| "The Springfield Connection" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 6 Episode 23 | ||
| Directed by | Mark Kirkland | ||
| Written by | Jonathan Collier | ||
| Production code | 2F21 | ||
| Original air date | May 7, 1995 (1995-05-07) | ||
| Guest appearance | |||
| Episode features | |||
| Chalkboard gag | "I will not mock Mrs. Dumbface"[1] | ||
| Couch gag | Homer enters asJames Bond while the theme plays, spoofing thegun barrel sequence.[2] | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening David Mirkin Jonathan Collier Dan Castellaneta Yeardley Smith Mark Kirkland | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
| |||
| The Simpsonsseason 6 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"The Springfield Connection" is the twenty-third episode of thesixth season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons. It originally aired onFox in the United States on May 7, 1995.[1] In the episode,Marge deals withcorruption andcrime when she joins theSpringfieldpolice force.
The episode was written byJonathan Collier, with input fromDavid Mirkin, and directed byMark Kirkland. The episode's story was inspired by executive producerMike Reiss' wife, who had debated becoming a police officer. "The Springfield Connection" drew on influences from the 1980spolice dramaHill Street Blues and the 1971 filmThe French Connection, and includes references toMcGruff the Crime Dog and the theme music toStar Wars.
Reviews inThe Sydney Morning Herald and DVD Movie Guide were favorable, and the authors of the bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide cited Marge'spolice training as the highlight of the episode.
Contributors to compilation works analyzingThe Simpsons fromphilosophical andcultural perspectives have cited and discussed the episode. Marge's experiences in the episode are compared to the character Rita from the stage comedyEducating Rita byWilly Russell in a literary analysis of the play.
On their way home from an orchestra performance,Homer andMarge pass through a seedy part of town.Snake entices Homer to play hisThree-card Monte game and cheats him of $20. When Marge exposes the con, Snake flees. Marge chases after him and knocks him unconscious with a garbage can lid, giving her a sense of exhilaration. Finding her everyday routine dull and boring, she joins theSpringfield police force.
At first, Marge enjoys being a police officer, but is soon discouraged by the laziness of her fellow officers and rampant law-breaking behavior ofSpringfield's citizens, including Homer, who illegally parks across three handicapped spaces. Marge tries to ticket him, then arrests him after he takes her police hat and taunts her.
Upon his release from jail, Homer hosts an illegal poker game and stumbles acrossHerman running a jean-counterfeiting operation in the Simpsons' garage. Marge arrives and arrests Herman and his henchmen as they are about to assault Homer. While Marge is handcuffing his minions, Herman takes Homer hostage and flees toBart's tree house. Herman tries to escape using a pair of counterfeit jeans as a rope, but he falls to the ground when they rip. Marge knows Herman's attempted escape is doomed because of the jeans' shoddy stitching, which she recognizes from years of buying jeans for her husband and children.
AfterWiggum and the other officers confiscate the counterfeit jeans for their personal use, the chief informs Marge that they cannot detain Herman because the evidence has “mysteriously disappeared”. Upset at the corruption on the force, Marge resigns.
"The Springfield Connection" was written by Jonathan Collier and directed byMark Kirkland.[3] According to Collier, the inspiration for the episode was formerThe Simpsons executive producerMike Reiss' wife. At one point, she had seriously decided that she wanted to become a police officer but it did not happen.[4] The joke where the police officers laugh at Marge for a long time was pitched by David Mirkin and features a "crazy twist" at the end where Wiggum says "welcome aboard". Mirkin liked the joke so much that he repeated it again at the end of the episode.[3] Marge uses a "McGriff the crime dog" hand puppet who says "Help me bite crime".[5] The hand puppet is a homage toMcGruff the Crime Dog – the producers had wanted to use the real McGruff, but could not get permission to use the character.[3] The idea to have a counterfeit jeans ring was pitched because at the time there had been an explosion in the jeans market, and David Mirkin thought it was right to satirize it.[3]
When the Korean animators were animating the sequence with Marge in the gun training course, they did not know how to correctly animate the "shell com[ing] out of the gun" because guns were illegal in Korea. They had to consult with the American animators, who advised them to watch movies so they could properly animate the guns.[6] The original design for Marge's police uniform had Marge's hair standing up (as it normally is) with the hat on top. Director Mark Kirkland found that it made it awkward for staging in scenes, so they altered the design to have her hair pulled down.[6] David Mirkin later stated that if the design had been used, he would have asked for it to be changed because they were trying to depict Marge as a serious cop.[3]
The title, as well as Herman's illegal activities, are references to the 1971 filmThe French Connection. The couch gag, a parody of thegun barrel sequence[2] in theJames Bond films, shows some similarities to that ofSean Connery's own gun barrel sequences. Several references are made to the 1980s police dramaHill Street Blues: the briefing scene at the police station is similar and the background and end credits music, are parodies of the show's theme.[2][7] Marge appears on an episode ofCOPS, and McGriff the dog is a reference toMcGruff the Crime Dog, a US police public relations figure.[2] Additionally, Marge's training sequences features homages toPolice Academy (1984),Bullitt (1968), andSpeed (1994).[2] Marge's difficulties in scaling the wall in the police academy's obstacle course referencesAn Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where the lone female cadet had similar issues. The Springfield Pops play the theme to theStar Wars films at an outdoor venue attended by Homer and Marge, and Homer mistakenly believes that the theme's composerJohn Williams is dead, complaining: "Laser effects, mirrored balls—John Williams must be rolling around in his grave!".[8] Annoyed at Marge for becoming a police officer, Homer draws a line across the floor and says he is acting "a la I Love Lucy." referenced to the television sitcomI Love Lucy. Homer said to Herman thatCalvin Klein,Gloria Vanderbilt andAntoine Bugle Boy are victims of the counterfeit jeans ring.
