Tennis the Menace

"Tennis the Menace"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	260
Prod. code	CABF07
Orig. airdate	February 11, 2001
Showrunner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	Ian Maxtone-Graham
Directed by	Jen Kamerman
Chalkboard gag	"I will not publish the principal's credit report."
Couch gag	The living room floor is frozen over. The Simpsons ice skate to the couch. When Homer sits down, his side of the couch falls through the ice.
Guest star(s)	Andre Agassi as himself Pete Sampras as himself Venus and Serena Williams as themselves
DVD commentary	Mike Scully Al Jean Ian Maxtone-Graham Matt Selman John Frink Don Payne Max Pross Phil Rosenthal
Season 12 November 1, 2000 – May 20, 2001 "Treehouse of Horror XI" "A Tale of Two Springfields" "Insane Clown Poppy" "Lisa the Tree Hugger" "Homer vs. Dignity" "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" "The Great Money Caper" "Skinner's Sense of Snow" "HOMR" "Pokey Mom" "Worst Episode Ever" "Tennis the Menace" "Day of the Jackanapes" "New Kids on the Blecch" "Hungry, Hungry Homer" "Bye Bye Nerdie" "Simpson Safari" "Trilogy of Error" "I'm Goin' to Praiseland" "Children of a Lesser Clod" "Simpsons Tall Tales" 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

"Tennis the Menace" is the twelfth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 2001. In the episode, the Simpsons build a tennis court in their backyard, but Homer's inferior tennis ability makes them the laughingstock of the town. Homer therefore tries to please Marge by entering a tournament. "Tennis the Menace" features guest appearances from Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and sisters Venus and Serena Williams as themselves. The episode has received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics.

Plot

The Springfield Retirement Castle holds a talent show, which the Simpson family attends. Grampa wins the show after performing a version of the song "What's New, Pussycat?" He wins a free autopsy, so the Simpsons visit a funeral salesman to claim the prize. While there, Homer decides to buy a casket and tombstone for Grampa. He also discovers that a certain kind of cemetery tombstone uses the same amount of cement as a tennis court, and this gives him the idea to get a tennis court in the family's backyard. The court is very popular with Springfield's residents, and yet, these residents mock Homer and Marge for losing all the time due to Homer's absent-mindedness. Homer tries to please Marge by entering Krusty's celebrity tournament, the "Krusty Kharity Klassic". However Homer is a hopeless tennis player and so Marge ditches him and enters with Bart as her new partner. Homer is outraged that he was abandoned for a ten-year-old boy, and tries to get revenge by entering the tournament with Lisa as his partner.

The tournament takes place and in the stands are leading tennis pros Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams. At the tournament, Homer ditches Lisa for Venus Williams. In response, Marge replaces Bart with Serena Williams as her partner. Ultimately, Serena and Venus replace Marge and Homer with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, respectively. This forces the family to go back to the bench and resume their normal places in the family; as they enjoy the exhibition of top-class tennis, they agree that it is better to watch things than to do things and Homer offers buy the family dinner with money he took from Pete Sampras' wallet.

Production

"Tennis the Menace" was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Jen Kamerman as part of the twelfth season of The Simpsons (2000–2001). This is the second episode—after season seven's "Radioactive Man" (1995)—to be animated with digital ink and paint. This kind of digital coloring would not be used permanently on the show until the season fourteen episode "The Great Louse Detective" (2002). "Tennis the Menace" features guest appearances from Andre Agassi as himself, Pete Sampras as himself, and sisters Venus and Serena Williams as themselves. Executive producer Al Jean directed Sampras while Maxtone-Graham directed the Williams sisters. Agassi recorded his lines in the summer of 2000. The Williams sisters, however, recorded their lines in Los Angeles sometime in the winter of 2000–2001. There were many alternate endings to the episode before the staff members decided on the final one.

Release

Tennis player Andre Agassi guest starred in the episode and was praised by The Times.

The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 2001. On August 18, 2009, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season. Staff members Mike Scully, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, John Frink, Don Payne, Matt Selman, Max Pross, as well as television writer and producer Philip Rosenthal, participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode.

Critics have given "Tennis the Menace" generally mixed to positive reviews. Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel listed the episode at number nine on his 2004 list of the show's "Top 10 Sporting Episodes". Nancy Basile of About.com wrote in her 2003 review that "The plot allowed us to see more secondary characters than usual. It also gave Springfield a sense of community that we sometimes don't get in recent seasons. Though the blatant use of guest stars has sweeps written all over it, the tennis stars were funny and able to make fun of themselves. Homer had some wonderful lines, too, such as, 'Take your hands off me. They feel like salad tongs.' Overall, a very funny episode." In 2007, Simon Crerar of The Times listed Agassi's performance as one of the thirty-three funniest cameos in the history of the show.

In his review of the twelfth season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "I’d love to report that 'Menace' disrupts the string of mediocre episodes [before it in the season], but I can’t. Like its predecessors, it offers a moderately enjoyable experience, but that’s the best it can do. Expect a few chuckles and little else." Also reviewing the twelfth season, Jason Bailey of DVD Talk wrote that the staff members' "habit of using the first act as a red herring, only semi-connected to the rest of the show, is ingenious and hilarious [...] They'd been doing this kind of thing for years, but it still plays; what's more, they've begun to acknowledge it, and wink about it. 'Tennis the Menace' begins with Homer and Abe making Abe's burial plans; five minutes later, when the elder Simpson exclaims 'I can't believe we went through all that just so you could get a tennis court,' Homer's response ('I'll bet you didn't see that comin'!') is more for the audience than for his father. A moment like that is The Simpsons at its best: smart, knowing, and ridiculously funny."

External links

• "Tennis the Menace" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Tennis the Menace" at the Internet Movie Database