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Bart the Genius

2011-07-01T19:56:20Z

Dreckterammkish:

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{{EpisodePrevNext|Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire|Homer's Odyssey}}
{{episode
|image = No2.jpg
|Episode Number = 2
|productionCode = 7G02
|originalAirdate = February 28, 1981
|blackboardText =
|couchGag =
|Show Runner=[[Zorgin Hmorgin]]
|Written By = [[Tasha Slane]]
|Directed By = [[Red Greensborough]]
}}
{{Quote|Now, Ms. Oglethorp, you will tell me all about your little midnight dalliances, or else you will taste doom!|[[Erwin McCobb]]}}

"'''No. 2'''" is the second episode of [[Season 1|Season 1]] and the first episode of the series to use the famous [[Opening Sequence|opening sequence]]. It aired on February 28, 1981.

== Synopsis ==
Erwin, Jim's neighbors' creepy 11-year-old son, attempts to take Jim hostage upon believing that he is carrying on a secret liaison with another spy. Erwin (who knows Jim's secret identity) holds him for ransom and demands that his parents pay an exorbitant sum of money for his release.
== Plot ==
The episode begins when Jim has gotten home tired from another battle with Teenage Kickass, and is cheerfully carrying his "golden ring of adventure" in his hands. Erwin, his next-door neighbors' son, begins following him around and asking him questions about his personal life. Jim is becoming more and more exasperated by Erwin's nosiness, and his tendency to refer to Jim as "Ms. Oglethorp", so he becomes infuriated and tells him to "go pick on someone [his] own size. Like an ant!" Erwin grudgingly leaves him alone for the time being. The next morning, Jim and his best friends Fred and Pamela are sitting in class before Senator Stitch, their teacher, comes in. Jim is growing somewhat annoyed by Fred and Pamela's obvious flirting, and complains that "I'm just chopped liver!" Then Emily McPherson, a shy, overachieving little violet walks in and lispingly asks Jim what he's doing later that day. Fred eggs him on and calls him Romeo, but he wants nothing to do with her (despite her being very pretty) and makes up a story about having to visit his uncle in Flinty Knoll.

Later, during lunch, Jim is looking around when suddenly Nora catches his eye. She is sitting with none other than Emily McPherson. He is at first weirded out, but later Fred tells him that Emily is a distant cousin of Nora's and therefore is allowed to sit in the presence of the "cool kids". Pamela, who is sitting closest to Nora's table, overhears some of the conversation. "Nora's talking about you," she says. Immediately, Jim is thrilled, and even more so when Pamela says that she is hearing the word "infatuation" being thrown about. Jim becomes full of self-confidence and walks up to the popular kid's table. Emily looks very embarrased and blushes, but manages to ask him to "see her some time after school at The Comestible Giraffe" before covering her face with her long hair. Jim, realizing that Nora did not really like him, and was merely talking to Emily about him, becomes very flustered and angry and makes it very clear that he is not interested in Emily. Emily leaves in tears and Nora follows to comfort her, but not before telling Jim to "go make love to a donkey."

After school, Jim is starting to feel bad about what he did, especially after Pamela calls him a "sexist" and Fred refuses to meet him at The Comestible Giraffe. He attempts to drown his sorrow in soda, and at the Giraffe strikes up a conversation with Ez, a sales clerk. Ez is much older and wiser, and counsels Jim about his troubles. He says that when he was a young boy, he had an experience just like this, in which a girl loved him and he didn't love her back, and so he told her off. Jim asks what came of it and Ez replies, "I've been dating Laura now for 5 1/2 years, at kleast." Ez tells Jim to apologize and give Emily a second try, but as soon as he attempts to he gets a call from "The Office" and must dash into action. He runs back home in order to change into his spy outfit, but before he reaches it he is captured and handcuffed by Erwin, who then drags him into his basement in a donkey wagon.

