Bart Gets an "F"

"Bart Gets an 'F'" is the first episode of the second season of The Simpsons. It aired originally on the Fox network in the United States on October 11, 1990. In this episode, Bart Simpson fails four consecutive history exams, and the school psychiatrist recommends he repeat the fourth grade. Bart vows to do better and persuades the class genius, Martin Prince, to tutor him. After that backfires, Bart prays to God for help. That night, Springfield is hit with a massive snowstorm which closes school, giving Bart another day to study.

"Bart Gets an 'F'"
The Simpsons episode
The "Snow Day" sequence was one of the most difficult sequences David Silverman had to animate, as it featured multiple panoramic shots and was hard to time correctly.
Episode no.Season 2
Episode 1 (14th overall)
Directed byDavid Silverman (and Supervising Director)
Written byDavid M. Stern
Production code7F03
Original air dateOctober 11, 1990 (1990-10-11)
Episode features
Chalkboard gag"I will not encourage others to fly".[1]
Couch gagThe couch falls through the floor as Homer says "D'oh!"[2]
CommentaryMatt Groening
James L. Brooks
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
David Silverman

The episode was written by David M. Stern and directed by David Silverman. Mayor Quimby makes his first appearance, and this episode is the first to feature a new opening sequence. This episode was the third episode produced for the second season. It was chosen to be the season premiere because it prominently features Bart, who enjoyed popularity during the early 1990s.

Due to the success of the first season of The Simpsons, Fox decided to switch the show's time slot to Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET where it aired opposite NBC's The Cosby Show, the number one show at the time. Throughout the summer, several news outlets published stories about the supposed "Bill vs. Bart" rivalry and heavily hyped the first episode of the second season. Several critics predicted "Bart gets an 'F'" would do considerably worse in the ratings than The Cosby Show. However, the episode's final Nielsen rating was 18.4, and a 29% share of the audience placed it second in its time slot behind The Cosby Show with an 18.5 rating and 29% share. The episode finished eighth in the weekly ratings, but was watched by an estimated 33.6 million viewers, making it the week's number one show, in terms of actual viewers. It became the highest rated and most watched program in the history of the Fox network and remained so until January 1, 1995. It remains the highest rated episode in the history of The Simpsons.

"Bart Gets an 'F'" received positive reviews from television critics. Entertainment Weekly ranked it 31st on its 1999 list of "The 100 Greatest Moments in Television".

Plot

At Springfield Elementary School, Bart presents a book report on Treasure Island. When he is unable to name the pirate in the story, Mrs. Krabappel learns he has not read the book. She scolds him for his falling test scores and warns him about an upcoming exam on Colonial America. At school the next day, Bart feigns illness to avoid taking another test. After grilling Milhouse for the test answers, an overconfident Bart scores even worse than he did when Mrs. Krabappel gives Bart a different set of test questions.

Homer and Marge meet with the school psychiatrist, Dr. J. Loren Pryor, who recommends Bart repeat the fourth grade. Marge and Homer think that may be a good idea, but Bart vows to improve his grades to avoid it.

In desperation, Bart asks Martin to help him get passing grades. Bart promises to improve Martin's popularity in exchange for tutoring him. When Martin starts to emulate Bart's bad behavior, he abandons tutoring him to hang out with his new friends and play arcade games. To buy more time to study, Bart prays to God for a miracle to avoid tomorrow's test at school. He awakes the next day to find school is closed because Springfield is covered in snow.

As Bart prepares to frolic during the snow day, Lisa reveals she overheard him praying and urges him to make good use of an answered prayer. Bart decides to study while everyone else is having fun in the snow. Despite his effort, Bart fails the next day's test by one point. Bart breaks down crying and compares his failure to George Washington's surrender of Fort Necessity to the French in 1754. Mrs. Krabappel is impressed at this obscure historical reference and gives him an extra point for demonstrating applied knowledge. Bart is so ecstatic when he receives a barely passing grade (D-minus), he runs through Springfield, announcing his success. When Bart returns home, his parents post the test on the refrigerator, and he remarks he owes some of his accomplishment to God.

