"
Radioactive Man" is the second episode of
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
' seventh seasonThe Simpsons
' seventh season originally aired on the Fox network between September 17, 1995 and May 19, 1996. The show runners for the seventh production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who would executive produce 21 episodes this season. David Mirkin executive produced...
. It originally aired on the
Fox networkThe Fox Broadcasting Company , commonly referred to as Fox , is an American television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, from 2004 to 2009 Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic...
in the United States on September 24, 1995. The episode sees the film version of the comic book series
Radioactive Man set up production in
SpringfieldSpringfield is the fictional city in which the American animated television series The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized city in an unknown state, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the city and its surroundings...
. Much to
BartBartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
's disappointment, the part of the hero's sidekick, Fallout Boy, goes not to him, but to Milhouse. Milhouse, however, hates acting, so he quits the role and leaves the set, forcing the producers of the film to shut down production and go back to Hollywood.
The episode was written by
John SwartzwelderJohn Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of The Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
, and directed by
Susie DietterSusan E. Dietter, usually credited as Susie Dietter, is a American director, known primarily for her work on television cartoons. She has directed episodes of the popular series Futurama, Baby Blues, The Simpsons, Recess and The Critic. She also worked as an animator for the modern-day Looney...
.
"
Radioactive Man" is the second episode of
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
' seventh seasonThe Simpsons
' seventh season originally aired on the Fox network between September 17, 1995 and May 19, 1996. The show runners for the seventh production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who would executive produce 21 episodes this season. David Mirkin executive produced...
. It originally aired on the
Fox networkThe Fox Broadcasting Company , commonly referred to as Fox , is an American television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, from 2004 to 2009 Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic...
in the United States on September 24, 1995. The episode sees the film version of the comic book series
Radioactive Man set up production in
SpringfieldSpringfield is the fictional city in which the American animated television series The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized city in an unknown state, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the city and its surroundings...
. Much to
BartBartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
's disappointment, the part of the hero's sidekick, Fallout Boy, goes not to him, but to Milhouse. Milhouse, however, hates acting, so he quits the role and leaves the set, forcing the producers of the film to shut down production and go back to Hollywood.
The episode was written by
John SwartzwelderJohn Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of The Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
, and directed by
Susie DietterSusan E. Dietter, usually credited as Susie Dietter, is a American director, known primarily for her work on television cartoons. She has directed episodes of the popular series Futurama, Baby Blues, The Simpsons, Recess and The Critic. She also worked as an animator for the modern-day Looney...
.
Mickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career he has won multiple awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
guest starred as himself in the episode. "Radioactive Man" was the first episode of
The Simpsons to be digitally colored. The episode features cultural references to the
BatmanBatman is a 1960s American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name, which starred Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, two crime-fighting heroes who defended "Gotham City". It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for two and a half seasons...
television series, the 1995 film
WaterworldWaterworld is a 1995 post-apocalyptic science fiction film. The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds, co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it...
, and the song "
Lean on Me"Lean on Me" is a popular song written and performed by Bill Withers on the 1972 album Still Bill.It was his first number one on both the soul singles and the Billboard Hot 100. It is ranked number 205 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time...
" by
Bill WithersWilliam Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985...
. Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from fans and television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 9.5, and was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Plot
Bart and Milhouse are thrilled to hear that a film version of their favorite comic book series,
Radioactive Man, is in production.
Rainier WolfcastleRainier Luftwaffe Wolfcastle is a recurring character in the animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer. The character is a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger, since he acted as President Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Simpsons Movie....
, the star of the
McBain films, is chosen to play
Radioactive ManRadioactive Man is a fictional fictional comic book superhero in the animated sitcom The Simpsons.-Role in The Simpsons:Radioactive Man acquired his nuclear superpowers after surviving an atomic bomb explosion when his pants became caught in a barbed wire fence and he was unable to escape...
, and even more excitingly for the
Springfield Elementary SchoolSpringfield Elementary School is a fictional school on The Simpsons, attended by Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson and other Springfieldian children....
children, the production moves to their town. A search is launched for a young actor to play Radioactive Man's sidekick Fallout Boy, and Bart auditions. Bart does well, but is rejected because he is an inch too short, and by this point Milhouse has already taken the part, albeit reluctantly.
