Stark Raving Dad
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"Stark Raving Dad"
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Episode Information
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"Stark Raving Dad" is the first episode of The Simpsons' third season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 19, 1991. In the episode, Homer is forced to wear a pink shirt to work one day and is mistaken for a "free thinking anarchist" and sent to a mental institution. He shares a room with a large white man who acts as if he were Michael Jackson. Meanwhile, because he normally forgets her birthday, Bart promises Lisa that he will get her the best present ever.
Al Jean and Mike Reiss wrote the episode while Rich Moore served as director. It was the final episode produced for the previous season and aired during the third season as a holdover. Michael Jackson guest stars the speaking voice of Leon Kompowsky. For contractual reasons, Jackson was credited as John Jay Smith, and his role in the episode was not officially confirmed until later. Jackson was a fan of the show, and called Matt Groening one night and offered to do a guest spot. Jackson pitched several story ideas for the episode, including part of the subplot, and wrote the song "Happy Birthday Lisa". Jackson also stipulated that he would provide Kompowsky's speaking voice, but his singing voice would be performed by a sound-alike (Kipp Lennon).
The episode contains references to the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", as well as many aspects of Jackson's career, with Kompowsky singing portions of the songs "Billie Jean" and "Ben". Leon Kompowsky was originally set to return in a second episode, except voiced by Prince, but the episode was never produced. During the January 30, 1992 rerun of the episode, a short alternate opening aired before the credits. The opening was produced in response to a speech made by then-President of the United States George H. W. Bush in which he said Americans needed to be "a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons."
In its original airing on the Fox Network, the episode had a 13.9 Nielsen rating and 23% share of the audience, finishing the week ranked 33rd. "Stark Raving Dad" received generally positive reviews, although the song "Happy Birthday Lisa", which was featured in the episode, received mixed reviews.
Plot
At the opening of the show, Lisa reminds Bart that her birthday is coming up and not to forget to get her a present. Homer's traditional white shirt turns pink in the wash, and he is forced to face the ridicule of his co-workers by wearing pink to work. He catches the attention of Mr. Burns, who pegs him as "some kind of free-thinking anarchist", and orders him to be examined by Dr. Marvin Monroe. After receiving a take-home psychological test from him, he has Bart fill it out for him. After handing it in, he is promptly judged to be insane and committed to a mental institution. There he is bunked with a large white man who claims he is Michael Jackson. The two quickly become friends.
The day of Lisa's Birthday, "Michael" calls the Simpson household to let Bart know that Homer has been committed, and Marge starts working on a way to get him out. Marge tries to convince the institution that Homer is not really crazy, and is eventually successful when they find out that they're really is a 'Bart'. Homer invites "Michael" to their home for the night. Bart, believing that Leon is really Michael Jackson, begins to inform all his friends that he is on his way. Meanwhile, in all the commotion, Lisa seems to be forgotten.
The word that Michael Jackson is on his way to Springfield, begins to spread through the town, and a large crowd forms around the Simpson house. When the two of them arrive, and the crowd sees a large, white man instead of Michael Jackson, the crowd gets angry and disperses. After the melee, Bart admits to Lisa that he forgot to buy her a birthday present. Lisa storms off, crushed.
After witnessing Lisa's turmoil, "Michael" approaches Bart and tries to convince him to write Lisa a song to make up to her. After Bart confronts him about his obvious delusion about being a famous recording star, they get down to writing, and eventually compose a ballad called, "Happy Birthday Lisa." The next day they perform it for her, and all is well again. After this, "Michael" tells them all that his real name is Leon Kompowski, a bricklayer from Paterson, NJ. He tells them that pretending to be Michael makes everyone around him happy, then takes his leave.
Production
"Stark Raving Dad" was the final episode in the season two production run, but aired as part of season three, over a year after it was completed. Michael Jackson performed the speaking voice of Leon Kompowsky under the pseudonym of John Jay Smith. Jackson was a fan of the show, and called Matt Groening one night and offered to do a guest spot. The idea for the episode was pitched by James L. Brooks and the script was written by Al Jean and Mike Reiss. In an early version of script, Homer decided to take Barney Gumble in for rehab, but whilst there Homer began acting crazily so the doctors assumed he was the one to be committed. Jackson pitched several story ideas for the episode, including Bart telling everyone in town that Michael Jackson was coming to his house. He also requested several script changes, including that he wanted to have a scene in which he and Bart wrote a song and asked that a joke about Prince be changed to one about Elvis Presley.
According to executive producer Al Jean, Jackson would not commit to the episode until after a read-through of the script was done. The read of the script was held at Jackson's manager's house, and Dan Castellaneta was thirty minutes late. Jean recalls that "no one said a word, we just sat there waiting". Following the read, Jackson stipulated his conditions: he would record his speaking parts but not receive credit, and his singing voice would be performed by a sound-alike. Leon Kompowsky's singing voice was performed by Kipp Lennon, because Jackson wanted to play a joke on his brothers and fool them into thinking the impersonator was him. Lennon recorded his lines at the same time as Michael Jackson, who found the impersonations hilarious. Jackson showed up for the recording session alone and did not use the special trailer that was set up for him. He was directed by James L. Brooks. According to Al Jean, Jackson did record versions of the songs, and while there have been rumors that those tracks were the ones used in the final episode, Simpsons music editor Chris Ledesma says the Lennon versions were used. Leon Kompowsky's normal speaking voice was recorded by Hank Azaria.
