Simpsons Bible Stories
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This episode is considered non-canon and the events featured do not relate to the series and therefore may not have actually happened/existed.
The reason behind this decision is: Framing ends with the apocalypse taking place. If you dispute this, please bring it up on the episode's talk page. |
"Simpsons Bible Stories"
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Episode Information
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"Simpsons Bible Stories" is the eighteenth episode of season 10 of The Simpsons and the two-hundred and twenty-first episode overall. It is an anthology episode and consists of four parts. It originally aired on April 4, 1999. The episode was written by Tim Long, Larry Doyle and Matt Selman and directed by Nancy Kruse.
Contents
Synopsis
- "A particularly boring sermon by Reverend Lovejoy sends each member of the Simpson family into his or her own biblical fantasy. Marge imagines herself and Homer as Adam and Eve, Lisa dreams of herself and the other kids of Springfield Elementary as the Israelites in ancient Egypt, Homer dreams he is King Solomon, solving every dispute by cutting the contested object in half, and Bart dreams that he is King David who is overthrown by the son of Goliath."
Plot
Opening
At the First Church of Springfield on a hot Easter Sunday, Reverend Lovejoy has the collection plate passed around to collect donations from the congregation. When Helen Lovejoy brings it to him, he finds a chocolate bunny within the collection, which was put in there by Homer. Lovejoy gets annoyed by this and decides to start reading from the Bible, but not before Ned asks him to turn the fans off so they can hear him better. The Simpsons then begin falling asleep.
Marge's Dream
Marge dreams that she and Homer are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Eve meets Adam, Adam gets her some food from the Pig of Eden before God (played by Ned Flanders) speaks to them. God tells Adam and Eve not to eat from the forbidden tree before he leaves again. As Adam and Eve are relaxing by the forbidden tree, the Temptation Serpent comes down from it and offers Adam an apple from the tree. Adam accepts it and starts to eat the apple, then begins to eat more and more apples until he eventually convinces Eve to eat one. However, when Eve takes a bite, God shows up again and sees Eve eating the apple and kicks her out of the Garden of Eden, leaving Adam alone.
Adam gets sad that Eve has gone and starts to feel guilty so he goes to the fence to talk to Eve. Adam then decides to sneak Eve back into Eden by having Gary the Unicorn tunnel out of Eden. As Eve sneaks back in through the tunnel, God shows up again and is angry to find that Adam has let Eve back in, and then sees that Gary has died. God then flicks Adam and Eve out of Eden, with Eve landing on Adam. The two of them complain about being out of Eden and Adam wonders how long God could hold a grudge for.
Lisa's Dream
As Reverend Lovejoy continues his sermon, Lisa starts to dream next. Lisa dreams that she and the kids of Springfield Elementary School are Israelites building the Pyramids of Giza with Milhouse as Moses. As Slavedriver Willie gets the kids working, the Pharaoh shows up, being driven in a chariot. The Pharaoh notices that his sarcophagus has been vandalized and a burning bush claims that Bart did it. After Bart is taken away for punishment, the rest of the slaves are whipped. Lisa and Moses decide that this can't keep happening so they go to the Pharaoh to ask him to let their people go. However, the Pharaoh kicks them out of his tent. Lisa and Moses then unleash a plague of frogs on the Pharaoh's tent, but the Pharaoh just eats them. The Pharaoh then throws Lisa and Moses into the tomb of the Great Pyramid.
After managing to escape the Great Pyramid, Lisa and Moses tell the other slaves that they are leaving. The Pharaoh and his men give chase until the Israelites get to the sea. Moses has the Israelites all flush the toilets by the sea at the same time, temporarily draining it. As they all get to the other side, the Pharaoh's men make it to the sea and start to cross before the water all comes flooding back in. As all the Pharaoh's men play in the water, the Israelites leave to spend forty years wondering the desert.
Homer's Dream
As Reverend Lovejoy starts talking about King Solomon, Homer starts his dream next. Homer dreams that he is King Solomon as Lenny and Carl are brought before him, disputing ownership of a pie. King Solomon decides that the pie shall be cut in two, and that he'll eat both halves and Lenny and Carl will be executed. Kind Solomon's next case is Jesus vs. Checker Chariot.
Bart's Dream
Reverend Lovejoy's next section is about King David and Goliath. Bart dreams that he is David, who finds that his best friend, Methuselah (played by Grampa) has been stabbed to death by Goliath II, the son of Goliath. Goliath II is looking for revenge for the death of his father so King David goes to confront him. However, David is easily outmatched by the giant and thrown away from town. Outside of town, David meets Ralph, who then goes to fight Goliath II himself but dies. King David then starts training for his rematch against Goliath II.
When David is ready, he goes to the Tower of Babel and scales it to confront Goliath II. After a brief fight, David causes an explosion using a lamp, which he thinks kills Goliath II. However, the giant comes out of the smoke and tries to kill David again before he is killed by Ralph, who turned out to not be dead after all, using his own gravestone. As David and Ralph scale back down the tower, the people of Jerusalem tell David that Goliath II was the greatest king they ever had and King David is arrested for megacide.
Ending
As the Simpsons all wake up, they find that the church is empty and that the apocalypse has started. After the Flanders family are taken up to Heaven, Lisa is also chosen for Heaven but Homer refuses to let her go. A stairway to Hell then opens up and the Simpsons go down to Hell, with Homer finding that the food options are horrible.
Production
The episode came around because Fox wanted an Easter episode and the show never usually put episodes out on Easter.[1] Matt Selman, Donick Cary, and Dan Greaney did an episode brainstorming session together and Donick and Dan came up with doing a Bible trilogy.[2]
Many scenes had to be cut for time as the episode was running too long.[1] One scene that was cut had Bart fighting three sexy women. Another changed scene had King David pull down hundreds of people from the Tower of Babel and use their bodies to climb up.[3]
The producers wanted to use "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC at the end of the episode, but couldn't get permission to do so until Mike Scully got in contact with the manager for the band who signed off on permission to use it and even cut the cost of using the song in half when he found out that The Simpsons wanted to use the song.[1]
Script Cover for the episode
Reception
"Simpsons Bible Stories" won a 1999 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Program.[4]
A lot of fans apparently got angry at the end of the episode because it made the wraparounds non-canon.[1]
Showrunner Mike Scully didn't submit the episode as an Emmy nominee because the stories of the segments were based on Bible stories and so weren't original. However, he believes this was a mistake on his part because the animation of the episode was so good and he feels that it would have won an Emmy had it been submitted.[1]
In other languages
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Scully, Mike (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ Selman, Matt (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ Kruse, Nancy (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ The Annie Awards - "Legacy: 27th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1999)" (archived on Wayback Machine)
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