All Singing, All Dancing
| "All Singing, All Dancing" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| File:The Simpsons 5F24.png | |
| Episode no. | Season 9 |
| Directed by | Mark Ervin |
| Written by | Steve O'Donnell |
| Original air dates | January 4, 1998 |
| Episode features | |
| Couch gag | The floor is a treadmill. Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie successfully dismount from the treadmill onto the couch, while Homer gets stuck on it.[1] |
| Commentary | Matt Groening David Mirkin Steve O'Donnell Hank Azaria Yeardley Smith Steven Dean Moore |
"All Singing, All Dancing" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' ninth season and originally aired on the Fox network on January 4, 1998.[2] In it, the fourth clip show aired by The Simpsons, Homer claims he hates singing, so Marge shows family videos of musical numbers from the previous seasons of the series. The original material was directed by Mark Ervin and was the first episode written by Steve O'Donnell. It was executive produced by David Mirkin. It features guest appearances from George Harrison, Patrick Stewart and Phil Hartman, although these are all clips and none of them recorded original material for the episode.[3]
Plot
Homer rents Paint Your Wagon, which he thinks will be a shoot-em-up Western, since it stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin. Both he and Bart are dismayed to find out that it is actually a musical, and express their distaste for such films. Marge is baffled by this, saying that they both love singing. The family starts delivering their dialogue in song form, and Marge decides to prove that Homer and Bart love to sing by showing family videos. Several clips are shown of various songs from past episodes, but Bart and Homer are not convinced. At this moment, Snake Jailbird breaks into their house and decides to hold them hostage. However once he hears them singing, Snake decides that they wouldn't make good hostages and leaves.
The family continues to sing and more videos are shown, this time of other Springfield citizens. Snake again breaks into the house and claims that he got a song stuck in his head and the only way to get rid of it is to kill the Simpsons. He tries to shoot them, but discovers that his gun is out of ammo and leaves again. Homer is still not convinced and Marge points out that everyone in town loves to sing, and more clips are shown. Homer and Bart are finally convinced and admit that there is something worse than singing: "a long running series [that] does a cheesy clip show."
Snake returns for a final time, with ammunition, and aims his gun at them, but Marge reveals that they are done singing. Snake declares that he has no problems with them, and leaves.
Songs
The clip show features several full songs from previous episodes of The Simpsons.[4]
- "Baby on Board" from "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"
- "We Put the Spring in Springfield" from "Bart After Dark"
- "Springfield, Springfield" from "Boy-Scoutz N the Hood"
- "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?" from "Homer and Apu"
- Krusty's version of "Send In the Clowns" from "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
- "See My Vest" from "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds"
- "The Monorail Song" from "Marge vs. the Monorail"
- "In the Garden of Eden" (really In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly) from "Bart Sells His Soul"
- "We Do" from "Homer the Great"
Many of them are among the most popular songs from the show,[5] "Who Needs The Kwik-E-Mart?", "We Do" had previously been nominated for best song at the Primetime Emmy Awards, and "We Put the Spring in Springfield" won the award in 1997.[6]
Production
The episode is the fourth and second to last clip show of The Simpsons and was put together by Steve O'Donnell, who wrote two episodes in the ninth season.[7] Executive producer David Mirkin hated doing clip shows and "wouldn't do them if we had a choice" and this is referenced at the end of the episode.[5] The episode contains two "screw the audience act breaks" in which a major problem is presented before the commercial but suddenly ends after the break. The episode also had problems with the censors as they objected to Snake pointing a gun at Maggie. In spite of this, "All Singing, All Dancing" is one of the few G-rated episodes.[5]
Cultural references
Clint Eastwood is dressed as the Man with No Name from the Dollars Trilogy movies.[8] The movie Paint Your Wagon is referenced at the beginning of the episode. The film does star Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin and was directed Joshua Logan, but the writers did not base their parody or the song on the film at all.[5] The man in the movie that confronts Clint Eastwood is modelled after Lee Van Cleef.[9]
