"Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" | |
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The Simpsons episode | |
![]() Promotional image featuring Merl Reagle, Homer, Lisa, and Will Shortz. | |
Episode no. | Season 20 Episode 6 |
Directed by | Nancy Kruse |
Written by | Tim Long [1] |
Featured music | Word Up! by Cameo |
Production code | KABF19 |
Original air date | November 16, 2008 |
Guest appearances | |
Merl Reagle as himself Will Shortz as himself Scott Thompson as Grady | |
Episode features | |
Couch gag | In a reference to the Vesuvius eruption, the family sits on a bench dressed in togas, and is covered in volcanic ash. |
"Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" is the sixth episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons . It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 16, 2008. In the episode, Lisa discovers that she has a talent for solving crossword puzzles, and she enters a crossword tournament. Lisa's feelings are hurt when she discovers that Homer bet against her in the championship match.
The episode was inspired by Patrick Creadon's 2006 documentary Wordplay , and was written by Tim Long, and directed by Nancy Kruse. Crossword puzzle creators Merl Reagle and Will Shortz guest star as themselves in the episode while Scott Thompson has a cameo as Grady, a character he first voiced in "Three Gays of the Condo". Reagle created all of the crossword puzzles that appear in the episode and as a promotion for the episode, a special Simpsons-related message (dedicated to this episode) that appeared in The New York Times Sunday crossword on November 16, 2008.
The episode received generally positive reviews from critics, and finished fourth in its timeslot during its initial airing on Fox, with a 3.9 Nielsen rating.
Bart and Lisa start a lemonade stand, but it is quickly closed due to their not having a vending permit. They get in line at the licensing bureau, only to find that the long line is standing still due to the clerk doing a crossword puzzle. Impatient, Lisa completes the puzzle herself, only to find herself addicted to the puzzles. The scene is a shot-for-shot adaptation of the Al Sanders scene in Wordplay. Eventually, she becomes so obsessed with them that Superintendent Chalmers hands her a pamphlet for the Crossword City Tournament. Meanwhile, at Moe's, Edna Krabappel offers to buy a beer for anyone who breaks up with Principal Skinner for her. Homer ends their relationship and decides to take a second job in which he helps break up romantic relationships. Grady, one of his old roommates, calls Homer and asks him to break up Grady's and his boyfriend's relationship because he found a new and "better" man in Duffman. Homer successfully manages to break up the couple. After making a good deal of money, he dreams that he is pestered by the "ghosts" of the jilted lovers and thus quits the trade.
At the crossword tournament, Homer bets his money from his breakup business on Lisa and wins big. However, upon hearing Lisa saying that she is wary of the final round, he bets on the other finalist, Gil Gunderson. Gil plays Lisa for her sympathy and cons her into losing the round, which in turn lets Homer win his final bet. Upon realizing that Homer has come into some money by betting against her in the tournament, Lisa gets angry at him and refuses to acknowledge herself as Homer's daughter, even going so far as to take Marge's maiden name and start calling herself "Lisa Bouvier". Feeling guilty, Homer commissions Merl Reagle and Will Shortz to create a special puzzle for the New York Times , with his apology to Lisa hidden in the clues and solution. The two of them make up.
