Lard of the Dance
Encyclopedia
"Lard of the Dance" is the first episode of The Simpsons
' tenth season
, that originally aired on August 23, 1998. Homer discovers he can make money by stealing and reselling grease, but eventually stops after negative encounters with Groundskeeper Willie
and the Springfield Grease Company. Meanwhile, Lisa becomes jealous that a new student (voiced by Friends
star Lisa Kudrow
) is distracting all her friends by using her fashionable personality. The episode was written by Jane O'Brien and directed by Dominic Polcino
.
learns from Apu
that he can sell grease
to make a profit. At breakfast, Homer begins frying up various amounts of bacon
to use the grease to make money and decides to have Bart
help him with his "grease business" which forces Bart to quit school. Meanwhile, on the first day back at school, Lisa
volunteers to help Alex Whitney, a fashion conscious new student, by showing her around the school. To help her make new friends, Lisa takes Alex, Sherri, Terri, Allison Taylor and Janey for lunch in the cafeteria after the two groups group meet up, but shortly after abandon Lisa after seeing that Alex has adult items like a cell phone and a handbag.
Homer and Bart begin their grease business and make sixty-three cents worth of grease from twenty-seven dollars worth of bacon, much to their disappointment. After Bart points out that they need larger amounts of grease, the pair drive to Krusty Burger, where they attempt steal grease from the fryers. After loading it into Marge's car, two employees of The Acne Grease and Shovel Company steal it, claiming they control the grease business in the city.
Alex convinces Principal Skinner
to have a school-dance rather than the regular yearly event of apple picking. Skinner agrees, so Alex and Lisa, accompanied by Sherri, Terri, Janey and Allison visit the mall to purchase party supplies, but the girls detour and begin trying on outfits for the dance, despite Lisa's protests. The group leave the mall, none speaking to each other. Lisa decides not to attend the dance, but changes her mind and goes to the school to take tickets at the door, but later arrives and discovers the boys and girls are standing on different sides of the room, and explains to Alex that it is like this because they're only children, not adults.
Homer and Bart arrive at the school during the dance to steal the grease in the school's kitchen which Bart told him about. They sneak into the kitchen and plants a hose in the fryer to suck it in to the car, but Willie
spots them and attempts to stop them, claiming the grease to be his retirement plan. Homer tries to escape, but Willie grabs his legs and strangles him with the hose sucking the grease, which explodes due to the increased pressure, causing the grease to flood into the dance hall. A grease fight begins among the students, where Alex eventually joins in after being told by Lisa to act her own age.
, when the two were talking about how girls always want to grow up so fast, as Scully has five daughters; so they decided to produce an episode with a storyline based on this. The idea behind the episode plot came from Jace Richdale
, who came up with the idea of Homer stealing grease and the grease business, having read about in a magazine. Several aspects of the characters used throughout the episode had been improvised significantly by Lisa Kudrow
. Ron Hauge
, a writer for The Simpsons, came up with the initial character of Alex, and Jane O'Brien named the character after her best friend. The scene showing Homer's hemorrhaged eye as Groundskeeper Willie strangles him got a big laugh in the studio. Mike Scully comments that he now uses it in college clip shows.
and later Irish musical Lord of the Dance
. Marge sings her own, altered version of 1990 song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
" when attempting to persuade Lisa to attend the dance. Much of the shop where the girls enter to buy clothes is based on Wet Seal
. In the same mall is a party supply store, called Donner's Party Supplies which has a window sign saying "Winter Madness Sale", a reference to the Donner Party
. Alex tells Lisa to not be "such a Phoebe", a reference to Lisa Kudrow's character Phoebe Buffay
on the series Friends
.
and Holding the Baby. While That '70s Show would receive higher Nielsen ratings than The Simpsons, Holding the Baby was a ratings flop.
In a 2008 article, Entertainment Weekly
named Lisa Kudrow
's role as Alex as one of the sixteen great guest appearances on The Simpsons. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood commented that "The idea of Lisa being unpopular in the light of a new girl in the school hallways is not new (see "Lisa's Rival
") but it is done here with such class," concluding of Homer's treatment that "this is an episode which shows that even he can find interesting ways to do things." Wesley Mead noted, in a review of the tenth season
that the episode "might deal with familiar territory ("Lisa's Rival", anyone?), but it doesn't feel like a retread, and is also home to a superbly realised subplot that sees Homer and Bart go into the grease business."