Several of the songs featured in the episode are references to actual musicals. "Springfield, Springfield", sung by Bart and Milhouse, is a reference to "New York, New York", from On the Town.[10] Krusty's "Send in the Clowns" uses different lyrics than the original version by Stephen Sondheim.[11] Confidence man Lyle Lanley's "The Monorail Song" takes references from a performance by character Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man, including Lanley's costume and "the crowd's mindless acceptance of his deceitful proposal."[12] While at the First Church of Springfield, Bart substitutes the lyrics from Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" in "In the Garden of Eden".[13]
Reception
Although he normally hates clip shows, David Mirkin liked this episode because of the singing and dancing and called the clips "truly wonderful".[5] 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 "for a clips show, it's not bad. The only one missing really is "Dr Zaius" from "A Fish Called Selma"."[14] In his book Planet Simpson, author Chris Turner wrote "when songs spring up one at a time, you might notice a clever line or two, or the way that they serve the same kind of plot-advancing or energy-generating purposes they do in Singin' in the Rain or Cats, but piled together in ["All Singing, All Dancing"], they amount to a sort of Simpsonian side project: Springfield: The Musical. And ... it's a very impressive side project at that.[15] The episode was nominated for a 1998 Emmy Award, in the "Music Direction" category.[16][17] A review of The Simpsons season 9 DVD release in the Daily Post noted that it includes "super illustrated colour commentaries" on "All Singing, All Dancing" and "Lost Our Lisa".[18]
Michael Dunne analyzed the episode in his book American Film Musical Themes and Forms, and gave examples from it while explaining that singing and dancing performances are generally not seen as acceptable in the television medium.[19] He notes that Homer calls singing "fruity" and "the lowest form of communication" during the episode.[20] However, Dunne also notes the fact that Homer himself sings "his objection that musicals are fake and phony."[21] Dunne describes the frame narrative as establishing Marge as "..more favorably disposed toward musicals than the males in her house."[22] Dunne concluded that "musicals come out on top in this episode, but the victory is marginal at best."[23] Of the episode itself, Dunne wrote that "..the parodies contained in the show demonstrate that its creators are familiar enough with various forms of musical performance to echo them and confident enough that their viewers will catch the references."[24]
Notes
- ^ Martyn, "All Singing, All Dancing."
- ^ "All Singing, All Dancing". The Simpsons.com. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
- ^ Martyn, "All Singing, All Dancing."
- ^ Martyn, "All Singing, All Dancing."
- ^ a b c d e Mirkin, David (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "All Singing, All Dancing" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ "Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search". Emmys.org. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
- ^ O'Donnell, Steve (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "All Singing, All Dancing" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Azaria, Hank (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "All Singing, All Dancing" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Gimple, Pp. 24.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178.
- ^ Martyn, "All Singing, All Dancing."
- ^ Turner, Pp. 69-70.
- ^ Staff (July 24, 1998). "Emmy nominations bring the unexpected". The Houston Chronicle. Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspapers Partnership, LP. pp. Page 1.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Associated Press (July 24, 1998). "Emmy Awards '98". Los Angeles Daily News. pp. Page L36.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Staff (January 26, 2007). "Film: DVD view". Daily Post. Trinity Mirror. pp. Page 6: Film Extras.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Dunne, Pp. 177.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 178-179.
- ^ Dunne, Pp. 179.
References
- Dunne, Michael (2004). American Film Musical Themes and Forms. McFarland & Company. pp. Chapter 9: Conclusion: "How About a Nice Musical?" - Pages 177-179. ISBN 078641877X.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Gimple, Scott M. (December 1, 1999). The Simpsons Forever!: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ...Continued. HarperCollins. p. p. 24. ISBN 978-0060987633.
{{cite book}}:|page=has extra text (help); Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Martyn, Warren (2000). I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide. Virgin Books. pp. Section: "All Singing, All Dancing: The Simpsons go musical for one episode only".
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Turner, Chris. Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-679-31318-4.
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