| "Two Bad Neighbors" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 7 Episode 13 | ||
| Directed by | Wes Archer | ||
| Written by | Ken Keeler | ||
| Production code | 3F09 | ||
| Original air date | January 14, 1996 (1996-01-14) | ||
| Episode features | |||
| Couch gag | Marge,Bart,Lisa, andMaggie are moose heads on the wall andHomer is a bearskin rug on the floor. A game hunter comes in, sits on the couch, and smokes a pipe.[1] | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Ken Keeler Wes Archer | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| The Simpsonsseason 7 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Two Bad Neighbors" is the thirteenth episode of theseventh season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons. It was written byKen Keeler, directed byWes Archer and inspired by the animosity toward the series' earlier run from theBush family. In the episode,George H. W. Bush, a formerPresident of the United States (voiced byHarry Shearer),[2] moves across the street from theSimpsons.Homer seeks revenge after the former President spanksBart for his bad behavior.
"Two Bad Neighbors" originally aired onFox in the United States on January 14, 1996.[1][3] The episode was selected for release in a 2000 video collection of selected political episodes of the show, titled:The Simpsons Political Party.[4] The episode appeared on the second volume of the collection, together with "Duffless" fromseason four.[5] The episode was included inThe Simpsons season seven DVD set, which was released on December 13, 2005.[6] Keeler, Oakley, and Weinstein participated in the DVD'saudio commentary, alongsideMatt Groening and the director of the episode,Wes Archer.[3][6][7] This episode also marks the first appearance of regular recurring characterDisco Stu.
George H. W. Bush and his wifeBarbara are looking for a place where they can get away from politics. They settle onSpringfield, the city with the lowestvoter turnout in America, and move into the house opposite the Simpsons. AlthoughNed Flanders and his family came over to visit the Bushes with George taking a liking to Ned, Bart's pranks and irreverent spirit quickly get on George's nerves, despite Barbara getting along quite well with him, and he reaches his breaking point after Bart accidentally shreds his memoirs with an outboard motor. George gives Bart aspanking, which evokes Homer's ire, and the two become enemies from then on.
Homer launchesbottle rockets at George's window and George puts up a banner reading "Two Bad Neighbors". Next, Homer and Bart use cardboard likenesses of George's sons,George W. andJeb, to lure him out of the house, where they glue a clown wig to his head. After his speech at The Springfield B.P.O.E., George retaliates by destroying the Simpsons' lawn with his car.
Homer and Bart decide to release locusts in the Bushes' house, but George catches them in the act. Homer and George begin brawling and only stop whenMikhail Gorbachev arrives to deliver a housewarming present. Under pressure from his wife, George apologizes to Homer in front of Gorbachev. After George apologizes, Homer also wants him to apologize forthe tax hike. Refusing to do so, the Bushes move again and their house is bought by PresidentGerald Ford. Homer and Ford bond over their love of football, beer, and nachos, and discover that they are equallyaccident-prone.
The show had a feud with the Bushes that eventually led to the idea for this episode. In the October 1, 1990 edition ofPeople,Barbara Bush calledThe Simpsons "the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen", which had led to the writers sending a letter to Bush where they posed asMarge Simpson. Bush immediately sent a reply in which she apologized.[8][9][10]
On January 27, 1992, then-PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush made a speech during hisre-election campaign that reignited the feud betweenThe Simpsons and the Bushes. At that point,family values were the cornerstone of Bush's campaign platform, to which effect he gave the following speech at the National Religious Broadcasters' convention inWashington, D.C.: "We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more likethe Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons".[9] The next broadcast ofThe Simpsons was a rerun of "Stark Raving Dad" on January 30, 1992. It included a new opening, which was a response to Bush's speech. The scene begins in the Simpsons' living room. Homer, Bart,Lisa, andPatty and Selma all stare at the television and watch Bush's speech. After Bush's statement Bart replies, "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end tothe Depression too."[11][12]
This episode marks the only Season 7 episode whereLisa has a minor role, having only one line, although she has major/supporting roles in the season's other episodes.
