Summer of 4 Ft. 2
Encyclopedia
"Summer of 4 Ft. 2" is the twenty-fifth and last episode of The Simpsons
' seventh season
. It originally aired on the Fox network
in the United States on May 19, 1996. In the episode, the Simpson family
goes to Ned Flanders
family's beach house. Hanging around with a new set of children, Lisa
becomes popular, while Bart
is left out. Bart tries to sabotage his sister's newfound acceptance, but fails.
The episode was written by Dan Greaney
and directed by Mark Kirkland
. The episode guest stars Christina Ricci
, who recorded her lines over the phone instead of going into the studio. The Simpson family's rented beach house is based on the then-show runner Josh Weinstein
's parents' house in New Hampshire
. The episode features cultural references to Pippi Longstocking
, The New Yorker
character Eustace Tilley, and Alice
and The Hatter
from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
. Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from fans and television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
of 8.8, and was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
offers the Simpson family the use of his beach house in Little Pwagmattasquarmsettport over the summer. Marge
likes the idea and suggests that Bart should bring Milhouse
and that Lisa should bring a friend too. However, Lisa has no friends to bring and decides to change her image as a result. After reaching the beach house, Lisa tells Marge that she forgot to pack, so they go shopping for new clothes. Lisa buys a new set of clothes that she believes will make her look "cool", and goes to look for some cool children.
When Lisa succeeds in making friends with a group of cool children (in particular a girl named Erin), Bart becomes jealous and plots revenge against Lisa. He decides to teach Lisa a lesson by showing her friends her yearbook, revealing that she is a nerd. Lisa is furious at Bart, thinking that his disclosure has turned her friends away. However, when Lisa returns home from a carnival she finds her friends in the act of decorating the Simpsons' car with sea shells
in her honor, and they explain that they like her for who she is. To make up with Lisa, Bart has them sign her yearbook.
, and directed by Mark Kirkland
. It was Greaney's second episode on The Simpsons. The staff of the show wanted to do a summer episode because there was "so much stuff" about summer vacations that they felt had to be covered in an episode. David Silverman
, one of the show's animators, particularly likes the episode because he thinks it captures the feel of being on summer vacation.
The area in which the Flanders family's beach house is located in is based on the Cape Cod
peninsula
. Many of the writers of The Simpsons spent time on Cape Cod so they decided to model the new locations on it. The animators looked at Cape Cod photographs to get inspiration for the episode, and one of the show's background designers, Lance Wilder
, grew up in that area. The beach house is based on the then-show runner Josh Weinstein
's parents' house in New Hampshire
, to which the writers had paid visit many times. They played several board games when they were there, which gave them the idea to have to the Simpson family play the Mystery Date
board game in the episode. Silverman said that the episode was difficult to animate and direct because it had so many new and detailed backgrounds and completely different locations.
American actress Christina Ricci
guest starred in the episode as Erin, one of Lisa's new friends. Ricci was not able to come to the recording studio, so she recorded all of her lines over the phone. Weinstein, who was a fan of Ricci, thought she did a nice performance in the episode.
. Lisa has a hallucination in which the following fictional characters appear: Pippi Longstocking
, The New Yorker
character Eustace Tilley, and Alice
and The Hatter
from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
. Milhouse compares Lisa's new appearance to the character Blossom from the American television series Blossom
. TeeJay's ZayMart is a spoof of defunct retailer Zayre
and parent company T.J. Maxx
. Homer replicates a scene from the 1973 film American Graffiti
when he buys some embarrassing products at the store in order to get some illegal fireworks. The ending music of American Graffiti, "All Summer Long
" by The Beach Boys
, is also played at the end of the episode. The Mystery Date
board game that the family is forced to play is an actual Milton Bradley Company
board game from the 1960s. Weinstein recalled playing it as a child and claim it to be "a very disappointing game to play as a little boy" because of the female target audience.
) in the ratings for the week of May 13 to May 19, 1996, with a Nielsen rating
of 8.8. The episode was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week (tied with Melrose Place and Married... With Children), following The X-Files
.
