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"Cape Feare" is the second episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 7, 1993, and has since been featured on DVD and VHS releases. The episode was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Rich Moore. It features the return of guest star Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob and sees him trying to kill Bart Simpson after getting out of jail. "Cape Feare" is a spoof of the 1962 film Cape Fear as well as its 1991 remake, but alludes to other horror films such as Psycho.

The episode was pitched by Wallace Wolodarsky, who wanted to make a spoof of Cape Fear. Originally produced for the fourth season it was held-over to the fifth and was therefore the last episode produced by the show's original writing staff, the majority of whom subsequently left. The production crew found it difficult to stretch "Cape Feare" in order to fulfill the standard length of a half-hour episode, leading to the padding of several scenes. One such sequence saw Sideshow Bob continually step on some rakes, the handles of which would then hit him in the face, which became one of the show's most memorable moments. The episode is generally noted as one of the best of the entire series and the score received an Emmy Award nomination.

Plot

After receiving multiple death threats in the mail, Bart becomes apprehensive. It is revealed that the writer is Bart's enemy, Sideshow Bob, residing in Springfield State Prison. The next day, Sideshow Bob's parole hearing is held; Sideshow Bob swears that he is no threat to Bart and is paroled. When the Simpson family goes to watch a film, Sideshow Bob sits in front of them. They then realize that it was he who sent the letters.

Despite Chief Wiggum's and the Simpson family's efforts to protect Bart from Sideshow Bob, they are unable to do so. Sideshow Bob goes around Evergreen Terrace in an ice-cream truck, calling out the names of all the people whom he will not kill; Bart's name is not on that list. The Simpsons opt for the FBI's Witness Relocation Program and move to Terror Lake, with the new surname "Thompson" and a houseboat to live in. However, unbeknownst to the family as they drive cross-country to their new home, Sideshow Bob has strapped himself to the underside of the car.

After arriving at Terror Lake, the Simpsons go inside their new houseboat, and Sideshow Bob comes out from under the car. In doing so, he steps on the teeth of a number of rakes repeatedly, causing the rakes' handles to swing up and hit him in the face. As Bart later walks down the road, he hears Sideshow Bob's voice and sees him remove himself from the underside of another car but he was stepped on by a parade with elephants. Bart runs home and warns his parents.

After nightfall, Sideshow Bob arrives on the houseboat and cuts it loose from the dock. After tying up the other family members, Bob grabs his machete and enters Bart's room. Bart escapes out the window and tries to hide from Sideshow Bob, but he cannot jump off the boat, as there are crocodiles and electric eels in the water. As a "last request," however, he asks Sideshow Bob to sing the entire score to the H.M.S. Pinafore in order to stall as the houseboat floats to Springfield. After the performance, Bob advances on Bart again, but the boat runs aground, and Sideshow Bob is apprehended by the police. He is taken away, and the Simpsons return home.

Theme

Sideshow Bob is a recurring character on The Simpsons. Since season three's "Black Widower" (1992), the writers have echoed the premise of Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner from the 1949-1966 Looney Tunes cartoons by having Bob unexpectedly insert himself into Bart's life and attempt to kill him. Executive producer Al Jean has compared Bob's character to that of Wile E. Coyote, noting that both are intelligent, yet always foiled by what they perceive as an inferior intellect. The scene in which Bob is stomped on by multiple elephants and bounced right back up is a reference to the Wile E. Coyote character.

In Planet Simpson, author Chris Turner writes that Bob is built into a highbrow snob and conservative Republican so that the writers can continually hit him with a rake and bring him down. He represents high culture while Krusty, one of his archenemies, represents low culture, and Bart, stuck in between, always wins out. In the book Leaving Springfield, David L. G. Arnold comments that Bart is a product of a "mass-culture upbringing" and thus is Bob's enemy.

Bob's intelligence serves him in many ways. During this episode, for example, the parole board asks Bob why he has a tattoo that says "Die Bart, Die". Bob replies that it is German for "The Bart, The"; members of the board are impressed by his reasoning. Believing that "nobody who speaks German could be an evil man," they release him. However, his love of high culture is sometimes used against him. In the same episode, Bob agrees to perform the operetta H.M.S. Pinafore in its entirety as a last request for Bart. The tactic stalls Bob long enough for the police to arrest him.

