The Call of the Simpsons
Encyclopedia
"The Call of the Simpsons" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons
' first season
, and originally aired February 18, 1990. It was written by John Swartzwelder
and directed by Wesley Archer. Albert Brooks
made his first guest appearance on The Simpsons in this episode as the voice of Cowboy Bob.
In this episode, Homer
decides to purchase an RV and the Simpsons set off for a vacation in the wilderness. After accidentally driving it off the edge of a cliff, the family find themselves trapped in the woods
. As Homer and Bart
try to find a way back to civilization, Homer gets himself covered in mud and is mistaken for Bigfoot
by a naturalist. The news about the encounter spreads quickly and Bigfoot hunters converge on the woods to capture Homer. Meanwhile, Maggie
finds herself separated from the family and raised by bears.
is jealous of Ned Flanders
' new RV and goes shopping for one of his own. Bob, the owner of the RV store shows the family the Ultimate Behemoth. During the tour, Bart and Lisa are impressed, but Marge is concerned about the cost. However, Bob does a credit check on the computer and learns that Homer has bad credit scores. As a result, he is unable to afford a new RV, and is forced to settle for a dilapidated, second hand RV instead. The family packs everything into their new RV and head off on a camping trip. Against Marge's wishes, Homer takes an unwise, off-road shortcut that soon results in the RV dangling precariously on the edge of a cliff. The family manages to inch out of the vehicle just before it plummets off the cliff, stranding them in the wilderness.
Marge
and Lisa
set up camp while Homer and Bart
head off to look for civilization. Maggie
follows them, but quickly gets separated and is cared for by an adoptive family of grizzly bear
s. Homer and Bart's attempts to find food prove fruitless, and soon they fall into a river and lose their clothes. Homer finds a beehive and attempts to get the honey, but is repeatedly stung by bees that cause his mouth to swell, rendering him incomprehensible. He staggers into mud, where an amateur cameraman captures a video of him and, mistaking him for Bigfoot
, sells it to the local news.
Soon the forest is swarming with Bigfoot hunters. Lisa and Marge are found and rescued. Marge sees a picture of "Bigfoot" and announces that he is actually her husband, causing a minor tabloid scandal. Homer and Bart encounter a grizzly bear, but Maggie calms it before it attacks them. Maggie leaves with Homer and Bart as they wander back into civilization, where Homer is immediately tranquilized and brought to a research lab for study. They keep him for several days, but eventually are forced to release him. The results of their study are inconclusive.
The episode was written by John Swartzwelder
and directed by Wesley Archer. A plot twist that involved Homer being carried away to an eagle nest and being raised as a baby eagle was suggested for this episode by executive producer James L. Brooks
, but they ended up going with Maggie being raised by bears instead. The sequence with Marge and Lisa by the bonfire was originally longer and included a conversation between the two about boys, but it was cut from the episode. In the original script, Homer and Bart were not talking in the scene where they concealed their private parts with mud and moss, but Sam Simon
thought it would be "too funny to leave as a stage direction" and they added dialogue to the scene.
Albert Brooks
guest starred in the episode as the voice of Cowboy Bob. He was not sure if he wanted to be identified with a cartoon show or not at the time, like many of the other early guest stars on The Simpsons, and was therefore credited as A. Brooks in the ending credits. This episode was a satire of the Bigfoot specials that had aired on the Fox network at the time when this episode was written. A lot of resources were spent on the backgrounds in the episode, trying to make them look realistic with many observational details such as trees, rocks, fences and the way the cars were positioned. Burger King
figurines were made out of the camping designs of the Simpsons family in this episode.
of 14.6 and a 22 percent audience share. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award
in 1990 in the category "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special". IGN.com named Albert Brooks' guest performance in this episode, along with his four other appearances on The Simpsons, the best guest appearance in the show's history.
"The Call of the Simpsons" received mixed reviews from critics. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, both criticized and praised the episode saying: "This episode is a bit less than the sum of its parts. The early stuff at the RV Round-Up is much better than the main camping story, although there's some nice Marge-Lisa bonding, and who could resist Maggie and the bears?" In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 1.5/5, adding "the surrealism of Homer as bigfoot is a major misstep. This type of gag would be very different today, if done at all." Jon Bonné at MSNBC
called the episode "a perfect example of the first season’s bizarre and fruitful balance between edgy humor and softly-drawn neuroses" and stated that "it was this combination that made Groening’s shorts for the Ullman show so compelling, and ultimately what made it possible for The Simpsons to break the molds of network television." Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that "while [the episode] doesn’t offer the continuous highs of the best Simpsons, it’s a generally solid show" and added that "the episode uses a wackier tone than usual for this era, but it works, and the program is consistently fun"
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 February 18, 1990. It was written by John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
and directed by Wesley Archer. Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks
Albert Lawrence Brooks is an American actor, voice actor, writer, comedian and director. He received an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for his role in Broadcast News...
made his first guest appearance on The Simpsons in this episode as the voice of Cowboy Bob.
