"The Great Louse Detective" is the sixth episode of the
fourteenth season of the American animated television series ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
''. It originally aired on the
Fox network
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...
in the United States on December 15, 2002. In the episode, the
Simpson family
The Simpson family are the fictional characters featured in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of married couple Homer and Marge and their three children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Th ...
wins a free spa weekend, and
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
is nearly killed when a mysterious figure locks him in a sauna.
Chief Wiggum
Chief Clancy Wiggum is a fictional character from the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', voiced by Hank Azaria. He is the chief of police in the show's setting of Springfield, and is the father of Ralph Wiggum and the husband of Sara ...
decides to hire someone who can think like a murderer in order to find the mystery assailant.
Bart
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
's arch-enemy
Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger Jr., PhD, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared in the episode " The Telltale Head". Bob is a se ...
is sent to live with the Simpsons so he can help find Homer's attempted killer, who turns out to be the son of
the late Frank Grimes.
Since airing, the episode has received generally positive reviews from critics. The episode's title is a reference to the 1986
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
feature ''
The Great Mouse Detective
''The Great Mouse Detective'' (also known as ''The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective'' for its 1992 theatrical re-release and ''Basil the Great Mouse Detective'' in some countries) is a 1986 American animated mystery adventure film produc ...
''.
Plot
The
Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, a ...
win a free spa weekend. At the spa,
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
is nearly killed when a mysterious person locks him into an incredibly hot steam room with a wrench, but he is saved inadvertently when
Krusty the Clown
Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky (; ) better known by his stage name Krusty the Clown (sometimes spelled as Krusty the Klown), is a recurring character on the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Castel ...
unlocks the door. This prompts Homer and
Marge to see
Chief Wiggum
Chief Clancy Wiggum is a fictional character from the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', voiced by Hank Azaria. He is the chief of police in the show's setting of Springfield, and is the father of Ralph Wiggum and the husband of Sara ...
, who suggests that they seek help from someone who can understand a murderer's twisted mind – a restrained
Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger Jr., PhD, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared in the episode " The Telltale Head". Bob is a se ...
, who is not only isolated from the other prisoners, but is released from prison for the first time since
he hypnotized Bart into nearly killing Krusty, much to
Bart
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
's immediate discomfort. To ensure the safety of Bart's life, Wiggum places a shock bracelet on Sideshow Bob's ankle to force his murderous urges kept at bay when he comes to live at the Simpson house. Bob asks Homer to list all the people who may want him dead, and follows him around to investigate who the mystery assailant could be. During their day, they end up at a repair shop, where Homer chastises the mechanic, Junior.
Homer and Bob go to
Moe's Tavern
Springfield is the primary fictional setting of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' and related media. It is an average-sized, fictional city within an indeterminate state in the United States. The fictional city's geography, surroundi ...
, where
Lenny gives Bob advice on how to properly murder Bart. Afterwards, the assailant fires at Homer with a gun, before escaping in a tow truck. Bob suggests that Homer should stay home and out of sight to be safe, but the latter is named the King of the
Springfield Mardi Gras, in which he must ride on a float for the whole day. Bob discovers that Homer won because someone rigged the ballot in his favor, but Homer takes part in the parade anyway in hopes of luring out his attempted killer. At the parade, Bob learns that a brake line on Homer's float has been cut, and draws a correlation between the wrench used to lock Homer in the steam room, the wrenches in the tow truck and a smudge on the spa invitation, realizing that Junior is the killer. As the float goes out of control, Bob saves Homer by getting fired out of a cannon, hanging onto the
Duff blimp
A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hy ...
, and grabbing Homer with his huge feet from above, just before the float crashes into the Museum of
Swordfish.
Homer and Bob end up giving chase on stilts to the killer, who is revealed to be Frank Grimes Jr, the illegitimate son of Frank Grimes, who holds Homer responsible for
his father's death. Junior attempts to kill Homer to avenge his father, but is tranquilized by the police. That night, after Homer puts Bart in bed, Bob reveals himself from behind the bedroom door, having taken possession of the remote for his shock bracelet. Considering Lenny's advice, Bob decides to go back to his deadly side and almost kills Bart without hesitation but realizes at the last second that he has grown
accustomed to Bart's face and cannot bring himself to do it. Now deciding
to go on the run, he tries to take his leave, but gets zapped continuously by his shock bracelet (because of birds pecking the remote after it landed in their nest).
