a Christmas episode, the holiday is not mentioned until the episode's third act. Jean stated in the DVD audio commentary
for the episode that the writers did not want to make a conventional Christmas episode, and instead wanted to "slide into" the subject.
The episode features actor Richard Gere
as himself. Gere agreed to guest star under two conditions, the first being that Buddhism should be portrayed accurately, and his second and strongest request being that Lisa should say "Free Tibet" in the episode. Jean agreed, but he did not keep his promise and the line did not appear in the episode. Gere's lines were recorded in New York
by Jean who, in the DVD audio commentary for the episode, stated that Gere was "great" and that he "didn't mind being made fun of" in the episode. He also mentioned that Gere was one of the only guest-stars they had that "looked handsome simpsonized."
for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour), but it ultimately lost to the Futurama
episode Roswell That Ends Well
. Matt Groening
, creator of both series', jokingly commented that the award "gave [him] a chance to be bitter either way." On August 24, 2010, the episode was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD
and Blu-ray set.
Following its home video release, "She of Little Faith" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Dominic von Reidermann of Suite101.com
considered the episode to be a "comedy gem" and Casey Burchby of DVD Talk wrote that it "offers its fair share of laughs." Stuart O' Conner of Screen Jabber was also favorable, calling it a "first-rate" episode. Writing for Obsessed With Film, Adam Rayner derided Gere's performance as being "bland and dreary," however he went on to write that it couldn't ruin the episode, which he described as "great." He especially liked Flanders' line "My Satan sense is tingling." Jennifer Malkowski, who gave the episode a B-, wrote that the episode's "highlight" was a scene in which "Milhouse mourns his 'beautiful eyebrows'" that were burned off by Bart and Homer's model rocket. In 2007, Simon Crerar of The Times
listed Gere's performance as one of the thirty-three funniest cameos in the history of the show.
On the other hand, giving the episode a negative review, Nate Boss of Project:Blu wrote that the episode is "Sometimes on point, sometimes dragging ass," and that it "has the right idea," but "just falls short." Ron Martin of 411Mania, who consider episodes about Lisa to be "traditional channel changers," wrote that it "offers one of the worst ‘Lisa episodes’" of the series. Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide criticized the episode for being "little more than a retread" of earlier episodes of the series. He argued that the episode borrows plot elements from both "Lisa the Vegetarian
", "Lisa's Pony
" and "Grift of the Magi
", and went on to write that the episode is "a pretty unoriginal piece of work." He concluded his review by writing that the episode "fails to deliver more than a chuckle or two."
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...
thirteenth season
The Simpsons (season 13)
The Simpsons thirteenth season originally aired on the Fox network between November 6, 2001 and May 22, 2002 and consists of 22 episodes. The show runner for the thirteenth production season was Al Jean who executive-produced 17 episodes...
. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on December 16, 2001. In the episode, 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...
and his father 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...
accidentally launch a model rocket into the Springfield church, causing the church council to accept funding plans from Mr Burns for reparation.
Discontent with how commercialized the rebuilt church has become, 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...
abandons Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and seeks out to follow a new religion.
The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an animation director who has directed 35 episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several episodes of the long running Nicktoon programme Rugrats...
and written by Bill Freiberger
Bill Freiberger
Bill Freiberger is a writer and producer for such shows as The Simpsons, Drawn Together, and The PJs.-TV Shows with Episodes Written by Freiberger:*Get a Life**"Roots"**"Paper Boy 2000"*Charlie Hoover**"Anniversary"...
, whom executive producer and 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...
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...
had met while working on the television series Teen Angel. The plot idea for the episode was pitched by Jean, who wanted to expand on Lisa's personality, even though some of the Simpsons writers were concerned over the episode's originality. Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode. The episode features actor Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, who agreed to star as long as Buddhism was portrayed accurately, and as long as Lisa would say "Free Tibet" in the episode, though this last requirement did not occur.