In this 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...
decides to purchase an RV and the Simpsons set off for a vacation in the wilderness. After accidentally driving it off the edge of a cliff, the family find themselves trapped in the woods
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
. As Homer and 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...
try to find a way back to civilization, Homer gets himself covered in mud and is mistaken for Bigfoot
Bigfoot
Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...
by a naturalist. The news about the encounter spreads quickly and Bigfoot hunters converge on the woods to capture Homer. Meanwhile, 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...
finds herself separated from the family and raised by bears.
Plot
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...
is jealous of 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...
' new RV and goes shopping for one of his own. Bob, the owner of the RV store shows the family the Ultimate Behemoth. During the tour, Bart and Lisa are impressed, but Marge is concerned about the cost. However, Bob does a credit check on the computer and learns that Homer has bad credit scores. As a result, he is unable to afford a new RV, and is forced to settle for a dilapidated, second hand RV instead. The family packs everything into their new RV and head off on a camping trip. Against Marge's wishes, Homer takes an unwise, off-road shortcut that soon results in the RV dangling precariously on the edge of a cliff. The family manages to inch out of the vehicle just before it plummets off the cliff, stranding them in the wilderness.
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...
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...
set up camp while Homer and 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...
head off to look for civilization. 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...
follows them, but quickly gets separated and is cared for by an adoptive family of grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
s. Homer and Bart's attempts to find food prove fruitless, and soon they fall into a river and lose their clothes. Homer finds a beehive and attempts to get the honey, but is repeatedly stung by bees that cause his mouth to swell, rendering him incomprehensible. He staggers into mud, where an amateur cameraman captures a video of him and, mistaking him for Bigfoot
Bigfoot
Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...
, sells it to the local news.
Soon the forest is swarming with Bigfoot hunters. Lisa and Marge are found and rescued. Marge sees a picture of "Bigfoot" and announces that he is actually her husband, causing a minor tabloid scandal. Homer and Bart encounter a grizzly bear, but Maggie calms it before it attacks them. Maggie leaves with Homer and Bart as they wander back into civilization, where Homer is immediately tranquilized and brought to a research lab for study. They keep him for several days, but eventually are forced to release him. The results of their study are inconclusive.
Production
John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
and directed by Wesley Archer. A plot twist that involved Homer being carried away to an eagle nest and being raised as a baby eagle was suggested for this episode by executive producer 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...
, but they ended up going with Maggie being raised by bears instead. The sequence with Marge and Lisa by the bonfire was originally longer and included a conversation between the two about boys, but it was cut from the episode. In the original script, Homer and Bart were not talking in the scene where they concealed their private parts with mud and moss, but Sam Simon
Sam Simon
Samuel "Sam" Simon is an American director, producer, writer, boxing manager and philanthropist. While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and after graduating became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. He submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was...
thought it would be "too funny to leave as a stage direction" and they added dialogue to the scene.
Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks
Albert Lawrence Brooks is an American actor, voice actor, writer, comedian and director. He received an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for his role in Broadcast News...
guest starred in the episode as the voice of Cowboy Bob. He was not sure if he wanted to be identified with a cartoon show or not at the time, like many of the other early guest stars on The Simpsons, and was therefore credited as A. Brooks in the ending credits. This episode was a satire of the Bigfoot specials that had aired on the Fox network at the time when this episode was written. A lot of resources were spent on the backgrounds in the episode, trying to make them look realistic with many observational details such as trees, rocks, fences and the way the cars were positioned. Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
figurines were made out of the camping designs of the Simpsons family in this episode.
Reception
In its original American broadcast on February 18, 1990, "The Call of the Simpsons" finished third place in the ratings for that day, with a Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 14.6 and a 22 percent audience share. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in 1990 in the category "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special". IGN.com named Albert Brooks' guest performance in this episode, along with his four other appearances on The Simpsons, the best guest appearance in the show's history.
"The Call of the Simpsons" received mixed reviews from critics. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, both criticized and praised the episode saying: "This episode is a bit less than the sum of its parts. The early stuff at the RV Round-Up is much better than the main camping story, although there's some nice Marge-Lisa bonding, and who could resist Maggie and the bears?" In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 1.5/5, adding "the surrealism of Homer as bigfoot is a major misstep. This type of gag would be very different today, if done at all." Jon Bonné at MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
called the episode "a perfect example of the first season’s bizarre and fruitful balance between edgy humor and softly-drawn neuroses" and stated that "it was this combination that made Groening’s shorts for the Ullman show so compelling, and ultimately what made it possible for The Simpsons to break the molds of network television." Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that "while [the episode] doesn’t offer the continuous highs of the best Simpsons, it’s a generally solid show" and added that "the episode uses a wackier tone than usual for this era, but it works, and the program is consistently fun"
External links
- "The Call of the Simpsons" at The Simpsons.com