Lisa the Greek

"Lisa the Greek" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons' third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 23, 1992. In the episode, Homer bonds with Lisa when he discovers her ability to pick winning football teams. When Lisa learns her father is only using her talent to help him gamble, she thinks he does not care for her.

"Lisa the Greek"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 14
Directed byRich Moore
Written byJay Kogen
Wallace Wolodarsky
Production code8F12
Original air dateJanuary 23, 1992
Guest appearance(s)
Episode features
Couch gagHomer accidentally sits on the dog.
CommentaryMatt Groening
James L. Brooks
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Julie Kavner
Nancy Cartwright
Yeardley Smith
Jay Kogen
Wallace Wolodarsky
Rich Moore

The episode was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, and directed by Rich Moore. The episode was designed to satirize the Simpsons staff members' "love affair with gambling, particularly on football".[1] "Lisa the Greek" references both the Super Bowl and the National Football League (NFL). It aired only days before Super Bowl XXVI, and correctly predicted that the Washington Redskins would win.

Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 14.2, and was the highest-rated show on Fox the week it aired.

Plot

When Lisa complains to Marge that Homer does not share her interests, Marge suggests doing something he likes, so Lisa watches a televised football game with him. After being cheated by a premium rate betting advice hotline, a desperate Homer asks Lisa to pick a winner. She picks the Miami Dolphins, so Homer calls Moe's Tavern to place a $50 bet. Homer and Lisa celebrate the Dolphins' victory.

Since Lisa is adept at picking winning teams, Homer declares every Sunday during football season Daddy-Daughter Day. Lisa sustains her winning streak for eight weeks, earning her father more money as the Super Bowl approaches. Homer buys his family expensive gifts and meals with his gambling earnings. When Lisa asks Homer if they can go hiking the Sunday after the Super Bowl, he tells her that Daddy-Daughter Days are over until next football season. Lisa realizes that Homer only wanted her to help him gamble and does not treasure her company.

After a nightmare in which she dreams that her childhood sports betting with Homer caused her to grow up to become a three times divorced chain smoking, casino hopping compulsive gambler, Lisa, completely heartbroken, gives away all the toys Homer bought her with his betting stash, including several deluxe Malibu Stacy accessories. Homer tries to make amends with her, but she is too hurt to even talk with him (especially when he asks her who might win in the Super Bowl). She agrees to tell Homer who will win the game, but she warns him that she is so distraught she might unconsciously want him to lose. She makes a cryptic prediction: if she still loves him, Washington will win; if she does not, then Buffalo will prevail. As Homer anxiously watches the game at Moe's, Washington scores at the last second and wins. Overjoyed that his daughter still loves him, Homer cancels his bowling date with Barney and goes hiking with Lisa the very next weekend.

In the subplot, Marge arranges a Mother-Son Day with Bart by taking him clothes shopping. She forces him to try on unfashionable clothes and humiliates him by flinging open the fitting room door, causing Sherri and Terri and the other customers to laugh at him in his underwear. Bart spends the rest of the day locked in the car to avoid getting beaten up by bullies for his poor fashion choices while Marge remains oblivious.

Production
Al Jean enjoys working on Homer–Lisa episodes.

The episode was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, and directed by Rich Moore. According to show runner Al Jean, it was designed to satirize the staff members' "love affair with gambling, particularly on football".[1] Kogen, Wolodarsky, Jean, George Meyer, Sam Simon, and James L. Brooks were all frequent gamblers.[2] Many of the staff members were also football fans, particularly Kogen and Wolodarsky.[3] In "Lisa the Greek", the writers wanted to further develop Lisa's character, and so they decided to make it about Lisa's relationship with her father.[3]

Kogen commented that Lisa and Marge episodes "tend to be the better episodes", because they are more thought-out and have more emotional depth to them. However, they are harder to write than other episodes because they are "less jokey". The writers therefore made the decision to replace Marge's role with Homer, who tends to be funnier than Marge.[3] Jean commented that because he has a daughter, Homer–Lisa episodes are easier for him to write and he "always want[s] to work on them".[1] Moore said they are his favorite episodes to direct, because "the two most opposite characters in the cast finding some kind of common ground [...] That was always interesting."[4] In one scene, Homer makes Lisa sit on the end of the sofa so she will not interrupt the game. Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa, recalls that many people at the table-read thought Homer was "too harsh" in the scene, but it ended up being included in the episode anyway.[5]

Cultural references

"Lisa the Greek" references both the Super Bowl and the NFL.[6] The episode aired just days before Super Bowl XXVI and correctly predicted that the Washington Redskins would defeat the Buffalo Bills.[7] When a repeat of the episode re-aired the following year (only days before Super Bowl XXVII), the staff redubbed it to mention the Dallas Cowboys instead of Washington; the Cowboys won, making the episode accurate once again. It continued to be accurate through Super Bowl XXIX and Jean commented that he would always bet against Lisa's predictions, causing him to think "Why didn't I take Lisa's advice?" when he lost.[1] As Lisa studies football at the Springfield library, she goes through the card catalog and finds an entry on Phyllis George, an American sportscaster.[8] The title of the episode is a reference to the American bookie and sports commentator Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder.[1][9] "Smooth" Jimmy Apollo is based on Snyder and Brent Gunsilman is based on Brent Musburger. The program on which Apollo and Gunsilman appear, Inside Football Today, is based on the CBS pregame show The NFL Today, which featured Musburger, George, and Snyder as co-hosts and panelists (Musburger from 1975-1990, George from 1975-1978 and again from 1980-1983, and Snyder from 1976-1988); the program's intro with a defensive player decapitating the ball carrier on a CGI gridiron is based on the intro for The NFL Today used between 1983 and 1986. The Duff Bowl commercial that airs during halftime is a reference to Bud Bowl ads for Budweiser.[1]

