Bart the Genius

"Bart the Genius"
The Simpsons episode
File:Bart the Genius.jpg
Episode no.	Season 1
Directed by	David Silverman
Written by	Jon Vitti
Original air date	January 14, 1990
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"I will not waste chalk"
Couch gag	The family hurries on to the couch, and Bart is flung into the air. He comes down during the shot of the TV.
Commentary	Matt Groening James L. Brooks David Silverman Jon Vitti

"Bart the Genius" is the second episode of The Simpsons' first season, which originally aired on the Fox network on January 14, 1990. It was the first episode written by Jon Vitti. It was also the first ever episode to use the signature title sequence, as well as the first regular episode. In the episode Bart cheats on an intelligence test and is declared a genius, so he is sent to a school for gifted children. Though he initially enjoys being treated as a genius, he begins to see the downside of his new life.

It marks the first use of Bart's catchphrase "Eat my shorts." As the second episode produced, directly after the disastrous animation of "Some Enchanted Evening", the future of the series depended on how the animation turned out on this episode. The animation proved to be more acceptable and production continued.

Plot

The episode begins as the Simpson family plays Scrabble, in the living room, in an effort to build Bart’s vocabulary for his aptitude test tomorrow at school. The game ends when Bart cheats and makes up an imaginary word, “Kwyjibo,” and defines it as, “A big, dumb, balding, North American ape with no chin.” Homer is instantly angered and chases Bart out of the room. The next day before class, in the schoolyard, Martin Prince, the school genius, tattles on Bart, for spray painting graffiti that defames Principal Skinner on the school building. Skinner orders Bart to see him after school. As the children file into class, Mrs. Krabappel hands out aptitude tests to everyone. When she instructs the class on taking the timed intelligence test, Martin raises his hand, and reminds her that Bart is supposed to face the window during any test so he can’t cheat. A grumbling Bart turns his desk to face the window and the test begins. In an attempt to figure out a lengthy math word problem, Bart tries to visualize the problem so he can solve it. The visualization turns into a daydream and when Bart finally comes back to reality, Martin announces that he has finished his test already. Mrs. Krabappel sends Martin outside to read a book, during the remainder of the testing period. While Bart is still taking his test, he looks out the window to see a smug Martin sticking his tongue out at him. In retaliation, Bart makes faces back at Martin; Mrs. Krabappel spots Bart making faces and looks out the window to see what Bart is looking at. While her back is turned, Bart, who is seated at the front of the class, reaches over to Mrs. Krabappel’s desk and steals Martin’s test, replaces Martin’s name with his own and then puts the test back on her desk. Bart then quickly fills out random answers on his own test and then writes Martin’s name at the top and turns it in.

Later, after school, Marge and Homer are called to Principal Skinner’s office for a meeting about Bart’s behavior at school. Skinner informs Marge and Homer about Bart’s graffiti from earlier that morning. As he reaches for Bart’s rather extensive permanent record, and is about to suggest something along the lines of expulsion for Bart, his secretary buzzes in and says that Dr. J. Loren Pryor, the school psychiatrist is waiting to see him. Dr. Pryor walks in on the meeting, and surprises everyone when he tells them that Bart is a “gifted child,” and according to the aptitude test from earlier, Bart has an I.Q. of 216. Dr. Pryor suggests that Bart’s history of bad behavior stems from a lack of interest in his school work, due to the fact that it is too easy for him. Skinner wants Bart retested, but when Dr. Pryor suggests moving Bart to a school for “gifted children” Skinner jumps on board with the idea, and Bart quickly agrees when he hears that the school doesn’t have much structure and that you get to make your own rules. Dr. Pryor hands Bart some paperwork for the “gifted children” school, and he, Homer and Marge leave the meeting stunned.

The next morning at the breakfast table, Marge and Homer hover around their new genius child and Homer tells Lisa to start eating what Bart eats for breakfast, so she can become a genius too. However, Lisa is not fooled by Bart and knows that he is still just a dimwit. After breakfast, Homer takes Bart to the “Enriched Learning Center for Gifted Children.” Once inside the school they find Bart’s class, and after peeking in, they see that all the boys are wearing ties. So Homer gives Bart the tie he is wearing, and he gives Bart a little pep talk about his first day at the new school and shoves him in the classroom door. Once inside the class, Ms Melon, the teacher introduces herself and the new classmates to Bart and shows him around the classroom. She tells Bart about the independent learning and that the only rule is for him to make his own rules. Class begins with a debate on the topic of free will and the paradoxes that it creates; Bart struggles to understand the discussion. Later at lunch, Bart’s classmates realize that Bart isn’t really that smart when he accepts their ridiculously uneven trade offers. (Ex: 1000 Pico liters of milk for 4 gills worth. A gill is much, much larger than a Pico liter.) A dejected Bart walks away from the lunch table as the other kids laugh at him.

