"A Streetcar Named Marge" is the second episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Fox in the United States on October 1, 1992. In the episode, Marge wins the role of Blanche DuBois in a community theatre musical version of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. Homer offers little support for his wife's acting pursuits, and Marge begins to see parallels between him and Stanley Kowalski, the play's boorish lead male character. The episode contains a subplot in which Maggie Simpson attempts to retrieve her pacifier from a strict daycare owner.
The episode was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Rich Moore.
Jon Lovitz made his fourth guest appearance on The Simpsons, this time as musical director Llewellyn Sinclair, as well as Llewellyn's sister, who runs the Ayn Rand School for Tots. The episode generated controversy for its original song about New Orleans, which contains several unflattering lyrics about the city. One New Orleans newspaper published the lyrics before the episode aired, prompting numerous complaints to the local Fox affiliate; in response, the president of Fox Broadcasting issued an apology to anyone who was offended. In the chalkboard gag of the next episode, "Homer the Heretic", Bart writes "I will not defame New Orleans."
Despite the controversial song, the episode was well received by many fans, and show creator Matt Groening has named it one of his favorite episodes.
Plot
Marge announces to the Simpson family that she intends to audition for the role of Blanche DuBois in Oh! Streetcar!, a local musical production of A Streetcar Named Desire. The family ignores her, and she leaves for her audition, feeling especially unappreciated by Homer. The director, Llewellyn Sinclair, immediately rejects Marge, explaining that Blanche is supposed to be a "delicate flower being trampled by an uncouth lout". However, as a dejected Marge calls home and takes Homer's dinner order, Llewellyn realizes that she is perfect for the role.
At Llewellyn's suggestion, Marge enrolls Maggie at the Ayn Rand School for Tots, a daycare centre run by Llewellyn's sister, Ms. Sinclair. Ms. Sinclair immediately confiscates Maggie’s pacifier. Aided by the other toddlers at the daycare, Maggie manages to get her pacifier back, and redistributes all the other toddlers' confiscated pacifiers.
Marge and Ned, who is playing Stanley Kowalski, rehearse the scene in which Blanche breaks a glass bottle and attacks Stanley, which Marge has been struggling with. Homer repeatedly interrupts the rehearsal. Imagining that Stanley is Homer, Marge takes out her frustration—she smashes the bottle and lunges at Ned, injuring him.
The Simpson family attends the musical, and Homer is moved by Marge's performance, though during the curtain call Marge mistakes his sadness for boredom. After the show, Homer tells her that he was saddened by Blanche's plight as a woman in need of compassion but who receives only neglect and mistreatment from men like Stanley. Marge is moved by Homer's sincerity and impressed that he understood the musical so well, and the two happily leave the theater.
Production
Writing and music
thumb|upright|Producer [[James L. Brooks pitched the idea of Marge playing Blanche DuBois.]]
"A Streetcar Named Marge" was conceived about two years before it aired on television. Jeff Martin first pitched the idea of Homer being in a theatrical production of 1776; producer James L. Brooks then suggested that Marge could play Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Brooks saw that Marge's relationship with Homer was similar to Blanche's relationship with Stanley, and he wanted to use that fact to build the emotional arc for an episode. The estate of Tennessee Williams would not let the show use large excerpts from the actual play, since the work was copyrighted. Martin later explained that while the songs made the episode funnier, they also made it harder to write. The music in the sequence is Elmer Bernstein's march theme from The Great Escape. Simpsons composer Alf Clausen secured the rights to the score, along with the original orchestra charts. The Great Escape had been Martin's favorite film as a child, and he said "it was so exciting and so stirring" to hear the music being performed by the Simpsons<nowiki>'</nowiki> studio orchestra. However, this scene was later shown on the season 4 DVD, namely the portion which showed the episode in storyboard form.
Cultural references
left|200px|thumb|Alfred Hitchcock walking his dogs, a reference to his [[List of cameo appearances by Alfred Hitchcock|cameo in The Birds]]
Though Oh! Streetcar! is based on A Streetcar Named Desire, the title of the musical alludes to the theatrical revue Oh! Calcutta! Besides Blanche and Stanley, characters from A Streetcar Named Desire who appear in Oh! Streetcar! include Stella (played by Helen Lovejoy), the Young Collector (played by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon), Mitch (played by Lionel Hutz), the Doctor (played by Chief Wiggum), Steve (played by Jasper Beardsley, although Apu originally said he was playing Steve), and Pablo (originally played by Otto Mann but taken over by Llewellyn prior to curtain). The musical's closing song, "Kindness of Strangers", is a reference to Blanche's last line in the original play: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." However, the song is very cheery in tone, intentionally missing the point of Blanche's line, which is meant by Tennessee Williams to be ironic. Maggie plays "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" on a toy xylophone but Homer asks her to stop. The Maggie subplot uses the musical score of The Great Escape and contains several other allusions to the film. At one point, Ms. Sinclair punishes Maggie by sending her to a playpen called "the box", a play on the solitary confinement facility called "the cooler" from the 1963 film. Maggie even bounces a ball against the wall of the playpen, as Steve McQueen's character Virgil Hilts does throughout the film while he is in confinement.
