| "Lost Our Lisa" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 9 Episode 24 | ||
| Directed by | Pete Michels | ||
| Written by | Brian Scully | ||
| Production code | 5F17 | ||
| Original air date | May 10, 1998 (1998-05-10) | ||
| Episode features | |||
| Chalkboard gag | "I am not the newDalai Lama"[1] | ||
| Couch gag | The family falls off the couch;Nelson Muntz appears and laughs.[2] | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening Mike Scully George Meyer David X. Cohen Yeardley Smith Pete Michels | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| The Simpsonsseason 9 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Lost Our Lisa" is the twenty-fourth and penultimate episode of theninth season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons. It originally aired onFox in the United States on May 10, 1998. The episode contains the last appearance of the characterLionel Hutz.[3] WhenLisa learns thatMarge cannot give her a ride to the museum and forbids her to take the bus, she tricksHomer into giving her permission. After Lisa gets lost, Homer goes looking for her and the two end up visiting the museum together.
The episode is analyzed in the booksPlanet Simpson,The Psychology of the Simpsons: D'oh!, andThe Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer, and received positive mention inI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide.
Bart andMilhouse visit a joke shop, where Bart tries out some novelty props for his face. When the props won't stay on Bart sticks them to his face usingsuperglue borrowed fromHomer. Bart returns home asMarge andLisa are preparing to leave for the Springsonian Museum for the last day of its Egyptian Treasures ofIsis exhibit. However, when Marge sees what Bart has done, she rushes him to the emergency room and is therefore unable to drive Lisa to the exhibit. Dismayed, Lisa asks Marge if she can take the bus to the museum, which Marge forbids, since it is too dangerous for Lisa to do on her own at her age. When Bart is examined byDr. Hibbert the props are easily removed after he scares Bart with the threat of spinal injections, causing Bart to sweat in terror, which in turn dissolves the glue.
Meanwhile Lisa calls Homer at the power plant and tricks him into giving her permission to go on the bus. However, Lisa boards the wrong bus, with the unsympathetic bus driver dropping her off in the middle of nowhere. Initially Lisa tries to find her own way back to Springfield, but ends up increasingly lost and scared. Back at the plant, Homer tellsLenny andCarl that he let Lisa ride the bus alone. When they point out the error of his judgment, he leaves work to go look for her. The two eventually find each other in Springfield's previously unseenRussian District, where Homer uses acherrypicker to see from higher up. Lisa subsequently saves him when the cherrypicker falls into a river.
Ashamed at her naiveté and for causing Homer grief, Lisa tells him she won't ever do anything so risky again, whereas Homer instead encourages her to take more risks in life. To prove his point, he offers to take Lisa to see the Isis exhibit after all by illegally entering the museum, since it is now closed. There they see the mysterious Orb of Isis, whose purpose has so far eluded archeologists. Homer accidentally knocks the orb onto the floor and it splits open, revealing itself to be a music box. Lisa concludes that what her father said about risks was right – until the alarm goes off and guard dogs chase them out of the building.
WriterMike Scully came up with the idea for the plot because he used to live inWest Springfield, Massachusetts and he would ask his parents if he could take the bus toSpringfield, Massachusetts and they finally agreed to let him one day.[4] The production team faced several challenges during development of this episode. The animators had to come up with a special mouth chart to draw Bart's mouth with the joke teeth in.[5] The pile of dead animals in the back ofCletus' truck originally included dead puppies, but the animators thought it was too sad, so they removed them.[5] Scully used to write jokes forYakov Smirnoff, so he called him up to get the signs in Russian.[4]Dan Castellaneta had to learn proper Russian pronunciation, so he could speak it during the chess scene in which he voiced the Russian chess player.[3]
In the season 9 DVD release of the episode,The Simpsons animators use atelestrator to show similarities between Krusty and Homer in the episode.[6] This episode contains the last showing of character Lionel Hutz.[3] He is seen standing at the bus stop with Lisa, but does not speak. Due toPhil Hartman's death, the recurring characters of Lionel Hutz andTroy McClure were retired.[7]
In his bookPlanet Simpson,Chris Turner cites Lisa's experiences on the bus as an example of "satirical laughs scored at the expense of Lisa's idealism".[8] "Lost Our Lisa" is cited inThe Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer along with episodes "Lisa the Iconoclast", "Lisa the Beauty Queen", and "Lisa's Sax", in order to illustrate Homer's "success bonding with Lisa".[9]
InThe Psychology of the Simpsons: D'oh!, the authors utilize statements made by Homer in the episode to analyze the difference betweenheuristic andalgorithmicdecision-making.[10] Homer explains to Lisa, "Stupid risks are what make life worth living. Now your mother, she's the steady type and that's fine in small doses, but me, I'm a risk-taker. That's why I have so many adventures!"[10] The authors ofThe Psychology of The Simpsons interpret this statement by Homer to mean that he "relies on his past experiences of taking massive, death-defying risks and winding up okay to justify forging ahead in the most extreme circumstances".[10]
The episode is another featuring Homer's near invulnerability to head injury, previously explained in "The Homer They Fall".
In its original broadcast, "Lost Our Lisa" finished 45th in ratings for the week of May 4–10, 1998, with aNielsen rating of 7.8, equivalent to approximately 7.6 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, followingThe X-Files,Ally McBeal, andKing of the Hill.[11]
Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood write positively of the episode in their bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide: "A smashing episode, loads of good jokes and clever situations ... and best of all, Lisa working intelligently. The teaming up of father and daughter has rarely been more enjoyable and lovely. Gives you a warm feeling."[12] A review ofThe Simpsons season 9 DVD release in theDaily Post notes that it includes "super illustrated colour commentaries" on "All Singing, All Dancing" and "Lost Our Lisa".[13]