Production
![Kelsey Grammer - Cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Kelsey_Grammer_-_Cropped.jpg)
"The Great Louse Detective" was written by
John Frink
John Frink (born May 5, 1959) is an American television writer and producer. He has written several episodes of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'', many of which he co-wrote with his former writing partner Don Payne. Frink and Payne ...
and
Don Payne and directed by
Steven Dean Moore as part of the
fourteenth season of ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' (2002–03).
[ American actor ]Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained notoriety and acclaim for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984-1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993-2004), ...
guest starred in the episode, returning to voice the recurring character Sideshow Bob. Since season three
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
's "Black Widower
"Black Widower" (originally titled "The Return of Sideshow Bob") is the twenty-first episode of the The Simpsons (season 3), third season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Com ...
" (1992), the writers have echoed the premise of Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner from the 1949–1966 '' Looney Tunes'' cartoons by having Bob unexpectedly insert himself into Bart's life and attempt to kill him. Executive producer Al Jean
Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...
has compared Bob's character to that of Wile E. Coyote, noting that both are intelligent, yet always foiled by what they perceive as an inferior intellect.[Jean, Al (2003). Commentary for "Black Widower", in ''The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season'' VD 20th Century Fox.]
This is one of the first episodes of ''The Simpsons'' that were animated with digital ink and paint
Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation.
Pr ...
, and marked the series' permanent switch to that technique. Previously, episodes had been animated using the traditional ink-and-paint process. Digital ink and paint had previously been used by the animators of ''The Simpsons'' for season 7's "Radioactive Man" and season 12's " Tennis the Menace", primarily to test the technique.[Jean, Al (2009). ''The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season'' DVD commentary for the episode "Tennis the Menace". 20th Century Fox.]
Release
The episode originally aired on the Fox network
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...
in the United States on December 15, 2002. It was viewed in approximately 8.75 million households that night. With a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
of 8.2, the episode finished 23rd in the ratings for the week of December 9–15, 2002. It was the highest-rated broadcast on Fox that week, beating shows such as ''King of the Hill
''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...
'', '' Malcolm in the Middle'', '' 24'', ''That '70s Show
''That '70s Show'' is an American television period teen sitcom that aired on Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin, ...
'', and the 2002 Billboard Music Awards. On December 6, 2011, "The Great Louse Detective" was released on Blu-ray and DVD as part of the box set ''The Simpsons – The Complete Fourteenth Season''. Staff members Matt Groening
Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is the creator of the comic strip ''Life in Hell'' (1977–2012) and the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Fut ...
, Al Jean
Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...
, John Frink
John Frink (born May 5, 1959) is an American television writer and producer. He has written several episodes of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'', many of which he co-wrote with his former writing partner Don Payne. Frink and Payne ...
, Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Howes Maxtone-Graham is an American television writer and producer. He has formerly written for ''Saturday Night Live'' (1992–1995) and ''The Simpsons'' (1995–2012), as well as serving as a co-executive producer and consulting producer ...
, Matt Selman
Matt Selman (born }) is an American writer and producer.
Early life
Selman is a native of Watertown, Massachusetts. He graduated from Beaver Country Day School in 1989 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1993.
Career
After considering a car ...
, Tim Long
Tim Long (born June 14, 1969) is a comedy writer born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Long calls Exeter, Ontario, his home town and has written for ''The Simpsons'', ''Politically Incorrect'', '' Spy'' magazine and the ''Late Show with David Letter ...
, Michael Price, Tom Gammill, Steven Dean Moore, Mike B. Anderson, and David Silverman, as well as cast member Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis Castellaneta (; born October 29, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series ''The Simpsons'' (as well as other characters on the show such as Abraham "Grampa" ...
, participated in the DVD audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included in the box set.
The episode has received generally positive reviews from critics. In 2009, IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
's Leo Waldbaum listed "The Great Louse Detective" at number seven on his list of the "Top 10 Sideshow Bob Episodes". At that time, ten episodes revolving around the character had aired. Canning wrote that the episode "was a lot of fun as it put Bob in an unexpected situation with the Simpsons, interacting more with Homer than with Bart." He added that the episode "is also memorable for having Homer's attempted murderer turn out to be Frank Grimes Jr., son of Frank 'Grimey' Grimes. This was a nice reference to 'Homer's Enemy' and was a rare instance where the series carried through some continuity."
DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "Over the years, we’ve gotten many a great Sideshow Bob episode, so this one has to live up to steep competition. While not a bad show, 'Louse' fails to live up to its predecessors. It does throw out some good moments, and it’s fine by Season 14 standards, but it doesn’t qualify as a Sideshow Bob classic."[
]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Louse Detective, The
The Simpsons (season 14) episodes
2002 American television episodes
Television episodes about murder
Television episodes about revenge