The Simpsons (TV Series) Some Enchanted Evening (1990) User Reviews

Great From What It Started As

[LedZep712 · 8/10 · 25 November 2007]

Some Enchanted Evening

The story of the production of this episode is well-known and that much, if not most of the animation is re-done. And as such, the original material left is still slightly noticeable particularly with the distinguishing gradients in some of the backgrounds (although this can also be seen Bart The Genius.) Of course, in comparison with what the episode started out as, it's a very well done episode. Whilst not being tremendously serious (except for the early Homer/Marge scene) the light-hearted nature, which does largely rely on robbery after-all, is entertaining.

So, as such the animation is clunky, but the performances (particularly Penny Marshall's Ms. Botz (Botzukowski) makes up for it and makes a satisfying end to the first season of The Simpsons.

Funny But A Little Rough

[g-bodyl · 8/10 · 26 November 2013]

The final episode of Season 1 seems to have fallen out of the pot compared to the last few episodes. What I mean by that is how the animation seems rough and a bit patched. I'm not saying the quality of the episode is bad, but the animation is on par with the first and second episodes. But other than that, it still has the same old Simpsons you have come to love as well as the sharp comedy and the witty story.

This episode, "Some Enchanted Evening" has Homer and Marge going out on their second honeymoon. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are home with the babysitter who happens to be "armed and dangerous." That could be the cause of some trouble.

Overall, this is not a bad episode. I enjoyed the plot line involving the kids and the babysitter the most. I wish they found a better episode to end a season, but this is still worth watching. I can't wait to watch Season 2. I rate this episode 8/10.

A solid season one finale and an episode where the rough and contorted animation actually helps with the atmosphere

[SLionsCricketreviews · 7/10 · 13 January 2018]

I would have to imagine that this episode would be one of the more memorable episodes of the first season if for its added sense of darkness. It showed that The Simpsons could just as easily play the cutesy American family angle as much as it could play the underbelly of society, the underbelly in the case of this episode being the notorious babysitter criminal who watches over the children in this episode.

Indeed some of the animation is quite rough, arguably even more so than some of the previous few episodes, but as far as I am concerned, it works better here than in most episodes. Watching the animation contort and elongate itself, particularly on the babysitter Ms. Botz actually enhances the rather creepy and unsettling atmosphere of the episode. Given that the standard of animation in the first season is generally poor, this episode best utilizes the imperfections of animation.

The other angle to this episode is another Homer/Marge centric tale. It begins much the same way as "Life on the Fast Lane" and "Homer's Night Out" with a frustrated Marge feeling unloved by her husband but it thankfully takes a different turn quickly whereby Homer takes Marge out to a special evening to reignite their relationship. The stuff here is fairly decent, nothing particularly stands out as being all that funny (though Homer dancing and him telling the lobster that he looks forward to having it on his place are worthwhile moments) but it's tame enough that it lets the more memorable story of the babysitter take over.

"Some Enchanted Evening" ends with a wonderful final scene where Homer, in bed with Marge, is disappointed and ashamed over his incompetence with most things in life having unintentionally let the criminal babysitter loose. Marge gives him words of encouragement saying that no one whose three children can take care of themselves the way they did is ever entirely useless. It's a touching and sweet minor exchange that gives Homer a moment of strength over his crippling insecurities and it marks the end of the first season, one that is often rough but that is to be expected and there's more than glimpses in this season of the great show to follow.

My favorite Simpsons episode ever

[mullen1979 · 10/10 · 3 February 2020]

I remember a rainy day in 1998 when I was home from school... My mom was on the sofa and I sat in the chair to do my homework and this episode was playing... I remember just enjoying it's "cozy" factor and exciting story line so much that I set the VCR to record it at the next time slot it was scheduled to air... The story has Marge fed up with homer and his insensitive ways only for him to hear about it on her call in to a radio talk show... He comes home and sweeps her off her feet with plans for an evening out only to leave Bart , Lisa and Maggie with a psychotic babysitter who is considered to be "armed and dangerous"... The shenanigans are cute and light hearted... The story is exciting as a young and more impressionable viewer... The setting is classic and offers a cozy watch on a rainy day... I have watched this episode and played it for background noise multiple times throughout the years and still turn to it for the same comfort...

"Some Enchanted Evening" is an awesome episode... likely the best episode of the first season.

