| "The Springfield Files" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
 | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 8 Episode 10 | ||
| Directed by | Steven Dean Moore | ||
| Written by | Reid Harrison | ||
| Production codes | 3F25[1] 3G01 | ||
| Original air date | January 12, 1997 (1997-01-12) | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
| |||
| Episode features | |||
| Chalkboard gag | "The truth is not out there"[2] | ||
| Couch gag | The Simpsons fly into the living room and onto the couch onjet packs.[3] | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening Al Jean Mike Reiss Reid Harrison Steven Dean Moore David Silverman | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
| |||
| The Simpsonsseason 8 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"The Springfield Files" is the tenth episode of theeighth season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons. It originally aired on theFox network in the United States on January 12, 1997.[2] In the episode,Homer believes he has discovered an alien inSpringfield. It was written byReid Harrison and directed bySteven Dean Moore.Leonard Nimoy guest stars as himself andDavid Duchovny andGillian Anderson guest star as agentsFox Mulder andDana Scully, their respective characters onThe X-Files.[2] The episode serves as acrossover withThe X-Files and features numerous references to the series. The story came from former showrunnersAl Jean andMike Reiss, who returned to produce this episode while under contract withThe Walt Disney Company. It received positive reviews from critics; Jean and Reiss won anAnnie Award for producing it.
In aframing story,Leonard Nimoy is hosting a program aboutalien encounters, and begins the episode by talking about an "encounter" that occurred inSpringfield.
Homer tellsLenny and Carl that they should sneak out of work early and start drinking beer. Homer puts in an old tape of them working into the security camera. That night atMoe's, after drinking over ten beers, a drunken Homer is forced to walk home after failing a breathalyzer test, but takes a wrong path and ends up in the woods. In a clearing, he encounters a glowing, thin-boned figure with wide open eyes. Although it tells him, "Don't be afraid," Homer panics and runs home screaming.
The rest of thefamily do not believe Homer's story, and his attempts to report his sighting of the figure (which he identifies as analien) to the police are dismissed byChief Wiggum. AgentsFox Mulder andDana Scully of theFBI hear of the sighting and go to investigate. After receiving no results from their psychological tests of him, Homer fails to provide any proof that he actually saw an alien. Homer is ridiculed by most of the neighborhood; evenMarge refuses to believe in his claims, butBart admits that he believes Homer. The next Friday night, the pair camp out in the forest. The mysterious figure arrives and promises peace, but Homer scares it away when he accidentally steps on their campfire and screams in pain. Bart captures the entire incident on tape.
Nimoy bids the audience goodnight. He is then reminded that the show still has ten minutes left by an off-screenSqueaky-Voiced Teen, at which point he runs to his car and leaves. The Squeaky-Voiced Teen takes over narrating duties.
Following the successful capture of the figure's existence, Homer and Bart present it to the media. Everyone in town finally believes Homer, even knocking on his door and asking Homer questions. During a church lecture,Reverend Lovejoy gets emotional talking about the characterE.T. Meanwhile,Lisa maintains that there must be a logical explanation for it. Friday comes again and everyone (including Nimoy) goes to the forest. The figure appears, promising love, but the townspeople begin to riot, and charge at it. Lisa andSmithers stop them just in time, showing that the "alien" is actuallyMr. Burns. Smithers explains that Burns receives longevity treatment once a week in order to cheat death; this includes intensechiropractic, administeringeye drops andpainkillers, as well as a vocal cord scraping. The ordeal leaves Burns in a state of disorientation, and with a soft, high-pitched voice. Back to his normal self, Burns reveals that his "healthy" green glow is due to many years of working in his nuclear plant (which has also left himimpotent). After threatening to bring "fear, famine [and] pestilence" instead of peace and love to the people of Springfield, he is given anotherbooster injection fromDr. Nick. Reverting to his "alien" self, he begins to sing "Good Morning Starshine", with the entire crowd, including Nimoy, and a returned Mulder and Scully (who is wearing a "Homer is a dope" t-shirt), joining in.
The Squeaky-Voiced Teen closes the episode by reminding the viewers to "keep watching theskis... uh, skies."
.jpg)
The episode was produced byAl Jean andMike Reiss, who had served asshowrunners of seasonsthree andfour. They returned to the show to produce this and several other episodes while under contract withThe Walt Disney Company.[4] The episode was written byReid Harrison and directed bySteven Dean Moore.[2] It had one of the longest episode gaps between its conception to the time it was finished.[5] The idea was first conceived at a story retreat. Jean found a copy ofTV Guide while in the bathroom, withThe X-Files on the cover. Feeling a crossover would be a good idea, he came back into the room, told Reiss his idea, and the pair pitched it.[5] None of the other staff wanted to do it, so Reiss and Jean decided to do it themselves.[5] Before the episode was produced, the script was sent toChris Carter, the creator ofThe X-Files, who said that it was an "honor" to be satirized byThe Simpsons.[5][6] Jean was worried that the episode was not funny, as at the table reading there were only a few of the writers present and as such, the script got no laughs at all.[5] It took a long time to come up with an ending, and an explanation for the alien. Originally, it was just going to be left as a mystery.[7] Mulder and Scully's office was designed to be exactly the same as the one used inThe X-Files.[8] After it had been finished, Fox sent the episode out for a critical review, which was "really great".[7] The scene with the "Homer is a dope" T-shirts originally had an extra line: "I told you, we're sold out!", thus filling in the plot error in the actual episode in which Homer asks for some T-shirts, despite just being told that they were sold out.[8] The scene after Homer's first encounter with the alien, in which he runs through a field writing "Yahhh!" in the grass, was written byDavid M. Stern, and added in after the original read-through.[5]
There are also numerous film references.
In its original broadcast, "The Springfield Files" finished 26th in ratings for the week of January 6–12, 1997, with aNielsen rating of 11.7, equivalent to approximately 11.3 million viewing households. It was the third-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, followingThe X-Files andthe series premiere ofKing of the Hill, which aired immediately after the episode.[11] On the original airing of the episode, Fox played an audio promition withKing of the Hill's main characterHank Hill talking over the credits, naming a list of things which will never be seen on his show. This was not official audio for the episode.[12]
Al Jean and Mike Reiss won theAnnie Award for Best Individual Achievement: Producing in a TV Production for their work on the episode.[13]
The authors of the bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide,Gary Russell andGareth Roberts,[14] said that it was "a very clever episode, with the line-up one of the best visual gags in ages".[3]
Skeptical Inquirer reviewed the episode positively, stating that "It's rare that a popular, prime-time network television show turns out to be a "slam dunk" for skeptics."[9] Critic Chris Knight speculated that ifThe X-Files is one day forgotten, those who see this episode will probably still appreciate the scene with ALF, Chewbacca, and Marvin the Martian.[15]
IGN ranked Leonard Nimoy's performance in this episode, and "Marge vs. the Monorail", as the 11th-best guest appearance in the show's history.[16]Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked Duchovny and Anderson's performances as the fourth-best guest appearances in the show's history.[17]
In 2017, British siteDigital Spy ranked it 15th on their list of "The 29 all-time greatestSimpsons episodes ever",[18] while in 2019 Australian publicationJunkee placed it seventh on their list of the 30 best episodes ofThe Simpsons. In 2021,Variety also placed it seventh on their list of the 30 best episodes.[19] It is currently the 7th highest rated episode ofThe Simpsons onIMDb, with a 9.1 rating.[20]
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].
| The X-Files | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characters |
| ||||||||
| Merchandise |
| ||||||||
| Related | |||||||||
