"Some Enchanted Evening" is the thirteenth and final episode of the first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was originally broadcast on Fox in the United States on May 13, 1990. A family drama, it had a very long delayed release. Written by Matt Groening and Sam Simon and directed by David Silverman and Kent Butterworth, "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first episode produced for season one and was intended to air as the series premiere in fall 1989, but aired as the season one finale due to animation problems. The Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" premiered in its place on December 17, 1989. It is the last episode to feature the original opening sequence starting from "Bart the Genius". In the episode, Homer and Marge go on a night out while leaving the children under the care of a diabolical babysitter named Ms. Lucille "Botz" Botzcowski, who is found to be a wanted criminal.

Penny Marshall provided the voice of Ms. Botz. The episode features cultural references to such films as The Night of the Hunter and Psycho as well as a musical reference to A Star Is Born.

Since its initial broadcast, the episode has received mixed reviews. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 15.4 and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

Plot

Marge is depressed that Homer, Bart, Lisa, and even Maggie take her for granted. Marge phones Dr. Marvin Monroe's call-in therapy radio slot. Listening to the call at work, Homer feels bad when Marge reveals his name on the radio. After work, he visits Moe's Tavern, where Moe advises him to give Marge a rose and a box of chocolates. Marge's mood softens and Homer invites her to go dancing, dine at a fancy restaurant, and spend the night at a motel.

Marge and Homer hire Ms. Botz through a babysitting service to watch the kids, after the receptionist originally rejected Marge's request and then Homer called the service himself using the surname Sampson. Botz puts Maggie to bed while Bart and Lisa watch The Happy Little Elves. After Bart changes the television to America's Most Armed and Dangerous, Bart and Lisa scream in horror when they realize that Botz is a wanted burglar, dubbed the 'Babysitter Bandit'. Realizing her cover is blown, she prevents them from escaping and calling for help. Botz ties up the kids (and gags Bart's mouth with tape) and packs the family's possessions into her suitcases. Maggie wakes up, goes downstairs and finds Bart and Lisa; they try to get her attention, but she focuses on the Happy Little Elves. As the video ends, Maggie attempts to watch it again, and Lisa tells her she can if she unties her and Bart. While Ms. Botz is still cleaning up, she sees that Maggie is out of her crib. Bart lures Ms. Botz into his room, and knocks her out with a baseball bat.

Realizing Botz cut the telephone line, the kids go to a local phone booth and call the producers of America's Most Armed and Dangerous. When Marge and Homer are unable to reach Ms. Botz by phone, they return home early to find her bound and gagged. Unaware she is a wanted criminal, Homer and Marge free her and pay her handsomely. She flees just as the kids arrive with the police and news reporters. Homer, thinking this is one of their naughty tricks, quickly grabs Bart, saying how he and Marge had untied her. However, reporters tell him that Ms. Botz is a wanted criminal. Realizing his blunder, he lies to the media, and thinking all that hard work was for nothing, Homer is embarrassed. When a television newscast identifies him as a 'local boob', Marge assures him he must be doing something right if he raised three children who can hogtie a stranger, making Homer feel better.

Production

Even though this episode aired as the season finale of the first season, it was the first episode in production and was intended to be the first episode to air from the half-hour show. The Simpsons is a spin-off from The Tracey Ullman Show in which the family already appeared in a series of animated one-minute shorts. The characters were already created, but had to be further developed in order to carry a half-hour show. The episode was therefore meant as an introduction to the characters. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and writer/producer Sam Simon (of such television series as Cheers) wrote the script for the episode. Both Groening and Simon are credited with developing the series, along with executive producer James L. Brooks. The name "Ms. Botz" was based on a real person who had once babysat Groening.

thumb|[[James L. Brooks strongly criticized the initial version of the episode]]

The episode was first directed by Kent Butterworth. Klasky Csupo, the animation studio that produced the earlier Simpsons shorts, was in charge of the animation, with one exception. During the years of producing the shorts, everything was created in-house. As a budgetary consideration, production was subcontracted to South Korean animation studio AKOM. While character and background layout was done in Los Angeles, inbetweening, coloring and filming is done by the overseas studio.

The producers felt the animation did not exhibit a distinct style envisioned for the show. At the time, there were only a few choices for animation style; usually, animators would follow the styles of Disney, Warner Bros., or Hanna-Barbera. Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons tended to be set in pliable universes in which the characters and environments seemed to be made of rubber. This ensured more time could be spent fixing the animation problems and rewriting much of this episode. Directorial retakes were handled by David Silverman, who already had considerable experience directing the shorts. so the showrunners simply ignored the censors. In this episode, Moe Szyslak was originally voiced by Christopher Collins, but when Hank Azaria came up with his version, they decided to have Hank Azaria replace Christopher Collins as the voice of Moe in all later appearances.

The scene of Ms. Botz handing Bart the Happy Little Elves VHS and telling him that he, Lisa, and Maggie were going to watch it or else was animated by Dan Haskett, who had previously animated the scene of Bart's confession in the episode "Bart the Genius".

Reception

thumb|left|upright|Penny Marshall was named one of AOL's 25 favorite guest stars.

In its original broadcast, "Some Enchanted Evening" finished 12th for the week in the Nielsen ratings with a rating of 15.4, being seen by approximately 14.2 million homes. The episode was the highest-rated show on Fox that week. said: "It's quite a shock to discover that this confident, fully rounded episode was the first to be made. The perfect template." In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck rated the episode a (of 5).

According to Al Jean, viewers thought this episode was the best episode of the first season after the season ended. Penny Marshall, who played Ms. Botz, ranked on AOL's list of their favorite 25 Simpsons guest stars.

References

;Bibliography