Lisa on Ice
Encyclopedia
"Lisa on Ice" is the eighth television episode of The Simpsons
' sixth season
. It was first broadcast on Fox
in the United States on November 13, 1994. In the episode, Principal Skinner
hands out academic alerts to the Springfield Elementary students, and Lisa
discovers that she is in peril of failing a class for the first time in her life. When trying to salvage her gym
grade, Lisa finds she possesses a skill for ice hockey
. Rivalry between Lisa and Bart
in the rink escalates into their home life and beyond, fuelled considerably by Homer and coaches.
The episode was written by Mike Scully
and directed by Bob Anderson
, whose passion for hockey inspired the plot. It features cultural references to films such as Rollerball
and The Pope of Greenwich Village
. The episode was received well by critics, and acquired a Nielsen rating
of 11.6.
, and Apu
, the coach of the Kwik-E-Mart
Gougers, notices that she is a natural at hockey goal tending and makes her goalie
for his team. Although Lisa has no interest in hockey, she accepts, seeing this as the only way to maintain her academic credentials. As it turns out, she is remarkably talented, and leads her team to their best season ever.
Due to Homer
's increasing pressure, a sibling rivalry
develops between Bart and Lisa, and it peaks when the town learns that the Gougers will face the Mighty Pigs in their next match. The game proves to be a vicious one, but very close, with both Bart and Lisa playing their best. With four seconds left, Bart is tripped by Jimbo, giving him a penalty shot
against Lisa that will decide the game. However, as they face each other, Bart and Lisa remember the good times they have had together as children before they began fighting. They each throw aside their equipment and hug, and the match ends in a tie. Marge admits she is proud of them, while a sobbing Homer declares them both losers. Unsatisfied with the outcome, the residents of Springfield
begin rioting and tear the stadium to pieces.
, who wanted to do an episode involving hockey because of his passion for the sport. Bob Anderson
, who also had an interest for hockey, directed the episode.
The episode starts out with Lisa tricking Bart into believing it is a snow day by throwing a snowball at him which she made out of the ice in the fridge. The scene was inspired by Scully, who as a child loved to sit and listen by the radio waiting to see if there was going to be school snow day. Scully thought, because of his experience as a child, that there was nothing more disappointing than to wake up expecting a snow day, only to find out there was no snow. The academic alerts the Springfield Elementary School students receive were based on those Scully received in junior high
.
house to see if they have any injuries that may affect the odds
of the upcoming game, Marge sends him away and he pleads: "They're gonna take my thumbs". This is a reference to Eric Roberts
' line, "Charlie, they took my thumbs", from the 1984 film The Pope of Greenwich Village
. The episode features several references to the 1975 film Rollerball
. At the academic alerts assembly, bully Kearney has Dolph take a memo
on an Apple Newton
, a personal digital assistant
. When Dolph writes "Beat up Martin
" on the screen, the handwriting recognition
turns it into "Eat up Martha", and Kearney throws the Newton at Martin instead, referencing the MessagePad's poor handwriting recognition
.
of 11.6. It was the second highest rated show on the Fox network that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. 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 fabulous episode for Lisa and Bart, although with a special mention for a few seconds of tremendous Edna Krabappel
wickedness." DVD Verdict's Ryan Keefer said the episode "is one of the few episodes centered on Lisa that I enjoy watching", and gave it a B. DVD Talk
's Aaron Beierle said "there are definitely some funny moments in this episode, the sweet-natured way that the episode ends never sat right with me." ESPN.com
named this episode the fifth best sports moment in the history of the show. The Orlando Sentinel
s Gregory Hardy listed it as the seventh best episode of the show with a sports theme.
TV Squad's Adam Finley gave the episode a positive review, commenting that it is "a skewering of parents who become too involved in their children's sports and turn what should be a lesson in teamwork, trying your hardest, and losing gracefully into a kind of Roman Coliseum
where grown adults live out violent fantasies and their own failed ambitions through their children." He added that "Homer is an absolute jerk in this episode, taunting his children when they lose and praising them when they win and humiliate their sibling" and that "it's not just Homer. Marge, characteristically so, tries to remain diplomatic, but even she starts screaming for blood when Bart is tripped by an opposing player."