After school, Bart relaxes in his room, when Homer walks in to see about Bart’s first day at the new school. Homer suggests they all go out for frosty chocolate milkshakes and Bart agrees. Just then Marge walks by, and tells Homer and Bart that she bought tickets to the opera in an effort to try to help nurture Bart’s brain. Later during the opera, a bored and impatient Homer and Bart goof off and cut each other up, even though they are continually shushed by an upset Marge. Cut to the next day at school where Bart feels even more stupid and left out when he can’t understand a calculus problem on the chalkboard. Later, as a sad Bart walks home from school, he passes by the playground of his old school, where Richard, Lewis, and Milhouse are shooting marbles. When Bart greets them and tries to talk to them, they treat him like a nerd, call him names and tell him to get lost. Cut to later at dinner, as a depressed Bart eats, Marge reminds everyone that they can’t be late for the film festival that she bought tickets for, as another way to nurture Bart’s brain. Bart is reluctant to go to the festival and Homer tells him they don’t have to. Just as Bart is about to tell Homer what is on his mind and confess about the false I.Q. test, Homer insists on going outside to play catch. After playing catch, Bart sees how much being a genius means to Homer and decides not to confess about what he has done, out of fear of disappointing him.

The next day at the “gifted children” school, while performing a chemistry experiment, Bart accidentally causes an explosion, which results in green goo everywhere. Cut to Dr. Pryor’s office, where a green stained Bart meets, with Dr. Pryor. They discuss the reasoning behind his recent failings at the new school, and Dr. Pryor thinks that once again Bart isn’t being challenged enough, while Bart suggests that he just go back to Springfield Elementary again. When Dr. Pryor wants to know why, Bart makes up an excuse and tells Dr. Pryor he would like to go undercover and study regular kids and their school environment, “to see what makes ‘em tick.” Dr. Pryor agrees and tells Bart to write up a proposal to present to Principal Skinner while he goes to talk to him. Bart struggles to write a proposal and instead changes his mind and writes his confession. When Dr. Pryor comes back in the office and reads Bart’s confession he suddenly realizes that Bart was never a genius to begin with. Later at home, a still green stained Bart greets his parents and Homer offers to give Bart a turpentine bath to wash off the green. Out in the backyard, as Homer gives Bart a bath, Bart confesses about cheating on the aptitude test and tells Homer that he loves him and that he has enjoyed the extra attention from being a “genius.” He tells Homer that he doesn’t think something that has brought them closer than they ever were before could be bad. But, Homer doesn’t see it Bart’s way, and he chases Bart out of the tub, trying to choke him. Bart is too quick for Homer and runs into his bedroom and locks the door. An angry Homer pounds on Bart’s door, and tries to coax him to come out, while Bart taunts him from inside his room. Everything is back to normal in the Simpson home

Production

The concept for the episode developed from writer Jon Vitti coming up with a long list of bad things Bart would do for attention imagining the potential consequences. The only idea that developed into an interesting episode concept was Bart cheating on an IQ test. This idea was based on an incident from Vitti's childhood when a number of his classmates did not take an intelligence test seriously and suffered poor academic treatment because of it. Because Bart was already obviously unintelligent, Vitti reversed the problem for his episode. Vitti used all his memories of elementary school behavior to produce a draft script of 71 pages, substantially above the required length of about 45 pages. It was Vitti's first script for a 30-minute television program. Bart's use of the phrase "Eat my shorts" was intended to reflect his adoption of catchphrases he had heard on TV; the creative team had told Vitti that he should not come up with original taglines for the character. The scene where the family plays Scrabble was inspired by the 1985 cartoon The Big Snit.