The episode was written by Tim Long, and directed by Nancy Kruse. James L. Brooks got the inspiration for the episode from the 2006 documentary Wordplay which chronicles the national crossword puzzle championships, and he thought that Lisa should go to a championship in the episode. [2] [3] Will Shortz and Merl Reagle, who both starred in the documentary, appear in the episode. [4] "We felt both Will and Merl were very compelling, off-the-beaten-track personalities [in Wordplay], who would fit into our universe very well", Brooks said. [1]
Shortz was the first guest star the producers of The Simpsons approached. [1] Long later asked Reagle to make puzzles for the episode. [2] Reagle recorded his lines in a studio near his home. [1] Reagle told the Arizona Daily Wildcat that "for me, to be such a total nut for animation since I was a kid, I never even dreamed [of being in a cartoon]. It's like a dream I never had coming true." [2] He added that "you don't see [the crosswords] in the episode for very long, but when crossword fans watch this show, we want them to think that we got it right." [2] Reagle designed every puzzle that appears in the episode, including one that appears in a hopscotch court in Lisa's daydream. [2] There were certain lines in the script that had to be incorporated into Reagle's puzzles, including one where Gil says, "I think I'll throw some Q's around", and he enters a number of Q's onto the grid. Reagle, therefore, had to create a puzzle which used words that included the letter Q more frequently than would be usual. [2] Reagle said he saw the early script of the episode, "but they change it right up to the last minute. In a lot of ways, I'll be seeing it for the first time right along with everyone else." [2] Scott Thompson has a cameo in the episode as Grady, a character that he first voiced in the season 14 episode "Three Gays of the Condo". [5]
The episode features three musical montages: the sequence of Homer helping couples to break up features "Farewell to You, Baby" by Carl Martin, Homer's gambling on Lisa's puzzle solving is set to "Word Up!" by Cameo and "Fanfare for the Common Man" plays in the background of the montage of words removed from the dictionary. [6]
In order to promote this episode, guest stars Reagle and Shortz collaborated with the episodes' writer Tim Long to create a hidden Simpsons-related message (dedicated to this episode) that appeared in The New York Times Sunday crossword on November 16, 2008. [3] The crossword, which was titled "Sounds Like Somebody I Know", also appears as a plot point in the episode. [1] Harry Shearer recorded a clip of Mr. Burns and Smithers telling the winner of the National Public Radio's Sundays Puzzle on November 16, 2008, what they had won. [7]
On the night it aired, the episode was watched by 8.5 million viewers and had a 3.9 Nielsen rating, finishing fourth in its timeslot. [8] [9] The episode did finish first in the 18–34 demographic with a 4.7 Nielsen rating and a 13 share of the audience, narrowly beating an episode of 60 Minutes featuring Barack Obama in the demographic. [10]
Tim Long was nominated for Writers Guild of America Award in the animation category for writing the episode. [11]
The episode received generally positive reviews from critics.
Robert Canning of IGN did not think there was anything "terrible" about the episode, but he did not think there was anything to get excited about, either. Canning thought there were a number of throwaway jokes in the episode that he felt worked well, "but the episode as a whole failed to grab me. As stated, there are a number of episodes that already fit this mold, and most of those are far superior." [12]
Daniel Aughey of TV Guide thought the episode provided a "healthy balance" of humor, story and heart. "Exactly what makes a great Simpsons episode!" Aughey would have liked to see Homer's storyline explored as an A story in its own episode rather than cut short as a C story. [13]
Erich Asperschlager of TV Verdict thought the puzzle-solving storyline was "a lot of fun", both for its references to the "highly entertaining" documentary Wordplay and the jokes it inspired. He thought the one problem with the final part of the storyline was that it took away from what could have been "one of the best Lisa-centric episodes in a long time. Marrying her bookish sensibilities with cruciverbal skills is an inspired idea. They should have done more with it. At the very least, it would have left more screentime for Will Shortz and Merl Reagle." [14]
A crossword is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of clues. Each white square is typically filled with one letter, while the black squares are used to separate entries. The first white square in each entry is typically numbered to correspond to its clue.
A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, as well as Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malta, New Zealand, and South Africa. Compilers of cryptic crosswords are commonly called "setters" in the UK and "constructors" in the US. Particularly in the UK, a distinction may be made between cryptics and "quick" crosswords, and sometimes two sets of clues are given for a single puzzle grid.
The National Puzzlers' League (NPL) is a nonprofit organization focused on puzzling, primarily in the realm of word play and word games. Founded in 1883, it is the oldest puzzlers' organization in the world. It originally hosted semiannual conventions in February and September of each year, but conventions are now held annually, in July.
William F. Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor who is the crossword editor for The New York Times. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in the invented field of enigmatology. After starting his career at Penny Press and Games magazine, he was hired by The New York Times in 1993. Shortz's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is the country's oldest and largest crossword tournament.
Arthur Wynne was the British-born inventor of the modern crossword puzzle.
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is a crossword-solving tournament held annually in February, March, or April. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament was canceled. In April 2021, the 43rd tournament was held virtually. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz, who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament held in the United States; the 2019 event set an attendance record with 741 competitors, including over 200 rookies.