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 10)
The tenth season of the animated television series The Simpsons was originally broadcast on the Fox network in the United States between August 23, 1998 and May 16, 1999. It contains twenty-three episodes, starting with "Lard of the Dance". The Simpsons revolves around a working class family that...
, that originally aired on August 23, 1998. Homer discovers he can make money by stealing and reselling grease, but eventually stops after negative encounters with Groundskeeper Willie
Groundskeeper Willie
William McDougal, usually referred to as Groundskeeper Willie, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School. Willie is a Scottish immigrant, almost feral in nature and immensely proud of his homeland...
and the Springfield Grease Company. Meanwhile, Lisa becomes jealous that a new student (voiced by Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
star Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...
) is distracting all her friends by using her fashionable personality. The episode was written by Jane O'Brien and directed by Dominic Polcino
Dominic Polcino
Dominic Polcino is an animation director who has worked on The Simpsons, Mission Hill, King of the Hill, and Family Guy. Dominic worked on the first season of Family Guy, then left to direct for King of the Hill and then returned to Family Guy...
.
Plot
After going back-to-school shopping, HomerHomer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
learns from Apu
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is a character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the episode "The Telltale Head". Apu is the proprietor of the Kwik-E-Mart, a popular convenience store in Springfield, and a friend of Homer Simpson. He is also...
that he can sell grease
Fat
Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
to make a profit. At breakfast, Homer begins frying up various amounts of bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
to use the grease to make money and decides to have Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
help him with his "grease business" which forces Bart to quit school. Meanwhile, on the first day back at school, Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
volunteers to help Alex Whitney, a fashion conscious new student, by showing her around the school. To help her make new friends, Lisa takes Alex, Sherri, Terri, Allison Taylor and Janey for lunch in the cafeteria after the two groups group meet up, but shortly after abandon Lisa after seeing that Alex has adult items like a cell phone and a handbag.
Homer and Bart begin their grease business and make sixty-three cents worth of grease from twenty-seven dollars worth of bacon, much to their disappointment. After Bart points out that they need larger amounts of grease, the pair drive to Krusty Burger, where they attempt steal grease from the fryers. After loading it into Marge's car, two employees of The Acne Grease and Shovel Company steal it, claiming they control the grease business in the city.
Alex convinces Principal Skinner
Seymour Skinner
Principal W. Seymour Skinner is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer. Born in Capitol City, he is the principal of Springfield Elementary School...
to have a school-dance rather than the regular yearly event of apple picking. Skinner agrees, so Alex and Lisa, accompanied by Sherri, Terri, Janey and Allison visit the mall to purchase party supplies, but the girls detour and begin trying on outfits for the dance, despite Lisa's protests. The group leave the mall, none speaking to each other. Lisa decides not to attend the dance, but changes her mind and goes to the school to take tickets at the door, but later arrives and discovers the boys and girls are standing on different sides of the room, and explains to Alex that it is like this because they're only children, not adults.
Homer and Bart arrive at the school during the dance to steal the grease in the school's kitchen which Bart told him about. They sneak into the kitchen and plants a hose in the fryer to suck it in to the car, but Willie
Groundskeeper Willie
William McDougal, usually referred to as Groundskeeper Willie, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School. Willie is a Scottish immigrant, almost feral in nature and immensely proud of his homeland...
spots them and attempts to stop them, claiming the grease to be his retirement plan. Homer tries to escape, but Willie grabs his legs and strangles him with the hose sucking the grease, which explodes due to the increased pressure, causing the grease to flood into the dance hall. A grease fight begins among the students, where Alex eventually joins in after being told by Lisa to act her own age.
Production
The origins of the episode come from a conversation between Jane O'Brien and Mike ScullyMike Scully
Mike Scully is an American television writer and producer. He is known for his work as executive producer and showrunner of the animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1997 to 2001. Scully grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts and long had an interest in writing. He was an underachiever at school...
