Every Man's Dream

Last updated

"Every Man's Dream"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 27
Episode 1
Directed by Matthew Nastuk
Written by J. Stewart Burns
Production codeTABF14
Original air dateSeptember 27, 2015 (2015-09-27)
Guest appearances
Episode features
Couch gag A parody of several Beatles album covers. The last cover features a double-decker bus running over The Simpsons who were recreating the Abbey Road walk.
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Mathlete's Feat"		Next →
"Cue Detective"
The Simpsons season 27
List of episodes

"Every Man's Dream" is the twenty-seventh season premiere of the American animated television series The Simpsons , and the 575th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Matthew Nastuk and written by J. Stewart Burns. It aired in the United States on Fox on September 27, 2015.

Contents

In the episode, Homer and Marge go through a trial separation. During this time, Homer dates a pharmacist and Marge dates the father of said pharmacist. Adam Driver, Lena Dunham, Laura Ingraham, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, and Allison Williams guest starred. The episode received negative reviews.

Plot

Homer wakes up at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant to an alarm, where he accidentally causes an electrical explosion at his desk. He falls back asleep while the fire is extinguished. He is taken to Springfield General Hospital, where Dr. Hibbert discovers Homer has narcolepsy, a sleeping sickness. He receives a medical note, which he uses to excuse himself from performing daily tasks. Hibbert contacts Marge to ask Homer to get some medication, which he goes to collect. While in the queue, Homer complains about waiting before falling asleep on the floor. He returns home later that night without any medication and Marge can smell that Homer has been out drinking. After Marge complains at Homer, the couple go to see a therapist. The therapist says that Homer and Marge's relationship is falling apart and that the best option for them is separation, which could lead to divorce if things do not improve. Marge, frustrated with the sleeping Homer, agrees and tells him to leave for the time being. Homer tearfully packs his bags and leaves the family, with Marge admitting she is unsure when or if she will let him return. As Homer sleeps over at the Power Plant, hoping that Marge will forgive him soon like she did after previous break-ups, Lenny learns that Marge has changed her social media relationship status to "complicated". Homer then calls Marge to discover on her voicemail she has reverted to her maiden name, Bouvier.

After visiting Moe's Tavern, Homer goes to collect his medication, and meets a female pharmacist named Candace who agrees to go out with him, and they later spend the night together. Homer wakes up the next morning, worried about his marriage to Marge, and tries to call home to speak to her. He speaks to Selma, who reveals that Marge is preparing to go on a date. Homer goes with Candace to meet her friends at a coffee shop, and they both get tattoos which they show to Moe. Candace wants Homer to meet her father, and they go out for a meal. Candace's father, Roger, tells Homer not to worry about the age difference between him and Candace, revealing he has been dating a younger woman. Marge enters the restaurant, and she is in shock to see Homer is there, while he and Candace are appalled to see that she is Roger's date and that Roger has been spending time with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Roger apologizes to Candace for not being there for her, before he proposes to Marge. Marge agrees to marry Roger after the divorce is finalized. Candace suggests Homer should marry her, revealing she is pregnant with his child.

Homer wakes up at the therapist's office sitting next to Marge. Homer is relieved to discover it was only a dream, and he and Marge are still together. Homer tells the therapist how she should not have suggested that he break up with Marge, but the therapist admits she did not tell them to break up. Homer makes a promise to try and behave for the entirety of March, to improve their marriage. By March 31, the family see an improvement in Homer. Lisa is now eating meat, and Maggie can now talk. She sings "What a Wonderful World" with Homer confused by this, only to wake up in a bar alongside Candace, who hits him with a bottle of beer to wake him up. Homer runs to his family home to see Roger has taken Homer's place at the family dinner table. The family look happy, and Homer walks away, sobbing. Lisa walks out to see Homer, comforting him, and they hug each other. Roger calls Lisa back indoors by mentioning their pending game of chess and pony shopping, with Lisa promising Homer she will Skype him at Christmas. Homer cries out loudly. Marge wakes up in bed, alongside a snoring Homer, and is shocked to discover this was her dream, and wonders if it meant something about her marriage to Homer. They visit the therapist who is about to talk through a solution.

