.gif)
Some Enchanted Evening (The Simpsons)
Encyclopedia
"Some Enchanted Evening" is the thirteenth, final aired, and first produced episode of The Simpsons
' first season
and originally aired on the Fox
network on May 13, 1990. Although it was the first episode produced, it aired as the season finale due to significant animation problems. The episode features Bart
, Lisa
, and Maggie
's encounter with the notorious Babysitter Bandit. After resolving a marital dilemma, Homer
and Marge
want to spend a night on the town so they need a babysitter to look after their children. They hire Ms. Botz through a babysitting service. Ms. Botz is later revealed to be the "Babysitter Bandit" and after restraining the eldest children, she robs the family.
The episode features cultural references to such films as The Night of the Hunter
and Psycho as well as a musical reference to A Star Is Born
. It received mixed reception: some critics deemed it the best episode of the season while others regarded it as the poorest.
is depressed that Homer
takes her for granted. She calls Dr. Marvin Monroe's radio call-in therapy show and the doctor urges her to confront Homer. Homer, who has heard the call on a radio at work, feels bad and wonders how to change the way Marge feels about him. He goes to Moe's Tavern after work and, on Moe's advice, brings home a single rose
and a box of chocolate
s. Marge's mood immediately softens, and a remorseful Homer tells Marge he will take her to a night on the town: dinner at a fancy restaurant, dancing
, and a night at a motel
.
Marge and Homer now need a babysitter and hire Ms. Botz through the local "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper babysitting service" (however they have to call themselves the "Samsons", since their kids have a rather bad reputation with the babysitting service). On Marge's advice, Ms. Botz puts Maggie
to bed and has Bart
and Lisa
watch The Happy Little Elves. After Ms. Botz leaves the room however Bart tunes into a station airing America's Most Armed and Dangerous (a parody of America's Most Wanted
), which profiles a wanted burglar nicknamed "The Babysitter Bandit." A mug shot
of the suspect shows Bart and Lisa that Ms. Botz is "The Babysitter Bandit." Ms. Botz enters the living room and realizes that her cover has been blown. Bart and Lisa try to hide, but she easily finds them, ties them up and forces them to watch The Happy Little Elves as she continues packing the family's possessions into her suitcases. Maggie eventually wakes up and goes downstairs to discover that her siblings are tied up and watching TV. Maggie frees Bart and Lisa, and Bart is able to knock out Ms. Botz with a baseball bat.
After tying up Ms. Botz, the kids find all their telephones disabled (which Ms. Botz had done earlier) and go to a nearby payphone
to alert the authorities. Meanwhile, Marge tries to call home to check up on the kids but gets no answer. Worried, she and Homer decide to go home. They find Ms. Botz bound and gagged in front of the TV. Homer, thinking his children have gotten the best of another babysitter and unaware of her true identity, frees her and pays her handsomely. After advising Homer to keep an eye on Bart, Ms. Botz makes a clean getaway, just seconds before the kids arrive with the police and news media to arrest her. As Bart try to lead the police to the house, Homer grabs him and begins to scold him for his behavior toward Ms. Botz until he finds a reporter's microphone shoved in his face, telling him he just freed a wanted criminal. Realizing his mistake, Homer attempts to save face by claiming he fought Botz and she escaped, then warning her on camera never to show her face to him again. Later that night, Homer moans about his blunder on TV, but Marge cheers him up by saying that if he managed to teach three children to hogtie a perfect stranger, he must be doing something right.
in which the family already appeared in a series of animated one-minute shorts. The characters were already created, but had to be further developed in order to carry a half-hour show. The episode was therefore meant as an introduction to the characters. Simpsons creator Matt Groening and writer/producer Sam Simon (of such television series as Cheers
) wrote the script for the episode. Both Groening and Simon are credited with developing the series. The name of Ms. Botz was based on a real person that once babysat Matt Groening.
The episode was first directed by Kent Butterworth. Klasky-Csupo, the animation studio that produced the earlier Simpsons shorts, was in charge of the animation, with one exception. During the years of producing the shorts, everything was created in-house. Due to the increased workload of the full-length episodes, production was subcontracted to South Korean animation studio AKOM
. While character and background layout is done by the domestic studio, inbetweening, coloring and filming is done by the overseas studio. A debacle erupted when this episode, the first to return from animation in Korea, was screened in front of the production staff at the Gracie Films
bungalow. The executive producer and developer James L. Brooks
' initial reaction to the animation was "This is shit." After that reaction the room almost cleared. A heated argument ensued between Brooks and Klasky-Csupo animation studio head Gabor Csupo
, who denied that there was anything wrong with the animation and suggested that the real problem was the quality of the show's writing.
