You Only Move Twice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"You Only Move Twice" is the second episode of The Simpsons' eighth season, which originally aired November 3, 1996.[1] It was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Mike B. Anderson.[2] The episode title is a reference to the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and many elements of the episode are based on the various Bond films. Guest starring Albert Brooks as Hank Scorpio in his fourth Simpsons guest spot.[2]
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[edit] Synopsis
Homer, the second most senior man at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, is offered a job at the Globex Corportation. Later, he informs his family that it pays better, but involves moving the family over to Cypress Creek. The Simpsons watch a video about Cypress Creek and see that it is much nicer than Springfield and decide to move there. Abandoning their house, the family packs up and leaves "Stink Town".
After arriving at their new house at 15201 Maple Systems Road, Homer's new boss, Hank Scorpio, immediately introduces himself. Scorpio, who seems like the perfect boss, takes a shine to Homer and places Homer as chief motivator in the Nuclear division. Meanwhile, Bart starts school, but he soon finds that his new class is far above his standards of his class in Springfield, Lisa discovers she is allergic to all of the wildlife and Bart is placed in the remedial class. Marge tries to do her daily chores, but their new house automatically does them, leading to her drinking a glass of wine.
The next day, Homer decides to motivate his team by buying them hammocks and he visits Scorpio to ask where he can get some business hammocks. Scorpio begins to tell Homer of "the Hammock district" but is interrupted by some urgent business. He turns to a screen and threatens the United Nations by blowing up a bridge and saying they have 72 hours. Scorpio continues acting like an evil genius throughout the episode by working on a giant laser and trying to kill a "Mr. Bont", but Homer remains oblivious to everything.
At dinner, Homer proudly tells of how good he is doing at work, but he discovers that his family want to go back to Springfield. Dejected, Homer goes to visit Scorpio in the midst of a fire fight between Scorpio's men and the government. Homer asks Scorpio what to do and Scorpio says that Homer should do whats best for his family. Scorpio straps on a flamethrower and makes his escape while Homer sadly walks away.
The next day, the family returns to Springfield and Homer receives a present from Scorpio - The Denver Broncos.[1][3][4][5]
[edit] Production
The original idea for the episode came from a story by Greg Daniels.[6] There are three big conceptual ideas in this episode: The Simpson family moving out of Springfield, which the writers at first hoped would fool the audience into thinking was a permanent move. The second, which Josh Weinstein feels worked really well, was Homer getting a new Silicon Valley type Steve Jobs-esque modern boss who would be a contrast to Mr. Burns, who is an old fashioned style boss. The world domination bit of the story was meant to always be in the background and Homer was supposed to be completely oblivious to it.[6] The third was that Homer's new boss was a great guy, but was a stereotypical Ernst Stavro Blofeld-type boss.[6] Cypress Creek was originally called "Emerald Caverns" and it stayed that way for a long time[7] but was eventually changed in favour of Cypress Creek, which the writers felt was more of a Silicon Valley-esque name.[6] The goal was to give every family member their own story and the writing staff hotly debated the story about Marge's descent into alcoholism.[6] Although the man who Homer tackles is an obvious reference to James Bond, there was a legal debate over whether they could call the man Bond or not. In the end, his name was changed to "Mr. Bont" which is as close as the writers could get to the name.[6] The sign at the school "www.studynet.edu" is a joke that the school is so advanced that it has its own website because at the time, schools having their own websites was rare. Josh Weinstein has said that it is one of the most dated jokes in the show.[6]
For this episode, entirely new set pieces were needed.[8] In the original animatic, Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II were not included. This was eventually noticed and the animators had to go back and add them, even though they are not a part of the story.[8]
In one scene, where Homer and Scorpio are talking, some "creative directing" had to be put into effect. The scene started out with a full shot of Homer, Scorpio and the workers, but it zoomed in to just focus on Homer and Scorpio. However, in the scene, you would have seen the tops of the employees heads. The director wanted only Scorpio and Homer to be seen and thus the employees were made to be lying on their desks so that they would be out of the shot, but sit up the second the camera pulls out. This was done solely to keep them out of the shot and the employees lying down was not mentioned by Homer.[8]
The coffeemaker in the Simpsons house is based on director Mike B. Anderson's coffeemaker.[8] The final scene at Globex contains several references to big action films. Mrs. Goodthighs from the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale makes an appearance[9] and can be seen attacking a character modelled after American American army general Norman Schwarzkopf.[6]
Brooks ad-libbed most of his lines and was always redoing his lines. In the end, there were over 2 hours of recordings.[7] While writing the episode, the writers did not worry too much about Scorpio's lines because they knew Brooks would ad lib most of them[6] although Scorpio's final line was written by the Simpsons staff.[7] Scorpio and Globex are based on the 90s "employee friendly" management.[6] It is a common misconception that Scorpio was modelled after Richard Branson, which he was not.[6] At first, Scorpio's design was considerably different but the writers settled on the current design.[8]
[edit] Cultural references
The song at the end of the show is a parody of various Bond themes and was written by Ken Keeler.[7] The episode title and many references are from the Bond film You Only Live Twice. There are also references to several other Bond films, such as Sean Connery's Bond is tackled by Homer and killed.[6] Not long after this episode aired, the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl.[9]
[edit] Reception
Hank Scorpio is the favourite Albert Brooks voiced character of many fans[6] and IGN.com named Albert Brooks' performance as Hank Scorpio the best guest spot in the show's history.[10] IGN also named the episode the best of the eighth season, saying "The episode is a wonderful example of slowly building up the comedy," and, "it's impossible to fathom this one not being very high up on any list of the best Simpsons episodes of all time."[11] and The episode earned an 8.7/10 on IMDB,[12] and a 9.4/10 out on TV.com.[13]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d "You Only Move Twice" The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on March 27, 2007
- ^ a b c d e Homer's Enemy BBC.co.uk. Retrieved on March 27, 2007
- ^ a b Martyn, Warren; Adrian Wood (2000). I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0495-2.
- ^ Episode Capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- ^ Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, p. 173. ISBN 0-00063-8898-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Weinstein, Josh. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c d Keeler, Ken. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c d e f Anderson, Mike B.. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Castellaneta, Dan. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Goldman, Eric; Iverson, Dan; Zoromski, Brian. Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances. IGN. Retrieved on March 25, 2007.
- ^ Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski (2006-09-08). The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes. IGN.com. Retrieved on March 25, 2007.
- ^ You Only Move Twice IMDB. Retrieved on March 27, 2007
- ^ You Only Move Twice TV.com. Retrieved on March 27, 2007
[edit] External links
- "You Only Move Twice" at The Simpsons.com
- "You Only Move Twice" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "You Only Move Twice" at TV.com
- "You Only Move Twice" at the Internet Movie Database
