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"Dead Bart" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons' first season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 1990. The episode was written by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, and was directed by Wes Archer. The episode deals with Bart's death and his family's grief.

Plot

The episode started off like any other episode, but had very poor quality animation. If you've seen the original animation for Some Enchanted Evening, it was similar, but less stable. The first act was fairly normal, but the way the characters acted was a little off. Homer seemed angrier, Marge seemed depressed, Lisa seemed anxious, Bart seemed to have genuine anger and hatred for his parents.

The episode was about the Simpsons going on a plane trip, near the end of the first act, the plane was taking off. Bart was fooling around, as you'd expect. However, as the plane was about 50 feet off the ground, Bart broke a window on the plane and was sucked out.

At the beginning of the series, Matt had an idea that the animated style of the Simpsons' world represented life, and that death turned things more realistic. This was used in this episode. The picture of Bart's corpse was barely recognizable, they took full advantage of it not having to move, and made an almost photo-realistic drawing of his dead body.

Act one ended with the shot of Bart's corpse. When act two started, Homer, Marge, and Lisa were sitting at their table, crying. The crying went on and on, it got more pained, and sounded more realistic, better acting than you would think possible. The animation started to decay even more as they cried, and you could hear murmuring in the background. The characters could barely be made out, they were stretching and blurring, they looked like deformed shadows with random bright colors thrown on them.

There were faces looking in the window, flashing in and out so you were never sure what they looked like.

This crying went on for all of act two.

Act three opened with a title card saying one year had passed. Homer, Marge, and Lisa were skeletally thin, and still sitting at the table. There was no sign of Maggie or the pets.

They decided to visit Bart's grave. Springfield was completely deserted, and as they walked to the cemetery the houses became more and more decrepit. They all looked abandoned. When they got to the grave, Bart's body was just lying in front of his tombstone, looking just like it did at the end of act one.

The family started crying again. Eventually they stopped, and just stared at Bart's body. The camera zoomed in on Homer's face. According to summaries, Homer tells a joke at this part, but it isn't audible in the version I saw, you can't tell what Homer is saying.

The view zoomed out as the episode came to a close. The tombstones in the background had the names of every Simpsons guest star on them. Some that no one had heard of in 1989, some that haven't been on the show yet. All of them had death dates on them.

For guests who died since, like Michael Jackson and George Harrison, the dates were when they would die. The credits were completely silent, and seemed handwritten. The final image was the Simpson family on their couch, like in the intros, but all drawn in hyper realistic, lifeless style of Bart's corpse.

A thought occurred to me after seeing the episode for the first time, you could try to use the tombstones to predict the death of living Simpsons guest stars, but there's something odd about most of the ones who haven't died yet.

All of their deaths are listed as the same date.

Production

"Moaning Lisa" was the first episode of the series to focus on Lisa. The idea for it was suggested by The Simpsons producer James L. Brooks, who wanted to do an episode where Lisa was sad but she did not know why. The writers also felt that they had done several "jokey" episodes on the show and wanted to try something new that was "really emotional and sweet". The song Lisa sings in this episode later reappeared in expanded form on The Simpsons Sing the Blues CD.

Mr. Largo, Lisa's music teacher, was partly inspired by a music teacher Matt Groening had as a kid. The designs of the boxers in the video game Homer and Bart play were loosely based on Homer and Bart, and the referee in the game was based on a character from Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip. Bleeding Gums Murphy was loosely based on the famous blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson. Ralph Wiggum, Bleeding Gums Murphy, and Jacqueline Bouvier (during Marge's childhood flashback) all make their first (going by production order rather than airdate) appearances on The Simpsons in this episode.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Moaning Lisa" finished 34th place in the weekly ratings for the week of February 5–February 11, 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 13.8. It was the highest rated show on the Fox Network that week. 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: "Certain scenes of this, the most syrupy of Simpsons episodes, sent viewers raised on the later seasons scurrying to the bathroom.

Yes, the final moments may give you goosepimples, and are a world away from the anti-schmaltz normally associated with the series, but there is still much to recommend here. In fact, the Homer–Bart subplot is more successful than the main storyline; Homer's nightmare about their relationship is genuinely disturbing." In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 2.5/5 and added: "Lisa develops much of her future personality in this episode.

The family dynamic is starting to fall into place, as is the relationship between Homer and Lisa." Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that "overall, this was a pretty drab episode" and added that "it had some moments, such as the videogame boxing matches between Homer and Bart, but Lisa lacked the strength at this point to carry an entire show."

Home release

The episode was released first on home video in the United Kingdom, as part of a VHS release titled The Simpsons Collection; the episode was paired with season one episode "Homer's Odyssey". It was released in the US on the VHS release The Best of The Simpsons, Vol. 2 (1997), paired with "Bart the General". In the United States, it was later re released in an collector's edition boxed set of the first three volumes of The Best of The Simpsons collections.

In the United Kingdom, it was re released as part of VHS boxed set of the complete first season, released in November 1999. The episode's début on the DVD format was as a part of The Simpsons season one DVD set, which was released on September 25, 2001. Groening, Reiss, Archer, and Jean participated in the DVD's audio commentary. A digital edition of the series' first season was published December 20, 2010 in the United States containing the episode, through Amazon Video and iTunes.

References

1. ^ Moaning Lisa BBC.co.uk. Retrieved on August 17, 2008
2. ^ "Moaning Lisa" The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on August 17, 2008
3. Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M..
4. Wilson, Stacey (2012-02-08). "'The Simpsons' at 500: Untold Stories". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
5. ^ Jean, Al (2001). The Simpsons The Complete First Season DVD commentary for the episode "Moaning Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
6. ^ Groening, Matt (2001). The Simpsons The Complete First Season DVD commentary for the episode "Moaning Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
7. De Atley, Richard (February 16, 1990). "'Blind Faith' and 'Funniest Home Videos' are in Nielsen Top 10". St. Petersburg Times. p. 7D.
8. Grelck, David B. (2001-09-25). "The Complete First Season". WDBGProductions. Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2011-09-15.
9. Jacobson, Colin. "The Simpsons: The Complete First Season (1990)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
10. "The Simpsons - Moaning Lisa (1989)". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
11. The Best of The Simpsons, Vol. 1 - Bart the General/ Moaning Lisa. Amazon.com. ASIN 6304561857.
12. The Best of The Simpsons, Boxed Set 1. Amazon.com. ASIN 6304561873.
13. "The Simpsons - Season 1 Box Set [VHS]". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
14. "The Simpsons - The Complete 1st Season". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
15. "The Simpsons Season 1 - Amazon Video". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 21, 2011.

External links

• "Moaning Lisa" at The Simpsons.com
• "Moaning Lisa episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Moaning Lisa" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode

• The Simpsons (season 1) episodes
• 1990 American television episodes
• Works about melancholia
• Works about video games