A despondent Bart is told by
LisaLisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child, and elder daughter, of the eponymous family. She is voiced by Yeardley Smith and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
that he is still needed as Milhouse's friend and confidant, and Bart eagerly accepts this new role. However, Milhouse finds his own job intolerable and disappears, right during the filming of the most expensive scene in the movie. The film is suspended while the townspeople search for Milhouse. Eventually Bart finds him in the treehouse, but despite encouragement from former child star
Mickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career he has won multiple awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, Milhouse gives up on his acting career. All production on the film is aborted, with the project bankrupt, thanks to
price gougingPrice gouging is a term for a seller pricing much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. In precise, legal usage, it is the name of a felony that applies in some of the United States only during civil emergencies...
and other unscrupulous conduct by the people of Springfield. Despite Rooney's stern lecture about their selfish greed,
Mayor QuimbyJoseph Fitzgerald O'Malley Fitzpatrick O'Donnell The Edge "Joe" Quimby, a.k.a. "Diamond Joe" Quimby, or simply Mayor Quimby, is a recurring character from the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, and first appeared in the episode "Bart Gets an F"...
insists the townspeople can not give any of the directors' money back to them, so the directors return to
HollywoodHollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States, situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonymy of American cinema...
.
Production
The episode was written by
John SwartzwelderJohn Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of The Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
, and directed by
Susie DietterSusan E. Dietter, usually credited as Susie Dietter, is a American director, known primarily for her work on television cartoons. She has directed episodes of the popular series Futurama, Baby Blues, The Simpsons, Recess and The Critic. She also worked as an animator for the modern-day Looney...
. Dietter was not a comic book fan, so she got most of her inspiration for the episode from
Batman: The Animated SeriesBatman: The Animated Series is an American animated series adaptation of the comic book series starring the DC Comics superhero, Batman. The series is noted for being the first to take place in the DC Animated Universe. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation.The visual style of the series is...
. When Dietter read through her first script, she did not find it very funny because of all the
visual gagIn comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humor visually, often without words being used at all.There are numerous examples in cinema history of directors who based most of the humour in their films on visual gags, even to the point of using no or minimal dialogue...
s. Once the animatic was finished, her opinion changed, and she thought to herself: "Hey, this is really funny!"
This episode is the first episode of
The Simpsons to be digitally colored. The duties of that task went to USAnimation, who would later work on "
The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons
' seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network on December 3, 1995. As the title suggests, it is the 138th episode and the third clip show episode of The Simpsons after "So It's Come to This: A...
". Digital coloring would not be attempted again until season 12's "
Tennis the Menace"Tennis the Menace" is the twelfth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons which originally aired February 11, 2001. This is also the second episode to be digitally colored instead of colored traditionally through cel animation, a practice that would later be used starting with the season 14...
", and again when the show permanently switched to digital coloring in season 14 with "
The Great Louse Detective"The Great Louse Detective" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons
' fourteenth season.-Plot:When the Simpson family go to a free spa weekend, Homer is nearly killed when a mysterious person locks him into an incredibly hot steam room...
".
Mickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career he has won multiple awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
guest starred as himself in the episode.
Nancy CartwrightNancy Campbell Cartwright is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. She is best known for her long-running role as Bart Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons...
recalls in her autobiography
My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy that Rooney recorded his lines with the other actors. Although he was late for the session, she comments that he was "so full of pep" and very enthusiastic about the role.
Cultural references
The Radioactive Man character is based on
BatmanThe Batman, originally referred to as the Bat-Man, is a fictional character, a comic book superhero co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger , appearing in publications by DC Comics...
, and several scenes in the episode reference the
BatmanBatman is a 1960s American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name, which starred Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, two crime-fighting heroes who defended "Gotham City". It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for two and a half seasons...
television series from the 1960s. The antagonist of the
Radioactive Man films, The Scoutmaster, is based on actor
Paul LyndePaul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry McAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...
. The scene in the new
Radioactive Man film where Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy are captured in Aquaworld is a reference to the film
WaterworldWaterworld is a 1995 post-apocalyptic science fiction film. The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds, co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it...
. The director of the
Radioactive Man film says: "That Milhouse is going to be big, Gabby Hayes big!", in reference to the American actor Gabby Hayes.
Moe SzyslakMoe Szyslak is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"...
, the bartender of Moe's Tavern, says that he, as a kid, played the part of Smelly on
The Little Rascals, until he killed
AlfalfaCarl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer was an American child actor, professional dog breeder and hunting guide, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as Alfalfa, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters.-Early life and family:Switzer was born in Paris,...
for stealing his joke.
Bill WithersWilliam Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985...
's song "
Lean on Me"Lean on Me" is a popular song written and performed by Bill Withers on the 1972 album Still Bill.It was his first number one on both the soul singles and the Billboard Hot 100. It is ranked number 205 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time...
" from 1972 is played at the end of the episode.
In one scene,
Comic Book GuyJeff Albertson, commonly known as Comic Book Guy, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. He is the proprietor...
sends a message to other Internet nerds about who will star in the new
Radioactive Man film. Two of whom are the nerds Homer met in "
Homer Goes to College"Homer Goes to College" is the third episode of The Simpsons
' fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 14, 1993. In the episode, Homer's lack of a college degree is revealed and he is sent to Springfield University to pass a nuclear...
", and one is
PrincePrince Rogers Nelson is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He performs under the mononym Prince but has also been known by various other names, most notably the unpronounceable symbol which he used as his stage name between 1993 and 2000...
dressed in a purple suit. The usenet newsgroup which he posted the message to (alt.nerd.obsessive) is a reference to the
alt.tv.simpsonsalt.tv.simpsons is a usenet newsgroup dedicated to discussing the American television program, The Simpsons. Created in 1990, the newsgroup became a popular community in the early 1990's, and continues to exist as of 2009. The newsgroup is known for reviewing the episodes and nitpicking on minor...
newsgroup.
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Radioactive Man" finished 51st in the ratings for the week of September 18 to September 24, 1995. It acquired a
Nielsen ratingNielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 9.5. The episode was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following
The X-FilesThe X-Files is an American cult science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. It first aired in September 1993 and ended in May 2002...
,
Beverly Hills, 90210Beverly Hills, 90210 is a prime time television drama series that aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
, and
Melrose Place.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from fans and television critics. The authors of the book
I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called the episode a "wonderful pastiche" on the Tim Burton Batman films, and added that Milhouse is an obvious candidate for Fallout Boy.
DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode, but he does not consider it a "classic". He said that it offers "more than a few amusing bits", and added that "spoofing the movie business isn't anything new, but the show does it well in this solid program." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best part of the episode to be when Krusty tries to prove the "range" of different characters he can do to the casting director. The website concluded its review by giving the episode a grade of A-.
Nancy Basile of
About.comAbout.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
named it one of her twenty favorite episodes of the show, and said that she thinks the friendship between Bart and Milhouse in the episode is "endearing" and "touching". She added that she thinks the episode "pokes fun at Hollywood very effectively", and that "To top it off, funny favorite characters Rainier Wolfcastle [...] and Lionel Hutz are also in the episode." Graham Beckwith of
The LanternThe Lantern is the name of the student-published university newspaper at The Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States.-History:...
singled out Rainier Wolfcastle's line "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!" from the episode as one of
The Simpsons "greatest one liners".
Total FilmTotal Film, published by Future Publishing, is the United Kingdom's second best-selling film magazine. It offers film and DVD news, reviews, and features...
s Nathan Ditum ranked Rooney's performance as the eight best guest appearance in the show's history, commenting that he is "desperately funny and self-effacing as a parody of his fallen child-star self."
External links
- "Radioactive Man" at The Simpsons.com
- "Radioactive Man" at TV.com
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The service was launched on June 1, 2005 and replaced the popular TV Tome website.- Format :...
- "Radioactive Man" at the Internet Movie Database
The Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, video games, and most recently, fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media...
- "Radioactive Man" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
The Simpsons Archive, better known as snpp.com or simply SNPP , is a Simpsons fan site that has been online since 1994...