The Day the Violence Died
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The Day the Violence Died is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season.
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[edit] Synopsis
During a parade honouring Itchy and Scratchy, Bart meets an elderly poor bum, Chester J. Lampwick, who claims to have been the creator of Itchy. After he proved it to Bart with his animated short "Manhattan Madness" from 1919, the film itself is destroyed by its showing. Bart decides to take Lampwick to his house, where he becomes a big problem for the family. They wanted him to leave, but Bart doesn't want him to live as a bum forever. Lampwick then decides, with the help of Bart and Lionel Hutz, to sue Itchy and Scratchy Studios for $800,000,000,000. The trial becomes weak for Lampwick until Bart suddenly remembers he saw an original animation cell by Lampwick for sale by Comic Book Guy. He buys it quickly with Homer's money, and to think, the inscription on the cell proves Lampwick to have been the true creator of Itchy. Roger Myers Jr., chairman of Itchy and Scratchy Studios, admits that his father (who is the founder of the Studios) did steal Itchy from Lampwick, but still rebuffs at him by saying that animation is built is plagarism. Nevertheless, the studio is bankrupted by their restitution to Lampwick, much to his relief.
When Bart and Lisa discover that Itchy and Scratchy has been replaced by a clever parody of Schoolhouse Rock, they frantically search for a way to resurrect the cartoon. After Lampwick (who now owns a handful of money, a solid gold house, and a rocket car) refuses to underwrite it, they stumble upon an obscure animation legal precedent that would do the trick, only to discover that two other young enterprising kids, Lester and Eliza (who resemble the early crude caricatures of Bart and Lisa from The Tracey Ullman Show), have beaten them to it by discovering that post office mascot Mr. Zip had been ripped off from the studio and secured a large cash settlement from the government. Additionally, the two had been solving other Springfieldian problems (Apu's public nudity case and Krusty's reuniting with his estranged wife.) Bart and Lisa leave, disturbed that their spotlight has been stolen, and the audience never learns the legal precedent that Bart and Lisa had discovered. The episode ends with Lester skateboarding by the Simpson home, in a sinister way.
[edit] Trivia
- The first Itchy and Scratchy cartoon "Steamboat Itchy" first appeared in the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie". The credits read: Written, Directed, and Created by Roger Myers; Music by Roger Myers and George Gershwin, Produced by Roger Myers and Joseph P. Kennedy.
- Homer Groening, Matt Groening's father, died two days before this episode aired.
- Chester's inscription on the original Itchy drawing reads; "To Roger Myers: Keep drawing - your moxie more than makes up for your lack of talent. Your pal, Chester J. Lampwick, Sept 3, 1919".
- The Lester and Eliza drawings are very similar to the original drawings of Bart and Lisa used in the Tracey Ullman Show.
- One of Lionel Hutz's surprise witnesses is Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder, who wrote the episode.
- It is revealed on the DVD comentary for this episode that Matt Groening originally wanted a family of mice to live in the Simpsons house, it is also mentioned that the doorways in the Simpsons house resemble Homer's head.
- The first part of the Schoolhouse Rock parody reappears in "Bart-Mangled Banner".
- Lampwick's house and rocket-powered car are seen in The Simpsons: Hit and Run; the latter can be driven on the first level.
- According to the DVD commentary, during the "I'm Just a Bill" parody, the amendment whooping is Josh Weistein's voice.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of the episode is a reference to The Day The Music Died.
- The cartoon "Itchy and Scratchy Meets Fritz The Cat" is a reference to the 1972 animated film Fritz the Cat that depicted drug use and sexual situations openly and was the first animated movie to be rated X (in the days before the NC-17 rating).
- The "Schoolhouse Rock" segment ("Amendment To Be") is a parody of I'm Just a Bill. Both it and "I'm Just a Bill" were performed by entertainer Jack Sheldon.
- The character Roger Meyers, Sr. is based on Walt Disney, and many of the situations from this episode have their basis in fact or legend about the mogul. The relationship between Roger Meyers, Sr., and Chester J. Lampwick mirrors the real-life relationship between Disney and his chief animator in the 1920s, Ub Iwerks, who has been credited by some as having co-created Mickey Mouse.
- The first Itchy & Scratchy cartoon entitled Steamboat Itchy which was created in 1928, is in reference to Steamboat Willie, the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon which was also created in 1928.
- In this episode, Roger Meyers Jr. points out the well observed fact that many cartoons, especially the early 1960s Hanna-Barbara, are plagiarized live-action television shows and deeply resemble celebrities of the time. Examples include The Flintstones being a copy of The Honeymooners, Top Cat being based on Sgt. Bilko and, in one of the occasional times the show breaks the fourth wall, The Simpsons character Chief Wiggum being an animated counterpart of Edward G. Robinson. Wiggum, in the court at the time, looks at Meyers when he says the latter.
- The relationship between Roger Meyers, Sr. and Chester J. Lampwick also mirrors that of the creators of Felix the Cat: Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer. Like Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, Pat Sullivan owned the cartoon studio and took all the credit, and it wasn't revealed until much later that Otto Messmer had been chiefly responsible for most of Felix's early development.
- Roger Meyers, Sr., is again compared to Walt Disney when Joseph P. Kennedy is listed as a producer on Meyers' "Steamboat Itchy" cartoon in this episode. Walt Disney's cartoons were distributed to movie theatres from 1936 to 1952 by RKO, a movie studio founded when three Kennedy-owned companies merged with RCA in 1928. However, it should be noted that Joseph Kennedy sold all of his RKO stock in 1931 due to pressures from the Depression, so Disney and Kennedy never, in fact, worked together in Hollywood.
- During the Schoolhouse Rock parody, after the amendment is ratified, a character runs past the screen and imitates Curly Howard's trademark whooping noise.
- In a scene usually cut for syndication, Roger Meyers, Jr. mentions that with the bankruptcy of Itchy and Scratchy Studios he could no longer afford to keep his father's head in the cryogenic lab. Then it is shown he has to keep it in a styrofoam cooler in the motel room he is living in. This is based on the rumor that Walt Disney is frozen in a cryogenic lab somewhere.
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