Margical History Tour
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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.
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"Margical History Tour"
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Episode Information
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"Margical History Tour" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons season 15. The episode aired on February 8, 2004. This is one of several Simpsons episodes which are considered anthology episodes that features mini-stories.
Contents
Synopsis
Marge, the kids and Milhouse go to the library where they find there are no longer any books on the shelves. With no books for reference, the kids are in danger of not being able to write their reports. Fortunately, Marge knows some history and relates to the children the following tales:
- Henry VIII (Homer) tries to find a wife that will bear him a son.
- Lewis and Clark (Lenny and Carl) get assistance from Sacagawea (Lisa) in their quest to explore the western territories.
- Mozart (Bart) the musical child prodigy wows them in 18th century Austria, while his sister Sally Salieri (Lisa) fights for her own musical identity.
Plot
Marge takes the kids and Milhouse to the Springfield Public Library to study. They realize that there are very few books at the library, most of which are noneducational. Milhouse complains because he needs to write a book report on Henry VIII. So, Marge decides to tell the story to him to help him.
Henry VIII
King Henry VIII (played by Homer) is unhappy because he can't sire a son, despite he and his wife, Margarine of Aragon (played by Marge), trying frequently. One day, Henry VIII is checking himself out in the mirror when he is complimented by Anne Boleyn, who has been dubbed "Anne of the Child-Bearing Hips" by Wench Magazine. Henry VIII immediately wants to marry her instead in an attempt to have a son. Margarine takes Henry to a marriage counselor before Henry decides to go to see Sir Thomas More to see about getting a divorce. After being told he isn't allowed to, he makes his own church to allow him to get a divorce. Henry and Margarine divorce and Henry gets married to Anne Boleyn instead. Nine months later, Anne gives birth to a daughter and Henry has her executed.
After Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry VIII meets Jane Seymour and immediately decides to marry her. Just after they marry, Henry realizes that her voice and speaking mannerisms are really annoying and has her executed. After this, he had another couple of wives executed before getting married to the ninety-five year old Anne of Cleves, due to her track record of having ten sons. He then has her executed too. Shortly after this, Henry's advisor, Moe, tells him that they are out of pikes for heads. Henry has him executed before checking the pike storage. Years later, on Henry's death bed, Margarine comes back to see him. Henry apologizes to her for locking her away and asks her to take him back. Margarine then grabs his pillow and suffocates him to death.
After the story, Milhouse thanks Marge and walks away, only for Nelson to trip him up and steal his notebook.
Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea
Meriwether Lewis (Lenny) and William Clark (Carl) are assigned to explore the West by President Thomas Jefferson (Mayor Quimby). They meet a tribe of Native Americans led by Homer as the tribal chief, who offers them the guidance of his daughter, Sacagawea (Lisa). Sacagawea gives them many tips on how to survive the land, including how to scare a mountain lion, but quickly becomes fed up with Lewis and Clark's antics and stupidity. Finally, she leaves them and sets off back home. She encounters a mountain lion, but before it can attack, Lewis and Clark save her using the advice she gave them. The party arrives at the Pacific Ocean and a heavy downpour begins, prompting Lewis and Clark to name the rain-soaked place Eugene, Oregon. The two explorers reward Sacagawea by creating the Sacagawea dollar which - Marge explains - can be exchanged at the bank for a real dollar.
Mozart and Salieri
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Bart) is a big hit in Vienna, playing sonatas on the grand piano as if he were at a rock concert. Sally Salieri (Lisa) is resentful of Mozart's good fortune, asking why such a fool could have such talent while she who works hard is cast aside. She is especially jealous when Mozart wins the best composer award. Their father (Homer) considers Salieri untalented and their mother (Marge) while not beliving the same as her husband, trusts Mozart more to keep them in luxury. At Mozart's next opera, Salieri serves the Emperor (Charles Montgomery Burns) wine spiked with a sleeping potion. The opera is a success until the crowd hears the Emperor snoring in the balcony which since the otther antendees mindlessly follow the emperor they begin sleeping too. The failure of his opera leads to Mozart's fall from popularity, after which he develops a high fever and becomes deathly ill. At Mozart's deathbed, Salieri tells him she wanted to ruin his life, not kill him. Mozart confesses that he thought highly of Salieri's work, believing that it would be remembered more than his - but his youthful death ensures he and his music will be immortalized forever. He then dies, but not before saying "Eat my pantaloons." The next day, Salieri visits the Emperor's court to submit her musical work, but the court is already focused on Ludwig van Beethoven (Nelson). Befuddled, Salieri hails a carriage to the mental asylum, gets in, and laughs hysterically as the carriage draws away.
Lisa realizes that Marge's telling of the lives of Mozart and Salieri is not the real version, noting that Mozart worked hard on his music and that he and Salieri had better relations in their time, and says that the story is based on the movie Amadeus. Homer says that the person who played Mozart also starred in the film Animal House, which he sings the theme of over the credits.
Epilogue
At the end, Homer says that the guy who played Mozart was also in Animal House and starts singing about how Animal House was a great movie which ended like American Graffiti where it shows pictures of everyone and says what happened to them.
- Henry VIII still holds the world turkey-leg-eating record.
- Sacagawea went on to great riches posing for butter boxes.
- Mozart's burial site is now the most popular gas station in Vienna.
- That night, Homer watched Animal House again. He went to work the next day in a toga.
Production
Al Jean asked Brian Kelley to write the episode.[1] The backgrounds of the castle in Henry VIII were based on Windsor Court.[2] Puppets of characters are hard to animate. They have to make it animate like a puppet rather than a character.[3]
Writing segments based on female characters for Lisa is hard, due to there being so few well known women documented through history.[2] The scene where Clark blows his nose on a squirrel had to be animated three times to get it right.[3] It was Brian Kelley's idea to base the Mozart segment on Amadeus. Al Jean liked the idea because using the music is free.[2] Trevor Johnson and Gerald Rey did the backgrounds for the Mozart segment. The crowd of fops and dandies was all drawn by Orlando Gumatay. To get the animation on the candles in the scene where Mozart is dying, they had to do a superimposition, animate a hotter center. The animators had to do two or three passes to show the glow.[3]
References
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Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Margical History Tour". |
- ↑ Kelley, Brian (2012). Commentary for "Margical History Tour", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifteenth Season.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Jean, Al (2012). Commentary for "Margical History Tour", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifteenth Season.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Anderson, Mike B. (2012). Commentary for "Margical History Tour", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifteenth Season.
