Christmas is difficult

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Episode of the series The Simpsons
title Christmas is difficult
Original title Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
Country of production United States
original language English
length approx. 22 minutes
classification Season 1, Episode 1 ( List )
First broadcast December 17th, 1989 on FOX
German-language
first broadcast		 December 6, 1991 on ZDF
Rod
Director David Silverman
script Mimi Pond
music Richard Gibbs
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Bart becomes a genius

It's Christmas hard (English original title Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire , also The Simpsons Christmas Special ) is the first broadcast episode of the American cartoon series The Simpsons . It was first broadcast in the USA in late 1989 and in Germany in late 1991. She was nominated for an Emmy in 1990 in the Outstanding Animated Program category.

action

The action takes place at Christmas time, when Homer Simpson with his wife Marge and daughter Maggie is late for the school choir's Christmas concert with their children Bart and Lisa . After the concert, the children write their wish lists to Santa Claus: Lisa wants a pony and Bart a tattoo . Although Marge Bart forbids this, he goes to a tattoo shop and has one made with the label “Mother” (translated “mother”). When the tattoo is almost finished, Marge notices it and has it removed immediately - for which she has to spend all the Christmas money saved. She says that she can pay for the presents with Homer's Christmas bonus.

At the same time, Homer learns from his boss, Mr. Burns, that he is not paying them any Christmas bonus this year. After learning from the family that they need the money for the Christmas presents, he is shocked, but decides to keep quiet about the fact that he will not get any Christmas bonus. Instead, he somehow wants to raise money for it again.

Dressed up, Homer plays Santa Claus in a mall. In the course of a test of courage and a bet with Milhouse, however, his son's beard is soon torn from his face. Homer then tells Bart about the missing Christmas bonus. When the wages are paid out, Bart and Homer discover that it has been reduced to just $ 13 with all sorts of tricks and deductions  . In a dog race you will see a sign that a replacement dog has the name Knecht Ruprecht . You bet the money 1 in 99 on Knecht Ruprecht and lose. The dog is chased away by its owner as an eternal loser and jumps straight into Homer's arms while on the run. Bart and Homer find him a good fit with the family and take him home with them. The rest of the family (with Homer's father Abe and Marges sisters Patty and Selma) has been waiting a long time when Bart and Homer arrive. Homer's confession is interrupted by Bart, who presents the servant Ruprecht , which is received as the most beautiful Christmas present. At the end of the episode everyone is sitting in front of the Christmas tree and singing Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer .

Cultural references

  • The original title Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire is a reference to the Christmas song Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire by Nat King Cole , also better known as The Christmas Song .
  • A Christmas Carol  - Charles Dickens
    • The 5th grade plays a scene from the work.
    • Tiny Tim is the first poor kid to associate Bart with a Christmas miracle.
  • Nice presents  - When Homer turns on the fairy lights and not all the lamps are flashing, but everything is beautiful at Ned Flanders. There are a few other minor parallels between the stories.
  • Knecht Ruprecht  - Theodor Storm (1862) - Homer tries to recite this poem at the Santa Claus course.
  • The Peanuts , The Smurfs  - Bart says there was a Christmas miracle with Charlie Brown and the Smurfs too.
  • King Arthur  - One of the dogs in the dog race is called "Sir Galahad".
  • The scene in which Bart has his tattoo removed by laser therapy while he is tied to a table is reminiscent of a scene in James Bond 007 - Goldfinger , where James Bond is said to be tied to a table and killed using a laser beam.

History and production

The Simpsons was developed by Matt Groening , James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon , a writer and producer with whom Brooks worked on previous projects. Groening said his goal was to provide audiences with an alternative to what he calls "mainstream junk". Simon assembled and directed the initial team of screenwriters. Brooks negotiated a provision in the Fox Network contract that prevented Fox from interfering with the content of the show. Fox was unsure whether the series could hold audience attention forever.

The broadcaster suggested producing three seven-minute short films per episode and four “specials” until viewers got used to them. In the end, however, the producers asked for 13 half-hour episodes.

The episode Tough Christmas was written by Mimi Pond and directed by David Silverman. Rich Moore was responsible for the storyboard and designed the character Ned Flanders. Some scenes were designed by Eric Stefani , a member of the No Doubt musical group .