In its original broadcast, "The Springfield Connection" finished 58th in ratings for the week of May 1–7, 1995, with aNielsen rating of 7.9. It was the 4th highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, followingBeverly Hills, 90210,The X-Files, andMelrose Place.[9]
Robin Oliver rates the episode "thumbs up" in a review inThe Sydney Morning Herald, where she says ofThe Simpsons as a series: "this encouragingly funny show knows how to tug at the heartstrings".[10]
Gary Russell andGareth Roberts[11] comment on the episode in their bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide: "..the highlight of this episode has to be Marge's training, especially her sharpshooting on the firing range".[2]
In a review of the sixth season ofThe Simpsons, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide writes that the episode surpasses the quality of the previous episode"'Round Springfield": 'After the dull"'Round", Season Six rebounds with the pretty good "Connection". I can't quite figure out how Marge stays in such good shape, but her escapades as a cop are funny, and the episode works best when she arrests Homer. I especially like his refusal to remain silent.'[12]
Kurt M. Koenigsberger analyzes Homer's comments about the Springfield Pops rendition of theStar Wars theme in Koenigsberger's piece "Commodity Culture and Its Discontents: Mr. Bennett, Bart Simpson, and the Rhetoric of Modernism" published in the compilation workLeaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture edited by John Alberti.[8] Koenigsberger comments: "The joke in this opening scene involves a confusion of high and popular artistic production: Marge treats the Springfield Pops as 'culture' and expects that the usually boorish Homer will need to be drawn into the spectacle."[8] However, Koenigsberger notes that Homer actually regardsStar Wars as a "classic", implying that a "classic" work must have a musical composer who is deceased, and be devoid of light-shows or glitter balls.[8] Koenigsberger uses this example to discuss Homer's application of "a strategy characteristic of literary modernism".[8]
In their bookEducating Rita by Willy Russell, Rebecca Mahon and Nick Chedra cite Marge's desire to "enter the world" as an example of their topic called "Into the World".[13] Mahon and Chedra note: "Comedy and parody are frequently used in the episode in order to convey the frustrations Marge is forced to deal with — whether these are based around the corruption of her colleagues, the music used on occasion which parodies former police shows, or even the scene where Marge is forced to arrest her husband."[13] The authors compare Marge's experiences to those of the character Rita from the stage comedyEducating Rita byWilly Russell, commenting that both women later regret the decision to "move into the world".[13]
In the compilation bookThe Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard and Aeon J. Skoble, contributors Gerald J. Erion and Joseph A. Zeccardi cite the episode as an example in their piece titled, "Marge's Moral Motivation".[14] Erion and Zeccardi assert that Marge has "virtuous personality traits" which they compare toAristotle, commenting: "Whether breaking up a counterfeit jeans ring run out of her garage in "The Springfield Connection", escaping a cult commune in "The Joy of Sect", or standing up to a Poe-ssessed "Treehouse of Horror". Marge is rarely short on courage."[14] They also note that "Marge's crime-stopping vigilantism in "The Springfield Connection" and her dangerous escape from the Movementarian commune in "The Joy of Sect" demonstrate that she is genuinely brave, but not foolhardy."[14]
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].
