Difference between revisions of "The Springfield Files"

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"Hello. I'm Leonard Nimoy. The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer is: No."

―Leonard Nimoy

"The Springfield Files"

Episode Information Showrunner: [[{{{showrunner}}}]] DVD features

"The Springfield Files" is the tenth episode of Season 8.

Synopsis

Homer witnesses something out of this world in the woods near Springfield, but no one believes him, not even FBI Agents Mulder and Scully, who come to investigate the incident.

Plot

Act I

Leonard Nimoy is hosting a paranormal television show where he narrates a tale of an alien encounter. He opens a nearby book and informs the audience that the story begins on a Friday morning in the little town of Springfield.

At the Springfield Power Plant, Homer announces his plan to head off to Moe's, despite Lenny telling him that it's only 10am. "Don't worry, I have a plan," Homer adds, as he begins hooking up a VCR to Sector 7-G's security camera system. He inserts a video-tape which begins playing a recording (from the 70s) of Homer, Lenny and Carl working on a continuous loop. Convinced his plan will work, Homer goes to Moe's, where he insists on trying a new beer seeing as it's Friday night. Moe introduces him to Red Tick Beer, a brand that is brewed with real dogs. Homer drinks several bottles, before deciding to head home at 1am. Before letting him drive home, Moe forces Homer to take a breathalyzer test which announces that he's as drunk as Boris Yeltsin. Homer decides to walk home.
Homer begins his drunken journey home, but quickly becomes frightened by howling wolves and becomes disorientated by an approaching bus. He dashes away and gets lost in the nearby woods. Frantically trying to find a way out, Homer's foot snags on a fallen tree branch and he falls to the ground. An eerie green light suddenly appears in the distance through the trees. Homer looks up in shock as he sees a tall glowing creature waving its arms and walking towards him. Homer covers his eyes in panic and asks the creature not to hurt him, to which the alien-like form replies, "Don't be afraid." Homer lets out a scream and sprints away.

Act II

Homer arrives home at 2am and wakes up Marge. He begins to frantically tell her about his alien encounter, but Marge is reluctant to believe the story and asks if he has been drinking. "No! Well...ten beers," Homer replies. The next morning at the breakfast table, Lisa isn't buying Homer's story and suggests that perhaps he just dreamed up the whole incident. Homer remains adamant that he saw an alien in the woods. Suddenly,Bart appears from behind them, dressed up as an alien and carrying a toy gun, exclaiming, "I am the thing from Uranus!" Homer gets frustrated with his family mocking him, so heads to the Nuclear Plant to tell his co-workers the story. None of his co-workers believe the story and so Homer visits the Springfield Police Station to report his encounter to Chief Wiggum. Wiggum doesn't believe Homer either and ridicules him by pretending to type up the report on an invisible type-writer. Homer leaves discontented.
Meanwhile, in Washington D.C, at the FBI Division of Paranormal Activities, agents Mulder and Scully discover a report in the Springfield Shopper about Homer's encounter. Mulder insists on going to Springfield to investigate, but Scully reminds him of a shipment of drugs coming into New Jersey later that night. "I hardly think the FBI is concerned with matters like that," Mulder replies and the two agents leave for Springfield. They knock on the door of the Simpson house, where Marge mistakenly believes that the two agents are here to arrest her for stealing a pen for the bank, but quickly invites them in once she learns of their real reason for visiting.
The two agents take Homer to the FBI Springfield branch, where they perform both psychological and physical tests on him. Later, they take Homer back to Moe's where they ask him to recreate his every move the night he saw the alien. He shows them the spot where he had the encounter, but fails to provide any real proof that he actually did see an alien.
That night, Homer is expressing his annoyance with no one believing his story and the subsequent ridicule to Marge, who ultimately admits she doesn't believe him either. She begs him to just leave it be, but Homer refuses to share a bed with someone who thinks he's crazy. He is joined downstairs in the kitchen by Bart who reveals that he believes Homer's story and the two hatch a plan to return to the woods the following Friday to try and capture the alien on film.
The next Friday night, Homer and Bart camp out in the clearing. The two encounter the alien, who points at them with a long finger and says gently, "I bring you peace." Homer accidentally stands in the camp-fire, setting his trouser leg alight, which scares off the creature. Bart managed to capture the whole event on film and the father and son duo jump up and down with excitement.

Leonard Nimoy reappears and closes his narration, thus ending the story with Homer and Bart having obtained proof of alien existence. He bids goodnight to the viewers, but the stage hand reminds him that the show still has ten minutes left. Nimoy says he needs to collect something out of his car, but this is just a ruse, and he leaves anyway. The stage hand looks around confused, before uttering, "I don't think he's coming back..."

Act III

Although Bart's tape is only three seconds long and is mostly static, only briefly showing the alien, everyone in Springfield starts to believe Homer (Lisa still isn't convinced). Friday comes again and all Springfielders go to the clearing (among them Leonard Nimoy). Sure enough, the alien appears, promising love. The Springfielders begin to riot until Lisa shows that the "alien" is actually Mr. Burns. Smithers states that Burns receives longevity treatments once a week to cheat death for the next seven days, and the process leaves him twisted and disoriented, and with a sweet heavenly voice (due respectively to a chiropractic treatment, anesthesia, and a throat-scraping).

Back to his normal self, Burns reveals that his green glow is due to many years of working in a nuclear plant, and then renounces his promises of peace and love and instead says that he brings famine and hatred. Before he can say anything else negative, Burns receives a booster shot from Dr. Nick and everyone sings "Good Morning Starshine" along with him. The Squeaky Voiced Teen ends Nimoy's show, telling the viewers to "keep watching the skies," although he mispronounces "skies" in doing so.

Production

Written by Reid Harrison and directed by Steven Dean Moore, the episode guest starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as their X-Files characters, FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Leonard Nimoy also guest-starred for the second time, after first appearing in "Marge vs. the Monorail".

The basic premise of the episode came from former showrunners Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who, while under contract with the Walt Disney Company, returned to produce the episode.^[1] The writers struggled to come up with an ending for the episode, which would need to include a satisfying explanation for the alien. Originally, they had planned to just leave it a mystery, but ultimately decided to make the alien Mr Burns following longevity treatment.^[2]

Reception

"The Springfield Files" was viewed by approximately 11.3 million households and garnered a 11.7 Nielsen rating, making it the third highest-rated show on the FOX network the week it aired.

The episode received positive reviews from TV critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide called it "a very clever episode, with the line-up being one of the best visual gags in ages", but were critical of the brief appearance of the X-Files guest stars.^[3] IGN.com, in a flashback review, concluded that "it's an odd, silly, funny episode that would have worked even without the X-Files crossover, but having Spooky and Dana involved just made it that much cooler" and ultimately gave the episode a rating of 8.8/10.^[4] In 2010, Leonard Nimoy's work for this episode was ranked as the eleventh best guest appearance in the history of The Simpsons.^[5]

Fans also praised the episode. Reviews submitted to The Simpsons Archive named the episode "amusing" and "a definitive Simpsons classic", with many calling it the best episode of the season. ^[6] The episode currently holds a 9.1 TV.com rating^[7], and an 8.5 rating on IMDb^[8].

Gallery

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "The Springfield Files".

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  Promotional image

• The Springfield Files.jpg

  Alternative promotional image

References