Episode no. 153 Original air date May 19, 1996 | Production code 3F22 | |
Showrunner(s) Bill OakleyJosh Weinstein | ||
"Summer of 4 Ft. 2" is the twenty-fifth and final episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 19, 1996. In the episode, the Simpson family stay in Ned Flanders' beach house. Hanging around with a new set of children, Lisa becomes popular, while Bart is left out. Bart tries to sabotage his sister's newfound acceptance, but fails.
Contents
The episode was written by Dan Greaney and directed by Mark Kirkland. The episode guest stars Christina Ricci, who recorded her lines over the phone instead of going into the studio. The beach house the Simpson family stays in is based on then-show runner Josh Weinstein's parents' house in New Hampshire. The episode features cultural references to Pippi Longstocking, The New Yorker character Eustace Tilley, and Alice and The Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 8.8, and was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
Plot
Lisa finds out on the last day of school how unpopular she is when nobody signs her yearbook. Meanwhile, Ned Flanders offers the Simpson family the use of his beach house over the summer. Marge likes the idea and suggests that Bart should bring Milhouse and that Lisa should bring a friend too. However, Lisa has no friends to bring and decides to change her image as a result. After reaching the beach house, Lisa tells Marge that she forgot to pack, so they go shopping for new clothes. Lisa buys a new set of clothes that she believes will make her look "cool", and goes to look for some cool children.
When Lisa succeeds in making friends with a group of local children, Bart becomes jealous and plots revenge against Lisa. He decides to teach Lisa a lesson by showing her friends her yearbook, revealing that she is a nerd. Lisa is furious at Bart, thinking that his disclosure has turned her friends away. Eventually, at a carnival, Bart realises how depressed Lisa has become, and how he cost her the only friends she has ever had. However, when Lisa returns to the beach house from the carnival she finds her friends in the act of decorating the Simpsons' car with sea shells in her honor, and they explain that they like her for who she is. To make up with Lisa, Bart has them sign her yearbook.
Production
The episode was written by Dan Greaney, and directed by Mark Kirkland. It was Greaney's second episode on The Simpsons. The staff of the show wanted to do a summer episode because there was "so much stuff" about summer vacations that they felt had to be covered in an episode. David Silverman, one of the show's animators, particularly liked the episode because he thought it captured the feeling of being on summer vacation.
The area in which the Flanders family's beach house is located in is based on the Cape Cod peninsula. Many of the writers of The Simpsons spent time on Cape Cod so they decided to model the new locations on it. The animators looked at Cape Cod photographs to get inspiration for the episode, and one of the show's background designers, Lance Wilder, grew up in that area. The beach house is based on then-show runner Josh Weinstein's parents' house in New Hampshire, to which the writers had visited many times. They played several board games when they were there, which gave them the idea to have to the Simpson family play the Mystery Date board game in the episode. Silverman said that the episode was difficult to animate and direct because it had so many new and detailed backgrounds and completely different locations.
American actress Christina Ricci guest starred in the episode as Erin, one of Lisa's new friends. Ricci was not able to come to the recording studio, so she recorded all of her lines over the phone. Weinstein, who was a fan of Ricci, thought she did a nice performance in the episode.
Reception
In its original broadcast, "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" finished forty-second (tied with Melrose Place and Married... with Children) in the ratings for the week of May 13 to May 19, 1996, with a Nielsen rating of 8.8. The episode was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week (tied with Melrose Place and Married... with Children), following The X-Files.
Since airing, the episode has received 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, wrote: "This episode will strike a chord with anyone that's ever tried to fit in with the crowd [...] Lisa gets to show the many facets of her character, and there's a superb slapstick sequence as Homer tries to dispose of a firework." Dave Foster of DVD Times praised the episode and said: "The episode is quite simply my favourite Lisa episode regardless of season. From calm to cool and fiercely aggressive, we've rarely seen Lisa so enticing as we do here, and the episode's many elements including the side stories for the other family members culminate in one of the finest this season has to offer." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode and said that he likes how it addresses Bart's resentment of Lisa's popularity. "Granted, it makes [Bart] a little too mean, but it's entertaining", he added. Jacobson went on to say: "Marge gets the best moment again, as I love watching her non-violent approach to the bumper cars." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best parts of the episode to be the scenes that feature Milhouse, particularly his yearbook message to Lisa and the scene with the Mystery Date board game. She concluded her review by giving the episode a grade of A.