| "I Married Marge" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
 | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 3 Episode 12 | ||
| Directed by | Jeffrey Lynch | ||
| Written by | Jeff Martin | ||
| Production code | 8F10 | ||
| Original air date | December 26, 1991 (1991-12-26) | ||
| Episode features | |||
| Chalkboard gag | "I will not torment the emotionally frail" | ||
| Couch gag | The family (exceptMaggie) cartwheel into place and strikes a pose. Maggie hops onto the couch and joins them, striking the same pose. | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening James L. Brooks Al Jean Mike Reiss Dan Castellaneta Jeff Martin Jeffrey Lynch | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
| |||
| The Simpsonsseason 3 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"I Married Marge" is the twelfth episode of thethird season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons. It originally aired onFox in the United States on December 26, 1991. In the episode,Marge worries that she may be pregnant again and visitsDr. Hibbert's office. While anxiously waiting at home,Homer tellsBart,Lisa, andMaggie the story of his and Marge's marriage and Bart's birth. The episode was written byJeff Martin and directed byJeffrey Lynch.
"I Married Marge" was the secondflashback episode ofThe Simpsons after season two's "The Way We Was", which focused on how Homer and Marge met. It features cultural references toThe Empire Strikes Back,Charlie's Angels, andMs. Pac-Man. The title of the episode is a play on the American television seriesI Married Joan. Since airing, "I Married Marge" has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired aNielsen rating of 11.9 and was the highest-rated show on Fox the week it aired.
The episode was the first of three about the births of the Simpsons children, this one covering Bart's birth, with Lisa's covered in "Lisa's First Word" in the fourth season, and Maggie's covered in the sixth-season episode "And Maggie Makes Three". The episode also expands upon the family's origins as a result of Marge falling pregnant with Bart, briefly referred to in "The Way We Was", and introduces key moments, such as Bart's conception at a mini-golf course, which would ultimately become a major part of the series' canon.
Marge worries she may be pregnant again after a home pregnancy test is inconclusive, so she drives toDr. Hibbert's office to take another test. While Marge is gone,Homer tellsBart,Lisa, andMaggie the story of their marriage and Bart's birth.
In 1980, Homer is working at amini golf course while dating Marge. The day after having sex inside a castle on the golf course, Marge discovers she is pregnant and tells Homer. Homer proposes marriage to Marge, and she accepts. They get married at a seedy wedding chapel across the state line and spend their wedding night on the living room couches at the Bouvier family's house.
Homer discovers his wages from the golf course are insufficient to support his growing family. He applies for a job at theSpringfield Nuclear Power Plant, but he does not get the job, partially because of his lack of experience with nuclear technology, and partially becauseSmithers favored two other applicants who were members of the samecollege fraternity as him. Homer gets jobs at several smaller businesses, but he is quickly fired from all of them. Due to financial difficulties, their newly-purchased baby supplies and Marge's wedding ring are repossessed. Feeling guilty, Homer leaves to find steady work, hoping to return once able to support his family. He leaves Marge a note explaining his departure and she is devastated when she reads it.
Homer is hired as a cashier at afast-food restaurant.Patty and Selma eat at the restaurant and see Homer working there. Selma feels compelled to inform Marge, but Patty, who hates Homer, advises her not to. When Selma sees how devastated Marge is, she tells her about Homer's job. Homer and Marge reconcile, and Homer goes to the power plant, barges intoMr. Burns's office, and vigorously tells Mr. Burns that if he was hired at the power plant, he would be unwaveringly subservient. Impressed, Mr. Burns hires Homer.
At the hospital, Homer announces that he has found work at the plant, allowing him to pay for Bart's imminent delivery. Bart uses Homer's cigarette lighter to set his tie on fire.
After Homer ends his flashback, he tells Bart, Lisa and Maggie he is blessed to have such children and does not regret having them. Regardless, when Marge arrives back with the news she is not pregnant, Homer and Marge share a celebratory high-five.
