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Bart the Murderer

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The Simpsons episode
"Bart the Murderer"
Episode no. 39
Prod. code 8F03
Orig. airdate October 10, 1991
Show runner(s) Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Written by John Swartzwelder
Directed by Rich Moore
Chalkboard "High explosives and school don't mix"
Couch gag The family forms a pyramid, with Maggie on top.
Guest star(s) Phil Hartman as Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony
Neil Patrick Harris as himself
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
James L. Brooks
Al Jean
Nancy Cartwright
Rich Moore

"Bart the Murderer" is the fourth episode of the The Simpsons' third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 10, 1991. In the episode, Bart stumbles upon the Mafia bar Legitimate Businessman's Social Club after having a terrible day at school. The leader of the bar, mobster Fat Tony, hires Bart to work as their permanent bartender. When Principal Skinner goes missing after punishing Bart in school, Bart is immediately blamed for murdering him, causing him to get sent to court. As Bart is about to get convicted, Skinner shows up and explains that he accidentally got himself trapped in his garage all week. Bart is therefore cleared of all the charges.

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Rich Moore. Fat Tony (voiced by Joe Mantegna) and his henchmen Legs and Louie make their first appearances on The Simpsons in this episode. The episode features cultural references to songs such as "Witchcraft" and "One Fine Day", and the American television series MacGyver. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen Rating of 13.4, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

Contents

[edit] Plot

After having a particularly bad day at school, Bart gets caught in a downpour and loses control of his skateboard. He crashes down the stairwell of the Legitimate Businessman's Social Club, a Mafia bar owned by the Springfield Mafia. Fat Tony, the leader of the Mafia, and his henchmen Legs and Louie are initially inhospitable towards Bart, but they are impressed by his ability to pick the winning horse in a horse race on television. When Bart makes up a Manhattan cocktail for the mobsters, Fat Tony hires him as their bartender and errand boy. As Bart adopts more and more gangster-like traits, his mother Marge grows anxious and tells her husband Homer to go and meet the Mafia, but he actually approves of them.

When Fat Tony finds out the Principal Skinner is giving Bart detention after school, the mobsters leave to confront Skinner. The next day, Skinner is missing. After nearly a week, he is presumed to have been murdered. Bart is psychologically tortured by nightmares of Skinner's ghost and of Bart's execution on death row. He rushes to confront Fat Tony at the bar. When the police burst in, Fat Tony blames Skinner's disappearance on Bart, who is put on trial. During the trial, Fat Tony lies to the court that Bart is Skinner's murderer and the leader of the Springfield Mafia.

Judge Snyder is about to convict Bart when Skinner bursts through the doors, disheveled and unshaven, and explains that neither Bart nor the mobsters assaulted him. Fat Tony and his henchmen actually meekly came to his office, in which Skinner yelled at them to not interfere with student discipline, and they left sheepishly. When Skinner returned to his house, he became trapped beneath tons of old newspapers in his garage, where he was stuck for over a week until he was able to escape. Bart is cleared from all charges, and Fat Tony tells Bart that he did not want to get him into any trouble on his behalf, but Bart decides to resign after learning that "crime doesn't pay".

[edit] Production

Joe Mantegna guest starred in the episode as Fat Tony.

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Rich Moore. The writers conceived the idea of the episode before the 1990 film GoodFellas, which has a similar plot, was released. However, when it was, the writers incorporated references to the film into the episode.[1] The character Fat Tony makes his first appearance on the show in this episode. He was modeled on the physical appearance of Paul Sorvino's character Paul Cicero in GoodFellas.[1] The writers originally wanted American actor Sheldon Leonard to voice Fat Tony, but they were unable to get him, so they went with Joe Mantegna instead.[1] Mantegna was offered the role during the show's second season, and since he had seen the show before and thought it was "funny", he decided to give it a shot.[2] He felt honored that they asked him to do a voice for the show.[3] In an interview with The A.V. Club, Mantegna said he thinks the reason he got the role was partly due to his performance in the 1990 Mafia film The Godfather Part III, which opened just prior to him getting the role. He thought the script was "real smart" and "clever", and he said he had a "great" time recording it. Mantegna has since appeared many times on the show as Fat Tony, who became a recurring character, and it is Mantegna's longest-running role in his acting career.[4] Mantegna commented: "Who knew that Fat Tony was gonna resonate in the hearts and minds of the Simpsonites out there? Apparently [the writers] got enough feedback as to how the character was liked that they wrote it in again and again, and I was kind of a recurring guy that they’d tap into at least a couple episodes a season."[5] Legs and Louie, Fat Tony's henchmen, also made their first appearances in this episode. The appearance of Louie was based on American actor Joe Pesci, who is known for playing violent Mafia mobsters.[6] Neil Patrick Harris guest starred in the episode as the actor portraying Bart in Blood on the Blackboard: The Bart Simpson Story, a made-for-television film based on Bart's life with the Mafia that the Simpson family watches at the end of the episode.[1]

[edit] Cultural references

Frank Sinatra's song "Witchcraft" is heard in the episode.

