Bart the General

"Bart the General"
The Simpsons episode
Bart watches over his army of boys.
Episode no.	5
Prod. code	7G05
Orig. airdate	February 4, 1990
Showrunner(s)	James L. Brooks Matt Groening Sam Simon
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Directed by	David Silverman
DVD commentary	Matt Groening James L. Brooks David Silverman
Season 1 December 17, 1989 – May 13, 1990 "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" "Bart the Genius" "Homer's Odyssey" "There's No Disgrace Like Home" "Bart the General" "Moaning Lisa" "The Call of the Simpsons" "The Telltale Head" "Life on the Fast Lane" "Homer's Night Out" "The Crepes of Wrath" "Krusty Gets Busted" "Some Enchanted Evening" List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23

"Bart the General" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons' first season, which premiered on the Fox network on February 4, 1990. The episode deals with Bart's troubles with the bully, Nelson Muntz. Bart chooses to go to war with Nelson uniting the neighborhood children against him. The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by David Silverman.

Plot

Lisa bakes a batch of cupcakes for Miss Hoover. Bart begs for one on the ride to school, until she eventually gives him a cupcake that fell on the floor. At school, a bully steals Lisa's cupcakes and steps on them, ruining them. Bart lunges at the bully to defend his sister, but is held back by Nelson Muntz, the worst bully in the school. Bart struggles and inadvertently gives Nelson a bloody nose. Nelson promises to get Bart back after school. Bart spends the day lost in daydreams about Nelson killing him, and his classmates and family attending his funeral. After school, he attempts to sneak away, but is caught by Nelson, beaten up, thrown in a trash can, rolled downhill, until he gets home.

Homer tries to give Bart advice, telling him that, according to the Code of the Schoolyard, Bart must defend himself. Homer teaches Bart to fight dirty, telling him to hit below the belt and throw mud in Nelson's eyes. Bart tries to follow his advice, but again finds himself beaten and rolled away in a trash can. Lisa suggests that Bart go to the toughest Simpson for advice - Grampa Simpson. Bart finds Grampa at the retirement home, where he sees Grampa is being harassed by an elderly bully of his own. Grampa takes Bart to an army surplus store, where they meet Herman, a possibly unbalanced veteran. Herman tells Bart that he must make war on Nelson, and begins drawing up a battle plan.

Bart gathers other bullied kids from school and turns them into an army. After some training and marching, they gather hundreds of water balloons and ambush Nelson and his cronies. The bullies attempt to run, but Bart orders the use of 'saturation bombing' and the bullies are pelted with water balloons everywhere they turn. Nelson's henchmen surrender, claiming they were only following orders. Nelson is taken prisoner and a peace treaty is drawn up, under which he recognizes Bart's right to exist yet is permitted to remain a "figurehead of menace". In a postscript, Bart addresses the audience, telling them that war is not glorious or fun, with the exceptions of the Revolutionary War, World War II, and Star Wars.

Production

This episode was running too long to use the normal opening sequence. It therefore did not feature a chalkboard gag or a couch gag. Instead, it just cut to an image of the Simpson house. David Silverman was the director and was kind of stressed, because he was doing storyboards for this episode while also directing "Bart the Genius". Originally, he had planned to use the song "War" by Edwin Starr in the episode. The plans were dropped, when they decided that the song did not really fit the story. The episode had problems with the censors, who did not want the characters to say "family jewels" on prime time television. The producers ignored the notes and "family jewels" remained in the episode. This act of attempted censorship was reflected in the part where Grampa Simpson writes a letter complaining of how sexualized television has become and gives a list of words he never wants to hear on TV again, one of which is "family jewels".

Two new characters were introduced in this episode. The first, Nelson Muntz, remains a frequently used recurring character, while the second, Herman, has been used far less. The design of Herman, with the exception of his missing arm, was inspired by writer John Swartzwelder. His voice, as performed by Harry Shearer, was partly inspired by George H. W. Bush. The original idea for Herman was for him to have a differing story for the loss of his arm with every appearance.

Cultural references

The episode featured several references to war films. Several lines of dialogue, Bart slapping one of his soldiers for "being a disgrace", and the music was lifted directly from the film Patton from 1970 composed by Jerry Goldsmith. Fox owned the rights to this film, so it was no problem to use the soundtrack. The marching sequence is a nod to Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket from 1987. The Longest Day from 1962 is also referenced. Bart concludes the episode by stating that the only "good wars" are the American Revolution, World War II, and the Star Wars trilogy.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Bart the General" finished 31st place in the weekly ratings for the week of January 29 - February 4, 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 14.3. It was the highest rated show on the Fox Network that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly 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, said: "Some good lines and setpieces aside - we love Bart's fantasy of death at Nelson's hands - this episode nevertheless feels a bit unsure of itself, particularly towards the end." In a DVD review of the first season David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 3/5 and adds "Another episode that helped to propel Bart's popularity into the stratosphere ...". Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that the episode "remains a primitive example of The Simpsons, but it’s a reasonably amusing and entertaining experience." and added that the episode "lacks the subtlety and cleverness found on later episodes, but it was onto something." Matt Groening notes on the commentary track that he finds it strange how controversial this episode seemed at the time of its release. Today, they would go a lot further and to him this episode now seems harmless. The episode's reference to Full Metal Jacket was named the eleventh greatest film reference in the history of the show by Nathan Ditum of Total Film.

Use in scientific research

"Bart the General" and Seinfeld's "The Tape" were used in a Dartmouth College experiment to study brain activity in relation to humorous moments in television shows. The results were published in a 2004 issue of the academic journal Neurolmage. The researchers noted, "During moments of humor detection, significant [brain] activation was noted in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus ... and left inferior frontal gyrus".

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 "There's No Disgrace Like Home". It was released in the US on the VHS release The Best of The Simpsons, Vol. 2 (1997), paired with "Moaning Lisa". It was later re-released in the US in a collector's edition boxed set of the first three volumes of The Best of The Simpsons collections. It was re-released in the UK as part of VHS boxed set of the complete first season, released in November 1999. The episode's debut on the DVD format was as a part of The Simpsons season one DVD set, which was released on September 25, 2001. Groening, Brooks, and Silverman 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.

External links

• "Bart the General" at The Simpsons.com
• "Bart the General" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Bart the General" at the Internet Movie Database