The Simpsons/Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie

Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
Season 4, Episode 6
Airdate	November 3, 1992
Production Number	9F03
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Directed by	Rich Moore
← 4x05 Treehouse of Horror III	4x07 → Marge Gets a Job
The Simpsons — Season Four

Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie is the sixth episode of the fourth season of The Simpsons, and the sixty-fifth episode overall.

The episode centers on two things: The coming attraction of "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie," and the darker side of Bart's antics, those that are malicious and even put others in danger. The two intersect when, after Bart fails to keep an eye on Maggie, as asked (nicely) – that has Homer finally realizing that his son needs to suffer the consequences of his actions: By never being allowed to see the movie that he has waited a lifetime to see.

Special Guest Voice: Marcia Wallace (Ms. Krabappel)

Also Starring: Pamela Hayden (Milhouse Van Houten), Maggie Roswell (Ms. Hoover)

Plot Overview

Marge and Homer are headed to the parent/teacher night to face Bart and Lisa's teachers and leaving the kids at home with Grandpa. Of course, Marge finds that Bart is a hellion who's constantly committing "atrocities" and Lisa is a perfect student. Mrs. Krabappel suggests that they discipline Bart more so that he could possibly become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court one day. While they're sharing the blame, as the banner outside says, Bart steals Grandpa's dentures and uses them for chaos like swinging from the ceiling fan and biting records. He accidentally breaks them but tries to fix them with tape. Grandpa fingers Bart as the one who broke his teeth, so Homer tells his father that he can break his teeth. Marge recants and sends him to room without dinner. Homer eventually caves and brings him some leftover pizza.

On television, a preview for the Itchy & Scratchy movie airs, something that the kids hadn't heard of. Homer discovers that Bart didn't take out the garbage and that the kitchen is infested with goats, but he doesn't punish him out of laziness. Later on, Bart is found hitting mustard packets in the living room with a hammer but Homer's punishment is interrupted by the arrival of the ice cream truck. Finally, Bart starts pulling up the carpet and he's still not punished, much to Marge's chagrin.

The release date for The Itchy & Scratchy Movie is upon Springfield and the kids already have their tickets. While the two are watching a news feature on Itchy & Scratchy, Maggie gets away from Bart and somehow manages to drive the car away. She wrecks into the jail, causing a massive jail break, including Snake, who promptly goes on a major crime spree. Back at home, Homer has learned of what has happened and decides he can no longer overlook Bart's increasingly bad behavior. He informs Bart that he will never be allowed to watch The Itchy & Scratchy Movie, taking Bart's tickets and ripping them up.

Later, the line for the movie stretches all the way to the Simpson house and Bart's disappointment manages to ratchet up several notches when Lisa says it was the best movie ever made and when the novelization isn't the same. Bart begins to feel real remorse for his actions and Lisa asks for clemency, but Homer is unrelenting and still is disallowing Bart to go to the movie. Even later, Bart tries to buy a ticket for the movie, but the surprisingly scrupulous clerk refuses.

Six months later, the movie (after a slew of Academy Awards) is pulled from the theater. Bart finally realizes that sometimes, there are real consequences for bad behavior and he vows to do better. Homer suggests to him that he has set him on a course for being something very special.

Flash forward 40 years into the future, where (in an imagine spot), Bart has become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He andhis elderly father go to see The Itchy & Scratch Movie in a movie theater that shows old films.

Notes

Title Sequence

• Blackboard: "I will not bury the new kid." The final line cuts off at a partially written "N."
• Couch Gag: The family jumps on the couch, but it deflates as if the couch were inflatable.

Trivia

The Show

• First Appearance: This episode has the first appearance of Bumblebee Man, he's shown on television eating several pints of ice cream after Bart watches the Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie commercial.
• Celebrity Pseudonym: When Lisa says "You wouldn't believe all the celebrities who had cameos! Dustin Hoffman! Michael Jackson! Of course, they didn't use their real names, but you could tell it was them!" She is referring to the only two guest stars (at that point in the series) who did a voice in the show under a pseudonym. Hoffman appeared in Lisa's Substitute credited as "Sam Etic" and Jackson appeared in Stark Raving Dad as "John Jay Smith."

Behind the Scenes

• Special Airing: This episode was broadcast on a Tuesday instead of the usual Thursday airtime because FOX figured that people would rather watch new shows than the presidential election results. However, it was the election in which Bill Clinton and the Democrats swept the election and was a big deal. Al Jean expresses some regret over "burning" a new episode against the election.
• Animator Coup: The animators in Korea were extremely insulted by the scene in which Kent Brockman was at the animation studio for Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie because the animators were shown being forced to draw at gunpoint. The overseas director very nearly sent the scene back to the United States unanimated so that they could animate it themselves.
• Backing Down: Originally, the episode was supposed to end with the most violent, twisted Itchy & Scratchy cartoon they could think of and one version was actually written. But, they eventually backed out and didn't animate the sequence. Because of this, they weren't going to show anything from the movie except some lights and sound, but the writers felt that viewers would feel ripped off. So, instead, they took a normal cartoon from the second act and moved it to the end.

Allusions and References

• 60 Minutes: When Grampa is unable to coherently explain to Homer and Marge how badly behaved Bart was (he had broken dentures, hastily taped up, stuffed into his mouth), Homer threatens to send him to "the crooked home we saw on 60 Minutes," referring to then-recent exposes on nursing home abuse on prime-time news magazine programs, including the long-running CBS program.
• James Bond: Bart melting a James Bont action figure in the microwave while gently stroking Snowball II is copied from the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice (and other films), where Blofeld strokes a cat as his henchmen prepare to violently kill Bond.
• Star Trek: A parody, Star Trek XII: So Very Tired, airs, with a very – and we do mean very elderly Captain Kirk complaining of aches and pains and having to battle the Klingons again.
• Steamboat Willie: The first cartoon with both Itchy and Scratchy in it was titled "Steamboat Itchy," a parody of the debut of Mickey Mouse, "Steamboat Willie." The cartoon exactly mimics the original, down to the hand-painted backgrounds and Itchy's initial movements.
• Earl Warren: Homer suggests that Bart be both Chief Justice and a stripper like "the late Earl Warren." Earl Warren was a supreme court justice from 1953 to 1969. He is perhaps most well known for chairing the Warren Commission, a detailed investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He was not, however, a stripper.

Homer: Can't he be both, like the late Earl Warren?

• World War II-era cartoons: Several major companies, including Warner Bros., Universal and MGM, produced pro-American cartoons during the war, all of them promising defeat of the Axis powers (most often, the target was Adolf Hilter, as it is in the parody) and also promoting the recycling of essential materials, such as scrap iron.

Quotes

• Homer: If you don't start making more sense, we're going to have to put you in a home.
  Grandpa: You already put me in a home.
  Homer: Then we'll put you in the crooked home we saw on 60 Minutes!
  Grandpa: [meekly] I'll be good.