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Simpsons Bible Stories

"Simpsons Bible Stories" is the eighteenth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Fox in the United States on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1999. It is the first of The Simpsons' now annual trilogy episodes, and consists of four self-contained segments. In the episode, the Simpson family falls asleep during a sermon in church. Marge dreams that she and Homer are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Lisa dreams that she and her fellow Springfield Elementary School students are Hebrew slaves in Ancient Egypt and guides Moses to lead them to freedom, Homer dreams that he is King Solomon called to resolve a dispute between Lenny and Carl over the ownership of a pie, and Bart dreams he is King David, who has to fight Goliath's son, Goliath II.

Plot
It is an unseasonably hot Easter at church, and no one is interested in Reverend Lovejoy's sermons. When the collection plate is passed around, Homer puts in a chocolate Easter bunny that he found in the dumpster, enraging Reverend Lovejoy, calling it a wicked idol, and provoking him to read the Bible from the beginning. The Simpsons all fall asleep. Marge's dream Marge dreams that she and Homer are Adam and Eve. They peacefully live in the Garden of Eden until a snake (Snake Jailbird) tempts Adam into eating dozens of apples from the forbidden tree. He persuades Eve to try one when God (Ned Flanders) witnesses his sin. Even though Adam ate many apples, God only caught Eve eating an apple, and she is therefore banished from the Garden of Eden. Adam is unwilling to come clean, but misses Eve and thinks of a way of getting her back in by digging a tunnel with the help of some of the animals. God's unicorn, named Gary, becomes exhausted from the digging and dies just before God catches Adam trying to smuggle Eve back into the Garden. The death of the unicorn enrages him further, and he expels them both from the Garden of Eden. Lisa's dream Lisa imagines she and all the other Springfield Elementary students are Hebrews in ancient Egypt, with the Pharaoh (Principal Skinner) making them build a pyramid. Only Moses (Milhouse) can liberate the Hebrews. When Bart defaces the Pharaoh's sarcophagus, supposedly incited by the burning bush, he gets the other students punished. Lisa and Moses ask Skinner to let the Hebrews go but they are rejected when he shouts "You call yourselves slaves!" To radicalize their request for freedom, Lisa helps Moses produce plagues to scare the Pharaoh into freeing the Israelites, but they fail. This in turn gets Lisa and Moses thrown in the Pyramid's booby traps. When they escape, Moses gathers all the students and they attempt to leave. After a brief moment of thinking about allowing the Hebrews to go free, Skinner shouts "After them!". When they reach the sea, Lisa has an idea to get across: They simultaneously flush all the Egyptians' toilets to drain the sea. As they cross, the Pharaoh and his guards follow them into the "temporarily dry sea", but the water fills the sea back up and swallows them. They enjoy splashing each other, and then return to the shore. Pleased that they have escaped, Moses asks Lisa what the future holds for the Israelites, but Lisa disappoints Moses when she says that they have to wander the desert for forty years. Moses then asks if it is going to be smooth sailing for the Jews after that. Rather than disappoint Moses again with news of the ongoing anti-Semitism that will plague the Jews for many centuries, she distracts the crowd by sending them to search for manna. Homer's dream Homer pictures himself as King Solomon. Lenny and Carl fight over ownership of a pie. Solomon cuts it in half, sentences Lenny and Carl to death, and then eats the pie, before presiding over a civil case between Jesus and Checker Chariot. Bart's dream Bart sees himself as King David, who kills Goliath, but has not won the war yet: Nelson is Goliath's son, Goliath II, who has killed Methuselah (Grampa), David's oldest friend in revenge. In retaliation, David challenges Goliath II, but having no stones to sling at him, David loses and is catapulted from the city, but not before cutting Goliath II's hair (as David got him confused with Samson). David then meets Ralph, a shepherd, who claims he can kill Goliath II. After Ralph is presumed dead, David then trains with Ralph's sheep to try to slay Goliath II. Having to climb up the enormous Tower of Babel beforehand (not before finding the remains of Jonah within the remains of the whale that ate him, which was eaten by Goliath II), David manages to subdue Goliath II by throwing a lit lantern down his throat. Goliath II is surprisingly still alive, but is quickly killed by Ralph's gravestone, hurled by Ralph himself, who also survived. Much to his shock, David is sent to jail as the townspeople claim that Goliath II was the best king they ever had, building roads, libraries and hospitals. Epilogue As the family wakes up, they find themselves alone in the church. Upon exiting they realize that the Last Judgement has come; fire rains from a red sky, and the Four Horsemen ride past. The Flanders ascend into Heaven, but the Simpsons do not; Lisa begins to ascend, but Homer grabs her leg and pulls her back down. Instead, the Simpsons descend via a staircase into Hell, where Homer follows the delicious scent of grilling only to be horrified by the lack of hot dogs and unappetizing dishes as "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC plays over the credits. ==Production==
Production
