Difference between revisions of "Cape Feare"

Revision as of 22:21, December 16, 2007

Template:Infobox Simpsons episode "Cape Feare" is the second episode of The Simpsons' fifth season, which premiered on the Fox network on October 7, 1993 after being held over from season four.^[1] The episode features Sideshow Bob trying to kill Bart Simpson after getting out of jail. It is a spoof of the 1962 film Cape Fear as well as its 1991 remake, but alludes to other horror films. The production crew found it difficult to stretch "Cape Feare" in order to fulfil the standard length of a half-hour episode, leading to the padding of several scenes for which some became memorable.

"Cape Feare" was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Rich Moore and was the last episode that the original writing staff helped produce.^[1] Kelsey Grammer guest stars as Sideshow Bob.^[1] The episode is generally rated as one of the best of the entire series and the score received an Emmy Award nomination.

Plot

After receiving several death threats in the mail, Bart starts to become easily frightened. It is revealed that the writer is Bart's arch-enemy, Sideshow Bob, residing in Springfield State Prison. The next day, Sideshow Bob's parole hearing is held and Chief Wiggum and Selma give their testimonies, which Sideshow Bob's lawyer rebuffs. Sideshow Bob promises that he is no threat to Bart and is swiftly paroled. When the Simpson family goes to watch a film, Sideshow Bob sits in front of them. They then realize that it was he who sent the letters.

The Simpson family try to protect themselves from Sideshow Bob. Homer goes to a shady-looking vigilante, who promises to run Sideshow Bob out of town, but actually pleads with him and fails. The next day, Sideshow Bob goes around Evergreen Terrace in an ice-cream truck, calling out the names of all the people whom he will not kill, and Bart's name is not on that list. The Simpsons opt for the FBI's Witness Relocation Program and move to Terror Lake, with the new surname "Thompson" and a houseboat to live in. However, unbeknownst to the family as they drive (cross-country) to their new home, Sideshow Bob has strapped himself to the underside of the car.

After arriving at Terror Lake, the Simpsons go inside their new houseboat, and Sideshow Bob comes out from under the car. In doing so, he accidentally steps on the teeth of a number of rakes repeatedly, causing the rakes' handles to swing up and hit him in the face. As Bart later walks down the road, he hears Sideshow Bob's sinister voice and sees him extricate himself from the underside of another car. Bart runs home and warns his parents.

After nightfall, Sideshow Bob arrives on the houseboat and cuts it loose from the dock. After tying up the other family members, Bob grabs his knife and enters Bart's room. Bart escapes out the window and tries to hide from Sideshow Bob, but he cannot jump off the boat, as there are crocodiles and electric eels in the water. He sees that they are 15 miles from Springfield and as a last request, asks Sideshow Bob to sing the entire score to the H.M.S. Pinafore. After giving a stirring performance, Bob advances on Bart again, but the boat runs aground, and Sideshow Bob is apprehended by the police. He is taken away, and the Simpsons return home.

Production

Even though the episode aired during the beginning of the fifth season, it was produced by the crew of the fourth season.^[2] A large part of the original crew left the show after season four to pursue new challenges.^[2] This led to the addition of several scenes, which normally would not have been considered, because the mentality of the departing crew was "what are they going to do, get us fired?"^[2] Although most of the episode was completed by the staff of season four, the end was rewritten by the team of season five.^[3]

Wallace Wolodarsky had seen the 1991 version of Cape Fear and pitched the idea of making a spoof of the film.^[3] Jon Vitti was then assigned to write a spoof of the original film from 1962 as well as the remake.^[3] Instead of using the spoof as only a part of the episode, which could also have contained a B-story, the entire episode was devoted to this parody. Sideshow Bob was cast as the villain and Bart became the main victim. The episode followed the same basic plot outline as the films and used a pastiche of the score by Bernard Herrmann, which after this episode became Sideshow Bob's theme.^[3] This episode marked the first time a Sideshow Bob episode was not a mystery.^[2]

Compared to previously produced episodes, this episode featured several elements that could be described as silly and cartoonish. This was a result of the staff's careless attitude towards the end of season four. Al Jean has compared Sideshow Bob to Wile E. Coyote, after he was stomped on by multiple elephants and bounced right back up.^[3]

Additions to the end musical number, including visual gags such as Bob appearing in uniform, were added after the animatics, because the crew felt that watching the character singing would not be interesting enough and they had to include these gags to make it work.^[3] Matt Groening was surprised when he saw the additions, because he thought that these silly gags would not appear in the final cut, but he does like them now.^[4]

There were difficulties getting this episode up to the minimum length of an episode and many scenes were added in post-production.^[3] The episode starts with a repeat of a couch gag that was first used in the episode "Lisa's First Word", which is considerably longer than the typical couch gag. The crew added an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon and a few misleads as to who was trying to kill Bart.^[3] Even with all of these additions, the episode still ran short of time. This led to the creation of the rake sequence, which became a memorable moment for this episode.^[3] Originally, Sideshow Bob was only supposed to step on one rake after he stepped out from the underside of the Simpson family's car, but this was changed to nine rakes in a row.^[3] The idea was to make it funny, then unfunny and later funny again.^[3]

Kelsey Grammer was brought in to guest star as Sideshow Bob for the third time.^[1] At that time Grammer had become a household name as the lead of the television series Frasier, which was in production at the same time as this episode.^[3] Grammer did not know that the rake scene was extended, because he had only done the moan once and was surprised when he saw the final product.^[3]

Cultural references

The Bates Motel from the movie Psycho, as seen in the episode.

Besides borrowing the overall plot structure of the Cape Fear films, the episode made several direct references to specific scenes from the films, including: Marge going to Chief Wiggum only to be told that Sideshow Bob has not broken any laws, Sideshow Bob getting out of prison, the scene in the movie theatre, and Sideshow Bob hiding under the Simpson family's car, which was a reference to the 1991 remake.^[3] The episode also contains elements of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho with Sideshow Bob staying at Bates Motel.^[1] Homer surprising Bart with his new hockey mask recalls the film Friday the 13th Part 3^[5] and Sideshow Bob's tattoos on his knuckles are similar to those of Robert Mitchum's character in The Night of the Hunter (Mitchum also played the villain, Max Cady, in the original 1962 movie of "Cape Fear").^[6] Homer's hat and singing of "Three Little Maids From School Are We" from The Mikado during the car trip to Terror Lake alludes to I Love Lucy.^[3]

Reception

This episode is generally regarded as one of the best episodes of The Simpsons, and according to Matt Groening, people often include this episode among their top 10 favorites.^[4] In Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episodes ever, it was placed third.^[7] In 2003, to celebrate the show's 300th episode "Barting Over", USA Today published a top 10 chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive, which had this episode at a ninth place.^[8] In 2006, IGN.com named Cape Feare the best episode of the fifth season.^[9] Vanity Fair called it the show's fourth best episode in 2007, as "this episode's masterful integration of filmic parody and a recurring character puts it near the top."^[10]

The musical score for this episode earned composer Alf Clausen an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Dramatic Underscore - Series" in 1994.^[11] Kelsey Grammer's performance of H.M.S. Pinafore was later included on the album Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons.^[12]

Quotes

Bob: "Heavens No! That's German for 'the Bart, the'."

Official: "No one who speaks German could be an evil man."

Homer:(druling heavely, sleeping)

Lisa: "OH NO! Dad's been drugged!"

Marge:(annoyed) "No he hasn't!"