The episode was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour) in 2002, which it ultimately lost to Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
. Following the thirteenth season's release on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray, the episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Plot
While watching a 1950s science fictionScience fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
movie, 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...
see a commercial for a model rocket kit and Bart orders it by using 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 credit card number. Homer helps Bart and Milhouse
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
build it, but it blows up before launching. Jealous that Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
built a superior rocket, Homer enlists the help of his former nerdy college roommates, Gary, Doug, and Benjamin, to build a rocket piloted by the hamster Nibbles. The rocket lifts off successfully, but it develops complications and Nibbles bails out, leaving the rocket to crash into the church. The church council meets up to decide how to come up with money to fund the repairs to the church, and with no other aid available they accept help from Mr. Burns
Montgomery Burns
Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, who is voiced by Harry Shearer and previously Christopher Collins. Burns is the evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is Homer...
and Lindsay Naegle. The two rebuild the church as a commercial monstrosity, complete with advertising signs, a Lard Lad statue, and a Jumbotron
Jumbotron
A JumboTron is a large-screen television using technology developed by Sony, typically used in sports stadiums and concert venues to show close-up shots of the event. Although JumboTron is a registered trademark owned by the Sony Corporation, the word jumbotron is often used by the public as a...
. Lisa is appalled at this and abandons the church, feeling her religion has lost its soul.
That night, Lisa prays to God and assures him she has not turned her back on him, but plans to seek a new path to him. While on a walk around town passing many sacrilegious signs, she finds Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
's Buddhist temple. Inside she sees Lenny and Carl meditating, and Hollywood actor Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
preaches the core concepts of Buddhism to her. Intrigued Lisa takes a pamphlet on the religion and studies it at home. It convinces her of the virtues of the faith, and Lisa announces out her window she has become a Buddhist. Lisa plants her own bodhi tree
Bodhi tree
The Bodhi Tree, also known as Bo , was a large and very old Sacred Fig tree located in Bodh Gaya , under which Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism later known as Gautama Buddha, is said to have achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi...
in the back yard and begins to meditate, but Marge grows increasingly worried about Lisa's soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
and tries to convince her to come back to Christianity.
At the church council, Reverend Lovejoy tells Marge to use Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
to bribe her back. Marge bakes cookies, decorates the home, and has Ralph
Ralph Wiggum
Ralph Wiggum is a recurring fictional character on the animated series The Simpsons, voiced by Nancy Cartwright. The son of Police Chief Wiggum and a classmate of Lisa Simpson, Ralph is best known as the show's resident oddball, and is noted for his non sequiturs and erratic behavior...
and Milhouse dress as a pony in wrapping paper to tempt her, but Lisa runs from the home when she realizes what is happening. At the Buddhist temple she tells Richard Gere her family tried to trick her, but Gere informs her that while Buddhism is about one finding inner peace, it is also about respecting the diversity of other religions based on love and compassion - thus, Lisa is free to celebrate any holiday with her family including Christmas. Lisa goes back home and tells everyone that she will be celebrating Christmas with them and continue paying lip service to Christianity while practicing Buddhism. As Marge takes her to the kitchen to get some cookies for her, Lisa asks about her pony, and Marge tries unsuccessfully to change the subject as Lisa calls out for her gift.
Production and themes
"She of Little Faith" was directed by Steven Dean MooreSteven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an animation director who has directed 35 episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several episodes of the long running Nicktoon programme Rugrats...
and was the first and only episode Bill Freiberger
Bill Freiberger
Bill Freiberger is a writer and producer for such shows as The Simpsons, Drawn Together, and The PJs.-TV Shows with Episodes Written by Freiberger:*Get a Life**"Roots"**"Paper Boy 2000"*Charlie Hoover**"Anniversary"...
wrote for The Simpsons. It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on December 16, 2001.
Before returning to work full time on The Simpons, Jean had worked on a television series called Teen Angel together with 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...
and Freiberger. While working on Teen Angel, Freiberger suggested that, if Jean was ever to run The Simpsons, he should hire Freiberger as a writer on the series. For the thirteenth season, Jean became show runner and assigned Freiberger to write the episode. Freiberger wrote the first draft as a freelance script
Freelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
at his parents' barn in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and when he returned to the writing staff to rewrite the story, Freiberger took so many notes that the script became 106 pages long. As a result, Freiberger spent more time editing down the script rather than writing it. The episode's main plot, in which Lisa becomes a Buddhist, was pitched by Jean, who wanted to expand Lisa's personality. When he pitched the plot idea to the Simpsons writing staff, they became concerned about the episode's originality. They argued that the series had already explored religious themes in earlier episodes, but Jean assured them that the episode would be about Lisa first-and-foremost, rather than Buddhism. Unlike several other episodes in the series in which a character undergoes a change in their personality, Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode.