The problem with the animation from the producers' point-of-view was that it did not exhibit a distinct style envisioned for the show. At the time there were only a few choices for animation style. Usually, they would either follow the style of Disney
, Warner Bros.
, or Hanna-Barbera
. Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons had a universe that was bendy and the characters seemed to be made of rubber. The producers wanted a realistic environment in which the characters and objects could not do anything that was not possible in the real world. One example with the early animation being cartoonish was that the doors behaved liked rubber when slammed. The style of Hanna-Barbera featured the use of cartoon sounds, which they did not want either.
The producers considered aborting production on the series if the next episode, "Bart the Genius
", turned out as this episode, but fortunately it turned out to suffer only a few, easily fixable problems. Afterwards, the producers entreated Fox to postpone the series premiere for several months. The premiere then switched to "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
", which had to be aired in December, being a Christmas special. This ensured that more time could be spent fixing the animation problems with this episode. Directorial duties for the retakes were handed from Kent Butterworth to David Silverman
, who already had considerable experience directing the shorts. Silverman estimates that about 70% of everything had to be redone. Most of these retakes consisted of changing the backgrounds. The result is an episode where the animation is uneven, because it shifts between the early animation and the retakes. It is still possible to see the doors slam like they were made of rubber. The Fox censors wanted to replace the sentence "the blue thing with the things", which they believed to be too sexual. Due to the fledgling position of the Fox network, Jim Brooks had obtained an unusual contractual provision that ensured the network could not interfere with the creative process by providing show notes, so the producers simply ignored the censors.
The episode featured a few early character designs. Moe Szyslak
has black hair in this episode, which was later changed to grey. Barney Gumble
has yellow hair, which was later changed to brown in order to differentiate the character's hair color from that of his skin. Because of the delayed airing, there are also a few continuity errors. Santa's Little Helper
for example does not appear in this episode, despite being introduced in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Hank Azaria
was at the time credited as a guest star for portraying Moe Szyslak. In this episode Moe was originally voiced by Christopher Collins
, but when Azaria came with his version, they decided to overdub Collins' voice. Azaria became a regular cast member in the second season.
. Moe's Tavern plays "The Man That Got Away
" from the 1954
remake of A Star Is Born
directed by George Cukor
and starring Judy Garland
and James Mason
.
with a rating of 15.4, being seen by approximately 14.2 million homes. Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "It's quite a shock to discover that this confident, fully rounded episode was the first to be made. The perfect template." Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that he "thought “Evening” was a reasonably good episode." and added that "Still, it’s an awkward piece, and not one I enjoyed a great deal. To be sure, “Evening” was generally entertaining, but it’s nothing special." In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 1.5/5. Another DVD review from The Digital Bits
calls the behind the scenes story more interesting than the actual episode.
According to Al Jean, viewers thought this episode was the best episode of the first season after the season ended. However in 2006, IGN.com named "The Crepes of Wrath
" the best episode of the first season. Penny Marshall
, who played Ms. Botz, ranked on AOL
's list of their favorite 25 Simpsons guest stars.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 1)
The Simpsons first season originally aired between December 17, 1989 and May 13, 1990, beginning with the Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". The show runners for the first production season were Matt Groening, James L...
and originally aired on the Fox
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...
network on May 13, 1990. Although it was the first episode produced, it aired as the season finale due to significant animation problems. The episode features 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...
, 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...
, and Maggie
Maggie Simpson
Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Maggie was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James...
's encounter with the notorious Babysitter Bandit. After resolving a marital dilemma, 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...
and 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...
want to spend a night on the town so they need a babysitter to look after their children. They hire Ms. Botz through a babysitting service. Ms. Botz is later revealed to be the "Babysitter Bandit" and after restraining the eldest children, she robs the family.
The episode features cultural references to such films as 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...
and Psycho as well as a musical reference to A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1954 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1954 American musical film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay written by Moss Hart was an adaptation of the original 1937 film, which was based on the original screenplay by Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell...
. It received mixed reception: some critics deemed it the best episode of the season while others regarded it as the poorest.
Plot
MargeMarge 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...
is depressed that 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...
takes her for granted. She calls Dr. Marvin Monroe's radio call-in therapy show and the doctor urges her to confront Homer. Homer, who has heard the call on a radio at work, feels bad and wonders how to change the way Marge feels about him. He goes to Moe's Tavern after work and, on Moe's advice, brings home a single rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
and a box of chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
s. Marge's mood immediately softens, and a remorseful Homer tells Marge he will take her to a night on the town: dinner at a fancy restaurant, dancing
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, and a night at a motel
Motel
A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...
.