Bill Oakley, who was a writer onThe Simpsons at the time, came up with the idea for "Two Bad Neighbors" two years before production began.[13] Oakley got the inspiration for the episode after the feud between the Bushes and the Simpson family, and two years later when he andJosh Weinstein becameshowrunners ofThe Simpsons, they assignedKen Keeler to write it.[3] Oakley said thatBill Clinton had been President of the United States for two years at the point when the episode went into production, so the feud had "faded off into oblivion". The staff therefore thought it would be funny if the two parties encountered each other again.[14]
Weinstein said that the episode is often misunderstood. Many audiences expected a political satire, while the writers made special effort to keep the parody apolitical.[13] Oakley stresses that "it's not a political attack, it's a personal attack", and instead of criticizing Bush for his policies, the episode instead pokes fun at his "crotchetiness". Oakley considered the episode to lack many "zany" jokes common for the show at that time, and described the episode as a companion piece to theseason eight episode "Homer's Enemy", in that a realistic character (Frank Grimes in that case) is placed in the unrealisticSimpsons universe and juxtaposed alongside Homer, creating conflict.[14]
In an interview with the fan site NoHomers.net, Weinstein was asked if there had been any stories that he had come up with that did not make it into the show, to which he replied: "The great thing aboutThe Simpsons is that we pretty much were able to get away with everything, so there weren't any episodes we really wanted to do that we couldn't do. Even the crazy high-concept ones like 'Two Bad Neighbors' and 'Homer's Enemy' we managed to put on the air because honestly there were no network execs there to stop us."[15]
At the end of the episode, Gerald Ford moves into the house across the street after Bush leaves. When originally conceived,Richard Nixon was going to move in instead, though this was changed toBob Dole following Nixon's death. The writers then decided it would be funnier if it were Ford since they believed he was the politician who best represented Homer.[14] Keeler's first draft also included a musical number in the style ofTom Lehrer's satirical recordings, although this ended up being cut.[16]
The episode features the first appearance ofDisco Stu, who became a recurring character in the series. Stu was originally designed as a withered, old,John Travolta-esque figure and was to be voiced byrepeat guest starPhil Hartman. However, when the animators remodeled the character, Hartman was not available to dub the voice and soHank Azaria took over the role.[14] Homer has a jacket that says "Disco Stu" in rhinestones (he meant to write "Disco Stud" but ran out of room.) Someone tells Stu he should buy it; he replies "Disco Stu doesn't advertise."
There are numerous references to events inGeorge H. W. Bush's presidency, such as thevomiting incident at a Japanese banquet, theinvasion of Panama to deposeManuel Noriega and thebroken pledge not to raise taxes. When Bush's memoirs are destroyed, a shred of paper briefly falls in front of the camera with the words "V.P. Quayle" and "embarrassment" legible.
In response to George spanking Bart,Grandpa says: "Big deal! When I was a pup, we got spanked by presidents till the cows came home.Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions", referring to the first president to have served two non-consecutive terms in office.[1]
The relationship between Bart and George is a homage to the United States television seriesDennis the Menace from 1959, with the Bushes standing in for Dennis's elderly neighbors, the Wilsons.[1]
When Homer and Bart hand out fliers for the upcoming garage sale,Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is seen washing his car while singingCheap Trick's 1979 song "Dream Police".[17]
Homer's song at the rummage sale is set to the tune of the songs "Big Spender" and "Stayin' Alive".[18]
Many of the items at the rummage sale are references to past episodes of the show. TheOlmec head Xtapolapocetl, which Mr. Burns gave to the family, can be seen, as can several"I didn't do it!" T-shirts and Lisa'sLisa Lionheart doll.[19] In the attic,Marge's painting ofRingo Starr can be seen.
In its original broadcast, "Two Bad Neighbors" finished 52nd in the ratings for the week of January 7 to January 14, 1996, with aNielsen rating of 9.9.[20] The episode was the second-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following theNFC Championship postgame.[20]
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from fans and television critics. It was named byVanity Fair's John Ortved as the show's fifth-best episode. Ortved said, "While theSimpsons people have always claimed evenhandedness in their satire, the show is, after all, hardly right-leaning, and it is hard to miss how gleefully the former President is mocked here."[21]Gary Russell andGareth Roberts,[22] the authors of the bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, wrote: "Very strange, this episode takesThe Simpsons into a whole new dimension of political satire. The lampooning of a single public figure is a startling move. Works much better for Americans, we're told."[1]
Dave Foster of DVD Times said: "Once again showing the mischievous relationship Bart and Homer share their pranks and the inevitable confrontations with George Bush Senior are as hilarious as they are implausible and frequent, but there is much to love about this episode in which the writers think out loud and paintThe Simpsons and its characters as Bush once did."[23] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode and said that it "offers the kind of episode that onlyThe Simpsons could pull off well. The idea of bringing a president to live in Springfield is high-concept to say the least, and it could—and probably should—have bombed. However, the silliness works well and turns this into a great show."[24] John Thorpe ofCentral Michigan Life named it the second-best episode of the series,[25] and Rich Weir ofAskMen named it the ninth-best episode.[26]
Rowan Kaiser writes “The formal experimentation ofThe Simpsons means that the show’s danger was never really in what it said—it was almost always good-hearted and praised kindness—but in how it said it. Toying with viewers’ expectations of how stories should work has a lot more staying power than easily-ignorable (or cancellable) stories that directly attack conventions.
I went into this episode expecting to write something about how the lack of danger in 'Two Bad Neighbors' prefaced the show’s decline, an always-fruitful topic of discussion. For some reason I’d come to think that this was a relatively disliked episode of the Golden Years, although Wikipedia’s 'Reception' page suggests that it’s actually quite popular, and deservedly so—this is a damn funny episode. 'Two Bad Neighbors' is effortlessly playful, making joke after joke at multiple levels. At this stage ofThe Simpsons’ run, pretty much any content, even an antagonistic Republican president, could be plugged into the production system and turn out formally experimental and damn funny.”[19]
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].
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