Production

Even though the episode aired during the beginning of the fifth season, it was produced by the crew of the fourth season. A large part of the original crew left the show after season four to pursue new challenges. This led to the addition of several scenes, which normally would not have been considered, because the mentality of the departing crew was "what are they going to do, get us fired?" Although most of the episode was completed by the staff of season four, the end was rewritten by the team of season five.

Wallace Wolodarsky had seen the 1991 version of Cape Fear and pitched the idea of making a spoof of the film. Jon Vitti was then assigned to write a spoof of the original Cape Fear film from 1962 as well as the remake. Instead of using the spoof as only a part of the episode, which could also have contained a B-story, the entire episode was devoted to this parody. Sideshow Bob was cast as the villain and Bart became the main victim. The episode followed the same basic plot outline as the films and used elements from the original film's score by Bernard Herrmann (which was also used in the 1991 version), which, after this episode, became Sideshow Bob's theme. This episode marked the first time a Sideshow Bob episode was not a mystery.

There were difficulties getting this episode up to the minimum length of an episode and many scenes were added in post-production. The episode starts with a repeat of a couch gag that was first used in the episode "Lisa's First Word", which is considerably longer than the typical couch gag. The crew added an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon and a few misleads as to who was trying to kill Bart. Even with all of these additions, the episode still ran short of time. This led to the creation of the rake sequence, which became a memorable moment of the episode. Originally, Sideshow Bob was only supposed to step on one rake after he stepped out from the underside of the Simpson family's car, but this was changed to nine rakes in a row. According to executive producer Al Jean, the idea was to make the scene funny, then drag the joke out so that it is no longer funny, and then drag it out even longer to make it funny again.

Additions to the end musical number, including visual gags such as Bob appearing in uniform, were added after the animatics. The crew felt that watching the character singing would not be interesting enough and they had to include these gags to make it work. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening was surprised when he saw the additions, because he originally thought they were silly and would not appear in the final cut, but he has grown to like them.

American actor Kelsey Grammer was brought in to guest star as Sideshow Bob for the third time. At that time, Grammer had become a household name as the lead of the television series Frasier, which was in production at the same time as this episode. Grammer did not know that the rake scene was extended, because he had only done the moan once and was surprised when he saw the final product. The show's writers admire Grammer's singing voice, and try to include a song for each appearance including this episode. Alf Clausen, the primary composer for The Simpsons, commented that " is so great. He's just amazing. You can tell he has this love of musical theater and he has the vocal instrument to go with it, so I know whatever I write is going to be sung the way I've heard it."

Cultural references

Besides borrowing the overall plot structure of the Cape Fear films, the episode made several direct references to specific scenes from the films. References to the original include: Marge going to Chief Wiggum only to be told that Sideshow Bob has not broken any laws (also references the 1991 remake). References to the 1991 remake include: Sideshow Bob's tattoos; the shot of him leaving the prison gate; the scene with him smoking in the movie theater; part of his "workout" scene; his hiding under the Simpson family's car; Wiggum's rigging wire around the house to a toy doll as an alarm; his suggestion that Homer can do anything to someone who enters his home; Bob, strapped under a car, pulling up beside Bart for a conversation; and Homer's hiring a private investigator who attempts to persuade Bob to leave town.

The episode also contains elements of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho with Sideshow Bob staying at Bates Motel. Homer surprising Bart with his new hockey mask recalls the film Friday the 13th Part III and Sideshow Bob's tattoos on his knuckles are similar to those of Robert Mitchum's character in The Night of the Hunter (Mitchum also played the villain Max Cady in the original 1962 version of Cape Fear). Homer's hat and singing of "Three Little Maids From School Are We" from The Mikado during the car trip to Terror Lake alludes to I Love Lucy.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Cape Feare" finished 32nd in the ratings for the week of October 4–10, 1993, with a Nielsen rating of 12.3. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. The musical score for this episode earned composer Alf Clausen an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Dramatic Underscore - Series" in 1994.

According to Matt Groening, people often include this episode among their top 10 favorites. In Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episodes ever, it was placed third. To celebrate the show's 300th episode "Barting Over", USA Today published a top 10 chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive, which had this episode at a ninth place. In 2006, IGN named "Cape Feare" the best episode of the fifth season. Vanity Fair called it the show's fourth best episode in 2007, as "this episode's masterful integration of filmic parody and a recurring character puts it near the top." James Walton of The Daily Telegraph characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes", while The Herald Sun placed it in their "The Simpsons Top 20". Karl Åkerström of the Swedish newspaper Borås Tidning called it his "all-time favorite" episode of the show.