Since airing, the episode has received 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, wrote: "This episode will strike a chord with anyone that's ever tried to fit in with the crowd [...] Lisa gets to show the many facets of her character, and there's a superb slapstick sequence as Homer tries to dispose of a firework." Dave Foster of DVD Times praised the episode and said: "The episode is quite simply my favourite Lisa episode regardless of season. From calm to cool and fiercely aggressive, we've rarely seen Lisa so enticing as we do here, and the episode's many elements including the side stories for the other family members culminate in one of the finest this season has to offer." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode and said that he likes how it addresses Bart's resentment of Lisa's popularity. "Granted, it makes [Bart] a little too mean, but it's entertaining," he added. Jacobson went on to say: "Marge gets the best moment again, as I love watching her non-violent approach to the bumper cars." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best parts of the episode to be the scenes that feature Milhouse, particularly his yearbook message to Lisa and the scene with the Mystery Date board game. She concluded her review by giving the episode a grade of A.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated 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 family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 7)
The 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 the remaining...
. It originally aired on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on May 19, 1996. In the episode, the Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
goes to Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
family's beach house. Hanging around with a new set of children, Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
becomes popular, while Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson 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...
is left out. Bart tries to sabotage his sister's newfound acceptance, but fails.
The episode was written by Dan Greaney
Dan Greaney
Daniel "Dan" Greaney is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons. He was hired during the show's seventh season after writing the first draft of the episode "King-Size Homer", but left after season eleven...
and directed by Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...
. The episode guest stars Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
, who recorded her lines over the phone instead of going into the studio. The Simpson family's rented beach house is based on the then-show runner Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
's parents' house in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. The episode features cultural references to Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Longstocking is a fictional character in a series of children's books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, and adapted into multiple films and television series...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
character Eustace Tilley, and Alice
Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
Alice is a fictional character in the literary classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There. She is a young girl from Victorian-era Britain.-Development:...
and The Hatter
Mad Hatter
Hatta, the Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. He is often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll...
from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
. Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from fans and television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the 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 8.8, and was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Plot
Lisa finds out on the last day of school how unpopular she is when nobody signs her yearbook. Meanwhile, Ned FlandersNed Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
offers the Simpson family the use of his beach house in Little Pwagmattasquarmsettport over the summer. Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
likes the idea and suggests that Bart should bring Milhouse
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
and that Lisa should bring a friend too. However, Lisa has no friends to bring and decides to change her image as a result. After reaching the beach house, Lisa tells Marge that she forgot to pack, so they go shopping for new clothes. Lisa buys a new set of clothes that she believes will make her look "cool", and goes to look for some cool children.
When Lisa succeeds in making friends with a group of cool children (in particular a girl named Erin), Bart becomes jealous and plots revenge against Lisa. He decides to teach Lisa a lesson by showing her friends her yearbook, revealing that she is a nerd. Lisa is furious at Bart, thinking that his disclosure has turned her friends away. However, when Lisa returns home from a carnival she finds her friends in the act of decorating the Simpsons' car with sea shells
Seashell
A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer created by an animal that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers...
in her honor, and they explain that they like her for who she is. To make up with Lisa, Bart has them sign her yearbook.
Production
The episode was written by Dan GreaneyDan Greaney
Daniel "Dan" Greaney is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons. He was hired during the show's seventh season after writing the first draft of the episode "King-Size Homer", but left after season eleven...
, and directed by Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...
. It was Greaney's second episode on The Simpsons. The staff of the show wanted to do a summer episode because there was "so much stuff" about summer vacations that they felt had to be covered in an episode. David Silverman
David Silverman
David Silverman is an animator best known for directing numerous episodes of the animated TV series The Simpsons, as well as The Simpsons Movie...
, one of the show's animators, particularly likes the episode because he thinks it captures the feel of being on summer vacation.
The area in which the Flanders family's beach house is located in is based on the Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
. Many of the writers of The Simpsons spent time on Cape Cod so they decided to model the new locations on it. The animators looked at Cape Cod photographs to get inspiration for the episode, and one of the show's background designers, Lance Wilder
Lance Wilder
Lance Wilder is a background design supervisor best known for his work on The Simpsons and The Critic.- Biography :...
, grew up in that area. The beach house is based on the then-show runner Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
's parents' house in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, to which the writers had paid visit many times. They played several board games when they were there, which gave them the idea to have to the Simpson family play the Mystery Date
Mystery Date (game)
Mystery Date is a 1965 board game from the Milton Bradley Company, designed by Marvin Glass. It was marketed to girls 6 to 14 years of age, and was reissued in 1970, 1999, and in 2005.-Gameplay:...
board game in the episode. Silverman said that the episode was difficult to animate and direct because it had so many new and detailed backgrounds and completely different locations.
