| "Marge Gets a Job" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 4 Episode 7 | ||
| Directed by | Jeff Lynch | ||
| Written by | Bill Oakley &Josh Weinstein | ||
| Production code | 9F05 | ||
| Original air date | November 5, 1992 (1992-11-05) | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode features | |||
| Chalkboard gag | "I will not teach others to fly" | ||
| Couch gag | The family members' heads are on the wrong bodies and they switch to the right heads withMaggie taking the pacifier fromHomer's mouth. | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening Al Jean Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Jeffrey Lynch Jim Reardon | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| The Simpsonsseason 4 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Marge Gets a Job" is the seventh episode of thefourth season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons. It originally aired onFox in the United States on November 5, 1992. In this episode,Marge gets a job at theSpringfield Nuclear Power Plant to pay for foundation repair atthe Simpsons house.Mr. Burns develops acrush on Marge after seeing her at work and unwittingly harasses her. A subplot withBart parallels the fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".
The episode was the first written byBill Oakley andJosh Weinstein and directed byJeffrey Lynch.
The Simpson family's house needs its foundation repaired, but the family does not have enough money to afford the repairs. When a job opens atSpringfield Nuclear Power Plant (because Mr. Burns has forced the retirement of an employee who has worked at the plant for 45 years),Marge decides to apply for the job opening so she andHomer can collectively earn enough money to pay for the foundation repair. After Lisa helps Marge write a resumé, Marge is hired.Mr. Burns becomes infatuated with Marge.
Meanwhile,Bart, after making several excuses to avoid taking a test, is forced to take the test by his teacher,Edna Krabappel. She places him alone outside the classroom, hands him the test, and leaves. A captive wolf escapes from a taping ofTheKrusty the Clown Show and attacks Bart outside the classroom. He cries "Wolf!" but Edna, who advised him to read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", ignores him.Groundskeeper Willie rescues Bart by fighting the wolf, giving Bart time to return to his classroom. Since he feels that he will not be believed if he tells the truth, Bart says, with apparent honesty, that he made up the story. He then passes out and Edna realizes that Bart really was attacked.
In an effort to impress Marge, Mr. Burns gives her a promotion, before coming onto her. When she tells him that she is married, he fires her from her position. She threatens to sue Mr. Burns for wrongful firing and enlists the help ofLionel Hutz. While Hutz has a strong case, he flees in terror after discovering Mr. Burns has ten high-priced lawyers. Homer stands up to Mr. Burns and admonishes him forsexually harassing Marge. Mr. Burns is impressed by Homer's devotion to Marge and decides to arrange a private concert for them featuringTom Jones, who had previously been taken captive by Burns after Marge told him she was a fan of Jones's music.
The idea for the show came fromConan O'Brien, who thought ofMarge getting a job at thepower plant and thatMr. Burns has a crush on her.[1] The animators had trouble animating Marge with the suit and lipstick.[2] Director Jeff Lynch said there were a few scenes where Marge "looks like a monster".[2] All the jargon used byTroy McClure was taken from aTime–Life foundation repair book and used accurately.[3] The original subplot for the episode was Mr. Burns tellingHomer to dress up asMister Atom and have him go to schools to talk to the children.[2] The cast likedTom Jones as a guest star, finding him genial and fun to work with. He offered to perform a concert after he was done recording lines.[3]
The animators had originally drawn three different versions ofBart after he was attacked by the wolf.[3] They picked the version that looked the least scary, as they did not want Bart to look too "beaten up".[3] An animation error during Mr. Smithers' dream sequence about Mr. Burns also caused issues when dealing with network censors, mistaking a "lump in his bed" as anerection, which was supposed to be Mr. Smithers' knee.[4]
The restaurant "The Spruce Caboose" is a reference toHoward Hughes's planeThe Spruce Goose. Homer's fantasy of life in the woods is a parody ofHenry David Thoreau'sWalden. Grandpa Simpson asks Bart if he has read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", and he replies "I glanced at it. Boy cries wolf. Has a few laughs. I forget how it ends." Mr. Burns asks Smithers if he can dig upAl Jolson.[5] The song performed for Mr. Burns at the retirement party is based on the song and dance number inCitizen Kane (1941).[3] The photo of Mr. Burns meetingElvis Presley is modeled on the photo ofRichard Nixon meeting Elvis.[3] While Mr. Burns is looking through the surveillance cameras, "The Imperial March" from theStar Wars films is played in the background.[3]
Gary Russell andGareth Roberts,[6] the authors of the bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide commented, "We like Bart's fantasy of the radioactiveMarie andPierre Curie, and Smithers' fantasy of his loved one flying through the window. A collection of wonderful set pieces rather than a story, which fizzles out without any real attempt at an ending."[7]
Empire placed the "Mister Burns" dance number as the show's fourth best film parody, "the pick of a big bunch" from the show's manyCitizen Kane parodies, coming "replete withWellesian camera angles and subtly altered lyrics".[8]
Nathan Rabin writes that"'Marge Gets a Job' is just about perfect. There is not a wasted sequence or unfunny gag. It's head-spinningly smart in a way that doesn't call attention to itself—like setting the retirement party at The Spruce Caboose, a giant, unwieldy, trainwreck-themed eatery whose name and conceit are brilliant parodies of Howard Hughes' giant wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose. In its golden prime,The Simpsons did things no one else would and did them better than anyone else possibly could. In the process, it created a legacy that is still unmatched two decades on."[9]
In its original broadcast, "Marge Gets a Job" finished 25th in ratings for the week of November 2–8, 1992, with aNielsen rating of 13.6, equivalent to approximately 12.7 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, beatingBeverly Hills, 90210 andThe Simpsons episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", which aired on Tuesday in the same week.[10]
In the original airing of this episode, Mrs. Krabappel names several different diseases Bart has faked in order to get out of taking his English test, one of which isTourette's syndrome. After Bart claims that he is not over it, he begins barking and snarling and mutters, "Shove it, witch!"[11] This scene garnered many complaints from people who thought it was tasteless of the writers to make fun of an actual condition[11] and Joshua Smith, a boy inRenton, Washington began seeking legal action. Smith demanded that they "not repeat the episode and have Bart Simpson befriend somebody with Tourette's on the show" and include an apology from Bart at the end.[12] Executive producerMike Reiss replied with an apology saying "We kind of feel like we made a mistake this time. We felt bad about this."[11] In a move that was unprecedented for the show, the producers agreed to remove the scene from future broadcasts.[12] However, Smith's other requests went unfulfilled.[13] In the version of the episode released on the season fourDVD boxset, the part with Bart demonstrating his supposed Tourette's syndrome to Mrs. Krabappel was kept intact, but Krabappel's line about Bart having "...that unfortunate bout of Tourette's syndrome" was replaced with "...that unfortunate bout of rabies."[14]
Additionally, duringSmithers' dream sequence with Mr. Burns, censors demanded the cutting of several seconds of animation that showed "Mr. Burns land[ing] in a particular position on Smithers anatomy".[15]
Following the2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the associated nuclear emergency, the episode was pulled froman Austrian network due to jokes about radiation poisoning.[16]
I've just done my first non-fiction book, Oh No It's A Completely Unofficial Simpsons Guide for Virgin, co-authored with Gareth Roberts which has, to be frank, been more of a nightmare than it needed to be [the book was published as I Can't Believe It's An Unofficial Simpsons Guide, with Gary and Gareth writing under the pseudonyms Warren Martyn & Adrian Wood].