"I Married Marge" was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Jeffrey Lynch. It was the second flashback episode ofThe Simpsons and a sequel to the previous one, "The Way We Was", which tells the story of how Homer and Marge met in high school.[2] Executive producerSam Simon was concerned that the writers were being "inefficient" with the episode; he thought the three plots of Homer and Marge's marriage, the birth of Bart, and Homer getting his job should have been extended into three episodes instead of one.[3]
The staff were concerned over the animation of the characters' eyes in the episode, as the pupils were larger than normal, making the characters look "stoned", and the eyeballs were "too round" and large. The animation artists at the animation studio inSouth Korea, where much of the animation process takes place, had begun stenciling the eyes with a template, which according to Lynch resulted in "strangely round eyes which look a little too big sometimes and much too perfect. Which is very un-Simpsons like."[1] Marge was designed with shorter hair in the flashback sequences to make her appear younger. Lynch thought it was nice to see Marge in a "younger, more attractive mode, and sort of watching her progress through pregnancy."[1]
The title of the episode is a reference to the American television seriesI Married Joan.[4] Marge and Homer sing along to "You Light Up My Life" byDebby Boone in the car. When Marge is suspected to be pregnant, Bart wants to name the baby after rapperKool Moe Dee, while Lisa wants to name her afterAriel, fromThe Little Mermaid.[2] At the beginning of his story, Homer mentions the bandSupertramp, and their popularity in the time period.[5] While exiting the movie theater, Homer spoils the ending ofThe Empire Strikes Back for dozens of moviegoers awaiting the next show. He tells Marge "You're as pretty asPrincess Leia and as smart asYoda."[6][7]
Homer's encounter with the doughnut delivery man is a reference to a scene in the filmWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.[4] Homer and his best friendBarney Gumble are watchingCharlie's Angels when Marge tells the news of her pregnancy.[4] Aposter ofFarrah Fawcett, a cast member ofCharlie's Angels, hangs on the wall in Barney's apartment.[2]Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" is heard when Homer looks for a new job. The sign outside the wedding chapel resemblesVegas Vic from thePioneer Club in Las Vegas.[2] When Homer returns to the power plant to apply for a job the second time, Mr. Burns is seen playing the arcade gameMs. Pac-Man.[8] The episode marks the first appearance of Burns's assistant Smithers's first name, Waylon, which comes from the puppeteerWayland Flowers.[8] When Homer is working at the Gulp N' Blow, he is wearing an "I Shot J.R." T-shirt, a reference to theWho Shot J.R.? storyline inDallas in 1980, which would later provide inspiration for the two-part "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" episode in 1995.[4]
In its original American broadcast on December 26, 1991, "I Married Marge" finished 27th in the ratings for the week of December 23–29, 1991, with aNielsen rating of 11.9, equivalent to approximately 11 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on Fox that week.[9] Marge's voice actor,Julie Kavner, received aPrimetime Emmy Award forOutstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 for her performance in the episode.[10][11]
Since airing, the episode has received very positive reviews from television critics. Pete Oliva ofNorth Texas Daily praised the writers for providing back stories that are "believable" and do not feel "contrived or hastily thought through".[12] The authors of the bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide,Gary Russell andGareth Roberts,[13] thought it was a "moving" episode with "plenty of greatsetpieces".[4]
DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson described the episode as "sweet and funny" and a "nice piece ofSimpsons history". Jacobson went on to say he enjoyed the flashback concept and that the episode develops the characters "nicely" and gives the viewers "a good sense for the era in which it takes place".[14] Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed rated it a 5 (of 5), and highlighted the scenes with Marge's sisters Patty and Selma, "barraging Homer with insults", as the "funniest moments" of the episode. Meyers added: "The episode's climax is a great moment for Homer and fans of the show."[15] Molly Griffin ofThe Observer said "I Married Marge" is one of the season three episodes that turned the show into "the cultural force it is today".[16]
In his bookDrawn to Television – Prime-time Animation from the Flintstones to Family Guy, Keith Booker wrote: "The episode details in a rather sentimental fashion the early struggles of the irresponsible Homer to support his new family [...] Such background episodes add an extra dimension to the portrayal of the animated Simpson family, making them seem oddly real and adding weight to their status as a family with a long history together."[17] Nathan Rabin writes that the episode "presents such an unflinching, unsparing yet poignant and wonderfully human portrayal of young parenthood that when the pregnancy test finally turns up negative it is a cause for rapt celebration. That’s parenthood: the gift and the curse. The thing that ruins your life and gives it meaning. 'I Married Marge' powerfully captures that duality in a way that illustrates indelibly why wefeel for The Simpsons in a way that would be unimaginable withFamily Guy. It’s not just funny. It has a soul."[18]
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].