The episode first aired on December 17, 1989. It was originally planned to start in the fall with the episode Some Enchanted Evening (Eng. Title: The babysitter is on the loose ). The producers found that their animation was so bad that 70 percent of the episode had to be renewed - Some Enchanted Evening instead aired as the season finale. At the time, there were only a few options for animation. Usually the style of Disney , Warner Bros. or Hanna-Barbera was followed . 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. They thought about breaking off 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. The premiere was finally postponed to December and the first half-hour episode aired with Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire . Since this episode was planned and produced as the eighth episode, but aired first, it has better and more detailed drawings and recognizable character developments than the subsequent episodes, such as Bart the Genius and Homer's Odyssey (English title: The failure ).

This episode lacks the usual opening sequence (see The Simpsons # opening sequence ), which was added later in the second episode, Bart the Genius , when Groening realized that a longer opening sequence meant less work for the rest of the animation. It was therefore produced without a couch gag and table gag; instead, only the title of the episode and the snowfall were faded in.

The scene about “ Santas from foreign countries” (in the original: Santas of many lands ) during the Christmas performance is based in part on Groening's experiences in the second grade when he wrote a story about Christmas customs in Russia, as his grandparents are from Russia. Lisa appears to be naked from the waist down at the Christmas performance. According to the series creators, this was an animation error, the Korean animators colored it incorrectly. Lisa was wearing tights in this scene. In this episode, Barney had yellow hair, the same color as his skin. However, this was changed in the later episodes as they believed that only the Simpson family were allowed to have yellow hair. Barney has had brown hair since then.

For Brooks it was very important to portray the Simpson family as a family in need. Because money shortage was not addressed or misrepresented in most sitcoms. They also debated a long time about stealing a Christmas tree because they feared it would make Homer an unpopular character.

reception

The first broadcast of this episode ended the Nielsen Ratings of the week from 11th to 17th December 1989 with a rating of 14.5 in 30th place and was seen by around 13.4 million television households. This made it the second highest rated show on Fox that week.

The episode received mostly positive reviews. The magazine Unicum chose the episode in 2004 one of the ten best Christmas movies. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger compared the episode first broadcast by ZDF in Germany with the episode produced for the cinema The Simpsons - The Film and stated: “In fact, the first episode 'It's hard for Christmas' seems extremely tame compared to today [ ...]. ”At ZDF, where the series didn't stay long, they might have“ expected something more harmless that suits the Mainzelmännchen ”.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Simpsons Christmas Special In: BBC
  2. ↑ Emmy nomination 1990 (English)
  3. ↑ Ken Tucker: Toon Terrific , Entertainment Weekly . March 12, 1993, p. 48 (3). 
  4. ↑ Owen, David: Taking Humor Seriously . In: The New Yorker , March 13, 2000. 
  5. ↑ a b Alyson Grala: A Salute to the Simpsons (PDF), License Mag, p. 14. Archived from the original on September 25, 2007 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 9, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.license-europe.com 
  6. ↑ Kuipers, Dean: '3rd Degree: Harry Shearer' . Los Angeles: City Beat. April 15, 2004. Archived from the original on July 17, 2006. Retrieved on August 9, 2011.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Matt Groening . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "It's hard for Christmas". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  8. ↑ a b James L. Brooks . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "It's hard for Christmas". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  9. ^ Warren Martyn, Adrian Wood: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire. BBC, accessed April 21, 2018 .
  10. ^ 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 .
  11. ^ A b Jon Vitti , Matt Groening and David Silverman . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "Bart Becomes a Genius". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  12. ^ David Silverman . (2001). DVD commentary for the episode "It's hard for Christmas". In: The Simpsons: The Complete Season One [DVD]. 20th Century Fox .
  13. ↑ Jicha, Tom: Fox gets early gift of ratings - CBS cancels 'Snoops' , The Orange County Register. December 20, 1990, p. 10E. 
  14. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Our favorites! In: Unicum from December 2004@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.unicum.de
  15. ↑ Claudia Freytag: Almost like in real life In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from July 22, 2007

Web links