The camera pans out to reveal a tattoo of the entire scene on the back of Hannah Horvath from Girls . When asked what the tattoo meant by her lover, she says it means "never get drunk in Brooklyn".

Production

Development

A drug trip scene in the episode features "Big City (Everybody I Know Can be Found Here)", a 1991 song by the British band Spacemen 3. [1] Episode writer J. Stewart Burns selected the song after deciding it would be a good fit for the scene, and was surprised that the song was not replaced with a less obscure choice in editing. [2] The band, who often turn down requests to use their music on television, decided to approve the request because they felt the song worked well in context with the scene. [2] The band's co-founder and guitarist Peter Kember told The Wall Street Journal that the song's usage in the scene was "something that’s usually for me a high point of The Simpsons oeuvre. I imagine it is what people in bands secretly, or openly, dream of. Animation is so useful for these sort of stretches of reality." [2]

In a September 2015, interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Al Jean spoke about the episode, saying: "We were trying to get to the nub of the answer to the marital dilemma. Husbands and wives think differently, husbands and wives have friction — how do you solve it? When you get down to it, the therapist says it — and our answer is: there is no answer. We didn't realize it would get all this publicity that Homer and Marge were going to divorce. We were aware that we'd done a number of relationship episodes and people would go, "Oh, not another one!" There are always things that come up in a marriage that I think are worthy of comedy. But the takeaway we wanted was: When you think you've got a handle on it, that's when you're wrong. I would never presume to say I have marriage figured out." [3]

The song playing during the couch gag was written and sung by Dan Castellaneta from his Beatles-inspired album. [3]

Casting

In January 2015, it was reported that Lena Dunham would guest star as a love interest for Homer while he is separated from Marge. [4] Executive producer Al Jean said Dunham would play a pharmacist, and the role was written with Dunham in mind. Like Dunham, the character would have visible tattoos. [5]

In April 2015, Entertainment Weekly reported that Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet, and Jemima Kirke would appear as friends of Dunham's character. The four actresses starred together on the television series Girls . Television host Laura Ingraham would also appear as Homer and Marge's therapist. [6]

Reception

The episode received a 1.5 rating and was watched by a total of 3.28 million people, making it the most watched show on Fox that night. [7]

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C−, commenting "Just to be clear, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of [the plot points of the episode]. The problem with this disastrously misguided season premiere is that the episode botches every one, exemplifying the current Simpsons lax and cynical tendencies before throwing the whole thing away with a series of handwaves so perfunctory as to render the entire episode not only thoroughly lousy, but completely inconsequential." [8]

Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the episode a 4.2 out of 10, saying "Perhaps there are still ways to get mileage out of the idea of Homer working to save his marriage, but this certainly isn't it. This episode wasn't just redundant, it operated on flimsy logic, mostly ignored Marge and seemed to have no problem with the idea of Homer shacking up with another woman. Worse, none of those problems even mattered in the end, because the whole thing proved to be one elaborate, pointless dream sequence. If this is a sign of things to come, Season 27 is going to be a long slog." [9]

Marketing

In June 2015, Variety published an interview with executive producer Al Jean. When prompted about the twenty-seventh season, Jean teased the premise of the premiere where Homer and Marge would be separated, and Homer would have another love interest. [10] This news caused articles to be published regarding Homer and Marge's divorce. [11] [12] [13] The reaction prompted Jean to joke that Homer and Marge were "bigger than Jesus." [6] [14] However, the stories were unfounded since they would only be separated instead of divorced. [3] [15] Jean also told people to read the original article. [15] [16] Later that month, a video was released of Homer and Marge reaffirming their relationship. [17]

Related Research Articles

Marjorie Jacqueline "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier) is a character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. Voiced by Julie Kavner, she first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Marge was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on Life in Hell but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He based the character on his mother Margaret Groening. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three seasons, the Simpson family received their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reverend Lovejoy</span> Fictional character from The Simpsons franchise

Reverend Timothy "Tim" Lovejoy, Jr. is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the episode "The Telltale Head".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patty and Selma</span> Fictional characters from The Simpsons franchise

