| "Principal Charming" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 2 Episode 14 | ||
| Directed by | Mark Kirkland | ||
| Written by | David M. Stern | ||
| Production code | 7F15 | ||
| Original air date | February 14, 1991 (1991-02-14) | ||
| Guest appearance | |||
| Episode features | |||
| Chalkboard gag | "I will not belch the national anthem" | ||
| Couch gag | When the Simpsons sit on the couch, it opens into asofa bed. | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening Mike Reiss Mark Kirkland | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
| |||
| The Simpsonsseason 2 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Principal Charming" is the fourteenth episode of thesecond season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons. It originally aired onFox in the United States on February 14, 1991. In this episode,Marge asksHomer to find a husband for her sisterSelma. Homer invitesPrincipal Skinner to dinner afterBart gets caught vandalizing the school's lawn. Skinner's dinner with the Simpsons fails to go as planned when he instead falls for Selma's twin sisterPatty.
The episode was written byDavid M. Stern and directed byMark Kirkland. The charactersHans Moleman,Groundskeeper Willie andSqueaky Voiced Teen make their first appearances onThe Simpsons in this episode. "Principal Charming" features cultural references to films such asVertigo,Gone with the Wind, andThe Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired aNielsen rating of 14.1, and was the highest-rated show on Fox the week it aired.
After attending the wedding of a coworker,Selma begs her sisterMarge to help her find a husband. Marge asksHomer to help find a husband for Selma, but he struggles to find anyone suitable. WhenBart is caught spelling his name on the school's lawn by killing the grass with aherbicide,Principal Skinner summons Homer to his office to discuss the prank. After learning that Skinner is single, Homer invites him to dinner. When Skinner arrives at the Simpsons' house, Homer accidentally introduces him toPatty instead of Selma; Skinner is instantly smitten with her, making Selma feel even worse about her marriage prospects.
Skinner asks Patty for a date, but she is reluctant. Selma encourages her to go on her first date in 25 years and warns her this may be her last chance to marry. Patty does not enjoy her first date with Skinner, but they keep seeing other and eventually bond, much to Selma's chagrin. Because Skinner is distracted by his love for Patty, he allows Bart and the other children to do whatever they want at school. He soon enlists Bart's help to persuade Patty to marry him. At the same time, Homer arranges a date betweenBarney and Selma, which she reluctantly attends.
Following Bart's lead, Skinner uses an herbicide to write "Marry Me Patty" on the school's lawn. Skinner takes her to the top of the school's bell tower to propose marriage. Patty is flattered, but she declines because she and Selma share a special bond as twin sisters. Patty appreciates Skinner's understanding andgentlemanly conduct, and admits that were she ever to settle down with a man, she would marry him. After rescuing Selma from her date with Barney, Patty drives her home to their apartment. Meanwhile, Skinner accepts his fate and reasserts his authority over Bart by destroying the entire lawn with herbicide and forcing him to repair the damage by replanting the field seed by seed, much toGroundskeeper Willie's satisfaction.