Production
"Bart gets an 'F'" was the first episode written by David M. Stern

"Bart gets an 'F'" was the first episode of The Simpsons written by David M. Stern. David Silverman directed it. Over the summer of 1990, Bart was characterized by some parents and conservatives as a poor role model for children because of his rebellious nature.[3] Several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Bart's image with captions, like "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?" and "Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')".[4] Several critics thought the episode was a response to these controversies.[5][6] However, executive producer James L. Brooks responded it was not, but added, "we're mindful of it. I do think it's important for us that Bart does badly in school. There are students like that. Besides, I'm very wary of television where everybody is supposed to be a role model. You don't run across that many role models in real life. Why should television be full of them?"[7] Sam Simon commented, "There are themes to the shows we did last year, important themes, I think it's a tribute to how well we executed them that nobody realized we had a point."[8] Bart says "Cowabunga" for the second time (the first time being in "The Telltale Head"). This was commonly associated with Bart through its use as a T-shirt slogan.[9] Mayor Quimby makes his first appearance in this episode, without his trademark sash that says "Mayor".[2] The sash was later added because the writers feared viewers would not recognize him.[10]

The episode was the first to feature a new opening sequence, shortened by fifteen seconds from its original length of roughly 90 seconds. The first season's opening sequence shows Bart stealing a "Bus Stop" sign; while the new sequence features him skateboarding past several characters, introduced during the previous season. Lisa's bike ride was cut, replaced by a one-second whiplash pan of Springfield showing other characters, before Homer's car pulls up in the driveway. Starting with season two, there were three versions of the opening: a full roughly 75-second version, a 45-second version, and a 25-second version. This gave the show's editors more leeway.[10]

David Silverman believes the animators began to "come into their own" as they became used to the characters and were able to achieve more with character acting. During the scene where Bart delivers a speech saying he is "dumb as a post", Silverman wanted to cut quickly from several angles to give a sense of anxiety.[10] Martin Prince's design was changed several times during the episode. There was a different model with larger eyes and wilder hair designed for the scene where Martin betrays Bart and runs off.[10] Silverman describes the "Snow Day" sequence as one of the hardest things he ever had to animate. It features several long pans showing many characters engaging in various activities difficult to time correctly.[10] Bart's fantasy where he sees the founding fathers of the United States uses muted colors and variations of red, white and blue.[10] Silverman also had to work hard to make Bart cry without making his design look too off-putting; for this reason he is shown covering his face with a piece of paper.[10]

First broadcast

Move to Thursday
James L. Brooks opposed moving The Simpsons' broadcast to Thursday nights

The first season of The Simpsons had finished as high as fourth in the weekly ratings[11] and was the Fox network's first series to rank among a season's top 30 highest-rated shows.[12] Bart quickly became one of the most popular characters on television in what was termed "Bartmania".[13][14][15] Due to the success of the show's first season, Fox decided to switch The Simpsons' time slot hoping it would steal ratings from NBC's "powerhouse" line up, generate more advertising revenue,[16] and lead to higher ratings for Beverly Hills, 90210 and Babes, which would follow the show.[17][18] The show was moved from its 8:00 p.m. EST Sunday night slot to the same time on Thursday, where it would compete with NBC's The Cosby Show, the number one show at the time.[17] Many of The Simpsons' producers, including James L. Brooks, were against the move. The show had been in the top 10 while airing on Sunday and they felt the move would destroy its ratings.[19] Brooks commented: "Suddenly a show that was a hit is fighting for its survival, [...] We're not fighting Cosby, we just want to get healthy ratings. There have been two weeks in my life when a show I was associated with was number one in the ratings, and on Sunday night, we had a chance to be the number one show in the country. I don't think we have a chance on Thursday night."[7] An ad for the show in TV Guide spoofed this, with Homer attempting to wrestle his son away from clinging for dear life to "The Simpsons" logo, with Bart remarking "I'm not moving to another night just because some network dude says so!"

"Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" was the first episode produced for the season, but "Bart Gets an "F" aired first because Bart was popular at the time and the producers had wanted the premiere to be an episode involving him.[9] It aired opposite the fourth episode of the seventh season of The Cosby Show titled "Period of Adjustment", which saw the addition of Erika Alexander to the cast.[20] The first 13 episodes of The Simpsons had been rerun several times through the summer, and Fox had promoted the first new episode heavily since May.[21] News outlets had published stories about the supposed "Bill vs. Bart" rivalry.[19][22][23]

Nielsen rating

Reruns of The Simpsons that aired in the Thursday time slot against new episodes of The Cosby Show were ranked as low as 73rd in the weekly ratings (compared with third place for The Cosby Show).[24][25] Several critics predicted "Bart gets an 'F'" would do considerably worse in the ratings than The Cosby Show.[11] Greg Dawson of the Orlando Sentinel wrote he would "bet dollars to plain-cake doughnuts (a Homer pet peeve) that even a fresh Simpsons won't come within five rating points of Cosby, which could get a 30 share in a power blackout."[23] Fox executive Peter Chernin said they were hoping to establish a foothold on Thursday night and "if we're really lucky and very fortunate, we're going to come in second place".[26]

