"Natural Born Kissers" is the season finale of The Simpsons' ninth season which originally aired on the Fox network on May 17, 1998.[3] Homer and Marge discover that the fear of getting caught while making love is a turn on and start making love in public places. This episode is rated TV-PG DS. It was the first episode written by Matt Selman and was the only episode to be directed by Klay Hall.[2] Some networks list the episode by the title: "Margie, May I Sleep With Danger?"[4][5]
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It is Homer and Marge's eleventh wedding anniversary and Grampa does not arrive at the Simpsons house to babysit the children (having mistakenly gone to Ned Flanders' house). As a result, they decide take Bart, Lisa and Maggie to a fancy restaurant with them. However, Bart objects and takes them to a family restaurant shaped like an airplane, which spoils Homer and Marge's evening together. Later that evening, Homer and Marge attempt to have sex, but lack enthusiasm. The following day, it is discovered Homer left the freezer door open (he had found a piece of cake from their wedding that had been there for years), causing the refrigerator motor to burn out. Homer and Marge make their way to a hardware store to buy another motor, but the car gets stuck in the muddy driveway in the middle of farm country. Homer and Marge rush into the nearest barn to avoid a sudden storm. A farmer discovers the barn door is open and suspects trespassers. He enters the barn, nearly catching Homer and Marge, who are hiding in the hay loft, but leaves after failing to locate them. When the coast is clear, Homer and Marge have inspired sexual intercourse in the hay loft.
Homer and Marge think their marriage has been recharged and go for a romantic weekend at a Bed and Breakfast, but soon fall into their old patterns. However, a maid walks in on them and they conclude they are both aroused when they risk being caught during intimate moments, so they have sex behind window curtains in a room full of people. Their love life is recharged and one day they begin to have sex on the same miniature golf course windmill where Bart was conceived. This time they come too close to being caught having public sex, and while they manage to escape, they have to flee through Springfield in the nude. At one point, only lawn objects cover their genitals (Homer is turned on by the dangerous situation). They even use a promotional hot air balloon which Gil Gunderson has been living in, with Homer's buttocks being dragged across a Crystal Cathedral. In the end, the two are seen in a football stadium, and a naked photograph of Homer and Marge appears in the local newspaper (with censor strips covering them) and are embarrassed by their indecent exposure. The next day, Bart and Lisa see the picture and their parents begin to explain sex to them. Before they go into detail, however, they decide to go back to the miniature golf.[1][2][3]
In a subplot, Bart and Lisa stay at the Springfield Retirement Castle with Grampa, and they discover a metal detector in his closet. While Bart uses it to look for a pirate treasure, they uncover a suppressed, happy ending to Casablanca. The Old Jewish Man reveals that he was once a studio executive who tried to add the happy ending to the film. He pays Bart and Lisa to re-bury it, along with a "killing spree ending" for It's a Wonderful Life.
"Natural Born Kissers" was the first episode written by Matt Selman, who partly based it on his parents' marriage.[6] The episode was the only time that Mike Scully ever got a call from Fox where they suggested not doing the episode. They were worried about the sexual content, the nudity and how it was going to be handled.[7] They disliked several of the phrases used in the episode, such as the term "ass forkin'".[6] In an interview, Matt Groening said "The network censors couldn't believe it, and neither could I: the cow at the peephole while Homer and Marge make love in a hayloft; neighbors groping Homer when he and Marge are caught nude inside the windmill at the Sir Putts-A-Lot mini golf course; Homer dangling naked from a hot-air balloon, his ass dragging against the glass of a Crystal Cathedral-like church."[8] The producers fought the censors and in the end, very little of the script was changed.[6] Marge's butt is also shown on television for the first time.[7] Marge and Homer in the golf course is a reference to the season 3 episode "I Married Marge", although in that episode they are in a castle, rather than a windmill.[6]
The episode's title is a reference to the film Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone. The alternate title is a reference to the film Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? The airplane restaurant "Up, Up and Buffet!" is based on a submarine shaped restaurant that was near the Fox studio named "Dive".[7] A supposed alternate ending to the 1942 film Casablanca is shown in the episode, and the Old Jewish Man gives Bart and Lisa a copy of It's A Wonderful Life with a "killing-spree ending".[2] The song "Spanish Flea" plays during the radio commercial for Divorce Specialists.[9] The song "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash plays over the end credits.[2]
In its original broadcast, "Natural Born Kissers" finished 29th in ratings for the week of May 11-18, 1998, with a Nielsen rating of 8.8, equivalent to approximately 8.6 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files, King of the Hill, and Ally McBeal.[10]
Matt Groening listed the episode as being his eighth favorite episode,[8] and the aroused cow is one of his all-time favorite act break jokes.[11] 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 superb episode which actually makes Marge and Homer's love life seem very real; everyone needs a bit of spice now and again, and they find theirs. The balloon trip is hysterical, and the attempts to explain their behaviour to a very worldly-wise Bart and Lisa are magnificent."[2] The episode was part of a DVD boxed set release called: The Simpsons Kiss and Tell: The Story of Their Love, and in his review of the release Andy Dougan of the Evening Times characterized the episode along with "Large Marge", "Three Gays of the Condo", and "The Way We Weren't" as "four of the funniest episodes of recent series."[12] The DVD release was also reviewed favorably by Louis R. Carlozo in the Chicago Tribune, where the episode was seen as "more ridiculous" than "Large Marge".[13]