"Simpsons Bible Stories" was co-written by Matt Selman, Larry Doyle and Tim Long, and was the first episode Nancy Kruse directed for The Simpsons. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on April 4, 1999, the day Easter took place that year. According to executive producer and former showrunner Mike Scully, the idea for the episode was conceived when Fox requested an Easter-themed Simpsons episode that would air on the holiday. Normally, Fox would not broadcast any new Simpsons episodes on Easter, as it is considered a "low-ratings night", but "Simpsons Bible Stories" was an exception. However, according to co-writer Selman, the idea for the episode came about when he and former staff writer Dan Greaney were pitching episode ideas for the tenth season with former staff writer Donick Cary. Cary and Greaney suggested a "Bible-trilogy" story, which then became "Simpsons Bible Stories". "Simpsons Bible Stories" is the first of the trilogy episodes which, since the season 12 episode "Simpsons Tall Tales", The Simpsons produces once every season. The pig was voiced by regular cast member Hank Azaria, who portrays Moe Szyslak among other characters in the series. The unicorn that digs a hole from the garden of Eden was portrayed by Tress MacNeille. The song that plays during the episode's end credits is "Highway to Hell" by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. According to Scully, the staff could not use the song on The Simpsons at first, since AC/DC's record company refused to sell it. However, when Scully called the band's manager directly, it turned out he had not been told about the request. Scully said that when they asked if they could use "Highway to Hell", the band's manager "signed on right away" and gave the Simpsons staff a "huge discount." In the DVD commentary for the episode, Scully stated that he regretted not submitting "Simpsons Bible Stories" for the Primetime Emmy Award in the category of animated programming less than one hour in 1999. At the time, Scully reasoned that, because the original stories were not conceived by the writing staff, the episode would not hold up. However, he noted that the episode's animation was "outstanding", and that he later found out that the Emmy awards "put a lot of importance on" the animation in submitted episodes. ==Cultural references==
Cultural references
"Simpsons Bible Stories" contains several references to the Hebrew prophets, holy book, and the religion as a whole, as well as films based on the Bible. While they are inside the torture chamber, Milhouse and Lisa walk past an orb. The orb is called "Orb of Isis" and played a big part in the season 9 episode "Lost Our Lisa". In another scene, Milhouse parts the Red Sea so that his fellow slaves can escape. The execution of the scene is based on the one seen in the 1956 American epic film The Ten Commandments, in which Moses parts the Red Sea. The shot in which Pharaoh and his guards are drowning is also taken from the movie. In Homer's dream, Homer has the role of King Solomon who, according to the Books of Kings and Book of Chronicles was a King of Israel, as well as one of the 48 prophets according to the Talmud. Bart's dream shows Bart as King David and, rather than telling the story of David and Goliath, Bart's dream is a "sequel" to the story. The segment is inspired by and contains references to several films by Jerry Bruckheimer, including Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, and borrows elements from other action films. At one point in the segment, Bart's dog Santa's Little Helper starts talking to him. The dog's voice is similar to that of Goliath in the stop-motion animated television series Davey and Goliath. Inside the whale skeleton in the episode, Bart finds the remains of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel, according to the Hebrew Bible. Nelson lives in the Tower of Babel which, according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower that the humans built in order to reach heaven. After being defeated by Bart, Nelson reappears while a variation of Modest Mussorgsky's composition ''St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain'' plays in the background. At the end of the segment, Bart is arrested and Chief Wiggum says "Where's your messiah now?" Wiggum's line was also taken from The Ten Commandments, from a character played by Edward G. Robinson, on whom Wiggum's voice is based. King David's (Bart) training montage of arm-wrestling with his sheep is a reference to the film Over the Top, complete with Sammy Hagar's "Winner Takes It All" from the film. ==Release and reception==
Release and reception
In its original American broadcast on April 4, 1999, "Simpsons Bible Stories" received a 7.4 Nielsen rating, translating to approximately 7.4 million viewers. The rating is based on the number of household televisions that were tuned into the show, but Nielsen Media Research estimated that 12.2 million viewers watched the episode, a considerable drop from the previous episode, which was seen by an estimated 15.5 million viewers. David Bianculli of New York Daily News attributed the loss in viewership to the fact that the episode aired on a religious holiday. Nevertheless, it was the week's second most watched program on the network. On August 7, 2007, "Simpsons Bible Stories" was released as part of The Simpsons - The Complete Tenth Season DVD box set. Matt Groening, Mike Scully, George Meyer, Tom Martin, Larry Doyle, Matt Selman and Nancy Kruse participated in the DVD's audio commentary of the episode. 's favorite moments in The Simpsons, fans of the series were uneasy about the episode's ending. Following its broadcast, "Simpsons Bible Stories" received mixed reviews from critics. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood of ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'' wrote that the episode is "A fantastic twist of the Treehouse of Horror style of storytelling," and added that each segment is a "classic on its own". While DVD Town's James Plath wrote that the episode's premise was "risky", he still enjoyed the episode. Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz of The Star-Ledger described the episode as "hilarious", however they noted that the episode's "suggestion that Moses parted the Red Sea by having all the Israelites flush their toilets at once" could result in a backlash from the "religious right". On the other hand, giving the episode a negative review, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson wrote that "Simpsons Bible Stories" "proves less successful [than most Treehouse of Horror episodes]". Aaron Roxby of Collider described "Simpsons Bible Stories" as his least-favorite trilogy episode, and wrote "Considering that, in earlier seasons, the show had some of the most thoughtfully edgy religious humor on television, this one feels surprisingly toothless." At the end of the episode, the Simpsons walk out of the church and notice that the Apocalypse has begun. While the other family members are left on earth, Lisa at first starts ascending into Heaven, but Homer stops her by grabbing her leg and says "Where do you think you're going, missy?" The gag was written by staff writer George Meyer, and is series creator Matt Groening's favorite joke of the series. ==See also==
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