The Springfield Files

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"The Springfield Files"
Couch gag
The Simpsons fly into the living room and onto the couch on jet packs.[3]
CommentaryMatt Groening
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Reid Harrison
Steven Dean Moore
David Silverman
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

"The Springfield Files" is the tenth episode of the

Annie Award
for producing it.

Plot

In a

alien encounters, and begins the episode by talking about an "encounter" that occurred in Springfield
.

Lenny and Carl that they should sneak out of work early and start drinking beer. Homer puts in an old tape of them working into the security camera. That night at Moe's
, after drinking over ten beers, a drunken Homer is forced to walk home after taking a breathalyzer test, but takes a wrong path and ends up in the woods. In a clearing, he encounters a glowing, thin-boned figure with wide open eyes. Although it tells him, "Don't be afraid," Homer panics and runs home screaming.

The rest of the

FBI hear of the sighting and go to investigate. After receiving no results from their psychological tests of him, Homer fails to provide any proof that he actually saw an alien. Homer is ridiculed by most of the neighborhood; even Marge refuses to believe in his claims, but Bart
admits that he believes Homer. The next Friday night, the pair camp out in the forest. The mysterious figure arrives and promises peace, but Homer scares it away when he accidentally steps on their campfire and screams in pain. Bart captures the entire incident on tape.

Nimoy bids the audience goodnight. He is then reminded that the show still has ten minutes left by an off-screen Squeaky-Voiced Teen, at which point he runs to his car and leaves. The Squeaky-Voiced Teen takes over narrating duties.

Following the successful capture of the figure's existence, Homer and Bart present it to the media. Everyone in town finally believes Homer, even knocking on his door and asking Homer questions. During a church lecture,

Dr. Nick. Reverting to his "alien" self, he begins to sing "Good Morning Starshine
", with the entire crowd, including Nimoy, and a returned Mulder and Scully (who is wearing a "Homer is a dope" t-shirt), joining in.

The Squeaky-Voiced Teen closes the episode by reminding the viewers to "keep watching the

skis
... uh, skies."

Production

Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, called it an "honor" for his show to be satirized in the episode.

The episode was produced by

showrunners of seasons three and four. They returned to the show to produce this and several other episodes while under contract with The Walt Disney Company.[4] The episode was written by Reid Harrison and directed by Steven Dean Moore.[2] It had one of the longest episode gaps between its conception to the time it was finished.[5] The idea was first conceived at a story retreat. Jean found a copy of TV Guide while in the bathroom, with The X-Files on the cover. Feeling a crossover would be a good idea, he came back into the room, told Reiss his idea, and the pair pitched it.[5] None of the other staff wanted to do it, so Reiss and Jean decided to do it themselves.[5] Before the episode was produced, the script was sent to Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files, who said that it was an "honor" to be satirized by The Simpsons.[5][6] Jean was worried that the episode was not funny, as at the table reading there were only a few of the writers present and as such, the script got no laughs at all.[5] It took a long time to come up with an ending, and an explanation for the alien. Originally, it was just going to be left as a mystery.[7] Mulder and Scully's office was designed to be exactly the same as the one used in The X-Files.[8] After it had been finished, Fox sent the episode out for a critical review, which was "really great".[7] The scene with the "Homer is a dope" T-shirts originally had an extra line: "I told you, we're sold out!", thus filling in the plot error in the actual episode in which Homer asks for some T-shirts, despite just being told that they were sold out.[8] The scene after Homer's first encounter with the alien, in which he runs through a field writing "Yahhh!" in the grass, was written by David M. Stern, and added in after the original read-through.[5]

Cultural references

There are also numerous film references.

The FBI line-up, described by Al Jean as the "most illegal shot" in the history of the show, as the writers did not get permission to use any of the characters besides Kang/Kodos.[7][10]
  • Marvin the Martian, Gort, Chewbacca, ALF, and either Kang or Kodos comprise the FBI line-up.[3]
  • The narration sequences are based on the 1959 Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space.[8]
  • The music played by the Springfield Philharmonic comes from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho.[5]
  • In one chapter title, the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" being printed out ad infinitum is a reference to the 1980 film The Shining.[2]
  • Mr. Largo conducts five of his students in playing the famous five-note tones from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.[2]
  • Jimbo Jones is seen displaying a sign that reads "Alien dude: Need two tickets to Pearl Jam", a reference to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.[2]
  • Milhouse plays a Kevin Costner's Waterworld arcade game, in which he needs to insert forty quarters for each credit played (losing his first credit after taking a few steps), a reference to the budget overrun on Kevin Costner's 1995 film Waterworld.[2]
  • Homer explains that he got the idea of looping security camera footage from "a movie about a bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over 50, and if its speed dropped, it would explode". Although this is a reference to the 1994 action film Speed, Homer mistakenly believes the film is called The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down.
  • The
    Squeaky-Voiced Teen's ending comment to "Keep watching the skis... uh, skies," is a reference to the final line of dialogue from the 1951 film The Thing from Another World
    .

