Difference between revisions of "The Girl Who Slept Too Little"

Revision as of 12:46, March 16, 2010

"The Girl Who Slept Too Little" is the second episode of The Simpsons seventeenth season.

Synopsis

When stamp museum construction wakes up the Simpsons everyone in Springfield protests against its construction. Soon Mayor Quimby moves it to where the Springfield Cemetery used to be and the cemetery is moved to the backyard of The Simpsons' house. Lisa is the only member of the family who has her room close to it. Lisa then can't sleep at night and ends up making a habit of sleeping with Homer and Marge.

The next night Lisa meets a gravedigger resembling Groundskeeper Willie known as Gravedigger Billy. After a hand comes out of a tomb Lisa goes to Marge and Homer's room and makes a promise that if they go to the Springfield Stamp Museum Lisa will sleep in her room. When they get they're they find Lenny making a fortune using his yard as a parking lot much to Homers jealousy (not remembering having campaigned against the meuseum before.). At the museum there is a lecture for Milton Burkhart's book "The Land of the Wildbeasts and an ad based on the book for a restaraunt called The Hillside Wrangler. Lisa then feels that she can sleep in her room with the cemetery but is already afraid and sleeps in Homer and Marge's room. Homer and Marge then come back from a night with Apu and Dr. Hibbert and Marge tells Lisa she is breaking her promise (via "I Spy") however Homer mistakes it for the real game. Marge and Homer then spend a night in Lisa's room to find out how scary it really is and they contact a psychologist.

Marge and Homer then try to contact a psychologist and find out that it is expensive and her fears are mostly going to be solved by herself as she was not nurtured enough as a baby and had to all but raise herself since they were so busy with Bart. Lisa, however, does not want to go see a therapist and goes with Bart and Santa's Little Helper to overcome her fears at the cemetery but Bart leaves and SLH runs away. Lisa then changes her mind but the gate is locked and Lisa is left alone. Luckily Chief Wiggum and Eddie and Lou are here but Chief gets very scared and takes off his clothes and hides up a tree. Lisa in the meantime sees Dr. Nick who is pretending to be Dr. Octopus using arms he aqquired while grave robbing, and tells Lisa she has a check-up on Tuesday and Lisa replies with "we go to a better doctor". Afterwards, Lisa's head is hit by a tombstone and Lisa faints. In the meantime Marge and Homer worry about Lisa and Bart won't do anything except watch Itchy & Scratchy. Lisa is then in a dream where she is eaten by a wolf and then is on a web in a slime pond with a slug resembling Milhouse and a spider resembling Bart. Lisa is then in another vision with the monsters from "Land of the Wildbeasts" and Lisa finds out they are funny instead of scary and it is okay to be scared. Marge and Homer then find Lisa and wake her up and they go home. Wiggum in the meantime is still on his tree naked and Lou uses a pizza bagel to get him down and Wiggum finally comes down with his uniform.

Trivia

General

• Homer acknowledges his mental acumen and memory may be affected by his numerous head injuries.

Previous Episode References

• As a baby, Lisa powders and diapers herself. Maggie did a similar trick in another episode while staying with Marge's sisters.
• The music from the couch gag is the same tune as the jockey song from Saddlesore Galactica.

Production Info

This was originally scheduled to air May 15, 2005, as the sixteenth season finale, but due to the changed broadcast date of "The Father, The Son and The Holy Guest Star" it had to be cancelled for that time. There was also supposed to be a song in this episode known as "The Song of the Wildbeasts" but it was cut out for time. It is one of the four bonus tracks on The Simpsons Testify.

Cultural References

• The title is reminiscent of the 1956 movie The Man Who Knew Too Much starring James Stewart and Doris Day, and more recently, the 1997 movie The Man Who Knew Too Little starring Bill Murray. This is not the first time this title has been parodied; see "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" and "The Dad Who Knew Too Little".
• The book The Land of Wild Beasts is a parody of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, right down to the artwork.
• The stamp museum sign "The Fathers (and mothers) of Invention" is a reference to Frank Zappa's first band, The Mothers of Invention.
• The Simpsons visit a stamp museum featuring stamp posters of Frederick Ives, Katharine Burr Blodgett, Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray, with audio statements about their inventions.
• The advertising campaign Bart and Lisa watch in the theatre mentioned above is for a restaurant called "The Hillside Wrangler", a parody of Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono who were called the Hillside Stranglers [1]. Part of the Eisenhower Expressway is also called the Hillside Strangler [2].
• When Lisa finds Dr. Nick in the cemetery, he puts four severed arms around his body and says: "I'm not Dr. Nick, I am Dr. Octopus!", a reference to Dr. Octopus, the super-villain of the Spider-Man series. Also, he speaks some lines referencing the series, mentioning Spidey (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson.
• Maggie is watching the Count on Sesame Street.
• The Simpsons Official Site has the title for this episode mistakenly as "The Girl Who Knew Too Little".