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
guest starred in the episode as Erin, one of Lisa's new friends. Ricci was not able to come to the recording studio, so she recorded all of her lines over the phone. Weinstein, who was a fan of Ricci, thought she did a nice performance in the episode.
Cultural references
The episode's title is a parody of the 1971 film Summer of '42Summer of '42
Summer of '42 is a 1971 American coming-of-age drama film based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. It tells the story of how Raucher, in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation on Nantucket Island, off the coast of New England, embarked on a one-sided romance with a woman, Dorothy,...
. Lisa has a hallucination in which the following fictional characters appear: Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Longstocking is a fictional character in a series of children's books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, and adapted into multiple films and television series...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
character Eustace Tilley, and Alice
Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
Alice is a fictional character in the literary classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There. She is a young girl from Victorian-era Britain.-Development:...
and The Hatter
Mad Hatter
Hatta, the Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. He is often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll...
from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
. Milhouse compares Lisa's new appearance to the character Blossom from the American television series Blossom
Blossom (TV series)
Blossom is an American sitcom broadcast on NBC from January 3, 1991 to May 22, 1995. The series stars Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo, a teenage girl living with her father and two brothers. It was created by Don Reo.- Synopsis :...
. TeeJay's ZayMart is a spoof of defunct retailer Zayre
Zayre
Zayre was a chain of discount stores that operated in the Northeastern, Southern and Midwestern United States from 1956 to 1990. The company's headquarters was in Framingham, Massachusetts. In 1988, the Zayre department stores were sold to the parent company of the competing Ames chain, and Zayre's...
and parent company T.J. Maxx
T.J. Maxx
T.J. Maxx, sometimes referred to as TJ's or the Maxx, is an American department store chain owned by TJX Companies. With more than 900 stores T.J. Maxx is a major clothes retailer in the United States, whilst also operating stores in a number of other countries.-History:In 1976, T.J...
. Homer replicates a scene from the 1973 film American Graffiti
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
when he buys some embarrassing products at the store in order to get some illegal fireworks. The ending music of American Graffiti, "All Summer Long
All Summer Long (song)
"All Summer Long" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1964 album All Summer Long, and as a single in the UK in February 1965 in place of Capitol's U.S...
" by The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
, is also played at the end of the episode. The Mystery Date
Mystery Date (game)
Mystery Date is a 1965 board game from the Milton Bradley Company, designed by Marvin Glass. It was marketed to girls 6 to 14 years of age, and was reissued in 1970, 1999, and in 2005.-Gameplay:...
board game that the family is forced to play is an actual Milton Bradley Company
Milton Bradley Company
The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...
board game from the 1960s. Weinstein recalled playing it as a child and claim it to be "a very disappointing game to play as a little boy" because of the female target audience.
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" finished forty-second (tied with Melrose Place and Married... with ChildrenMarried... with Children
Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...
) in the ratings for the week of May 13 to May 19, 1996, with a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the 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 8.8. The episode was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week (tied with Melrose Place and Married... With Children), following The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
.
Since airing, the episode has received 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, wrote: "This episode will strike a chord with anyone that's ever tried to fit in with the crowd [...] Lisa gets to show the many facets of her character, and there's a superb slapstick sequence as Homer tries to dispose of a firework." Dave Foster of DVD Times praised the episode and said: "The episode is quite simply my favourite Lisa episode regardless of season. From calm to cool and fiercely aggressive, we've rarely seen Lisa so enticing as we do here, and the episode's many elements including the side stories for the other family members culminate in one of the finest this season has to offer." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode and said that he likes how it addresses Bart's resentment of Lisa's popularity. "Granted, it makes [Bart] a little too mean, but it's entertaining," he added. Jacobson went on to say: "Marge gets the best moment again, as I love watching her non-violent approach to the bumper cars." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best parts of the episode to be the scenes that feature Milhouse, particularly his yearbook message to Lisa and the scene with the Mystery Date board game. She concluded her review by giving the episode a grade of A.
External links
- "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" at The Simpsons.com