Lisa's Sax

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The Simpsons episode
"Lisa's Sax"
Lisa reading the inscription on her saxophone "Dear Lisa: May Your New Saxophone Bring You Years Of D'oh!"
Episode no. 181
Prod. code 3G02
Orig. airdate October 19, 1997
Show runner(s) Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Written by Al Jean
Directed by Dominic Polcino
Chalkboard "I no longer want my MTV"[1]
Couch gag Homer is a Russian nesting doll that twists himself off and reveals each family members’s top halves.[2]
Guest star(s) Fyvush Finkel as himself playing Krusty
DVD
commentary		 Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Dominic Polcino
Season 9
September 21, 1997 – May 17, 1998
  1. "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"
  2. "The Principal and the Pauper"
  3. "Lisa's Sax"
  4. "Treehouse of Horror VIII"
  5. "The Cartridge Family"
  6. "Bart Star"
  7. "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons"
  8. "Lisa the Skeptic"
  9. "Realty Bites"
  10. "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace"
  11. "All Singing, All Dancing"
  12. "Bart Carny"
  13. "The Joy of Sect"
  14. "Das Bus"
  15. "The Last Temptation of Krust"
  16. "Dumbbell Indemnity"
  17. "Lisa the Simpson"
  18. "This Little Wiggy"
  19. "Simpson Tide"
  20. "The Trouble with Trillions"
  21. "Girly Edition"
  22. "Trash of the Titans"
  23. "King of the Hill"
  24. "Lost Our Lisa"
  25. "Natural Born Kissers"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

"Lisa's Sax" is the third episode of The Simpsons' ninth season and originally aired on the Fox network on December 19, 1997.[3] In the series' sixth flashback episode, it is explained how Lisa got her saxophone. The episode was executive produced by Al Jean and Mike Reiss and was the first episode Jean wrote by himself as all of his previous writing credits has been shared with Reiss. It was directed by Dominic Polcino and guest stars Fyvush Finkel, who appeared as himself portraying Krusty in a film.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Lisa as a toddler.
Lisa as a toddler.

Homer and Bart watch a TV movie called The Krusty the Clown Story: Booze, Drugs, Guns, Lies, Blackmail and Laughter, but they keep getting interrupted by Lisa playing her saxophone in her bedroom. Homer asks her to stop and Lisa responds that she has to have an hour of practice everyday. Bart enters Lisa's bedroom and tries to grab the saxophone from her but he inadvertently tosses it out the window. It lands in the middle of the street and is run over by a car and a truck. In a period of mourning, Lisa reveals she cannot remember ever not having that saxophone, so Homer recounts the instrument's origins.

In a flashback to 1990, Bart goes to his first day of school, but things do not go so well for him. Bart's initial enthusiasm was crushed by an uncaring teacher and he drew a violent sketch of his feelings. Marge became worried that something was truly wrong with him. It was during discussions of Bart's future that the school psychologist realized the young Lisa completed a complicated puzzle of Taj Mahal. The psychologist told Homer and Marge that they needed to nurture her gifted spirit. They tried to send Lisa to a private school but the tuition fee cost $6,000. Meanwhile, a terrible heat wave hit Springfield and Homer saves $200 to buy an air conditioner. Marge asks Homer not to buy one until they figure out how to help Lisa. At the school, Bart talks with his future friend Milhouse and makes a funny gesture, which Milhouse finds funny. He entertains a group of children with rude words and when Principal Skinner tells him to stop, Bart replies with his infamous catchphrase, "eat my shorts".

Meanwhile, Homer discovers that a musical instrument is a way to encourage a gifted child. He sacrifices his air conditioner money to buy Lisa her first saxophone. He asked the clerk to engrave on the sax: "Dear Lisa. Never forget your daddy loves d'oh!", as Homer drops the saxophone on his foot. In the present, Homer complains that the house has had no air conditioner for many years, but decides to buy another saxophone for Lisa.