Jackson was a huge fan of Bart and, wanting to give him a number one single, co-wrote the song "Do the Bartman" although he did not receive credit for it. Jackson also wrote the song "Happy Birthday Lisa" for the episode, which was later included in the album "Songs in the Key of Springfield". A version of the song was reportedly scheduled to be included on a bonus disk in the October 2001 special edition of Jackson's 1991 album Dangerous. However, the bonus disk was eventually dropped from the album.
The producers of the show were legally prevented from confirming Jackson guest starred at the time, although many media sources assumed it was really him. After this episode the producers decided that if a celebrity wished to guest star on the show, they had to be willing to be credited under their real name and not a pseudonym.
Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, and Fox re-aired the episode on July 5 as a tribute to the singer, replacing a rerun of the season 20 episode "Mypods and Boomsticks". The producers had intended to air the episode on June 28, 2009, three days after Jackson's death, but could not resolve issues with syndication rights in time. The music video for "Do the Bartman" was aired on that date instead. The producers screened the episode first, and the only change made, which was unrelated to Jackson, was the blurring of a phone number.
Alternative Opening
The January 30, 1992 rerun of the episode featured a brief alternate opening, which was written in response to a comment made by then-President of the United States George H. W. Bush. The show had previously had a "feud" with Barbara Bush when, in the October 1, 1990 edition of People, she called The Simpsons "the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen". The writers decided to respond by privately sending a polite letter to Bush in which they posed as Marge Simpson. Bush immediately sent a reply in which she apologized. Later, on January 27, 1992 George H. W. Bush made a speech during his re-election campaign which included the statement "we are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons." At that point, "family values" was a catchphrase of Bush's campaign.
The writers decided that they wanted to respond quickly like Barbara Bush had to them, and decided to add a response to the next broadcast of The Simpsons, which was a rerun of "Stark Raving Dad" on January 30. The broadcast included a new tongue-in-cheek opening. The scene begins in the Simpsons' living room. They all stare at the TV, watching Bush's speech. When Bush says "to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons", Bart replies, "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too." This opening can be found on the Season 4 DVD boxset.
Unproduced sequal
A year after the episode aired, the writers decided to make a sequel where Leon Kompowsky returns, thinking he is the musician Prince. According to Mike Reiss, the plot of the episode, which was written by some freelance writers and polished by Conan O'Brien, saw Kompowsky/Prince manage to get everyone in the town to "loosen up, become more flamboyant and become more sexually open."
The script was sent to Prince who agreed to voice the character and sent back a page of notes about what he would be wearing in various scenes. The writers were confused when the notes did not correspond to the script and they discovered that Prince was referring to a script that was written by someone else. Prince hated the writers' script and demanded the other one be made into an episode, but the writers did not like it. The episode eventually fell through and never made it past written form. It became one of the few completed scripts to never be produced.
Reception
In its original airing on the Fox Network, the episode had a 13.9 Nielsen rating and 23% share of the audience, finishing the week ranked 33rd. It finished second in its timeslot behind The Cosby Show, which finished eighth with an 18.6 rating and 31% share. It was the second highest rated show on Fox behind Married... with Children.
DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson felt that the episode was a good start to season three. He added, "The program gets sappy on more than a few occasions, and it lacks the acerbic bite of the series’ best shows. Nonetheless, it tosses out some good laughs, and the guest appearance by Jackson – under a pseudonym – works well; Michael shows an ability to mock himself that still surprises me." Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed wrote, "There are many funny gags in this episode, especially in the first act when Homer gets a tour of the hospital. Some clever references are made to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but the second half of the episode is not especially funny. The jokes seem forced and there is too much of an effort to sentimentalize the relationship between Bart and Lisa, causing the show to lose its narrative drive." Josh Levin of Slate wrote that "The greatness of 'Stark Raving Dad' has a lot more to do with the The Simpsons' writing staff than with Jackson's voice-over talents. The show's scripters came up with a plot device far more ingenious than simply dropping the singer into Springfield."
Executive producer Al Jean listed the scene where Bart and Michael sing "Happy Birthday Lisa" as one of his five favorite moments from The Simpsons. Mike Reiss, in a secret Easter Egg DVD commentary, noted that Jackson is "not a terrific actor [...] but he did fine." In 2006, Michael Jackson was named the fifth best Simpsons guest star by IGN. Robert Canning of IGN called it "a solid, funny and touching episode" and described Jackson's performance as "heartfelt yet self-parodying." Tom Ganjamie of Best Week Ever called Jackson's guest appearance the "cleverest [...] ever on The Simpsons." TV Squad's Mike Moody said the episode's "sweetest moment" is at the end when Michael and Bart perform the birthday song for Lisa. David Germain of the Associated Press called Jackson's appearance in the episode one of the "most-memorable performances" of his acting career.
The reaction to the song "Happy Birthday Lisa" is mixed. Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star listed "Stark Raving Dad" as one of the three worst episodes of The Simpsons and called the song a "crap tune". Chris Selley of Maclean's magazine called the episode "an unbearably sappy episode, and that birthday song for Lisa is just... bad." Dave Walker of the Times-Picayune listed the episode as one of Michael Jackson's "many memorable TV moments" and called "Happy Birthday Lisa" "unforgettable".