Wordplay is a 2006 documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon. It features Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, crossword constructor Merl Reagle, and many other noted crossword solvers and constructors. The second half of the movie is set at the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), where the top solvers compete for a prize of $4000. Wordplay was the best reviewed documentary film of 2006, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
The New York Times Crossword is a daily American-style crossword puzzle published in The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games, online on the newspaper's website, syndicated to more than 300 other newspapers and journals, and on mobile apps.
Margaret Petherbridge Farrar was an American journalist and the first crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times (1942–1968). Creator of many of the rules of modern crossword design, she compiled and edited a long-running series of crossword puzzle books – including the first book of any kind that Simon & Schuster published (1924). She was considered "the grand dame of the American crossword puzzle."
Merl Harry Reagle was an American crossword constructor. For 30 years, he constructed a puzzle every Sunday for the San Francisco Chronicle, which he syndicated to more than 50 Sunday newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Seattle Times, The Plain Dealer, the Hartford Courant, the New York Observer, and the Arizona Daily Star. Reagle also produced a bimonthly crossword puzzle for AARP The Magazine magazine, a monthly crossword puzzle for the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, and puzzles for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Manny Nosowsky is a U.S. crossword puzzle creator. A medical doctor by training, he retired from a San Francisco urology practice and, beginning in 1991, has created crossword puzzles that have been published in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other newspapers. Will Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times, has described Nosowsky as "a national treasure" and included four Nosowsky puzzles in his 2002 book Will Shortz's Favorite Crossword Puzzles. Since Shortz became editor of the Times crossword in November 1993, Nosowsky has published nearly 250 puzzles there, making him by far the most prolific published constructor in the Times. Nosowsky is frequently chosen to produce puzzles for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
"Dangerous Curves" is the fifth episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 9, 2008 and in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2008. The episode received mixed reviews from television critics.
Patrick Creadon is an American filmmaker and actor primarily known for his work in documentaries. His first film, Wordplay, profiled New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film screened in over 500 theatres nationwide and became the second-highest grossing documentary of that year. His second film, I.O.U.S.A., is a non-partisan examination of America's national debt problem and forecast the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. I.O.U.S.A. premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was later named one of the Top 5 Documentaries of the Year by film critic Roger Ebert.
Brendan Emmett Quigley is an American crossword constructor. He has been described as a "crossword wunderkind". His work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and The Onion. He appeared in the documentary Wordplay and the book Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession.
"Gone Abie Gone" is the fourth episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons and the 512th episode overall. The episode was directed by Matthew Nastuk and written by Joel H. Cohen. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 11, 2012. The episode received mixed reviews.
David Steinberg is a crossword constructor and editor. At 14, he became the then second-youngest published constructor in the New York Times, and at 15, the youngest published constructor in the Los Angeles Times and the youngest known crossword editor ever for a major newspaper.
Bernice Gordon was an American constructor of crosswords. She created puzzles for many publications after beginning her career in the early 1950s, and holds the record as the oldest contributor to The New York Times crossword puzzle. A 1965 Times puzzle she wrote is credited as the first rebus puzzle, fitting an exclamation point into a single square. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2014, just a few weeks after the 100th anniversary of the crossword. Her last puzzle was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 2, 2014.
Dan Feyer is a crossword solver and editor and the nine-time winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT). He holds the tournament record for the most championships ever, with nine total championships, and the most consecutive championships, with six. He was described by The New York Times as "the wizard who is fastest of all," solving The New York Times' Saturday crossword in an average of 4:03 minutes each week and the Sunday crossword in an average 5:38 minutes. He is listed in the Guinness World Records for both "Most wins of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament" and "most consecutive ACPT wins."
Patrick D. Berry is an American puzzle creator and editor who constructs crossword puzzles and variety puzzles. He had 227 crosswords published in The New York Times from 1999 to 2018. His how-to guide for crossword construction was first published as a For Dummies book in 2004. One of the most revered constructors of his time, Berry has been called the "Thomas Pynchon of crosswords".
Mike Shenk is an American crossword puzzle creator and editor. He has been the editor of the Wall Street Journal crossword puzzle since 1998. He is considered one of the best crossword constructors of his time.