Early overnight ratings figures for the original broadcast of "Bart gets an 'F'" in 24 cities projected that The Simpsons had a 19.9 Nielsen Rating and 30% share of the audience, while The Cosby Show had a 19.3 Nielsen Rating and 29% share.[27][28] However, the final rating for the episode was an 18.4 and a 29% share of the audience. This placed it second in its time slot behind The Cosby Show, which had an 18.5 rating and 29% share.[29] At the time, NBC had 208 television stations, while Fox had only 133.[30] It finished eighth in the weekly ratings, tied with Who's the Boss?, while The Cosby Show finished seventh.[31] The rating is based on the number of household televisions that were tuned into the show. Nielsen Media Research estimated that 33.6 million viewers watched the episode, making it the number one show in terms of actual viewers that week—The Cosby Show was watched by 28.5 million viewers and finished seventh.[32] It became the highest rated and most watched program in the history of the Fox Network.[32] It remained in that position until January 1, 1995, when a National Football League playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears achieved a Nielsen Rating of 21.0.[33] It remains the highest rated episode in the history of The Simpsons.[34]

Cultural references

Bart's slapdash book report was on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island, while Martin presents Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Later on, Martin makes remarks about the forecastle of the Pequod in reference to Moby Dick.[1] During "Snow Day", the citizens of Springfield sing "Winter Wonderland".[1] The scene where everyone in Springfield gathers around the town circle, holds hands and begins singing is a reference to How the Grinch Stole Christmas![10] "Hallelujah", the chorus from George Frideric Handel's Messiah, can be heard when it starts snowing.[35]

Reception

The episode has received positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote, "A cracking opener to the second season – especially memorable for the sequence in which Bart prays for school to be cancelled the following day only to find himself exiled from the ensuing winter wonderland."[2] Virginia Mann of The Record felt it was "not as wildly funny as last season's best episodes, [but still] well-done, humorous, and, at times, poignant."[5] The episode was praised for its emotional scenes. Tom Shales wrote the episode is "not only funny, it's touching" and praised it for the scenes where Bart prays, writing "There are few if any other entertainment shows on television that get into philosophical matters even this deeply. The Simpsons can be as thoughtful as a furrow-browed Bill Moyers pontification – yet infinitely more amusing."[36] The Miami Herald's Hal Boedeker felt it "pulls off a finale that's thoughtful without being preachy, tender without being sappy. Despite the tears, the show keeps its edge. And the way TV usually smears on the schmaltz, that's quite an achievement."[37] Phil Kloer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote "The episode does a good job of emphasizing the importance of studying without getting gooky. For all the talk about the anarchy of The Simpsons, the show sometimes has smuggled in an occasional message, as it does again."[38] In his book The Gospel According to the Simpsons, Mark I. Pinsky writes "Bart gets an 'F'" offers the most detailed portrayal of the dynamic of prayer on The Simpsons."[35] Steve L. Case later included the episode in his book Toons That Teach, a list of 75 cartoons that help teach biblical lessons.[39]

The episode was ranked 31st on Entertainment Weekly's list of "The 100 Greatest Moments in Television", with Bruce Fretts noting it "stands as classic irreverent family TV".[40] In 2007, Larina Adamson, a supervising producer on The Simpsons, named "Bart Gets an 'F'" as her favorite episode of the series.[41] In 2010, the BBC named "Bart gets an 'F'" as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show, calling it "insightful and poignant".[42]