Erwin reveals that he knows all about Jim's life as a spy, and smashes Jim's beeper with his foot, thereby cutting off any communication with his spy headquarters. He tells Jim all about his deep affection for him, and also makes it clear that he honsetly believes Jim is a girl. Jim constantly attempts to tell him that he is male, but Erwin will have none of that. Erwin says he thinks Jim has been "going to see other guys" and that he (or 'she' according to Erwin) has been unfaithful to him. The episode ends when Erwin is called up to dinner by his mom, an extremely masculine butchy character. The story is continued in [[No. 3]].
==Production==
{{Wikidump}}
The episode is notable for being the first American cartoon series ever to portray gender-bending. In retrospect, it is often viewed as one of the series' most daring moments. Some Christian watchdog groups complained about Erwin's seeming bisexuality and mental instability, as well as the line about making love to a donkey (which was the first bestiality reference in an American cartoon).

Aside from the controversy, the episode is also notable for introducing three new characters - Erwin, McPherson, and Ez - all of whom would become important 'classic characters' in later episodes. Due to the controversial nature of the episode, later Erwin was somewhat 'bowdlerized', his obsession with Jim became more of a "looking-up-to-him-as-a-positive-role-model" one; Hmorgin himself stated in an interview though that Erwin did not "change": he was still just as mentally unstable, but he learned to hide it better. In later episodes, Jim treated McPherson more kindly as well; in fact she became one of his friends until she was phased out of the series late in the second season. Ez would later become one of Jim's good friends as well, giving him all sorts of bizarre advice on life and love. (In general, the series became somewhat less dark with time; the first seven episodes were by far the darkest.)
== External links ==
*[http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/0102.htm "Bart the Genius"] at The Simpsons.com
*{{snpp capsule|7G02|episode=Bart the Genius}}
*{{imdb episode|id=0756593|episode=Bart the Genius}}
*[http://www.tv.com/the-simpsons/bart-the-genius/episode/1287/summary.html "Bart the Genius"] at [http://www.tv.com TV.com]
*[http://www.iwatchsimpsonsonline.com/s01e02-bart-the-genius/ Watch online at iWatchSimpsonsOnline.com]

{{Season 1}}
[[Category:Season 1]]
[[Category:1990]]
[[Category:Bart episodes]]
[[Category:Education-themed episodes]]

Bart the General

2011-07-01T19:06:45Z

Dreckterammkish:

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{{EpisodePrevNext|There's No Disgrace Like Home|Moaning Lisa}}
{{FEpisode}}

{{episode
|image=no5.jpg
|productionCode=7G05
|originalAirdate=February 4, 1990
|blackboardText=None
|couchGag=None
|billboard=
|Show Runner=[[Zorgin Hmorgin]]
|Written By=[[Zorgin Hmorgin]], [[Shtoindas Hmoindas]]
|Episode Number=5
|Directed By= [[Red Greensborough]]
|Transcript= Yes
}}

{{Quote|Oh, Christ, you got to be kidding me! Nora, love of my life, is the Kickass?!|[[Jim Oglethorp]]}}

"'''No. 5'''" is the fifth episode of [[Season 1]]. It aired on March 19, 1981. The episode was written by [[Shtoindas Hmoindas]] and directed by [[Red Greensborough]].