, when the two were talking about how girls always want to grow up so fast, as Scully has five daughters; so they decided to produce an episode with a storyline based on this. The idea behind the episode plot came from Jace Richdale
Jace Richdale
Jace Richdale is an American producer and writer. He served as co-executive producer for seasons 5 and 6 of The Simpsons and wrote the season five episode "Burns' Heir". He was a part of the Simpsons writing staff during seasons 5, 6, 9 and 10. Other writing credits include Family Ties, Get a Life...
, who came up with the idea of Homer stealing grease and the grease business, having read about in a magazine. Several aspects of the characters used throughout the episode had been improvised significantly by Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...
. Ron Hauge
Ron Hauge
Ron Hauge is an American television writer and executive producer. In his earlier career Hauge was a contributor to National Lampoon. After this he wrote for Seinfeld, In Living Color, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and a short lived reincarnation of The Carol Burnett Show...
, a writer for The Simpsons, came up with the initial character of Alex, and Jane O'Brien named the character after her best friend. The scene showing Homer's hemorrhaged eye as Groundskeeper Willie strangles him got a big laugh in the studio. Mike Scully comments that he now uses it in college clip shows.
Cultural references
The title of the episode is a play on the hymnLord of the Dance (hymn)
Lord of the Dance is a hymn with words written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1967. He adapted the tune from the American Shaker song "Simple Gifts"...
and later Irish musical Lord of the Dance
Lord of the Dance (musical)
Lord of the Dance is an Irish musical and dance production that was created, choreographed, and produced by Irish-American dancer Michael Flatley, who also took a starring role...
. Marge sings her own, altered version of 1990 song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
"Gonna Make You Sweat " was C+C Music Factory's first hit. It was released in late 1990 in many countries and achieved a great success in U.S., Austria, Germany and Switzerland where it reached number one on the charts....
" when attempting to persuade Lisa to attend the dance. Much of the shop where the girls enter to buy clothes is based on Wet Seal
Wet Seal
Wet Seal is a young women's clothing retailer headquartered in Foothill Ranch, California. It carries moderately priced brand name and company-designed apparel and accessories...
. In the same mall is a party supply store, called Donner's Party Supplies which has a window sign saying "Winter Madness Sale", a reference to the Donner Party
Donner Party
The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who set out for California in a wagon train. Delayed by a series of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada...
. Alex tells Lisa to not be "such a Phoebe", a reference to Lisa Kudrow's character Phoebe Buffay
Phoebe Buffay
Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom Friends , portrayed by Lisa Kudrow...
on the series Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
.
Reception
"Lard of the Dance" finished 31st in the weekly ratings for the week of August 17–23, 1998 with a Nielsen rating of 7.2. It was the third highest rated show from the Fox Network that week. The episode aired during the summer so that it could serve as a lead-in for the early premieres of That '70s ShowThat '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
and Holding the Baby. While That '70s Show would receive higher Nielsen ratings than The Simpsons, Holding the Baby was a ratings flop.
In a 2008 article, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
named Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...
's role as Alex as one of the sixteen great guest appearances on The Simpsons. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood commented that "The idea of Lisa being unpopular in the light of a new girl in the school hallways is not new (see "Lisa's Rival
Lisa's Rival
"Lisa's Rival" is the second episode of The Simpsons sixth season, and originally aired September 11, 1994. It was the first episode to be written by Mike Scully, and was directed by Mark Kirkland. Winona Ryder guest stars as Allison Taylor, a new student at Springfield Elementary School...
") but it is done here with such class," concluding of Homer's treatment that "this is an episode which shows that even he can find interesting ways to do things." Wesley Mead noted, in a review of the tenth season
The Simpsons (season 10)
The tenth season of the animated television series The Simpsons was originally broadcast on the Fox network in the United States between August 23, 1998 and May 16, 1999. It contains twenty-three episodes, starting with "Lard of the Dance". The Simpsons revolves around a working class family that...
that the episode "might deal with familiar territory ("Lisa's Rival", anyone?), but it doesn't feel like a retread, and is also home to a superbly realised subplot that sees Homer and Bart go into the grease business."
External links
- "Lard of the Dance" at The Simpsons.com