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 6)
The Simpsons sixth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 4, 1994 and May 21, 1995 and consists of 25 episodes. The Simpsons is an animated series about a working class family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
. It was first broadcast on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on November 13, 1994. In the episode, 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...
hands out academic alerts to the Springfield Elementary students, and 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...
discovers that she is in peril of failing a class for the first time in her life. When trying to salvage her gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
grade, Lisa finds she possesses a skill for ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
. Rivalry between Lisa and 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...
in the rink escalates into their home life and beyond, fuelled considerably by Homer and coaches.
The episode was written by Mike Scully
Mike 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...
and directed by Bob Anderson
Bob Anderson (director)
Bob Anderson is an animation director on The Simpsons. He also contributed additional sequence direction on The Simpsons Movie....
, whose passion for hockey inspired the plot. It features cultural references to films such as Rollerball
Rollerball (1975 film)
Rollerball is a 1975 American dystopian fiction film directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay by William Harrison, who adapted his own short story "Roller Ball Murder", which first appeared in 1973 in Esquire magazine.-The Game:...
and The Pope of Greenwich Village
The Pope of Greenwich Village
The Pope of Greenwich Village is a 1984 American film starring Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan and Burt Young. Page earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her two-scene role. The film was adapted by screenwriter Vincent Patrick...
. The episode was received well by critics, and acquired a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 11.6.
Plot
Principal Skinner calls all the Springfield Elementary School students down for an assembly to tell them which subjects they are failing. When Lisa is called up, she discovers to her horror that she is failing gym class. When she appeals to her teacher, they reach a compromise: Lisa can get a passing grade if she joins a sports program outside of school. She immediately attempts to join several, but fails, and her self-esteem is devastated. Later, the family goes to see Bart play hockey for his team, the Mighty Pigs, coached by Chief Wiggum. After the game, Bart begins shooting pieces of litter at Lisa with his hockey stickHockey stick
A hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in field hockey, ice hockey or roller hockey to move the ball or puck.- Field hockey :Field hockey sticks have an end which varies in shape, often depending on the players position...
, and 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...
, the coach of the Kwik-E-Mart
Kwik-E-Mart
The Kwik-E-Mart is a fictional chain of convenience stores in the animated television series The Simpsons. It is a parody of American convenience store chains, such as 7-Eleven and Circle K, and represents many myths and stereotypes of them. It is notorious for its high prices and the poor quality...
Gougers, notices that she is a natural at hockey goal tending and makes her goalie
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
for his team. Although Lisa has no interest in hockey, she accepts, seeing this as the only way to maintain her academic credentials. As it turns out, she is remarkably talented, and leads her team to their best season ever.
Due to Homer
Homer 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...
's increasing pressure, a sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among children, blood-related or not.Siblings generally spend more time together during childhood than they do with parents. The sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced by factors such as parental treatment, birth order, personality,...
develops between Bart and Lisa, and it peaks when the town learns that the Gougers will face the Mighty Pigs in their next match. The game proves to be a vicious one, but very close, with both Bart and Lisa playing their best. With four seconds left, Bart is tripped by Jimbo, giving him a penalty shot
Penalty shot (ice hockey)
In ice hockey, a penalty shot is a type of penalty awarded when a team loses a clear scoring opportunity on a breakaway because of a foul committed by an opposing player. A player from the non-offending team is given an attempt to score a goal without opposition from any defending players except...
against Lisa that will decide the game. However, as they face each other, Bart and Lisa remember the good times they have had together as children before they began fighting. They each throw aside their equipment and hug, and the match ends in a tie. Marge admits she is proud of them, while a sobbing Homer declares them both losers. Unsatisfied with the outcome, the residents of Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
begin rioting and tear the stadium to pieces.
Production
The idea for the episode came from The Simpsons writer 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...