Patricia Maleficent "Patty" Bouvier and Selma Bouvier-Terwilliger-Hutz-McClure-Discotheque-Simpson are fictional characters in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. They are identical twins and are voiced by Julie Kavner, who also voices their sister, Marge. Patty and Selma, both gravel-voiced chain-smokers, work at the Springfield Department of Motor Vehicles. They have a strong dislike for their brother-in-law, Homer Simpson, who likewise loathes them. Selma, the elder by two minutes, longs for male companionship and has had multiple brief, doomed marriages, and has herself offered help in some fashion to Marge and Homer as she envies their loving relationship; she receives occasional compassionate support from Homer who even poses as her husband to help her adopt a child. Patty is an initially closeted lesbian who embraces celibacy until she begins dating women. Kavner voices them as characters who "suck the life out of everything". Patty and Selma debuted on the first Simpsons episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which aired on December 17, 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simpson family</span> Family of five fictional characters in animation series The Simpsons

The Simpson family are the main fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of married couple Homer and Marge who were high school sweethearts and their three children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town of Springfield, United States, and they were created by cartoonist Matt Groening, who conceived the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name. The family debuted on Fox on April 19, 1987, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" and were later spun off into their own series, which debuted on Fox in the U.S. on December 17, 1989, and started airing in Winter 1989.

"A Milhouse Divided" is the sixth episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States on December 1, 1996. In the episode, Milhouse's parents Kirk and Luann get a divorce, causing Homer to examine his own marriage. It was directed by Steven Dean Moore and is the only episode for which Steve Tompkins has sole writing credit.

"Half-Decent Proposal" is the tenth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 10, 2002. In the episode, Homer's snoring interferes with Marge's sleep. To earn money to cure Homer's snoring, Marge agrees to spend a weekend with Artie Ziff if he vows to not grope her as he did during their high-school prom date. While spying on Marge and Artie, Homer mistakenly thinks they are making out, so he leaves with Lenny to work on an oil rig.

"Brawl in the Family" is the seventh episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 6, 2002. In the episode, the Simpsons get arrested for domestic violence, prompting social worker Gabriel to move in and make the family functional. After the family is declared acceptable, Amber and Ginger, the cocktail waitresses Homer and his neighbor Ned Flanders married in Las Vegas, show up at their doorsteps. This episode is the first episode of Season 13's DABF production line.

"Fear of Flying" is the eleventh episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on December 18, 1994. In the episode, the Simpson family prepares to go on a vacation by plane, but the circumstances force Marge to confess that she has a fear of flying.

"The Girl Who Slept Too Little" is the second episode of the seventeenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 18, 2005, and was seen by 9.79 million people during this broadcast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play</span> 22nd episode of the 17th season of The Simpsons

“Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play” is the twenty-second and the final episode of the seventeenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 21, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind</span> 9th episode of the 19th season of The Simpsons

"Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" is the ninth episode of the nineteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 16, 2007.

"The Fight Before Christmas" is the eighth episode of the twenty-second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 5, 2010, and consists of four short dream segments that all take place during Christmas. In the first segment, Bart travels to the North Pole and sets out to get Santa into giving him the dirt bike he has wished for every year. In the second one, set during World War II, Lisa has to cope with the absence of her mother who has been deployed as a soldier overseas. Martha Stewart arrives at the Simpsons' home in the third dream segment, helping Marge save the family's Christmas. Finally, in the last segment the entire family has become puppet characters in a theater show that also stars Katy Perry.

"How I Wet Your Mother" is the sixteenth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 11, 2012. In the episode, a traumatic incident causes Homer to repeatedly wet the bed. As it worsens, his family, with the help of Professor Frink, successfully manage to infiltrate his dreams to get to its subconscious source. The episode name is a pun on How I Met Your Mother.

"Days of Future Future" is the eighteenth episode of the twenty-fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 13, 2014. It was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Bob Anderson.

