Separate Vocations

Plot

After taking career aptitude tests, scored by a malfunctioning computer, Lisa discovers that the occupation she is best suited for is homemaker, while Bart's test shows that he should be a policeman. Lisa is heartbroken over the result and is determined to prove the test wrong. She consults a music teacher for his opinion, but he tells her that, having inherited her father's stubby fingers, she can never be a professional saxophone player. Lisa is therefore required by the test to spend the day doing chores with her mother Marge, while Bart goes on a ride-along with the police.

Lisa hates her role as a homemaker, and realizing that her future dreams have been shattered, she loses interest in being a good student. Bart enjoys spending time with the police, and he even ends up stopping Snake Jailbird during a car chase. When Principal Skinner discovers Bart's new interest in law enforcement, he enlists him as a hall monitor. Bart starts handing out demerits to his classmates for minor infractions and has order restored to the school. When Lisa secretly steals all of the Teachers' Editions of the schoolbooks and reveals the teachers' lack of education, it is up to Bart to figure out who stole the books. Realizing his sister is the culprit, Bart takes the blame and returns to his life as a bad student and detention regular, while Lisa goes back to being a good student. As Bart spents his time in detention, Lisa plays her saxophone outside his classroom to comfort him.

Production

The episode was written by George Meyer and directed by Jeffrey Lynch. Mike Reiss, show runner of The Simpsons with Al Jean at the time, said Meyer wrote most of the episode by himself without help from the show's other writers. Few changes were made to the first draft that he pitched to the producers; it was near identical to the final script. The episode was inspired by the vocational tests taken by several members of the show's staff when they went to school; Reiss, for example, said he was told he would become a librarian. Jean said "one of the first things that sold us on doing the episode" was the idea of Bart becoming a policeman. He said it was "a funny, realistic depiction of what a kid like Bart might wind up to become, and it wasn't something you would immediately think of." Jean said the episode deals with the emotion that many adults feel when they grow older and realize that they are not going to achieve the dreams they once had. "[It's about] how people in life cope with that problem. Maybe Lisa, at eight years old, is a little bit young to worry about that, but that's what we were trying to explore here."

In one sequence where Bart imagines himself testifying in court, with his voice electronically altered. The altered voice was provided by American actor and television personality Steve Allen. Series creator Matt Groening said that he and some of the writers who were old enough to remember Allen's TV show from the 1950s–60s were thrilled to have him guest-star, especially John Swartzwelder. It took nine takes for Allen to pronounce Bart's catchphrase "¡Ay, caramba!" correctly, to the point where the staff began to get slightly frustrated with him. There was a discussion amongst the writing team of whether the episode should end with a joke or have a "sweet" ending. Reiss said "With the better angels in our nature, we went with the sweet ending [of Lisa playing her saxophone for Bart]."

Analysis

In the last scene of the episode, Bart is seen writing "I will not expose the ignorance of the faculty" on the blackboard as a punishment for exposing the ignorance of the teachers by removing the Teachers' Editions. In his book The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age, Brian L. Ott describes this scene as one of the "key ways The Simpsons appeals to audience, which tends to be younger, by critiquing authority figures, and in particular educators." Toby Daspit and John Weaver write in their book Popular Culture and Critical Pedagogy: Reading, Constructing, Connecting that the writers of The Simpsons are "particularly interested" in questions about authority and the abuses of powers in school. Another scene from the episode sees Ms. Hoover telling the students to stare at the blackboard for fifteen minutes until class is over. Daspit and Weaver write that it is "the absolute power that teachers have over students' every action that allows for the image to be presented on The Simpsons. It would be comforting to tell ourselves that this is simply parody run amok, that the writers are stretching reality to make a point, but the discussants in the study [of The Simpsons in this book] had memories of a reality very much like the one presented in this program." One of the discussants said she believes everyone has experienced similar situations in their school years, and she thinks the thought that "an educator could ever do something so useless and pointless with the children's time" is "frightening".

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Separate Vocations" finished 29th in the ratings for the week of February 24–March 1, 1992, with a Nielsen Rating of 14.8, equivalent to approximately 13.6 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. Bart's voice actor, Nancy Cartwright, received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 for her performance in the episode.

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, thought the episode displayed The Simpsons "at its best – not only hilarious but daringly outspoken on a whole range of issues – the failures of the education system, police abuses of power, the stifling of children's creativity." Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict said "Separate Vocations" represent The Simpsons "at its apex as a well tuned talent machine grinding out the good stuff with surprising accuracy and skill." Gibron added that the episode shows that "even in territory they're not used to (Bart as a safety patrol, Lisa as a cursing class cut up), the Simpsons' kids are funny and inventive." Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed gave the episode a four out of five rating and commented that the script's "departure from the traditional roles assigned to Bart and Lisa makes for a fresh experience with many laughs." Meyers thought the highlight of the episode was Bart's ride in the police car. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson thought the theme of the episode was unoriginal, but commented that Bart's "rapid embrace of fascism" and Lisa's "descent into hooliganism" provide "a number of funny opportunities, and 'Separate Vocations' exploits them well. Though it’s not one of the year’s best shows, it seems like a good one for the most part."