, who wanted to do an episode involving hockey because of his passion for the sport. Bob Anderson
Bob Anderson (director)
Bob Anderson is an animation director on The Simpsons. He also contributed additional sequence direction on The Simpsons Movie....
, who also had an interest for hockey, directed the episode.
The episode starts out with Lisa tricking Bart into believing it is a snow day by throwing a snowball at him which she made out of the ice in the fridge. The scene was inspired by Scully, who as a child loved to sit and listen by the radio waiting to see if there was going to be school snow day. Scully thought, because of his experience as a child, that there was nothing more disappointing than to wake up expecting a snow day, only to find out there was no snow. The academic alerts the Springfield Elementary School students receive were based on those Scully received in junior high
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
.
Cultural references
When Moe visits Bart and Lisa at the SimpsonSimpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
house to see if they have any injuries that may affect the odds
Odds
The odds in favor of an event or a proposition are expressed as the ratio of a pair of integers, which is the ratio of the probability that an event will happen to the probability that it will not happen...
of the upcoming game, Marge sends him away and he pleads: "They're gonna take my thumbs". This is a reference to Eric Roberts
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...
The Pope of Greenwich Village
The Pope of Greenwich Village is a 1984 American film starring Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan and Burt Young. Page earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her two-scene role. The film was adapted by screenwriter Vincent Patrick...
. The episode features several references to the 1975 film Rollerball
Rollerball (1975 film)
Rollerball is a 1975 American dystopian fiction film directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay by William Harrison, who adapted his own short story "Roller Ball Murder", which first appeared in 1973 in Esquire magazine.-The Game:...
. At the academic alerts assembly, bully Kearney has Dolph take a memo
Memorandum
A memorandum is from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memoro, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered ..."...
on an Apple Newton
Newton (platform)
The Newton platform was an early personal digital assistant and the first tablet platform developed by Apple, the second platform being iOS, used in the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Development of the Newton platform started in 1987 and officially ended on February 27, 1998. Some electronic...
, a personal digital assistant
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
. When Dolph writes "Beat up Martin
Martin Prince
Martin Prince, Jr. is a recurring character in the Fox animated series, The Simpsons, and is voiced by Russi Taylor. Martin is Bart Simpson's classmate, and is Lisa Simpson's rival in intelligence, as well as Nelson Muntz's favorite target for bullying...
" on the screen, the handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
turns it into "Eat up Martha", and Kearney throws the Newton at Martin instead, referencing the MessagePad's poor handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
.
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Lisa on Ice" finished 34th in the ratings for the week of November 7 to November 13, 1994, with a Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 11.6. It was the second highest rated show on the Fox network that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. 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 fabulous episode for Lisa and Bart, although with a special mention for a few seconds of tremendous Edna Krabappel
Edna Krabappel
Edna Krabappel is a fictional character from the animated TV series The Simpsons, voiced by Marcia Wallace. She is a 4th grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School. Krabappel is the only character Wallace voices on a regular basis.- Profile :...
wickedness." DVD Verdict's Ryan Keefer said the episode "is one of the few episodes centered on Lisa that I enjoy watching", and gave it a B. DVD Talk
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
's Aaron Beierle said "there are definitely some funny moments in this episode, the sweet-natured way that the episode ends never sat right with me." ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
named this episode the fifth best sports moment in the history of the show. The Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
s Gregory Hardy listed it as the seventh best episode of the show with a sports theme.
TV Squad's Adam Finley gave the episode a positive review, commenting that it is "a skewering of parents who become too involved in their children's sports and turn what should be a lesson in teamwork, trying your hardest, and losing gracefully into a kind of Roman Coliseum
Colosseum
The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
where grown adults live out violent fantasies and their own failed ambitions through their children." He added that "Homer is an absolute jerk in this episode, taunting his children when they lose and praising them when they win and humiliate their sibling" and that "it's not just Homer. Marge, characteristically so, tries to remain diplomatic, but even she starts screaming for blood when Bart is tripped by an opposing player."
External links
- "Lisa on Ice" at The Simpsons.com