My Sister, My Sitter

Plot

Inspired by "The Babysitter Twins" books, Lisa decides to become a babysitter. Despite this, because of her age, no one takes her seriously. One day, Ned mentions that Maude has been taken hostage in Lebanon and he must leave to get his wife released, and he agrees to let Lisa babysit Rod and Todd. After a relatively uneventful night, Ned puts out the good word for Lisa, who experiences a business boom.

Meanwhile, the Springfield Squidport reopens and throws a gala. Homer and Marge decide to go and they leave Lisa to babysit Bart and Maggie. Bart is annoyed by the fact that his younger sister is going to be babysitting him. To prevent this, Bart torments her by, among other things, ordering a giant sandwich, hiring Krusty for a bachelor party, dialing 9-1-1 for a "sisterectomy", and having Maggie eat coffee ice cream for dinner. Eventually, Lisa angrily attempts to jump at Bart, but misses, causing him to fall backwards down the stairs, dislocating his arm and getting a large bump on his head. Bart then realizes that if Lisa fails to take him to a hospital, she will no longer be able to babysit anymore. To make his condition worse, Bart locks himself in his room and hits his head on the door, then falls unconscious.

Lisa tries to call for an ambulance, but the 9-1-1 operator refuses to assist her due to Bart's earlier prank call. Lisa considers asking Dr. Hibbert, but thinks better of it when she realizes that her reputation as a babysitter will be ruined. Ultimately, she takes the unconscious Bart to Dr. Nick Riviera's clinic in a wheelbarrow, bringing Maggie along in a pet carrier. There is a queue in the waiting room, and Lisa is unable to get an appointment. She then tries to wheel Bart to the hospital, but Bart rolls down a cliff and into a muddy river right in front of the crowded Squidport. Everyone assumes that Lisa is on drugs, and that she has murdered Bart and is about to drown the caged Maggie. However, when Bart, whose injuries have been treated, apologizes to Lisa for causing her trouble. She forgives him, but is still distraught that her reputation as a babysitter is now ruined. However, she soon receives babysitting requests from Dr. Hibbert and Ned due to their difficulty finding sitters, much to Lisa's delight.

Production and themes

The episode was directed by Jim Reardon and written by Dan Greaney. Like numerous preceding episodes, "My Sister, My Sitter" deals with the relationship between Bart and Lisa. Greaney specializes in writing Bart and Lisa episodes from the perspective of a kid. Elaine E Sutherland, who is a member of the Law Society of Scotland's Family Law Sub-Committee and Professor of Child and Family Law at the Law School, Stirling University, used the episode to describe the potential problems of letting one of your kids babysit the rest. While one child may be mature enough to babysit, it is not certain that the other kids accept the babysitters authority. According to Alan S. Brown and Chris Logan, the writers of the book The Psychology of the Simpsons: D’oh!, the episode is an example of how feminine anger rarely solves the problem on The Simpsons. “Here, Lisa’s rage and ongoing frustration contribute to her difficulty in making good decisions about what to do with her emotion,” they write. Keeping with the babysitter theme, there are cultural references to The Baby-Sitters Club: Lisa reads book #14 - The Formula Formula, while Janey is on book #20 - The President's Baby Is Missing.

The idea of revamping the waterfront came from cities like Baltimore, who were always trying to fix formerly horrible places. Chris Turner, the author of the book Planet Simpson, writes about the scene at the Squidport: "The "satirical" setting seems almost documentary". The Squidport is a local revitalization project, which recast a historic industrial area as a pedestrian mall. He calls this an example of how “hyper-consumer culture of Springfield moves front and center” On the waterfront, Rainier Wolfcastle opens a restaurant called "Planet Hype". This is a parody of the international theme restaurant franchise Planet Hollywood. Wolfcastle is a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who launched Planet Hollywood along with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg in 1991. According to Matt Groening, the show had written an entire episode around Planet Hollywood, which featured the voices of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Willis as The Three Stooges type of characters. The episode was never animated, because it turned out that it was only the publicist of Planet Hollywood's idea and the actors did not want to participate.

Reception

In its original broadcast, "My Sister, My Sitter" finished 47th in ratings in a tie with Melrose Place for the week of February 24 - March 2, 1997, with a Nielsen rating of 9.0, equivalent to approximately 8.7 million viewing households. It was the fifth 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 clever episode, if a little disjointed — the two stories don't gel as well as normal." Tim Raynor of DVDTown.com said that the episode "is full of the usual, fun antics that you would expect from Bart or any of the other dumb Simpsons." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson said that "the segments in which Lisa babysits the various kids in town are a delight" and that the episode "mixes wacky moments with reality as it places Lisa in a logical position. Her conflict with Bart creates realism and also brings out the comedy."