The episode was written byDavid M. Stern[1] and directed byMark Kirkland. Stern particularly liked writing episodes about Marge and her sistersPatty and Selma. Executive producerMike Reiss said none of the staff members could relate on a personal level to the twins, but Stern "seemed to really hook in to them, so he did some great episodes featuring members of theBouvier family."[2] Due to the episode's romantic theme, the airdate was pushed back toValentine's Day on February 14, 1991.[3] It was, however, ready to be aired several months earlier.[2]
The charactersHans Moleman,Groundskeeper Willie andSqueaky Voiced Teen made their first appearances on the show in "Principal Charming". Willie's role in the episode was to punish Bart by making him re-sod the grass. Originally, Willie was just written as an angry janitor, and the fact that he was Scottish was added during a recording session.Dan Castellaneta was assigned to do the voice, but he did not know what voice to use.Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, told Castellaneta to use an accent. He first tried using aSpanish voice, which Simon felt was tooclichéd. He then tried a "big dumbSwede", which was also rejected. For his third try, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was deemed appropriate enough and was used in the episode.[2] Originally thought by the directors to be a one-shot appearance, Willie has since become a common recurring character.[4] The show's creatorMatt Groening later revealed that the character was based partially on Angus Crock, akilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy showSecond City Television, who was portrayed byDave Thomas,[5] andJimmy Finlayson, the mustachioedScottish actor who appeared in thirty-threeLaurel and Hardy films.[6] In addition to Willie, Castellaneta also provided the voice of Squeaky Voiced Teen, whose voice is lifted from actorRichard Crenna's character Walter Denton in the sitcomOur Miss Brooks.[7] Moleman's voice was also provided by Castellaneta. While his driver's license in this episode showed his name as "Ralph Melish," he was later given the name Moleman by Groening, who thought the character looked like amole.[8]
The scene with Skinner climbing the bell tower to get a better look of where the sodium tetrasulfate smell is coming from is a reference to the final scene of the 1958 filmVertigo.[3] Moleman's drivers license says his name is Ralph Melish, a reference to theMonty Python sketch "The Adventures of Ralph Melish: Hot Dog and Knickers" from the 1973 albumThe Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief.[9] While searching for a man worthy of Selma, Homer imagines himself using a computer-enhanced overlay on his vision, similar to characters from the filmsWestworld,The Terminator andRoboCop.[1][10] Skinner sings the song "Inchworm" byDanny Kaye as he rings the bell to Patty and Selma's apartment.[8] Skinner carries Patty up the steps of the bell tower asQuasimodo did withEsmeralda in the 1939 filmThe Hunchback of Notre Dame.[3] During the bell tower scene, Skinner exclaims, "You love me! Callooh! Callay!", a reference toJabberwocky. Selma singsLisa a lullaby version of the song "Brandy" byElliot Lurie.[1] When Patty bids farewell to Skinner, she says, "Goodnight, sweet principal", a reference to "Goodnight, sweet prince" fromHamlet. When Skinner returns to school, he declares that "Tomorrow is another school day!", a reference to the line "Tomorrow is another day!" from the 1939 filmGone with the Wind.[3] During Stanley and Martha Peterson's wedding, their vows include two lines fromThe Beatles' song "Martha My Dear".
In its original broadcast, "Principal Charming" finished thirty-second in the ratings for the week of February 11–17, 1991, with aNielsen rating of 14.1, equivalent to approximately thirteen million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on Fox that week.[11]
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide,Gary Russell andGareth Roberts,[12] wrote: "Good fun, with both Patty and Selma gaining a degree of humanity. Bart makes very good use of his new-found freedom as Skinner's pseudo-in-law, much to the annoyance of Groundskeeper Willie, making his first appearance."[1]
DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson wrote: "Many shows might have trouble concentrating on secondary characters like Skinner and Patty, but this episode worked nicely. Though the romantic tone could have become sappy, the program managed to stay on the right side of that equation, and it expanded the characters well."[13] Doug Pratt, a DVD reviewer andRolling Stone contributor, wrote that "the [episode] is heavily character orientated but poignantly comical".[14] A member of theIGN staff wrote in a season two review: "There are some real winners to be found in the second season, and I was actually surprised at some of the episodes in the collection because I thought they were later in the series, like [...] 'Principal Charming', where Skinner falls for Patty."[15]
Bill Goodykoontz ofThe Arizona Republic said "Principal Charming" was the episode that made it "clear thatThe Simpsons wasn't just a smart little cartoon but something much, much more."[16] The episode's references toGone with the Wind andTerminator were named the sixth and fifth greatest film references in the history of the show by Nathan Ditum ofTotal Film.[10] Dawn Taylor of The DVD Journal thought the best line of the episode was Moe's line to the depressed Homer: "Homer, lighten up. You're makinghappy hour bitterly ironic."[17]
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].