Marge and Homer now need a babysitter and hire Ms. Botz through the local "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper babysitting service" (however they have to call themselves the "Samsons", since their kids have a rather bad reputation with the babysitting service). On Marge's advice, Ms. Botz puts Maggie
Maggie Simpson
Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Maggie was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James...
to bed and has 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...
watch The Happy Little Elves. After Ms. Botz leaves the room however Bart tunes into a station airing America's Most Armed and Dangerous (a parody of America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
), which profiles a wanted burglar nicknamed "The Babysitter Bandit." A mug shot
Mug shot
A mug shot, mugshot or booking photograph, is a photographic portrait taken after one is arrested. The purpose of the mug shot is to allow law enforcement to have a photographic record of the arrested individual to allow for identification by victims and investigators. Most mug shots are two-part,...
of the suspect shows Bart and Lisa that Ms. Botz is "The Babysitter Bandit." Ms. Botz enters the living room and realizes that her cover has been blown. Bart and Lisa try to hide, but she easily finds them, ties them up and forces them to watch The Happy Little Elves as she continues packing the family's possessions into her suitcases. Maggie eventually wakes up and goes downstairs to discover that her siblings are tied up and watching TV. Maggie frees Bart and Lisa, and Bart is able to knock out Ms. Botz with a baseball bat.
After tying up Ms. Botz, the kids find all their telephones disabled (which Ms. Botz had done earlier) and go to a nearby payphone
Payphone
A payphone or pay phone is a public telephone, often located in a phone booth or a privacy hood, with pre-payment by inserting money , a credit or debit card, or a telephone card....
to alert the authorities. Meanwhile, Marge tries to call home to check up on the kids but gets no answer. Worried, she and Homer decide to go home. They find Ms. Botz bound and gagged in front of the TV. Homer, thinking his children have gotten the best of another babysitter and unaware of her true identity, frees her and pays her handsomely. After advising Homer to keep an eye on Bart, Ms. Botz makes a clean getaway, just seconds before the kids arrive with the police and news media to arrest her. As Bart try to lead the police to the house, Homer grabs him and begins to scold him for his behavior toward Ms. Botz until he finds a reporter's microphone shoved in his face, telling him he just freed a wanted criminal. Realizing his mistake, Homer attempts to save face by claiming he fought Botz and she escaped, then warning her on camera never to show her face to him again. Later that night, Homer moans about his blunder on TV, but Marge cheers him up by saying that if he managed to teach three children to hogtie a perfect stranger, he must be doing something right.
Production
Even though this episode aired as the last episode of the first season, it was the first episode in production and was intended to be the first episode to air from the half-hour show. The series is a spin-off from The Tracey Ullman ShowThe Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show was an American television variety show, hosted by British comedian and onetime pop singer Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5, 1987 as the Fox network's second primetime series after Married... with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show blended sketch comedy shorts...
in which the family already appeared in a series of animated one-minute shorts. The characters were already created, but had to be further developed in order to carry a half-hour show. The episode was therefore meant as an introduction to the characters. Simpsons creator Matt Groening and writer/producer Sam Simon (of such television series as Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
) wrote the script for the episode. Both Groening and Simon are credited with developing the series. The name of Ms. Botz was based on a real person that once babysat Matt Groening.
AKOM
AKOM Productions is a South Korean animation studio in Songpa-gu, Seoul that has provided much work since its conception in 1985 by Nelson Shin. Its biggest claim to fame is the overseas animation for 200 episodes of The Simpsons, to which that number is consistently rising...
. While character and background layout is done by the domestic studio, inbetweening, coloring and filming is done by the overseas studio. A debacle erupted when this episode, the first to return from animation in Korea, was screened in front of the production staff at the Gracie Films
Gracie Films
Gracie Films is an American film and television production company, created by James L. Brooks in 1986. The company has produced many award-winning films and television series, including Broadcast News, Jerry Maguire, and most notably The Simpsons...
bungalow. The executive producer and developer James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
' initial reaction to the animation was "This is shit." After that reaction the room almost cleared. A heated argument ensued between Brooks and Klasky-Csupo animation studio head Gabor Csupo
Gábor Csupó
Gábor Csupó is a Hungarian-born animator, writer, film director and music producer. He is co-founder of the animation studio Klasky Csupo, which has produced shows like Rugrats, Duckman, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.-Career:...
, who denied that there was anything wrong with the animation and suggested that the real problem was the quality of the show's writing.
The problem with the animation from the producers' point-of-view was that it did not exhibit a distinct style envisioned for the show. At the time there were only a few choices for animation style. Usually, they would either follow the style of Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, or Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
. Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons had a universe that was bendy and the characters seemed to be made of rubber. The producers wanted a realistic environment in which the characters and objects could not do anything that was not possible in the real world. One example with the early animation being cartoonish was that the doors behaved liked rubber when slammed. The style of Hanna-Barbera featured the use of cartoon sounds, which they did not want either.
