The babysitter is on

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Episode of the series The Simpsons
title The babysitter is on
Original title Some Enchanted Evening
Country of production United States
original language English
length approx. 22 minutes
classification Season 1, episode 13
13th episode overall ( list )
First broadcast May 13, 1990 on FOX
German-language
first broadcast		 November 22, 1991 on ZDF
Rod
Director David Silverman ,
Kent Butterworth
script Matt Groening ,
Sam Simon
Guest appearance (s)
synchronization

 ►  Main article: Dubbing The Simpsons

chronology

←  Predecessor
The clown with the honest mask

Successor  →
The model student

The babysitter is going on ( English original title: Some Enchanted Evening ) is the thirteenth episode of the first season of the American animated series The Simpsons . Although its production began as the first of the season, it was renewed due to poor animation and was the last to air.

action

Since Homer behaves like a macho towards his wife , she calls Dr. Marvin Monroe's radio show for help. At the same time, Homer and his colleagues are listening to this program while they work. At first Homer makes fun of the caller, but when he and his colleagues realize that it is Marge, Homer is laughed at.

Because she said on the radio that she would give her husband her opinion, he bought her flowers and invited her to a romantic evening in a restaurant followed by an overnight stay in a hotel. Marge then forgives him and they hire a babysitter for the children. After this arrives, Homer and Marge drive away. In the following years, Miss Botz turns out to be a "babysitter gangster" who robs the houses of her clients and leaves the children tied up. When she searches the Simpsons house for valuables, the children overpower her and tie her up.

To be able to call the police, they walk a few streets to a phone booth. At the same time, her parents worry that no one will pick up the phone at home and drive back home. Thinking this was a prank by the children, they let Miss Botz go. When the police and the children came to the house shortly afterwards, the babysitter had already disappeared.

Cultural references

While the original title of this episode is a reference to the album Some Enchanted Evening , the German title is based on the cartoon The Dogs Are Losing . Ms. Botz 'tracking beard in the basement of the house the family is reminiscent of Robert Mitchum pursuit of a little boy in the film The Night of the Hunter .

production

Although this episode aired as the last of the first season, its production began and should be the first to air as the first of the season. Creator Matt Groening and screenwriter / producer Sam Simon wrote the script for the episode.

James L. Brooks heavily criticized the initial version of this episode

The episode was initially directed by Kent Butterworth. Klasky Csupo , the animation studio that produced the previous short films for The Simpsons , was responsible for the animation, with one exception. During the years of short film production, everything was created in-house. Due to the increasing workload caused by the 30-minute episodes, the production was also outsourced to the South Korean animation studio AKOM . While the character and background design were created by the home studio, tweening , coloring and recording were done in the overseas studios. So it was a debacle when this first episode to return from Korea was shown to the production staff in Gracie Films' bungalow . The executive producer and show runner James L. Brooks said the first reaction to the animation: "This is shit." (In German: "That's shit.") After these words, the room should have been almost empty. A heated argument ensued between Brooks and Gabor Csupo, director of Klasky Csupo, who denied that something had gone wrong with the animation, claiming that the real problem was the quality of the episode's script.

The problem with animation from the producers' point of view was that it did not have the "distinctive style intended for the show." Usually, cartoons were drawn in the style of Disney , Warner Bros. or Hanna-Barbera . Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons had a twisting universe in which characters appeared to be made of rubber. However, the producers wanted an environment that was as realistic as possible, in which the characters and objects cannot do anything that is not possible in the real world. Hanna-Barbera's style was to use common comic sounds, which the producers didn't want either.

The producers thought about breaking the series after, if the next episode Bart the Genius (German title:. Bart the Genius ) would have proven to be bad; but this only suffered from easily repairable problems. They then asked Fox to postpone the premiere of the series for several months. Then the premiere switched to the episode Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (German title: It's Christmas hard ), which was broadcast in December as a "Christmas Special". This ensured that more time could be spent fixing the animation problems. The job of director for the new recordings of Kent Butterworth was given to David Silverman, who already had experience from the short films. Silverman estimates that about 70% of the episode had to be renewed. Most of these new additions consisted of changes in the background. The result is a sequence in which the animation is uneven and alternates between the previous animation and the new one.

The episode shows several previous character designs. Moe Szyslak has black hair in her, which was later changed to gray. Barney Gumble has yellow hair that was later changed to brown to distinguish his hair from his skin. Due to the delayed broadcast, it also shows several continuity errors. Dog Knecht Ruprecht, for example, cannot be seen in this episode because it is only introduced with difficulty in Christmas . Original speaker Hank Azaria was credited as a guest star for his voice as Moe Szyslak at the time. In this episode, Moe was originally dubbed by Christopher Collins , but when Azaria showed his version, the cast chose him. Azaria then became a regular spokesperson from season two.

reception

Penny Marshall

The first broadcast of Some Enchanted Evening ended the Nielsen Ratings for the week of May 17-23, 1990 with a rating of 15.4 in 12th place and was seen by approximately 14.2 million television households.

The episode has received varying reviews from critics since it was first broadcast. The authors of I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide , Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote, “It's quite a shock to discover that this confident, well-rounded episode was the first to be made . The perfect template. ”Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide wrote in a review that he thought it was a“ reasonably good ”episode and added,“ Still, it's a clumsy fragment and not one that I enjoyed very much. 'Evening' was usually entertaining, but nothing special. ”In another review, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 1.5 out of 5. Another one from The Digital Bits website called the background story to this episode more interesting than the actual episode.

According to Al Jean , viewers should have thought this episode was the best of the first season. In 2006, however , IGN Entertainment declared the barter and spies episode to be the best of the season. Penny Marshall , who dubbed Ms. Botz in the original version, is on AOL's list of the series' 25 best guest stars .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The babysitter is out. In: simpsonspedia.net. Retrieved April 23, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Matt Groening . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "The babysitter is on the loose". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  3. ↑ a b Harvey Deneroff: Matt Groening's Baby Turns 10 , Animation Magazine, Vol. 14, # 1. January 2000, pp. 10, 12. 
  4. ↑ a b James L. Brooks . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "The babysitter is on the loose". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  5. ↑ a b Al Jean . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "The babysitter is on the loose". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  6. ↑ a b c d David Silverman . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "The babysitter is on the loose". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  7. ↑ Richmond, Ray: CBS wins the week as networks' ratings hit record low , The Orange County Register . May 16, 1990, p. L06. 
  8. ↑ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian: Some Enchanted Evening . BBC . 2000. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  9. ^ Colin Jacobson: The Simpsons: The Complete First Season (1990) . DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved August 29, 2008.
  10. ↑ Grelck, David B .: The Complete First Season . WDBGProductions. September 25, 2001. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved on September 15, 2011.
  11. ↑ Doogan, Todd: The Simpsons: The Complete First Season . The digital bits. September 21, 2001. Archived from the original on June 8, 2004. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
  12. ↑ Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski: The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes . IGN Entertainment . September 8, 2006. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved March 4, 2007.
  13. ↑ Potts, Kimberly: Favorite 'Simpsons' Guest Stars . AOL . Archived from the original on May 15, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2008.