[Zabon · 10/10 · 11 June 2011]

This is most likely my favorite episode of the first season. A babysitter named Ms. Lucille Botzcowski comes to babysit the Simpson kids as Homer and Marge go for a night out... Everyone is unaware that Ms. Botz is a bandit and has made a career out of robbing houses. Botz has Bart and Lisa watch the cartoon called the "Happy Little Elves Meet the Curious Bear Cub." Afterwards, Bart and Lisa watch TV to see that Ms. Botz truly is the babysitter bandit... but they are unable to fight back as she comes in and ties them up. Maggie gets out of her crib and crawls towards the already bound Lisa and Bart... who proceed to tell Maggie that they'll put on the Happy Elves video again if she helps untie them. Maggie complies... and the children hatch a plan to take down Ms. Botz. Eventually, Bart hides in a dark closet and sucks on Maggie's pacifier, wielding a baseball bat... and luring Ms. Botz in. He knocks her out cold... and they go to call the authorities. Homer and Marge get home to find Ms. Botz tied and gagged... so Homer unties her and pays her three times the normal pay. The authorities arrive to find that Homer has allowed the notorious babysitter bandit to escape. Of course, Homer pretends to have gone through a struggle... but he knows the truth... he botched everything up again. Very awesome episode. Ms. Botzcowski's character is very vivid and lively. The manner in which the character's movements and actions are depicted are extremely colorful and memorable. She's likely one of my favorite female characters in the series due to her actually maniacal yet calculated mannerisms and movements. This is definitely my favorite episode of the entire first season of this awesome series.

Enjoyable episode with some standout gags

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 17 June 2022]

Homer hears Marge complaining about their marriage to a psychologist on the radio.

This is an enjoyable episode that makes more Simpson-style humour from marriage and long term relationships.

The A-B plot is reasonably good, but for me it's not quite as strong some others from the first series. My favourite moment is the radio scene, plus the reaction of the babysitting agency to a call from the Simpson house.

When it all comes together at the end and Homer misreads the situation it is very funny.

The episode that first introduced me to The Simpsons

[GayBoi1 · 10/10 · 11 November 2015]

This early episode is the first I remember watching of the Simpsons series. I was only 9 years old at the time, but I remember getting hooked on the series from this point. I remember the following school year getting my favorite Bart Simpson t-shirt which I would try to wear to school every day and often going over to a friend's house to watch the series on Sunday night.

Anyway, this was a funny(and a bit of a dark)episode of the series. After Homer hears Marge complaining on a local radio talk show about how the romance in their marriage had ended, he takes her on a second honeymoon and leave the kids with a deranged baby sitter(voiced by Penny Marshall). Comedy ensues as Bart, Lisa and Maggie try to capture the sitter and turn her in to the cops after seeing her story on America's Most Wanted. Ultimately Bart does manage to catch the sitter and turn her in to the cops, but not before Homer and Marge come home early and Homer accidentally releases the sitter thinking it was all Bart just simply getting in to more mischief.

Season 1: Rough around the edges but the core is there from the start

[bob the moo · 10 March 2013]

There is a later episode of The Simpson where Troy McClure shows clips from the original short cartoons from which this show came and he forces a laugh in response to a clip that is really way below the standard the show had reached by the time that clip show came around. I mention that because to a certain extent that is how I felt watching the very first season again, because this really is its first steps and it is still far from being the fully fleshed out, hilarious and clever show that it would soon become.

It is still good for what it is though and it isn't that it doesn't know what it is doing, just that it is taking its first steps as a show. The weekly plots are good but they tend to focus on one strand rather than several, as a result they seem more straightforward and perhaps a little slower than I expected. They tend to have good messages and be delivered in a way that avoids the usual sitcom sentiment, but they are still pretty direct in terms of what they are doing. The animation shows a big difference as well of course – although everything has stepped up from the original shorts, it still looks pretty rough and the characters and their voices are all not quite where they need to be (which is easy to say retrospectively I know). The supporting character base has a few in there but again the show hasn't had time to really bring anyone on and there are only a few characters that have more than a small amount to do in support.

It is still funny though and pretty smart with it, though it should be read that I dismiss it but just that the heights it went onto make it harder to look back on its humble beginnings and see them as anything else. I look forward to seeing the rough edges being taken off in the next few seasons and the whole thing being brought up to the shine I know it will achieve.

Evil Babysitter

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 18 February 2022]

When Marge and Homer plan a romantic evening they leave the kids with a babysitter. She happens to be a notorious thief and terrorizes the kids. Of course, when Bart is back in control things change. It was a decent episode. So endeth season one.

Brings the rocky first season to a rocky close

[CubsandCulture · 8/10 · 19 August 2021]

This episode famously had to be moved to the season finale from its intended series premiere. This was the case because the animation came back ruined from Korea; the production team spent months trying to fix it. You can tell that this episode has a rough production history in that the animation is crude and there are technical mistakes everywhere. The writing isn't as crisp as it got in the later years of the show as well.

The episode is a good token for the first season however. Because the first season is also rocky and technical, continuity errors crop up repeatedly. And the voices are yet unfinished, undefined. But the show's gentle parody of suburbia and Americana comes through. Season 1 is not part of the golden era of the Simpsons.

This episode was nowhere near enchanting. Not really worth a watch any evening.