In the scene when Homer, Bart and Lisa pick up Maggie from the daycare center, babies are perched all over the building, staring at the family and quietly sucking on pacifiers. This is a parody of the final shot of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Indeed, a cartoon-version of Hitchcock can be seen walking his dogs past the daycare, a reference to his own cameo appearance in the film. The episode was included in the 1999 VHS set The Simpsons Go Hollywood and released on DVD in 2004 as part of The Simpsons Complete Fourth Season. Jon Lovitz participated in the DVD's audio commentary, alongside Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jeff Martin, and Hank Azaria.
Reception
thumb|upright|The Simpsons creator [[Matt Groening includes the episode among his favorites.]]
In its original broadcast, "A Streetcar Named Marge" finished 32nd in ratings for the week of September 27 – October 4, 1992, with a Nielsen rating of 11.8, equivalent to approximately 11.0 million viewing households. It was the second-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following Married... with Children.
Since airing, it has received very positive reviews from fans and television critics. Michael Moran of The Times ranked the episode as the seventh best in the show's history. Entertainment Weekly<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Dalton Ross lauded it as "the show's best ever musical episode", while Dave Kehr of The New York Times called it a "brilliant ... parody of Broadway musicals that should be required viewing for every Tony voter." In a list of his favorite episodes, Kevin Williamson of Canadian Online Explorer added, "As pitch-perfect eviscerations of community theatre go, this tops Waiting for Guffman." In 2019, Consequence ranked it number four on its list of top 30 Simpsons episodes.
Series creator Matt Groening has listed it as one of his own favorites, calling the subplot "Maggie's finest moment", and future Simpsons guest star Trey Anastasio said the episode "may have been the best TV show ever". Executive producer James L. Brooks also listed it as one of his favorites, saying it "showed we could go into areas no one thought we could go into". Following the episode, the Ayn Rand Society called Groening to say they were amazed at the references to Rand. They also asked him if the show was making fun of them.
In 1993, "A Streetcar Named Marge" and "Mr. Plow" were submitted for the Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Comedy Series". Before this season, the series had only been allowed to compete in the "Outstanding Animated Program" category, winning twice, but in early 1993 the rules were changed so that animated television shows would be able to submit nominations for "Outstanding Comedy Series". However, the Emmy voters were hesitant to pit cartoons against live action programs, and The Simpsons did not receive a nomination. The Simpsons<nowiki>'</nowiki> crew submitted episodes for Outstanding Comedy Series the next season, but again these were not nominated. Since then, the show has submitted episodes in the animation category and has won seven times.
Controversy
alt=Martin smiling|thumb|Writer Jeff Martin (pictured here in 1994) received criticism for satirizing New Orleans
The musical within the episode includes a controversial song depicting the New Orleans which existed during the period in time A Streetcar Named Desire was set in, referring to the city as a "home of pirates, drunks and whores", among other things. Jeff Martin, the writer of the episode, intended for the song to be a parody of a song in Sweeney Todd, which speaks of Victorian-era London in unflattering terms ("There's No Place Like London"). Martin said: "The whole story of it is just me imitating Stephen Sondheim." Al Jean later explained that two Cajun characters were supposed to walk out of the theater in disgust, but none of the voice actors could provide a convincing Cajun accent. An early version of the scene can be seen in an animatic included in the DVD boxset. Several local radio stations also held on-air protests in response to the song.
At the urging of WNOL, Fox president Jamie Kellner released a statement on October 1, 1992:
The Simpsons<nowiki>'</nowiki> producers rushed out a chalkboard gag for "Homer the Heretic", which aired a week after "A Streetcar Named Marge". It reads, "I will not defame New Orleans." The gag was their attempt to apologize for the song and hopefully bring the controversy to an end. The issue passed quickly, and a person in a Bart Simpson costume even served as Krewe of Tucks Grand Marshal at the 1993 New Orleans Mardi Gras.
The episode generated further controversy in September 2005, when Channel 4 in the United Kingdom decided to air the episode a week after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Arguing that the episode was an insensitive choice, given recent events, several viewers filed complaints with Ofcom. Two days later, Channel 4 apologized on-air and directly contacted all those who had complained. Channel 4 had screened the episode for offensive content, but the reviews focused on the main content of the episode, and the song was not considered a key part of the plot. Channel 4 promised to update their review process to ensure that similar incidents would not occur.