Release and reception

In its original broadcast, "The Springfield Files" finished 26th in ratings for the week of January 6–12, 1997, with a

Nielsen rating of 11.7, equivalent to approximately 11.3 million viewing households. It was the third-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files and the series premiere of King of the Hill, which aired immediately after the episode.[11] On the original airing of the episode, Fox played an audio promition with King of the Hill's main character Hank Hill talking over the credits, naming a list of things which will never be seen on his show. This was not official audio for the episode.[12]

Al Jean and Mike Reiss won the

Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement: Producing in a TV Production for their work on the episode.[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 that it was "a very clever episode, with the line-up one of the best visual gags in ages".[3]

Skeptical Inquirer reviewed the episode positively, stating that "It's rare that a popular, prime-time network television show turns out to be a "slam dunk" for skeptics."[9] Critic Chris Knight speculated that if The X-Files is one day forgotten, those who see this episode will probably still appreciate the scene with ALF, Chewbacca, and Marvin the Martian.[14]

IGN ranked Leonard Nimoy's performance in this episode, and "Marge vs. the Monorail", as the 11th-best guest appearance in the show's history.[15] Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked Duchovny and Anderson's performances as the fourth-best guest appearances in the show's history.[16]

In 2017, British site Digital Spy ranked it 15th on their list of "The 29 all-time greatest Simpsons episodes ever",[17] while in 2019 Australian publication Junkee placed it seventh on their list of the 30 best episodes of The Simpsons. In 2021, Variety also placed it seventh on their list of the 30 best episodes.[18] It is currently the 11th highest rated episode of The Simpsons on IMDb, with a 9.0 rating.[19]

References

  1. ^ "The Simpson Files" Production Cel". 20th Century Animation. Animation Connection.com. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  2. ^
    OL 433519M
    .
  3. ^ a b c d Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "The Springfield Files". BBC. Retrieved March 27, 2007.
  4. ^ Jean, Al (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Jean, Al (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Springfield Files" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ Ayers, Mike When Mulder and Scully Went to Springfield: An Oral History of the ‘Simpsons’-’X-Files’ Crossover Wall Street Journal. January 22, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c Reiss, Mike (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Springfield Files" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ a b c d Moore, Steve (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Springfield Files" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  9. ^ a b c Brown, Mike. "Skeptical 'Simpsons' episode spoofs aliens, pseudoscience – animated television series – News and Comment". Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2007.
  10. ^ Reiss, Mike (2018). "Four Episodes That Changed The World (Kinda)". Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons. New York City: HarperCollins. p. 154.
  11. ^ "Newsmagazines show ratings muscle". Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. January 16, 1997. p. 4E.
  12. ^ "King of the Hill" Fox premiere night promos. YouTube [1]
  13. ^ "Legacy: 25th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1997)". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved December 5, 2008.
  14. ^ Chris Knight, "Keeping the spring in Springfield: The Simpsons still going strong in Season Eight", National Post, August 19, 2006, pg. TO.26.
  15. ^ Goldman, Eric; Iverson, Dan; Zoromski, Brian (January 4, 2010). "Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances". IGN. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
  16. ^ Ditum, Nathan (March 29, 2009). "The 20 Best Simpsons Movie-Star Guest Spots". Total Film. GamesRadar. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
  17. ^ "The 29 all-time greatest Simpsons episodes ever, in order of hilaritude". Digital Spy. September 24, 2017.
  18. ^ Roffman, Marisa (December 8, 2021). "The 30 Best 'Simpsons' Episodes, Ranked".
  19. ^ Taylor, Jay Carter (June 1, 2022). "The 10 Best 'Simpsons' Episodes Of All Time, According to IMDb". Collider. Retrieved February 5, 2023.

External links

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