[ivyleague929 · 5/10 · 29 January 2021]

Yes, I know that this was supposed to be the pilot episode but thank goodness it was pushed back due to animation concerns. It's not pleasant. Having Homer (Voiced by Dan Castellaneta) & Marge (Voiced by Julie Kavner) having marriage troubles. With one of them threating to leave is not the best way to introduce this cartoon sitcom family. To add onto that, having the kids left with a dangerous criminal babysitter while the parents party is downright upsetting. I know Fox Channel at the time was aiming for edgy something risqué humor content to seen different from the other television networks, but a lot of viewers would have been turn off by this episode directed by Kent Butterworth and David Silverman. Especially if this was aired before Christmas 1989. Writers for most of the first season Matt Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon also the executive producers made the right decision with 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' which slowly ease audiences into the Simpson concept. The episode opens with a much more family friendly tale of a man trying to make enough money to put gifts under the tree. It had the right amount balance of dysfunctional adult-driven humor with a strong heartful message of family bonding. It's a wonderful episode. Sadly 'Some Enchanted Evening' doesn't tackle any of its own themes that well. For example, the moral dilemma of the parents having relationship troubles in the first half of the episode was better confronted in Season 1 Episode 9 "Life on the Fast Lane", also known as "Jacques to Be Wild" with Marge forgiving her husband for his past mistakes. So, seeing this subplot again felt recycled. The same goes with the sinister figure impersonating as a child friendly figure. While actress/director Penny Marshall was amazing in guest voice performing as Ms. Lucille Botzcowski. We just saw the Simpson children in danger in the previous episode 'Krusty gets Busted'. Nevertheless, I kinda wish Ms. Botz would return in the future to take her revenge on Bart (Voiced by Nancy Cartwright) and Lisa (Voiced by Yeardley Smith) rather than overusing the titular villain from Season 1 Episode 12 for so long. That really got tiresome. I also really hate that Lucille escape in this episode and never got her comeuppances with the law even do she had brief non speaking background cameos later on. Sadly, with the death of Penny Marshall in 2018. That day may never come. Another thing that I really dislike about this episode is the fact that the children never once try calling 911. Look I get that the Springfield cops are total idiots. Still, it's quite a horrible message to tell children to call the producers of a crime show over the local police. As for humor. It was a mixed bag. While the episode has a chalkboard gag. It didn't really have an unusual opening couch gimmick because of the pushed back. Jokes were supposed to follows this. Still humorous sequences like Marge calling a local show about Pedro with her characteristic gravelly voice kinda work. While the running gag with Bart's prank calls to Moe's Tavern felt already running out of stream. Despite that I kinda dig the homage to cultural references to such horror films as 1955 'The Night of the Hunter' and 1960 'Psycho' as well as a musical nod to 1954 'A Star Is Born'. As for the animation from Klasky-Csupo, the animation studio that produced the earlier Simpsons shorts & South Korean animation studio AKOM. The episode had continuity goofs with character's leg dangling oddly, ropes disappearing, lip shaped stain and the interior of the Simpsons house keeps changing designs between shots. The biggest complained with the animation come with the color arrangement. Not only does background props change colors between shots, but the early supporting character colors designs are just jarring to look at. Honestly there is only one series of frames that animator Dan Haskett work on that really looks sharp in which Ms. Botz threatens Bart about a video tape. The scene caught me off guard because how not subpar it looked. A lot of other scenes had to be deleted because how lousy the animation was. The redone remains were sloppy edited together and it shows. The pacing was way off. At least this poorly-animated episode made a hilarious meta joke about its situation by showing a parody of an even poorer animated show on the Simpson's television with 1 frame per second. As for the voice acting. Since dialogue wasn't recorded with the new animation. Voices don't really match that well. Then there is the ever so changing voice for Homer. Castellaneta start off the episode sounding like actor Walter Matthau, but by the end turns into the traditional normal tone for the father. Overall: As a season finale. This 13th episode doesn't really sum the season up at all. In the end, the story and animation weren't that remarkable. It was a Doh.

Guest starring Penny Marshall

[safenoe · 8/10 · 8 January 2024]

Penny Marshall is the guest voice of Lucille Botzcowski, and it's interesting because I thought Some Enchanted Evening was the first episode broadcast, well it was supposed to be because it was the first one produced, but it ended up being the season one finale.

Anyway, season one represents a landmark for animation as you can tell that The Simpsons was not The Flintstones and certainly wasn't Wait Till Your Father Gets Home which ran from 1972 to 1974. The Simpsons became incredibly influential and shaped pop culture and politics and society beyond what any cartoon would ordinarily do for sure.

A decent end to a good 1st series

[studioAT · 3/10 · 3 March 2020]

Homer and Marge's marriage in trouble again??

I thought this episode was ok, it's not up there with my favourites from the first series though.