The sequence of Bart crashing down the stairwell to the Mafia bar is similar to a scene in the film GoodFellas, in which a young boy is employed by a Mafia as their messenger.[7] All of the horses in the race that Bart bets on are named after a famous animated character's catchphrase: "Ain't I a Stinker?" (Bugs Bunny), "Yabba Dabba Doo" (Fred Flintstone), "Sufferin' Succotash" (Sylvester), "That's All Folks" (Porky Pig), "I Yam What I Yam" (Popeye), and Bart's catchphrases "Eat my shorts!" and "Don't have a cow!".[8][9] The Chiffons's song "One Fine Day" is heard when Bart serves drinks to the mobsters during a game of poker. The writers originally wanted to use the song "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes for the scene, but they could not clear the copyrights for that song.[1] While strutting around the kitchen, Bart sings Frank Sinatra's song "Witchcraft".[10] In his room, Bart stores the Springfield Mafia's loot, including several boxes of Laramie cigarettes.[8] The scene of Bart waking up screaming after having a nightmare about Skinner is a reference to a scene in the 1973 film The Godfather, in which Jack Woltz screams after waking up in bed and finding a decapitated horse head by his side.[8] Skinner frees himself from being trapped under the newspapers in a way similar to the character Angus MacGyver's escapes in the American television series MacGyver.[11]

[edit] Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Bart the Murderer" finished 31st in ratings for the week of October 7–13, 1991, with a Nielsen Rating of 13.4, equivalent to approximately 12.5 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.[12] Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. John Orvted of Vanity Fair named it the eighth best episode of The Simpsons because of the "inspired" Mafia satire and because it "goes deeper into Bart's ongoing conflict with authority figures".[13] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said the episode contains "what may be Principal Skinner's finest hour, as he explains away his apparent death to a stunned courtroom."[7] Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed named the episode the best in the third season, commenting that there are "many priceless moments" in it, "especially Homer's meeting with Fat Tony's gang. The zeal of John Schwartzwelder's script is noticeable and makes for a great time."[14] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that because it "starts off strong and gets even better as it moves", "Bart the Murderer" was season three's first "truly great" episode. Jacobson added: "Sure, mafia parodies have been done to death, but this one brings a fresh approach and remains consistently amusing. A great guest spot from Mantegna helps. It also feels like the first episode of this season that really moves the series ahead; it seems like something a little more incisive than most of what came before it."[15] Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict commented that how an episode that starts with Bart having the worst of all possible days can lead to him being tried for murder as the head of the local Mafia "is just one of the amazing monuments to this show's superiority."[16] Andy Patrizio of IGN called "Bart the Murderer" his favorite of the season, and praised the episode for its references to The Godfather and MacGuyver.[17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Jean, Al. (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart the Murderer". [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. 
  2. ^ Bernardo, Mark (September 2004). "Not Your Average Joe". Smoke. http://www.smokemag.com/0904/cover.htm. Retrieved on 2009-06-10. 
  3. ^ Jacobs, Jay S. (2004-02-10). "Joe Mantegna - One Of Us". PopEntertainment.com. http://www.popentertainment.com/mantegna.htm. Retrieved on 2008-12-10. 
  4. ^ Kelly, Liz (2007-05-25). "Catching Up with Joe Mantegna". washingtonpost.com. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2007/05/catching_up_with_joe_mantegna.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-10. 
  5. ^ Rabin, Nathan (April 21, 2009). "Joe Mantegna". The A.V. Club. http://www.avclub.com/articles/joe-mantegna,26934/. Retrieved on 2009-06-10. 
  6. ^ Moore, Rich. (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart the Murderer". [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. 
  7. ^ a b Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian. "Bart the Murderer". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season3/page4.shtml. Retrieved on 2009-06-08. 
  8. ^ a b c Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. p. 65. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
  9. ^ Cartwright, Nancy. (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart the Murderer". [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. 
  10. ^ Nawrocki, Tom (November 28, 2002). "Springfield, Rock City". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5937935/springfield_rock_city/print. Retrieved on 2008-12-07. 
  11. ^ Groening, Matt. (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart the Murderer". [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. 
  12. ^ Wilson, Jeff (October 17, 1991). "Thomas Vs. Hill Earns Smash Ratings". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 4E. 
  13. ^ Orvted, John (July 5, 2007). "Springfield's Best". Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/08/top10simpsons200708. Retrieved on 2009-06-13. 
  14. ^ Meyers, Nate (June 23, 2004). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season". Digitally Obsessed. http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/displaylegacy.php?ID=6129. Retrieved on 2009-06-06. 
  15. ^ Jacobson, Colin (August 21, 2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season (1991)". DVD Movie Guide. http://dvdmg.com/simpsonsseasonthree.shtml. Retrieved on 2009-06-06. 
  16. ^ Gibron, Bill (December 15, 2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season". DVD Verdict. http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/simpsonsseason3.php. Retrieved on 2009-06-06. 
  17. ^ Patrizio, Andy (August 29, 2003). "The Simpsons : The Complete Third Season". IGN. http://dvd.ign.com/articles/436/436065p1.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-14. 

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