In addition to the football references, the episode parodies the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. Homer tells Moe, who keeps his wallet in his shoe, "I used to hate the smell of your sweaty feet. Now it's the smell of victory," a play on a line from the film.[8] In a commercial for his new television show, celebrity Troy McClure says that he plays "Jack Handle, a retired cop who shares an apartment with a retired criminal. We're the original Odd Couple!", referencing the television show The Odd Couple.[8] His new sitcom, Handle with Care (starring a retired cop who resides with a retired convict) is a sitcom patterned after the 1970s series Switch starring Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner (a detective series about an ex-police officer partnered with a reformed con artist). With his gambling winnings Homer buys Marge a bottle of perfume by Meryl Streep. The perfume is called Versatility and the bottle is shaped like an Academy Award.[8] The Globe and Mail's Liam Lacey commented on the similarities between the 2009 film Imagine That and this episode in a review of the film. He said the "message in each case is about the dangerous confusion of love and money. Naturally there's a turning point [...] where the child begins to wonder whether her father really loves her or just her profitable talent."[10] Malibu Stacy is based on the Barbie doll franchise.

Reception
Yeardley Smith received a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the episode.

In its original American broadcast, "Lisa the Greek" finished 27th in the ratings for the week of January 18–24, 1992, with a Nielsen rating of 14.2, equivalent to approximately 13 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on Fox that week.[11] Lisa's voice actor, Yeardley Smith, received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 for her performance in the episode.[12][13] "Lisa the Greek" is one of The Simpsons cast member Dan Castellaneta's favorite episodes along with "Lisa's Substitute" from season two.[14][15]

Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. John Carman of the San Francisco Chronicle called it his favorite episode of the show.[6] 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 that "it's nice to see [Homer] and Lisa getting along so well for once."[9] Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed rated the episode a 5 (of 5) and commented that "any football fan will love this episode, but the reason why it is so good is the relationship between Homer and Lisa. The two truly are a father and daughter to one another, causing both laughter and touching emotion in the audience."[16]

Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict said "Lisa the Greek" is "a chance for Homer and Lisa to bond under less than ideal, but always amusing, circumstances. Oddly, for a show relying on actual events like the Super Bowl to guide its plotline, it doesn't have [a] retread feeling.[17] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson, however, did not think the episode developed Lisa's and Homer's relationship, but it "tosses in some good pokes at the NFL and the culture that surrounds the sport".[18] Jacobson added that although the episode "echoes the neglectful father theme seen not long ago in 'Lisa's Pony', the show doesn't feel like just a retread. [...] It's not a classic, but it remains an above average program."[18]

The San Jose Mercury News's Daniel Brown said NFL gambling "seems to be a crew-wide addiction, which is why 'Lisa the Greek' is filled with sophisticated gags about point spreads and bookies".[19] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named it seventh best episode of the show with a sports theme.[20]

References
  1. Jean, Al (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Greek" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  2. Wolodarsky, Wallace (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Greek" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  3. Kogen, Jay (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Greek" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. Moore, Rich (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Greek" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  5. Yeardley, Smith (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Greek" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. Carman, John (June 30, 1997). "TV Guide Missed Some Great Shows". San Francisco Chronicle. p. E1.
  7. Nelson, John (January 23, 1992). "Plenty of hype on road to Super Bowl". St. Petersburg Times. p. 13D.
  8. Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M..
  9. Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Lisa the Greek". BBC. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  10. Lacey, Liam (June 17, 2009). "Imagine That". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  11. "What we watch, what we don't...". Austin American-Statesman. January 31, 1993. p. 13.
  12. "Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search". Emmys.org. Archived from the original on 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2009-02-05.
  13. "Briefing–'Simpsons' score big in Prime-Time Emmys". Daily News of Los Angeles. 1992-08-03. p. L20.
  14. "Insider favorites". RedEye. Chicago Tribune. May 18, 2007. p. 50.
  15. Justin, Neal (May 20, 2007). "'Simpsons' insiders pick their favorite episodes". The Times of Northwest Indiana. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  16. Meyers, Nate (June 23, 2004). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season". Digitally Obsessed. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  17. Gibron, Bill (December 15, 2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on June 29, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  18. Jacobson, Colin (August 21, 2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season (1991)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  19. Brown, Daniel (July 22, 2007). "Eat My Sports - A Retrospective". San Jose Mercury News. p. 1C.
  20. "Sports and The Simpsons". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. November 26, 2002. p. C–2.

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