Bart Gets a 'Z' (4 Oct. 2009)

When Bart's prank gets Ms. Krabappel fired from Springfield Elementary School, he tries to make it up to her without letting her know that he was responsible.

Directors:

Mark Kirkland, Mike B. Anderson

Writers:

Matt Groening (creator), James L. Brooks (developer),

Stars:

Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Dan Castellaneta	...	Homer Simpson / Mrs. Krabappel's Cat / Itchy / Santa's Little Helper / Rodney Dangerfield / Squeaky Voiced Teen / Groundskeeper Willie (voice)
Julie Kavner	...	Marge Simpson (voice)
Nancy Cartwright	...	Bart Simpson / Nelson Muntz / Kearney / Students (voice)
Yeardley Smith	...	Lisa Simpson (voice)
Hank Azaria	...	Zachary Vaughn / Disco Stu / Moe Szyslak (voice)
Harry Shearer	...	Scratchy / Dr. Hibbert / Mr. Largo / Principal Skinner / Announcer / Ned Flanders (voice)
Marcia Wallace	...	Edna Krabappel (voice)
Pamela Hayden	...	Milhouse Van Houten / Jimbo Jones / Television Aerobics Instructor / Students (voice)
Tress MacNeille	...	Movie Woman / Pigs / Book Seller / The Answer Narrator (voice)
Russi Taylor	...	Martin Prince / Sherri / Terri / Students (voice)
Karl Wiedergott	...	High School Student (voice)

Storyline

When Mrs. Krabappel confiscates student's cell phones, the class, organized by Bart, decides to teach her a lesson by spiking her coffee and watching her make a drunken fool of herself. Principal Skinner fires Mrs. Krabappel and replaces her with a cool new teacher, Zachary Vaughn, who impresses Bart and his friends with a hip attitude and love of texting, blogging and using Twitter and Facebook. Torn by his affection for Mr. Vaughn, yet plagued by guilt, Bart makes his way to Skinner's office to tell him the truth and get Mrs. Krabappel's job back.

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Plot Keywords:

school | teacher | prank gone wrong | fired from the job | bakery | 

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Family

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 October 2009 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gracie Films, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

After Mrs. Krabappel confiscates all the cell phones from the class, the next shot of the angry class shows they all still have their phones on their desks, but all the phones are twisted and broken.

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Quotes

Edna Krabappel: You know why they call it a choir? Because choir we listening to this crap?

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Connections

Spoofs Back to School (1986)

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Soundtracks

"Another Day"
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney

User Reviews

"The layers of badness reach almost to the center !"

I didn't like this episode, and for more than one reason.

(Edna Krabappel) is a very sad character. To some extent the show's writers didn't have mercy on her. She obviously isn't happy with her job. She was dumped by the coward (Smithers). And she makes up for her middle-age crises, and living with no passion in work or life, by smocking and drinking heavily. To make matters worse and worse, Bart saw, in one of his trips to the future, that she would turn into old alcoholic miserable whore !

In (Bart Gets a 'Z'), they – the writers – play the same game of let's curve but not break. Namely toying with the character a bit, teaching it – and us – a lesson, then bringing it back to point 1 in the next episode. This awful round; they didn't teach anyone any lesson !

After getting fired because of a Bart's prank, Mrs. (Krabappel) made a muffin shop, but eventually didn't complete it. She returned – somehow – to her job, but didn't actually accomplish anything. Even her perception of "The Answer" was meaningless; simply a revenge out of the class's kids ! So this episode doesn't offer much in terms of (Krabappel)'s positive progress. In fact it assures that nothing can be done to delete or delay her heartrending prospective fate. And if that was intended then it's part of the show's belief that some characters are born to be doomed, which is seriously very black side in a lovely optimistic show such as this !

The transformation of the new teacher was idiot. Originally, that character wasn't built fairly. He seemed cool, creative and most of all in love with his job. So how come he got drunk in the school, and said all of those strange things at the end ?! He should have shown some of "that" earlier, by some way, so when he would go off, it would have had some logicality. Because this way it has "forced" written all over it instead as any pretext makes (Krabappel) get back her job !

It's clear that The Simpsons' image hasn't been the same after The Simpsons movie. The cadres became tighter, and the nice many details got lesser and lesser. This is undoubtedly made the pace slower, since the visual density, with its distinct lively spirit, left the screen. It's not about the absence of one of the trademarks of the show at its golden age, only. It's about being TV-ish in the worst sense too.

Save the first sequence of Paul McCartney's Another Day, couple of (Homer)'s lines, and some impressively sorrowful vocal performance by Marcia Wallace as (Krabappel), this is dramatically and visually unsatisfying. It looks made just to have a good laugh on the books / DVDs of think good and do well. I didn't have a laugh though, seeing that this episode didn't think good or do well itself.