IGN's Robert Canning gave the episode a perfect score of 10 out of 10 and named it the best Sideshow Bob episode of The Simpsons. He added that there are "many, many reasons for its perfection, but what stands out most for me was how savage and single-minded Bob is in the episode. He wants to kill Bart and he makes no secret of it, save for lying to the parole board. Episodes since have made Bob far too wishy-washy. This was Bob in his prime—his vengeful, glorious, hilarious prime." Empire called Bob's mishaps while strapped under the Simpsons' car the eighth best film parody in the show, and called the rake scene "the best bit of slapstick in Simpson history." The parody of Cape Fear was named the 33rd greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film's Nathan Ditum. The Norwegian newspaper Nettavisen listed Sideshow Bob's "Die Bart, die" tattoo from the episode as the fifth best tattoo in film and television history.

Merchandising

"Cape Feare" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 7, 1993. It was selected for release in a 1997 video collection of selected episodes titled: The Simpsons: Springfield Murder Mysteries. Other episodes included in the collection set were "Who Shot Mr Burns (Part 1)", "Who Shot Mr Burns (Part 2)" and "Black Widower". It was included again in the 2005 DVD release of the Springfield Murder Mysteries set. The episode was included in The Simpsons season five DVD set, which was released on December 21, 2004. Groening, Jean and Vitti participated in the DVD audio commentary for "Cape Feare". Kelsey Grammer's performance of H.M.S. Pinafore was later included on the album Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons.

Notes

1. ^ Richmond, Ray (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. p. 121. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
2. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Cape Feare". BBC. Retrieved 2007-02-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. Jean, Al. (2003). Commentary for "Black Widower", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season . 20th Century Fox.
4. ^ Jean, Al. (2004). Commentary for "Cape Feare", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season . 20th Century Fox.
5. Turner, pp. 129–131.
6. Arnold, pp. 2–3.
7. ^ Arnold, p. 16.
8. ^ Vitti, Jon. (2004). Commentary for "Cape Feare", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season . 20th Century Fox.
9. ^ Groening, Matt. (2004). Commentary for "Cape Feare", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season . 20th Century Fox.
10. Leopold, Todd (2007-09-21). "The man who makes 'The Simpsons' sing". CNN Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
11. Dirks, Tim. "The Night Of The Hunter". The Greatest Films. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
12. ^ Associated Press (1993-10-16). "Nielsen Ratings /Oct. 4-10". Press-Telegram. p. C5.
13. "Every show, every winner, every nominee". The Envelope. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-02-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
14. "The Family Dynamic". Entertainment Weekly. 2003-01-29. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
15. Paakkinen, Jouni (2003-02-06). "10 fan favorites". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
16. Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski (2006-09-08). "The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
17. John Orvted (2007-07-05). "Springfield's Best". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
18. Walton, James (2007-07-21). "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes (In Chronological Order)". The Daily Telegraph. p. 3.
19. "The Simpsons Top 20". Herald Sun. 2007-04-21. p. W09.
20. Åkerström, Karl (2008-09-29). "Topp Tio 1991". Borås Tidning (in Swedish). Retrieved 2009-08-11.
21. Canning, Robert (2009-06-30). "The Simpsons Flashback: "Cape Feare" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
22. Colin Kennedy (September 2004). "The Ten Best Movie Gags In The Simpsons". Empire: p. 77.
23. Ditum, Nathan (June 6, 2009). "The 50 Greatest Simpsons Movie References". Total Film. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
24. "De beste film-tatoveringene". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). 2007-10-06. p. 2. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
25. Turpin, Adrian (1997-10-03). "Screen: Video releases Romeo And Juliet/Flirt/Springfield Murder Mysteries/The Saint/Secrets and Lies". The Guardian. p. T.015.
26. "DVD New Releases". Evening Times. 2005-04-23. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
27. ^ "The Simpsons - The Complete Fifth Season", The Simpsons, 20th Century Fox, December 21, 2004
28. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons". Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-02-10.

References

• Arnold, David L. G. (2003). "Use a Pen, Sideshow Bob: The Simpsons and the Threat of High Culture". In John Alberti (ed.) (ed.). Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2849-0. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
• Richmond, Ray (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 0-679-31318-4.

External links

• "Cape Feare" at IMDb
• "Cape Feare" at The Simpsons.com
• "Cape Feare" at TV.com
• "Cape Feare episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.

• The Simpsons episodes, season 5
• 1993 television episodes