[edit] Production

"Lisa's Sax" is the first episode that Al Jean had ever been credited as having written by himself. Before this episode, all of his writing credits had been shared with Mike Reiss.[4] The episode was written with a small staff that consisted of Jean, Reiss and David Stern, among others. According to Jean, the final episode contained 80-90% of Jean's original script.[5] It is the sixth flashback episode done by the show. "The Way We Was" was the first flashback episode and in it, Homer graduated from high school in 1974 and that made it difficult to have a realistic timeframe as this episode is set in 1990.[5] Jean conceived the idea for the All in the Family style opening while waiting to get tickets to the OJ Simpson murder trial.[5] The episode was very short and the clip of Lisa playing the sax at the end was added to lengthen it.[5]

The pastel drawing of Krusty was drawn entirely by Dominic Polcino. It was an easy episode for Polcino to direct due to the lack of crowds and being a "grounded episode".[6] This is the last episode in which Doris Grau has a speaking role as Lunchlady Doris, although this episode aired nearly two years after her death. It would also mark the final time the character would speak until Season 18's "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer" when she was voiced by Tress MacNeille.[7]

[edit] Cultural references

While telling Bart and Lisa about 1990, Homer says "The Tracey Ullman Show was entertaining America with...crudely-drawn filler material". This is a reference to The Simpsons' debut as "bumpers" airing before and after the show's commercials.[2] The song "Those Were the Days" parodies the opening credits of the television show All in the Family.[5] When Lisa's saxophone gets run over, one of the people who runs over it is a man on a tricycle, who promptly falls over. This is a reference the show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.[5] At the beginning of the flashback, the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin can be heard.[5] In the flashback, Dr. Hibbert fashioned his hair and attire like Mr. T in The A-Team.[5] Homer can be seen watching Twin Peaks and The Giant is then shown waltzing with a white horse.[2] Al Jean bears a stiking resemblance to the kid who eats worms, on the commentary track he explains that he used to eat worms as a kid and this was a joke Mike Reiss had put in. In King Toot's music store, when Homer buys Lisa her first saxophone there is a guitar in the background that is similar to Eddie Van Halen's "Frankenstrat" guitar.[4] The song that plays when Lisa gets her new sax is Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty.

[edit] Reception

The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "a terrific episode, full of amusing self-referential wit and it is especially nice to finally discover what it was that caused Bart to go down the path to the darkside."[2] A review of The Simpsons season 9 DVD release in The San Diego Union-Tribune highlighted "Lisa's Sax" along with "All Singing, All Dancing" and "Trash of the Titans" as some of the more memorable episodes of the series.[8] Stephen Becker of The Dallas Morning News noted that season 9 "has a special affinity for Lisa," and highlighted this episode along with "Das Bus" and "Lisa the Simpson" in his review of the DVD.[9] A segment of the episode where two schoolgirls chant the digits of pi while playing patty-cake is used by mathematicians Sarah J. Greenwald of Appalachian State University and Andrew Nestler of Santa Monica College in a website on the mathematics of The Simpsons.[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gimple, Scott M. (December 1, 1999). The Simpsons Forever!: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ...Continued. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060987633. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). Lisa's Sax. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
  3. ^ Lisa's Sax. The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
  4. ^ a b Reiss, Mike. (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa's Sax" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Jean, Al. (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa's Sax" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ Polcino, Dominic. (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa's Sax" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ Lunchlady Doris (Character). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
  8. ^ Dixon, David. "ON DVD: 'The Simpsons – The Complete Ninth Season'", The San Diego Union-Tribune, Union-Tribune Publishing Co., January 6, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-11. 
  9. ^ Becker, Stephen. "DVD review: The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season", The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Morning News, Inc., December 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-12-11. 
  10. ^ Staff. "Tune into math The Simpsons way.(Grades 9-12)", Curriculum Review, December 1, 2003. (See also their website, http://www.simpsonsmath.com/)

[edit] External links

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