Freiberger pitched the subplot
Subplot
A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance...
involving the model rockets in the beginning of the episode. He based it on a real-life experience, in which he, as a child, accidentally launched a model rocket into a window in his house. A scene from this subplot was removed from the episode following the September 11 attacks. The scene would show a man named Hassan Jay Salam being arrested by policemen, who think the rocket Bart and Homer launched was launched by him (The rocket bears the abbreviation HJS, which stands for Homer J Simpson). After the attacks, the scene was considered too offensive by the Fox censors
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, so the scene was removed. Originally, the subplot would involve Marge trying to get Homer to build model rockets with Bart. Homer would not want to at first, but after Marge convinces him, he would soon get more into it than Bart. The plot idea was encouraged by some of the writers who thought that Marge had "gotten short shrift," and, according to Freiberger, Marge would have had a "really big part motivating the story" had the subplot remained intact.
Audio 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 that the writers did not want to make a conventional Christmas episode, and instead wanted to "slide into" the subject.
The episode features actor Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
as himself. Gere agreed to guest star under two conditions, the first being that Buddhism should be portrayed accurately, and his second and strongest request being that Lisa should say "Free Tibet" in the episode. Jean agreed, but he did not keep his promise and the line did not appear in the episode. Gere's lines were recorded in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
by Jean who, in the DVD audio commentary for the episode, stated that Gere was "great" and that he "didn't mind being made fun of" in the episode. He also mentioned that Gere was one of the only guest-stars they had that "looked handsome simpsonized."
Reception
In 2002, "She of Little Faith" was nominated for the Primetime Emmy AwardPrimetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour), but it ultimately lost to the Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
episode Roswell That Ends Well
Roswell That Ends Well
"Roswell That Ends Well" is the nineteenth episode of the third production season of the TV show Futurama. This episode, which won an Emmy Award, originally aired on December 9, 2001 as the season premiere of broadcast season four. It was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Rich Moore...
. 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....
, creator of both series', jokingly commented that the award "gave [him] a chance to be bitter either way." On August 24, 2010, the episode was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray set.
Following its home video release, "She of Little Faith" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Dominic von Reidermann of Suite101.com
Suite101.com
Suite101 is a Canadian online magazine that publishes articles by freelance writers. It generates revenue from advertisements and shares the revenue with article writers. Suite101 was established in 1996 and has published in excess of 300,000 articles by more than 10,000 freelance writers.- History...
considered the episode to be a "comedy gem" and Casey Burchby of DVD Talk wrote that it "offers its fair share of laughs." Stuart O' Conner of Screen Jabber was also favorable, calling it a "first-rate" episode. Writing for Obsessed With Film, Adam Rayner derided Gere's performance as being "bland and dreary," however he went on to write that it couldn't ruin the episode, which he described as "great." He especially liked Flanders' line "My Satan sense is tingling." Jennifer Malkowski, who gave the episode a B-, wrote that the episode's "highlight" was a scene in which "Milhouse mourns his 'beautiful eyebrows'" that were burned off by Bart and Homer's model rocket. 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 Gere's performance as one of the thirty-three funniest cameos in the history of the show.
On the other hand, giving the episode a negative review, Nate Boss of Project:Blu wrote that the episode is "Sometimes on point, sometimes dragging ass," and that it "has the right idea," but "just falls short." Ron Martin of 411Mania, who consider episodes about Lisa to be "traditional channel changers," wrote that it "offers one of the worst ‘Lisa episodes’" of the series. Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide criticized the episode for being "little more than a retread" of earlier episodes of the series. He argued that the episode borrows plot elements from both "Lisa the Vegetarian
Lisa the Vegetarian
"Lisa the Vegetarian" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 15, 1995. In the episode, Lisa decides to stop eating meat after bonding with a lamb at a petting zoo...
", "Lisa's Pony
Lisa's Pony
"Lisa's Pony" is the eighth episode of the third season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 7, 1991. In this episode, Homer goes drinking at Moe's Tavern instead of buying a new reed for Lisa's saxophone, resulting in her flopping at the school...
" and "Grift of the Magi
Grift of the Magi
"Grift of the Magi" is the ninth episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 19, 1999. In the episode, Principal Skinner hires Fat Tony's construction company to build wheelchair ramps for the...
", and went on to write that the episode is "a pretty unoriginal piece of work." He concluded his review by writing that the episode "fails to deliver more than a chuckle or two."
External links
- "She of Little Faith" at The Simpsons.com