<i>The Simpsons</i> season 27 Season of television series

The twenty-seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons began airing on Fox in the United States on September 27, 2015, and ended on May 22, 2016. The season was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. This season was the first of two seasons ordered by Fox in May 2015. The primary showrunner for the season was Al Jean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treehouse of Horror XXVI</span> 5th episode of the 27th season of The Simpsons

"Treehouse of Horror XXVI" is the fifth episode of the twenty-seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, the 26th episode in the Treehouse of Horror series of Halloween specials, and the 579th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Joel H. Cohen. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 25, 2015.

"Kamp Krustier" is the fifteenth episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 612th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 5, 2017 and in the United Kingdom on Sky 1 on May 5, 2017. The follow-up to the season 4 episode "Kamp Krusty", the episode was directed by Rob Oliver and features a script by David M. Stern, who had not written for the show in 18 years. In the episode, Bart and Lisa return from Kamp Krusty traumatized and Homer becomes a more productive worker.

"Springfield Splendor" is the second episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 620th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Matthew Faughnan and written by Tim Long and Miranda Thompson. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 8, 2017.

"Mr. Lisa's Opus" is the eighth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 626th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Al Jean. It aired in the United States on Fox on December 3, 2017. The title is a spoof of the film Mr. Holland's Opus. Lisa looks back through all her family's attempts to remember her birthday and uses those attempts to write an essay for Harvard.

References

  1. ↑ Camp, Zoe (September 28, 2015). "Spacemen 3's "Big City (Everybody I Know Can be Found Here)" Featured on "The Simpsons"". Pitchfork . Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Ayes, Mike (September 27, 2015). "Music on TV: Spacemen 3 Touches Down on 'The Simpsons'". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Goldberg, Lesley (September 27, 2015). "'Simpsons' Divorce Homer Marge Lena Dunham". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (January 9, 2015). "'The Simpsons' Enlists 'Girls' Star Lena Dunham". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  5. ↑ Snierson, Dan (January 9, 2015). "First Look: Lena Dunham to guest on 'The Simpsons'". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  6. 1 2 Snierson, Dan (April 13, 2015). "Girls stars join Lena Dunham on The Simpsons -- exclusive". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  7. ↑ Dixon, Dani (September 29, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'Bob's Burgers' Adjusted Down, '60 Minutes' Adjusted Up + 'Sunday Night Football". TV by the Numbers . Archived from the original on September 30, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
  8. ↑ Perkins, Dennis (September 27, 2015). "The Simpsons premiere threatens Marge and Homer's marriage, our good will". The A.V. Club . Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  9. ↑ Schedeen, Jesse (September 28, 2015). "The Simpsons: "Every Man's Dream" Review". IGN . Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  10. ↑ Birnbaum, Debra (June 7, 2015). "'Simpsons' EP Al Jean on Homer's 2016 Vote, Another Movie & the Star He Still Wants". Variety . Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  11. ↑ Plante, Chris (June 10, 2015). "Marge and Homer Simpson are getting divorced, but they were already divorced for 12 seasons". The Verge . Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  12. ↑ Jannuzzi, John (June 10, 2015). "Homer and Marge Simpson Are Getting a Divorce This Season". GQ . Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  13. ↑ D'Addario, Daniel (June 10, 2015). "How That Simpsons Break-Up Will Stand Alongside Other Sitcom Splits". Time . Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  14. ↑ Jean, Al [@AlJean] (June 10, 2015). ".@thesimpsons #EverySimpsonsEver I DIDN'T SAY Homer and Marge are breaking up I said they are BIGGER THAN JESUS" (Tweet). Retrieved July 9, 2023– via Twitter.
  15. 1 2 Swift, Andy (June 11, 2015). "The Simpsons Update: Homer & Marge Are (Still) Not Divorcing in Season 27". TVLine . Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  16. ↑ Jean, Al [@AlJean] (June 11, 2015). ".@thesimpsons For the record, the original article which I stand by in entirety (ok I could have been funnier)" (Tweet). Retrieved July 9, 2023– via Twitter.
  17. ↑ Ausiello, Michael (June 21, 2015). "The Simpsons Divorce Drama: Homer and Marge Speak Out, Slam CNN". TVLine . Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.