A Streetcar Named Marge
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"A Streetcar Named Marge" is the second episode of The Simpsons' fourth season. The episode faced controversy from New Orleans, Louisiana due to a song in which it describes the city negatively (lyrics seen below). The writers apologized for this in the next episode, in which in the opening Bart repeatedly writes "I will not defame New Orleans" on the blackboard.
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[edit] Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Marge is cast in the role of Blanche DuBois in Oh! Streetcar, the musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire directed by the flamboyant Llewellyn Sinclair at the Springfield Community Center. Homer isn't very supportive of Marge's interest in acting, so she uses her anger towards him for inspiration in some of the play's more emotional moments. Acting opposite Ned Flanders as Stanley Kowalski, Marge gets so absorbed in her role that at one point she attacks Ned with a broken bottle while practicing. Meanwhile, Maggie has been placed in day care at the Ayn Rand School for Tots and leads a rebellion against the strict caretaker, who confiscates all of the babies' pacifiers. Watching Marge perform in the play, Homer is moved and realizes he should have been more supportive.
[edit] Trivia
- The writers intended to use A Streetcar Named Desire (which is not a musical) for the production at the focus of the episode. However, they were not able to obtain permission from the play's copyright holder. The decision was made to turn it into a musical parody, which would allow them to use the same concept without quoting any dialogue from the original script.
- When Apu takes off his shirt during the audition, you can see bullet scars, probably from past Kwik-E-Mart robberies.
- Some people of New Orleans complained about the material in the episode's musical parody. Oh! Streetcar! referred to the city as "home of pirates, drunks, and whores", among other things. (Writer Jeff Martin has said that this was intended as a spoof of the opening number in Sweeney Todd.) In response to the complaints, the producers "apologized" in the blackboard gag of the next episode, as Bart writes, "I will not defame New Orleans."
- The UK channel Channel 4 aired this episode on 7 September 2005, just over a week after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Two days later, Channel 4 apologised on-air (before a showing of "Lisa the Beauty Queen"). In subsequent screenings the controversial song referring to New Orleans has been omitted, or else the episode has not been shown at all.
- This episode reveals that Ned Flanders has a muscular figure underneath his clothing, similar to the conceit used for Groundskeeper Willie (who was also revealed to be very muscular despite the gut he has when clothed in Radio Bart).
- Alfred Hitchcock can be seen walking his dogs on the sidewalk past the daycare in a scene reminiscent of The Birds (film). Hitchcock made cameo appearances in many of his films, including The Birds.
- When the children are warning Maggie that Ms. Sinclair is coming, the picture that the toddler popped out of the book was a bunny from Matt Groening's "Life in Hell."
- Homer is playing a bowling video game on his GameBoy when Marge denounces Homer's feigned interest in her play, saying there would be little bowling in it.
[edit] Cultural references
- Bart's line in cockney, "Can I slug off school tomorrow, got a pain in me gulliver?" is a reference to "A Clockwork Orange"
- Oh! Streetcar! is a parody of A Streetcar Named Desire.
- The title Oh! Streetcar! is a reference to the Broadway play Oh! Calcutta!
- Llewellyn Sinclair throwing change to the ground when Homer demands money for the coin exchange alludes to the Thernadier Waltz Of Treachery from Les Miserables, when Jean Valjean throws a handful of coins in outrage over negotiating Cosette's adoption.
- Maggie's daycare center is called Ayn Rand's School for Tots, an obvious reference to author and philosopher Ayn Rand. The episode contains many references to Rand's novels and Objectivist philosophy, such as Ms. Sinclair (the daycare administrator) reading a book called The Fountainhead Diet, a reference to Rand's novel The Fountainhead. On the wall of the daycare is a poster that reads "Helping is Futile", an allusion to Rand's rejection of the ethical doctrine of altruism. Another wall sign reads "A is A," the law of identity, which plays a central role in Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.
- Maggie's escapades in the School for Tots greatly resemble the movie The Great Escape; Alf Clausen was actually allowed to use the real score of the movie for this episode. The film is spoofed when Maggie is caught attempting to retrieve her pacifier in the daycare center and also when she is taken to the "box" with a ball given by another baby (note Hilts when he is taken into solitude.)
- Maggie plays Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies on the xylophone.
- In the opening scene featuring the Miss American Girl beauty pageant, one of the judges is Mr. Boswell, who purportedly releases an annual "worst dressed" list. He is a parody of Mr. Blackwell.
- In the scene where Homer, Bart and Lisa pick up Maggie from the daycare center before attending Oh! Streetcar!, the babies are perched all over the building, staring at the family and quietly sucking on pacifiers. This is a spoof of a similar shot in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. When Homer and the kids leave, Hitchcock can be seen walking his dogs on the sidewalk past the daycare.
- Homer is shown to be playing with a shredded playbill during the play. This is a reference to the opera scene in Citizen Kane.
- The Miss American Girl pageant opens with the contestants singing the slightly modified first verse of Janis Ian's hit "At Seventeen".
- One of the babies behind the one reading the pop-up book resembles Charlie Brown.
- Maggie is shown searching for a replacement pacifier, and in doing so suckles a Bart Simpson figurine, only to find it dissatisfactory. This is clearly a reference to the swiftly increasing popularity of the show and the abundance of merchandise that came with it.
[edit] External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
- "A Streetcar Named Marge" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
