Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"
The Simpsons episode
The entire family sings "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"
Episode no.	1
Prod. code	7G08
Orig. airdate	December 17, 1989[1]
Show runner(s)	James L. Brooks Matt Groening Sam Simon
Written by	Mimi Pond[2]
Directed by	David Silverman[2]
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

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special",^[2] is the first full-length episode of The Simpsons to air despite originally being the eighth episode produced for season one. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 17, 1989.^[1] In the episode, Homer discovers that he will not be getting a Christmas bonus and thus the family has no money to buy Christmas presents. He decides to keep their financial troubles a secret and gets a job as a department store Santa, but later discovers that the job does not pay enough. Desperate for a miracle, Homer and Bart go to the dog racing track on Christmas Eve in hopes of earning some money.

The episode was written by Mimi Pond and directed by David Silverman.^[2] The title of it alludes to "The Christmas Song", also known as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire".^[2] "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 1990, and has received positive reviews from television critics. It was viewed by approximately 13.4 million viewers in its original airing.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Development 2.1 Origin of The Simpsons 2.2 Production 3 Reception 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Plot

Homer, Marge, and Maggie attend Bart and Lisa's Christmas show at Springfield Elementary School. At home, Marge asks the children what they want for Christmas and Bart asks for a tattoo. When Marge, Bart, and Lisa go Christmas shopping the next day, Bart sneaks away and starts getting a tattoo at The Happy Sailor Tattoo Parlor reading "Mother" . Discovering this, Marge interrupts the process at "Moth" and immediately takes him to a laser removal clinic and spends the family's Christmas money getting Bart's tattoo removed. Meanwhile, at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer learns that he will not be getting a Christmas bonus. When Homer returns home and hears about the loss of the Christmas money, he decides not to tell Marge his own very bad news.

Instead, he does the shopping himself, buying cheap presents from a variety store which sells nothing over $5. At Moe's Tavern, Homer meets Barney dressed in a Santa outfit. On Barney's advice, he secretly takes a job as a mall Santa. Bart discovers this secret after he rips off Homer's fake beard on a dare by his friend Milhouse, but agrees not to tell the rest of the family. Homer receives his paycheck and is dismayed to see that after deductions it is only for $13. Barney, who has received a check for the same amount, suggests betting it at the dog track. With encouragement from Bart, Homer agrees to gamble the paycheck and takes Bart with him to the track.

Although Barney recommended they bet on a dog named Whirlwind, Homer decides to bet on a last-second entrant named Santa's Little Helper, believing it to be a sign. As Homer being a mall Santa, this would be a tasteful pun. Santa's Little Helper, however, comes in dead last and his owner abandons him. The dog follows Homer and Bart, who eventually decide to keep him. When they return home, Homer plans to tell the family about his misfortune, but they think he brought the dog as a gift and everyone has a Merry Christmas.^[1][3][4]

Development

Origin of The Simpsons

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. Brooks, the producer of the sketch comedy program The Tracey Ullman Show, wanted to use a series of animated shorts as bumpers between sketches. He had asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts, which Groening initially intended to present as his Life in Hell series. However, when Groening realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work, he chose another approach and formulated his version of a dysfunctional family.^[5]

The Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987.^[6] Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned-up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial short episodes.^[7] In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content.^[8] Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching.^[9] The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989 with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".^[1]

Production

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" is the first episode of The Simpsons and the Fox network was nervous about the show because they were unsure if it could sustain the audience's attention for the duration of the episode.^[10] They proposed doing three seven-minute shorts per episode and four specials until the audience adjusted,^[10] but in the end, the producers gambled by asking Fox for 13 full-length episodes.^[11] The series was originally planned to premiere earlier in the fall of 1989 with the episode "Some Enchanted Evening", but due to major problems with the animation of that episode the series began on December 17 with this episode. "Some Enchanted Evening" instead aired as the season finale.^[12] The episode, being the first to air, lacked the opening sequence which was later added in the second episode when Groening realized that a longer opening sequence resulted in less animation.^[10]

The "santas of many lands" portion of the Christmas pageant is based on Groening's experience in the second grade when he did a report on Christmas in Russia. Groening also used that reference in his comic strip "Life in Hell" when he spoofed himself as a young man, being told that it is too bad his grandmother is from Russia, because Christmas is against the law there. Also, Groening claims that this episode has been incorrectly credited with creating the "alternate version" of Jingle Bells that has become a well-known children's playground song.^[10]

David Silverman directed this episode, although Rich Moore storyboarded it and designed Ned Flanders. Several of the scenes were laid out by Eric Stefani, brother of Gwen Stefani.^[13] In this episode, Barney had yellow hair which was the same color as his skin, but that was later dropped because of the belief that only the Simpson family should have such hair.^[10] Seymour Skinner, Milhouse Van Houten, Sherri and Terri, Moe Szyslak, Mr. Burns, Barney Gumble, Patty and Selma, Ned and Todd Flanders, Santa's Little Helper, Snowball II, Dewey Largo, and Lewis all make their first appearances in this episode.^[2] Snowball I is mentioned for the first time and Waylon Smithers can be heard over the speaker at the power plant, but he is not seen.^[2]

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" finished thirtieth place in the weekly ratings for the week of December 11–December 17, 1989 with a Nielsen rating of 14.5 and was viewed in approximately 13.4 million homes. It was the second highest rated show on the Fox network up to that point.^[14] The episode was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 1990: "Outstanding Animated Program" and "Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or Special." Because "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" was considered a separate special, The Simpsons was nominated twice in the Animated Program category. This episode lost to fellow Simpsons episode "Life on the Fast Lane".^[15]

Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. IGN's Robert Canning in a 2008 review of the episode noted, "though not the funniest of episodes, it certainly was groundbreaking. [...] With this episode, The Simpsons had its premise down, and it certainly had its edge."^[16] In 2009, the website named the episode number 4 on its "Top 10 Holiday Specials" list, writing "With the off-beat sense of humor that we have learned to love from The Simpsons and a story showing the value of family on the Christmas holiday, we can't help but watch this great special every year."^[17]

The episode has become study material for sociology courses at University of California, Berkeley, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies." Some questions asked in the courses include: "What aspects of American society are being addressed in the episode? What aspects of them are used to make the points? How is the satire conveyed: through language? Drawing? Music? Is the behavior of each character consistent with his/her character as developed over the years? Can we identify elements of the historical/political context that the writers are satirizing? What is the difference between satire and parody?"^[18]

See also

• Greyhound adoption

References

External links

• "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" at The Simpsons.com
• "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" at TV.com
• "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" at the Internet Movie Database