Director David Silverman had difficulty devising a legible Scrabble board for the opening scene that would convey the idea that the Simpsons were only able to devise very simple words. The design of Bart's visualization of the math problem was partially inspired by the art of Saul Steinberg. The increasing appearance of numbers in that sequence derived from Silverman's use of a similar tactic when he had to develop a set design for the play The Adding Machine. Each successive scene in the sequence was shorter than the one before it by exactly one frame. The scene where Bart writes his confession was done as one long take to balance the shorter scenes elsewhere in the episode. It was animated in the United States by Dan Haskett. There were a few problems with the finished animation for the episode. The banana in the opening scene was colored incorrectly, as the Korean animators were unfamiliar with the fruit, and the final bathtub scene was particularly problematic, including issues with lip sync. The version in the broadcast episode was the best of several attempts.

The episode was the first to feature the series' full title sequence. Creator Matt Groening developed the lengthy sequence in order to cut down on the animation necessary for each episode, but devised the two gags as compensation for the repeated material each week. In the first gag, the camera zooms in on Springfield Elementary School, where Bart can be seen writing a message on the chalkboard. This message, which changes from episode to episode, has become known as the "chalkboard gag". The other gag is known as a "couch gag", in which a twist of events occur when the family meets to sit on their couch and watch television. Groening, who had not paid much attention to television since his own childhood, was unaware that title sequences of such length were uncommon by that time. As the finished episodes became longer, the production team were reluctant to cut the stories in order to allow for the long title sequence, so shorter versions of it were developed. The episode also introduced the characters Martin Prince and his parents, Richard, Bart's teacher Edna Krabappel and Dr. J Loren Pryor.

Cultural references

In the opening scene, Maggie spells EMCSQU with her blocks, a reference to Albert Einstein's mass-energy equivalence equation. A picture of Einstein also appears on the wall of Dr. Pryor's office. At one point Homer erroneously refers to Einstein as the inventor of the light bulb. Dr. Pryor compares Bart's proposed work among ordinary children to Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees. Goodall was pleased to be mentioned in the episode, sending the program a letter, and Vitti an autographed copy of her book. The conductor of the opera the family attends is named Boris Csupowski, a reference to animator Gabor Csupo. The opera attended by the family is Carmen, by French composer Georges Bizet; the song that Bart mocks is a famous aria called the Toreador Song. Students at the gifted school have lunchboxes that feature images of the 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited and chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov.

Reception and legacy

In its original American broadcast, "Bart the Genius" finished 47th place in the weekly ratings for the week of January 8–January 14, 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 12.7. It was the second highest rated show on the Fox Network that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, strongly praised the episode calling it "superbly written and directed, often a literal child's-eye view of education, the first Simpsons episode proper is a classic." They went on to say, "these twenty minutes cemented Bart's position as a cultural icon and a hero to all underachievers, and managed a good few kicks at hothouse schools along the way. Especially worthy of note is the sequence where Bart visualises his maths problem, the viewing of which should be a required part of teacher training." In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 2½/5 and commented that the episode was "wacky and fun, very Bart centered, it's easy to see with this episode why Bart became the figurehead for a few years of class clowns". Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that the episode "offered another decent but unspectacular episode" and further commented that "its early vintage seems clear both through the awkward animation and the lack of appropriate character development."

In a 1991 interview, Jon Vitti described "Bart the Genius" as his favorite among the episodes he wrote to that point. James L. Brooks also mentioned the episode among his favorites, saying that "we did things with animation when that happened that just opened doors for us." The show received mail from viewers complaining that the throwing away of a comic book was an incident of censorship. The invented word "Kwyjibo" in the episode, inspired the creator of the Melissa macro virus.

Home release

The episode was released first on home video in the United Kingdom, as part of a VHS release titled The Simpsons Collection; the episode was paired with season one episode "The Call of the Simpsons". It was once re-released in the UK as part of VHS boxed set of the complete first season, released in November 1999. The episode would finally see the US home video release as a part of The Simpsons season one DVD set, which was released on September 25, 2001. Groening, Brooks, Silverman, and Vitti participated in the DVD's audio commentary. A digital edition of the series' first season was published December 20, 2010 in the United States containing the episode, through Amazon Instant Video and iTunes.

References

Bibliography

• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 0-679-31318-4.

External links

• "Bart the Genius" at The Simpsons.com
• "Bart the Genius episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Bart the Genius" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode