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Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
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"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is the first full-length episode of The Simpsons to air despite originally being the eighth episode produced for season one. It first aired December 17, 1989. It was written by Mimi Pond and directed by David Silverman. The title alludes to "The Christmas Song", also known as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire". The Simpsons was created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company.
Plot
Homer, Marge, and Maggie attend Bart and Lisa's Christmas pageant at Springfield Elementary School.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is the first full-length episode of The Simpsons to air despite originally being the eighth episode produced for season one. It first aired December 17, 1989. It was written by Mimi Pond and directed by David Silverman. The title alludes to "The Christmas Song", also known as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire". The Simpsons was created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company.
Plot
Homer, Marge, and Maggie attend Bart and Lisa's Christmas pageant at Springfield Elementary School. At home, Marge asks the children what they want for Christmas and Bart asks for a tattoo. When Marge, Bart, and Lisa go Christmas shopping the next day, Bart sneaks away and starts getting a tattoo reading "Mother". Discovering this, Marge interrupts the process at "Moth" and immediately takes him to a laser removal clinic and spends the family's Christmas money getting Bart's tattoo removed. Meanwhile, at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer learns that he will not be getting a Christmas bonus.
When Homer returns home and hears about the loss of the Christmas money, he decides not to tell Marge his own bad news. Instead, he does the shopping himself, buying cheap presents from a dollar store. At Moe's Tavern, Homer meets Barney dressed in a Santa outfit. On Barney's advice, he secretly takes a job as a mall Santa. Bart discovers this secret after he rips off Homer's fake beard on a dare by his friend Milhouse, but agrees not to tell the rest of the family.
Homer receives his paycheck and is dismayed to see that it is only for $13. Barney, who has received a check for the same amount, suggests betting it at the dog track. With encouragement from Bart, Homer agrees to gamble the paycheck and takes Bart with him to the track. Although Barney recommended they bet on a dog named Whirlwind, Homer decides to bet on a last-second entrant named Santa's Little Helper, believing it to be a sign. Santa's Little Helper, however, comes in dead last (supposedly for the 25th time) and his owner abandons him. The dog follows Homer and Bart, who eventually decide to keep him. When they return home, Homer plans to tell the family about his misfortune, but they think he brought the dog as a gift and everyone has a merry Christmas.
During the ending credits, the family sings "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", but Bart adds rude lyrics, so Homer strangles him.
Production
FOX was nervous about the show because they were unsure that it could sustain the audience's attention for the duration of an episode. They proposed doing three seven-minute shorts per episode and four specials until the audience adjusted. In the end, the producers gambled by asking FOX for 13 full-length episodes. The series was originally planned to premiere earlier in the fall of 1989 with the episode "Some Enchanted Evening", but due to major problems with the animation of that episode the series began on December 17 with this episode. "Some Enchanted Evening" instead aired as the season finale. The episode, being the first to air, lacked the opening sequence which was later added in the second episode when Groening realized that a longer opening sequence resulted in less animation.
The "santas of many lands" portion of the Christmas pageant is based on Matt Groening's experience in the second grade when he did a report on Christmas in Russia. Groening also used that reference in his comic strip "Life in Hell" when he spoofed himself as a young man, being told that it is too bad his grandmother is from Russia, because Christmas is against the law there. Also, Matt Groening claims that this episode has been incorrectly credited with creating the "alternate version" of Jingle Bells that has become a well-known children's playground song.
David Silverman directed this episode, although Rich Moore storyboarded it and designed Ned Flanders. Several of the scenes were laid out by Eric Stefani, brother of Gwen Stefani. In this episode, Barney had yellow hair which was the same color as his skin, but that was later dropped because of the belief that only the Simpson family should have such hair. Seymour Skinner, Milhouse Van Houten, Moe Szyslak, Mr. Burns, Barney Gumble, Patty and Selma, Ned and Todd Flanders, Santa's Little Helper, Snowball II, Dewey Largo and Lewis all make their first appearances in this episode. Snowball I is mentioned for the first time and Waylon Smithers can be heard over the speaker at the power-plant, but he is not seen.
Reception
The episode was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 1990: "Outstanding Animated Program" and "Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or Special." Because "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" is considered a separate special, The Simpsons was nominated twice in the Animated Program category. This episode lost to fellow The Simpsons episode "Life on the Fast Lane". IGN's Robert Canning in a 2008 review of the episode noted, "though not the funniest of episodes, it certainly was groundbreaking. [...] With this episode, The Simpsons had its premise down, and it certainly had its edge." The episode has become study material for sociology courses at University of California Berkeley, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies." Some questions asked in the courses include: "What aspects of American society are being addressed in the episode? What aspects of them are used to make the points? How is the satire conveyed: through language? Drawing? Music? Is the behavior of each character consistent with his/her character as developed over the years? Can we identify elements of the historical/political context that the writers are satirizing? What is the difference between satire and parody?"
In its original American broadcast, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" finished thirtieth place in the weekly ratings for the week of December 11–December 17, 1989 with a Nielsen rating of 14.5 and approximately 13.4 million viewers. It was the second-highest rated show on the Fox network up to that point.
External links
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