==Synopsis==
After being advised by Ez to take nude photos of Nora, Jim sneaks into her house, only to find to his horror, that she is his worst enemy, the Teenage Kickass. After this confrontation, he loses his concentration while attempting to fight her and performs his espionage poorly. As a result, for the first time in his crime-fighting career, he strikes out.
==Plot==
The episode starts when Jim and Fred are hanging around [[The Comestible Giraffe]] drinking soda. Fred leaves to use the bathroom, at which point Ez walks up to Jim and Jim starts talking about his love life. Ez gives him complicated advice on how to "win her", detailing a bizarre plan in which he would take a nude photo of her, put it up on his backpack, and then begin showing it around until he raises Nora's ire. "At first, she'll think you're the biggest creep on Earth," Ez declares, "but once you've cracked the ice she'll begin to soften little by little, and then you two will be much more open and willing to go to the bedroom together." Jim at first is skeptical, but Ez eventually convinces him, saying, "That's how I found my Laura. And she's the greatest girl in bed there is." Jim goes off to accomplish his goal, by sneaking first into his own house (where he borrows her mom's camera) and then going to Nora's. When he gets there and realizes that she isn't home yet, he hides in her dresser and gets out the camera. Jim is beginning to get very excited about the idea of seeing his dream girl "in the nood". When she finally comes home, after a relieving trip to the little girl's room she walks into her dressing area and begins changing. Jim holds out the camera, but seeing her picking up the Teenage Kickass outfit and starting to put it on, he misfires and ends up getting a picture of himself gazing in shock at the horrible revelation.
[[File:Nelson bleeding.JPG|thumb|right|150px|[[Nelson Muntz|Nelson]] bleeds from his confrontation with Bart.]]
Later, Jim, Fred, and Pamela are sitting around talking about their ceepy teacher Senator Stitch, when Jim gets a call from the "Office" that he must stop The Dragon's latest evil scheme. Jim reluctantly goes off and dons his suave spy outfit, and uses his hovercraft to reach the scene of the crime. Before he is halfway there the Teenage Kickass jumps in and attempts to use her kung fu against Jim. Although he dodges her successfully, he refuses to fight back and as a result she taunts him and calls him a weakling. Eventually, she hijacks his hovercraft, and pushes a button which ejects him in a farm outside Pinnacle. Weary and humiliated, Jim slowly tries to make his way home with a heavy heart.
At school Senator Stitch remarks on Jim's tardiness and his disheveled appearance. Fred asks him what happened but he dosen't want to talk about it. He says some things are better left unknown. Nora walks into class with a triumphant air and Senator Stitch immediately backs away in fear. All throughout his teaching, Stitch is constantly wary of Nora's presence and as a result stumbles around during the lesson. Jim begins to suspect that something fishy is going on, and after school he immediately dons his spy outfit and sneaks into Stitch's back office. There he sees the Teenage Kickass informing Stitch (who has been handcuffed behind his back) that for the first time in a while The Dragon has had a major victory, and that now he will have to either use his genius to serve the Dragon or return to his former status as a slave on an alien ship. Jim, infuriated by Nora's complete lack of concern for ethics, Jim leaps out and demands that Stitch be freed. The Teenage Kickass taunts him and calls him a "coward" and suggests that he start running, since that's what he does best. She also begins threatening violence on Senator Stitch. Jim, in the heat of anger, blurts out "Let him go, Nora!" When she hears her being called by name, she is overcome with fear and, in order to avoid further confrontation, seizes Senator Stitch and runs off in a hurry.

The story is continued in the next episode.

==Production==
Red Greensborough was the director of this episode, while most of the script was written by Shtoindas Hmoindas with some trimming by Zorgin Hmorgin. The episode is notable for containing the first scene of voyeurism in a cartoon series.

No new characters were introduced in this episode, however it did mark the first time that Senator Stitch had more than two lines of dialogue in the series. It was also the first episode in which Jim's mom Yvonne did not appear.
==Reception==
The episode was generally viewed very positively, and was ranked in one survey as the fourth greatest episode of the first season. Many fans applauded its pathos and character development. Additionally, some viewed it as daring since it openly portrayed male lust toward female nudity. Many believe that it was the popularity of No. 3, No. 4, and this episode that helped to permenantly establish Jim and the Teenage Kickass as part of the CRO-TV lineup.
== References ==
<references />

== External Links ==
*{{imdb episode|id=0701059|episode=Bart the General}}

{{Season 1}}

[[Category:Episodes]]
[[Category:Season 1]]
[[Category:1981]]
[[Category:Nora episodes]]
[[Category:Stitch episodes]]