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References
  1. Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M.
  2. Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Bart Gets an F". BBC. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
  3. Rosenbaum, Martin (June 29, 2007). "Is The Simpsons still subversive?". BBC News. Archived from the original on August 25, 2007. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
  4. Rohter, Larry (December 30, 1990). "Overacheiver – and Learning to Deal With It, Man". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2008.
  5. Mann, Virginia (October 11, 1990). "Rueful Bart retains old 'Simpsons Bite'". The Record.
  6. Tucker, Ernest (October 10, 1990). "New 'Simpsons' episodes return – as smart as ever". Chicago Sun-Times.
  7. Shales, Tom (October 11, 1990). "The Simpsons – they're scrapping again-but this time it's a ratings fight". The Washington Post.
  8. Boss, Kit (October 10, 1990). "Family Feud – The Simpsons and Huxtables will fight it out on Thursdays". The Seattle Times.
  9. Jean, Al. (2002). Commentary for "Bart gets an 'F'", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  10. Silverman, David. (2002). Commentary for "Bart gets an ‘F’", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  11. Drew, Mike (October 9, 1990). "Can Bart beat Bill on Thursdays?". The Milwaukee Journal.
  12. "TV Ratings: 1989–1990". ClassicTVHits.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved July 3, 2006.
  13. Cassidy, John (July 8, 1990). "Cartoon leads a revolt against apple-pie family – Simpsons". The Sunday Times.
  14. "Simpsons set for big screen". The Daily Telegraph. July 15, 2007. Archived from the original on March 1, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  15. Kleinfield, N.R. (April 29, 1990). "Cashing in on a Hot New Brand Name". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 18, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  16. Lomartire, Paul (October 11, 1990). "Brat Bart vs. Cool Cos – FOX already has nabbed a share of Thursday's viewers". The Palm Beach Post.
  17. Cerone, Daniel (May 9, 1991). "'Simpsons' steals away Cosby viewers". Los Angeles Times. p. 4.
  18. Davies, Don (October 11, 1990). "'Simpsons'-'Cosby' duel needs VCR stat". Wisconsin State Journal.
  19. Groening, Matt. (2002). Commentary for "Bart gets an 'F'", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  20. Holloway, Diane (October 11, 1990). "Have a cow, Bill: 'The Simpsons' have returned". Austin American-Statesman.
  21. Marin, Rick (October 11, 1990). "Tonight Bart Simpson gets an 'A' – Season debut is sort of classy". The Washington Times.
  22. "Bart Simpson–Defiant, Saw-Topped and Cheeky—the Brat Terrible Gave Underachievers a Good Name". People. Vol. 34 no. 26. December 31, 1990. Archived from the original on February 6, 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2008.
  23. Dawson, Greg (October 11, 1990). "Barbs still pointed in new 'Simpsons' shows". Orlando Sentinel.
  24. Dudek, Duane (October 10, 1990). "'The Simpsons' return to a fidgeting Fox". Milwaukee Sentinel.
  25. Paeth, Greg (October 10, 1990). "Fox puts its bets on Simpsons". The Cincinnati Post.
  26. Dawidziak, Mark (October 11, 1990). "Bart vs. Cosby: First real showdown is tonight". Lexington Herald-Leader.
  27. Stein, Joe (October 12, 1990). "Bart beats Cos locally and in cities". The San Diego Union-Tribune.
  28. The Associated Press (October 12, 1990). "NBC yawns as 'Simpsons' whips 'Cosby'". San Jose Mercury News.
  29. Bickelhaupt, Susan (October 12, 1990). "Cosby beats Bart, but just barely". The Boston Globe.
  30. Belcher, Walt (October 18, 1990). "'The Simpsons', 'Cosby' square off in second round". The Tampa Tribune. p. 6F.
  31. The Associated Press (October 17, 1990). "'Cheers' is No. 1 show again". Houston Chronicle.
  32. Pierce, Scott D. (October 18, 1990). "Don't have a cow, man! More viewers watch 'The Simpsons' than 'Cosby'!". Deseret News. p. C5.
  33. The Associated Press (January 7, 1995). "Fox hits NFL playoff paydirt". Toronto Star.
  34. Potts, Kimberly (2006). "'The Simpsons' Best Episodes: No. 15 – 11". AOL. Archived from the original on January 1, 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
  35. Pinsky, Mark I.; Tony Campolo (2001). The Gospel According to the Simpsons. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 0-664-22419-9.
  36. Shales, Tom (October 11, 1990). "Bart's back". News & Record.
  37. Boedeker, Hal (October 11, 1990). "The new family feud tonight, Bart and the Simpsons take on Cliff's clan for the ratings title". The Miami Herald.
  38. Kloer, Phil (October 11, 1990). "TV review". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  39. Case, Steve L. (2005). Toons That Teach: 75 Cartoon Moments to Get Teenagers Talking. Zondervan. pp. 122–123. ISBN 0-310-25992-4.
  40. Fretts, Bruce (1999). "The 100 Greatest Moments in Television/1990s". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
  41. "'Simpsons' insiders pick their favorites". Idaho Statesman. May 29, 2007.
  42. "The Simpsons: 10 classic episodes". BBC News. January 14, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
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