The producers considered aborting production on the series if the next episode, "Bart the Genius
Bart the Genius
"Bart the Genius" is the second episode of The Simpsons first season, which originally aired on the Fox network on January 14, 1990. It was the first episode written by Jon Vitti. It was also the first ever episode to use the signature title sequence, as well as the first regular episode...
", turned out as this episode, but fortunately it turned out to suffer only a few, easily fixable problems. Afterwards, the producers entreated Fox to postpone the series premiere for several months. The premiere then switched to "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is the first full-length episode of The Simpsons to air despite originally being the eighth episode produced for season one. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 17, 1989...
", which had to be aired in December, being a Christmas special. This ensured that more time could be spent fixing the animation problems with this episode. Directorial duties for the retakes were handed from Kent Butterworth to David Silverman
David Silverman
David Silverman is an animator best known for directing numerous episodes of the animated TV series The Simpsons, as well as The Simpsons Movie...
, who already had considerable experience directing the shorts. Silverman estimates that about 70% of everything had to be redone. Most of these retakes consisted of changing the backgrounds. The result is an episode where the animation is uneven, because it shifts between the early animation and the retakes. It is still possible to see the doors slam like they were made of rubber. The Fox censors wanted to replace the sentence "the blue thing with the things", which they believed to be too sexual. Due to the fledgling position of the Fox network, Jim Brooks had obtained an unusual contractual provision that ensured the network could not interfere with the creative process by providing show notes, so the producers simply ignored the censors.
The episode featured a few early character designs. Moe Szyslak
Moe Szyslak
Momar / Morris "Moe" Szyslak is a fictional character in the American animated television series, The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"...
has black hair in this episode, which was later changed to grey. Barney Gumble
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...
has yellow hair, which was later changed to brown in order to differentiate the character's hair color from that of his skin. Because of the delayed airing, there are also a few continuity errors. Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper is a recurring character in the American animated television series The Simpsons. He is the pet greyhound of the Simpson family. The dog was introduced in the first episode of the show, the 1989 Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which his owner abandons...
for example does not appear in this episode, despite being introduced in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Hank Azaria
Hank Azaria
Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons , on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief...
was at the time credited as a guest star for portraying Moe Szyslak. In this episode Moe was originally voiced by Christopher Collins
Christopher Collins
Christopher Charles Collins , also known as Chris Latta, was an American actor, voice artist and comedian, perhaps best known as the voice of Cobra Commander on the G.I. Joe animated series and as the voice of Starscream in the first Transformers animated series...
, but when Azaria came with his version, they decided to overdub Collins' voice. Azaria became a regular cast member in the second season.
Cultural references
Ms. Botz's pursuit of Bart into the cellar is reminiscent of Robert Mitchum's pursuit of a young boy in the film The Night of the HunterThe 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...
. Moe's Tavern plays "The Man That Got Away
The Man that Got Away
"The Man that Got Away" is a popular song, published in 1953 and was written for the 1954 version of the movie A Star Is Born. The music was written by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics by Ira Gershwin...
" from the 1954
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
remake of A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1954 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1954 American musical film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay written by Moss Hart was an adaptation of the original 1937 film, which was based on the original screenplay by Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell...
directed by George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
and starring Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
and James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
.
Reception
In its original broadcast, "Some Enchanted Evening" finished 12th for the week in the Nielsen ratingsNielsen 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...
with a rating of 15.4, being seen by approximately 14.2 million homes. Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "It's quite a shock to discover that this confident, fully rounded episode was the first to be made. The perfect template." Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that he "thought “Evening” was a reasonably good episode." and added that "Still, it’s an awkward piece, and not one I enjoyed a great deal. To be sure, “Evening” was generally entertaining, but it’s nothing special." In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 1.5/5. Another DVD review from The Digital Bits
The Digital Bits
The Digital Bits is a DVD-related website, established in 1997 by editor Bill Hunt. It includes frequent news updates about upcoming DVD releases, images of upcoming DVD cover art, and DVD reviews....
calls the behind the scenes story more interesting than the actual episode.
According to Al Jean, viewers thought this episode was the best episode of the first season after the season ended. However in 2006, IGN.com named "The Crepes of Wrath
The Crepes of Wrath
"The Crepes of Wrath" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons first season, and originally aired April 15, 1990. The episode was written by George Meyer, Sam Simon, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti, and was directed by Wes Archer and Milton Gray. In the episode, Bart is sent to France on a student...
" the best episode of the first season. Penny Marshall
Penny Marshall
Penny Marshall is an American actress, producer and director.After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley...
, who played Ms. Botz, ranked on AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
's list of their favorite 25 Simpsons guest stars.
External links
- "Some Enchanted Evening" at The Simpsons.com