Bart's Comet

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"Bart's Comet"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 6
Episode 14
Directed by Bob Anderson
Written by John Swartzwelder
Production code2F11
Original air dateFebruary 5, 1995 (1995-02-05)
Episode features
Chalkboard gag "Cursive writing does not mean what I think it does" [1]
Couch gag The Simpsons are animated in the style of Fleischer Studios. [2]
Commentary Matt Groening
David Mirkin
Dan Castellaneta
Yeardley Smith
Bob Anderson
Episode chronology
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"Homie the Clown"
The Simpsons season 6
List of episodes

"Bart's Comet" is the fourteenth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons . It originally aired on Fox in the United States on February 5, 1995. [1] In the episode, Bart Simpson accidentally discovers a comet, which is heading towards Springfield. The show's writing staff saw an issue of Time magazine that presented the threat of comets hitting Earth on its cover, and decided to create an episode in a similar vein. "Bart's Comet" contains references to Where's Waldo? and The Twilight Zone , and received positive reviews.

Contents

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Bob Anderson.

Plot

After Bart sabotages Principal Skinner's weather balloon, Skinner punishes him by making him arrive in the schoolyard at 4:30 a.m. to be his amateur astronomy assistant. Whilst Skinner is distracted by retrieving the weather balloon, Bart accidentally locates a comet, which scientists soon discover is headed straight for Springfield. Professor Frink plans to launch a missile at the comet, exploding it before it touches the ground. Instead, the missile undershoots the comet and destroys the only bridge out of town. An evacuation of the town is voted down in Congress due to the addition of an amendment to the enabling legislation.

Homer decides his family should stay in Ned Flanders's bomb shelter; anticipating this scenario, Flanders has constructed a shelter large enough for several people. Other townspeople soon arrive, crowding the shelter until Homer is unable to close the door. Because everyone else thinks they deserve to live, Flanders is expelled from his own shelter.

Eventually, Homer feels guilty and leaves the shelter, followed by the other townspeople. Everyone joins Flanders on a hill, joining in with his singing while awaiting death from the comet. As it enters the Earth's atmosphere, the comet burns up in the thick layer of pollution over Springfield. When it touches down, all that remains is a meteorite the size of a Chihuahua's head. Only the shelter and the weather balloon are destroyed, leaving the rest of the town untouched. The townspeople band together to burn down the observatory so "it will never happen again". With Homer having accurately predicted the comet's fate earlier, he, Bart and Lisa huddle together in fear.

Production

John Swartzwelder wrote the episode. John Swartzwelder Brighter Sharper.jpg
John Swartzwelder wrote the episode.

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Bob Anderson. After seeing an issue of Time magazine, which presented the threat of comets hitting Earth on its cover, the writing staff decided to have an episode based on the concept of a comet hitting Springfield. They fleshed out the episode's plot over several days and Swartzwelder then set about writing the details of the script. [3] According to showrunner David Mirkin, examples of "Swartzwelder humor" in the episode include the American fighter pilots mistaking Groundskeeper Willie for an Iraqi jet and cutting to Grampa and Jasper outside a 1940s general store. [3] For the bomb shelter scene, the mass of townspeople was constructed on multiple layers so that it was easier to animate. [4]

Kent Brockman's list of gay people is composed of the show's production staff, who had to sign legal agreements that they would not sue their own show. As a result, according to show creator Matt Groening, many of the staff appear on lists of gay people on the Internet. [3] [5] The episode marks the first appearance of Database, a character Groening dislikes if he is used for anything more than one line. [5]

Mirkin considers the episode to be one of his all-time favorites, calling it a "perfect Simpsons episode" due to the size of the plot, emotion and observational humor. [3]

Cultural references

David Mirkin put Waldo in the top-left of the frame. SimpsonsWaldo.png
David Mirkin put Waldo in the top-left of the frame.

Reception

Critical reception

Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, called it an "excellent episode" and praised the "great moment when the ever-pious Maude Flanders happily sacrifices her Neddy". [2]

Mikey Cahill of the Herald Sun picked the episode's chalkboard gag, "Cursive writing does not mean what I think it does", as one of his favorite chalkboard gags in the history of the show. [6]

Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide said in a review of the sixth season DVD that he did not "share the same level of enthusiasm for it" as Mirkin, concluding: "I think it provides a consistently strong show. It stretches reality a bit, but that’s not a problem–or unusual for the series–and the program ends up as a positive one." [7]

Ryan Keefer of DVD Verdict gave the episode a B−. [8]

TV critics Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall cited the episode as how The Simpsons "always had the culture and the species on its mind even when it was clowning around", pointing to the moment near the end of the episode when the camera slowly pans across the Springfieldians' faces in the bomb shelter while Ned Flanders sings "Que Sera Sera": "a moment of existential terror that gives way to graceful resignation." [9]

In the July 26, 2007 issue of Nature , the scientific journal's editorial staff listed "Bart's Comet" among "The Top Ten science moments in The Simpsons". [10]

Ratings

In its original broadcast, "Bart's Comet" finished joint 33rd (with The X-Files and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper ) in the ratings for the week of January 3 to February 5, 1995, with a Nielsen rating of 11.3. It was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network that week. [11] [12]

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References

  1. 1 2 Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p.  165. ISBN   978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN   98141857. OCLC   37796735. OL   433519M..
  2. 1 2 3 4 Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Bart's Comet". BBC. Archived from the original on October 4, 2003. Retrieved March 27, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Mirkin, David (2005). DVD Commentary for "Bart's Comet", in The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  4. ↑ Anderson, Bob (2005). DVD Commentary for "Bart's Comet", in The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. 1 2 Groening, Matt (2005). DVD Commentary for "Bart's Comet", in The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ↑ Cahill, Mikey (July 26, 2007). "Fab Five". Herald Sun .
  7. ↑ Jacobson, Colin (2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season (1994)". DVD Movie Guide. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  8. ↑ Keefer, Ryan (August 29, 2005). "DVD Verdict Review - The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  9. ↑ Seitz, Matt Zoller; Sepinwall, Alan (September 6, 2016). "Why The Simpsons Is the Best TV Show Ever". Vulture . New York Media, LLC. Archived from the original on October 19, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  10. ↑ Hopkin, Michael (July 26, 2007). "Science in comedy: Mmm... pi". Nature . 448 (7152): 404–405. Bibcode:2007Natur.448..404H. doi: 10.1038/448404a . PMID   17653163. S2CID   4393052.
  11. ↑ "How They Rate". St. Petersburg Times . February 10, 1995. p. 15.
  12. ↑ "Nielsen Ratings". The Tampa Tribune . Associated Press. February 10, 1995. p. 6.
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