Trivia / The Simpsons S1 E13 "Some Enchanted Evening"

• Deleted Scene: A lot of the episode was reanimated, and as a result some scenes were taken out or refined during the process:
  • The original edit had a longer introduction scene in the kitchen, with Marge (in a much more cheerful mood) conversing with Maggie while preparing for breakfast prior to the rest of the family barging in and sloppily helping themselves, crushing her enthusiasm. In the final edit, the scene was shortened, with the family already entered and Marge already worn down.
  • A minor case, the phone call scene between Homer and the Babysitter receptionist was reanimated, and the latter's retort to Homer's shrewd defence of the Simpson family ("Riiiiiiight.") is cut from the final edit.
• Creator Backlash: For everyone on the original crew, including James L. Brooks, who infamously said "this is shit" in regards to the animation quality and threatened to cancel the show if it wasn't improved. You can hear Groening and the rest of the crew audibly struggling to get through the DVD commentary on this one.
  • There is a DVD Commentary for the unused footage in which Brooks mostly repeats "Oh my God." and "Gee whiz, cartoons." eventually he just gets up and leaves.
• First Appearance: Had it not been for the Troubled Production described below, this would have been the first appearance of Moe, Barney Gumble, and Dr. Marvin Monroe.
• Orphaned Reference: A lipstick stain can still be seen on the front door after the scene explaining how it got there was reanimated. In the original version, Marge stretches out her puckered lips for Homer to kiss as he heads out to work in the morning, only for an oblivious Homer to head out the door, hitting her in the face with it in the process. In the final version, not only is Marge's pucker made less cartoony, but the scene now occurs in the kitchen, with Marge simply left hanging after Homer fails to notice her on his way out.
• The Other Marty: In this episode Moe was originally voiced by Christopher Collins, but when Hank Azaria came with his version, they decided to overdub Collins' voice.
• Out of Order: This was the first episode to be produced, and it was originally designed as the pilot (hence the opening breakfast scene introducing each family member). It ended up as the season finale after the entire thing had to be re-animated several times. This also explains why the opening credit sequence has no Couch Gag, but ends with the family merely taking their seats on the couch and smiling as they watch TV. The original intent was that the pilot would play this scene straight, while every subsequent episode would subvert it.
• Technology Marches On: Marge gives Ms. Botz the phone number of the restaurant and motel in case of emergency. This was before cell phones were common.
• Troubled Production:
  • Production went so badly wrong that it nearly killed the show before it even began. The big problem was that the key members of the production team didn't appear to be talking to each other. Matt Groening and James L. Brooks imagined a show with unique designs and color schemes, but characters who were animated in a realistic way. Animation director Kent Butterworth (and apparently the people at Klasky-Csupo) on the other hand thought it should be animated in a whacked-out, over the top style with little regard paid to keeping the characters on model. And nobody appeared to have told the Korean animators anything at all, meaning they were let loose on the episode with wildly inconsistent results. The end product, while sometimes defended by animation enthusiasts as how the show should have been animated, wasn't what the producers or Fox wanted at all, and the plug nearly got pulled on the series. Fortunately the second episode, "Bart the Genius", did fit what the producers were looking for, and so they reshuffled the episode order and kicked off the series with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (which was already designed for a December premiere). "Some Enchanted Evening" got substantially re-animated and booted to the end of the season.
  • There is a notorious story surrounding the first time the staff saw the episode. In one scene, Bart and Lisa watch a Happy Little Elves cartoon. For some reason yet to be determined, Butterworth had decided to have a bear tear off one of the elves's heads and drink its blood. Needless to say, this did not go over well with the production crew.
• What Could Have Been: This episode was so fraught with animation errors and Troubled Production issues that James L. Brooks and Matt Groening threatened to cancel the show if "Bart the Genius" (the next episode in production code order) came out worse than this — meaning that The Simpsons would have been a Short-Runner. (Fortunately, the episode was mostly fine and required only a few small fixes.)
• Write Who You Know: The name of Ms. Botz was based on a real person that once babysat Matt Groening.

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