The Telltale Head

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The Simpsons episode
"The Telltale Head"
A guilty Bart watches as Springfield residents discover the beheaded Jebediah Springfield statue
Episode no.	8
Prod. code	7G07
Orig. airdate	February 25, 1990
Written by	Al Jean Mike Reiss Sam Simon Matt Groening
Directed by	Rich Moore
Chalkboard	"I did not see Elvis"; one line reads "I did see Elvis"
Couch gag	Bart is squeezed off the couch, flies out of frame, and lands in front of the TV.
DVD commentary	Rich Moore Al Jean Mike Reiss
Season 1 December 17, 1989 – May 13, 1990
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" "Bart the Genius" "Homer's Odyssey" "There's No Disgrace Like Home" "Bart the General" "Moaning Lisa" "The Call of the Simpsons" "The Telltale Head" "Life on the Fast Lane" "Homer's Night Out" "The Crepes of Wrath" "Krusty Gets Busted" "Some Enchanted Evening"
List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20

"The Telltale Head" was the eighth episode of The Simpsons. The episode deals with Bart pulling a questionable stunt that shocks the entire town. The title is a play on Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cultural references 3 Debut Appearances 4 Deleted Scenes 5 Legacy 6 Trivia 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

Homer and Bart are chased through the streets of Springfield by an angry mob while carrying the head of the statue of their town founder. Someone has sawn off the head of the statue of town founder Jebediah Springfield. Surrounded by the surly crowd, Bart pleads for understanding and relates the events of the previous day. As the story unfolds, Bart borrows $5.00 from Homer and sneaks away to see Space Mutants IV at the local movie theater. On his way, he runs into a gang of troublemakers. One of them, Jimbo, invites Bart to sneak into the movies with him and his buddies.

Later, as the boys throw rocks at Jebediah's statue, Jimbo wishes someone would cut off the statue's head. When Bart tries to defend the town's hero, Jimbo and the boys laugh at him. To be "cool," Bart sneaks out of the house that night and saws the statue's head off.

The next day, all of Springfield grieves the despicable deed done on the town founder. Bart finds Jimbo and his pals and discovers they are as distraught as everyone else. Jimbo tells Bart that the decapitating was just cloud talk and they hope to meet the 'one who done this,' so they can break every bone on his body. Feeling scared, Bart decides not to tell. Feeling remorse, Bart returns home and confesses to his family. As Homer (who also feels more than a little responsible for this incident) takes Bart to place the head back on the statue, they are confronted by the angry mob. Bart tells the crowd that his act has united the town and taught people to appreciate their heritage. The townspeople agree, the head is placed back into the statue, and Bart is forgiven.

[edit] Cultural references

• The episode title is a reference to the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. In addition, Bart actually hears the head talking when he is overcome with guilt.^[1]
• The Bridge over the River Kwai - the line "What have I done?"
• Bart awakening to a find the head of Jebediah Springfield in bed next to him is a reference to the famous scene in The Godfather where Jack Woltz finds the head of his prize racehorse next to him one morning.^[1]
• Homer reads about a bowling ball called "The Hammer of Thor" that will "send your pins to Valhalla."
• When Bart wakes up, he says "Top of the world, Ma!", referring to the final scene of White Heat.

[edit] Debut Appearances

Characters making a first appearance in this episode are:

• Reverend Timothy Lovejoy
• Krusty the Clown (Although he had already appeared in the Tracey Ullman Shorts)
• Sideshow Bob, although his first speaking role is in Krusty Gets Busted and in this episode he has a normal round afro
• Jimbo Jones
• Kearney Zzyzwicz
• Dolphin "Dolph" Starbeam
• Ms. Albright (Sunday School Teacher)
• Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

[edit] Deleted Scenes

The Season 1 DVD boxset is missing two scenes from the episode: one where Bart told the crowd that, after decapitating the town statue, he realized he was taking his heritage for granted (an issue that would later resurface in Season 7's "Lisa the Iconoclast"), and another with church bells ringing. It is rumoured that these scenes, which add up to 28 seconds, were added to comply with an FCC regulation that all cartoons must include this length of educational content. The DVD does, however, contain two scenes that were not in the original broadcast; an extended remark from Otto ("It's beautiful, man!"; "man" was not in the original broadcast), and Homer telling Bart that "most lynch mobs aren't this nice". These scenes add to five seconds; note, however, that the run time for this episode on the Season 1 DVD set is 22:42, and the run time for its original broadcast is 23:05. Bart mentions earlier in the episode that the story takes "about 23 minutes and five seconds" to tell; the story itself is only 17 minutes and 10 seconds, though this more likely refers to the length of the full episode.

[edit] Legacy

This episode has been referenced twice in the television series South Park. In "Simpsons Already Did It", Butters, as "Professor Chaos" cuts the head off a statue in South Park to wreak havoc on society, but is foiled when he realizes that, not only have The Simpsons already done this, but the townspeople would prefer to leave the statue headless in order to be reminded of The Simpsons. Second, in "Cartoon Wars Part II", Cartman visits the FOX studios in order to convince the network president to cancel Family Guy, but, before he can have a meeting with him, he finds Bart Simpson (in a reference to the fact that many of The Simpsons writers, like Matt Stone and Trey Parker, also dislike Family Guy) has an appointment ahead of him. When Cartman asks Bart what the worst thing he's ever done is, Bart replies "I cut the head off a statue once", to which Cartman wins the argument when he said that, "I once didn't like a kid, so I chopped his parents up into chili and fed it to him", a reference to the South Park episode Scott Tenorman Must Die.

[edit] Trivia

• Announcer: "Wolodarsky takes it at the 5... oh my, he fumbles," reference to show writer-producer Wallace Wolodarsky.
• This is the first episode in which Tress MacNeille takes part.
• This is one of six Simpsons episodes to display the title on the screen, excluding the Treehouse of Horror episodes. The others are "Bart Gets Hit by a Car", "22 Short Films About Springfield", "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", "Lisa's Substitute" and "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular".
• This is the first episode where Bart is seen skateboarding outside of the introduction.
• In The Simpsons Road Rage, if the player drives into the Jebediah Springfield Statue, the head falls off.
• In The Simpsons Hit and Run, the player can remove the head with a kick or by driving into it.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, p. 24. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 

[edit] External links

• "The Telltale Head" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "The Telltale Head" at the Internet Movie Database