"Simpsons Bible Stories" is the eighteenth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Fox in the United States on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1999. It is the first of The Simpsons now annual trilogy episodes, and consists of four self-contained segments. In the episode, the Simpson family falls asleep during a sermon in church. Marge dreams that she and Homer are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Lisa dreams that she and her fellow Springfield Elementary School students are Hebrew slaves in Ancient Egypt and guides Moses to lead them to freedom, Homer dreams that he is King Solomon called to resolve a dispute between Lenny and Carl over the ownership of a pie, and Bart dreams he is King David, who has to fight Goliath's son, Goliath II.
"Simpsons Bible Stories" was written by Matt Selman, Larry Doyle and Tim Long, and was the first episode Nancy Kruse directed for The Simpsons. While executive producer and former showrunner Mike Scully stated that the idea for the episode came after Fox requested an Easter-themed episode, co-writer Selman argued that it was conceived by former staff writers Dan Greaney and Donick Cary while they were pitching ideas for the tenth season. Because the episode mostly takes place outside Springfield, the animators had to design completely new sets. While the episode mostly features references to the Old Testament and Christianity, it also parodies children's television programs, American politicians and action films by Jerry Bruckheimer.
In its original broadcast, the episode was seen by approximately 12.2 million viewers, Following its broadcast, the episode received mixed reviews from critics, but won an Annie award in the category of Best Animated Television Production.
In 2007, the episode was released as part of The Simpsons - The Complete Tenth Season DVD box set, and a promotional poster for the episode was included in an exhibition in Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The episode's ending scene is one of series creator Matt Groening's favorite moments on The Simpsons. The episode has been credited with fostering a critical literacy towards religion and the Bible among its viewers.
Plot It is an unseasonably hot Easter at church, and no one is interested in Reverend Lovejoy's sermons. When the collection plate is passed around, Homer puts in a chocolate Easter bunny that he found in the dumpster, enraging Reverend Lovejoy, calling it a wicked idol, and provoking him to read the Bible from the beginning. The Simpsons all fall asleep.
Marge's dream
Marge dreams that she and Homer are Adam and Eve. They peacefully live in the Garden of Eden until a snake (Snake Jailbird) tempts Adam into eating dozens of apples from the forbidden tree. He persuades Eve to try one when God (Ned Flanders) witnesses his sin. Even though Adam ate many apples, God only caught Eve eating an apple, and she is therefore banished from the Garden of Eden. Adam is unwilling to come clean, but misses Eve and thinks of a way of getting her back in by digging a tunnel with the help of some of the animals. God's unicorn, named Gary, becomes exhausted from the digging and dies just before God catches Adam trying to smuggle Eve back into the Garden. The death of the unicorn enrages him further, and he expels them both from the Garden of Eden.
Lisa's dream
Lisa imagines she and all the other Springfield Elementary students are Hebrews in ancient Egypt, with the Pharaoh (Principal Skinner) making them build a pyramid. Only Moses (Milhouse) can liberate the Hebrews. When Bart defaces the Pharaoh's sarcophagus, supposedly incited by the burning bush, he gets the other students punished. Lisa and Moses ask Skinner to let the Hebrews go but they are rejected when he shouts "You call yourselves slaves!" To radicalize their request for freedom, Lisa helps Moses produce plagues to scare the Pharaoh into freeing the Israelites, but they fail. This in turn gets Lisa and Moses thrown in the Pyramid's booby traps. When they escape, Moses gathers all the students and they attempt to leave. After a brief moment of thinking about allowing the Hebrews to go free, Skinner shouts "After them!". When they reach the sea, Lisa has an idea to get across: They simultaneously flush all the Egyptians' toilets to drain the sea. As they cross, the Pharaoh and his guards follow them into the "temporarily dry sea", but the water fills the sea back up and swallows them. They enjoy splashing each other, and then return to the shore. Pleased that they have escaped, Moses asks Lisa what the future holds for the Israelites, but Lisa disappoints Moses when she says that they have to wander the desert for forty years. Moses then asks if it is going to be smooth sailing for the Jews after that. Rather than disappoint Moses again with news of the ongoing anti-Semitism that will plague the Jews for many centuries, she distracts the crowd by sending them to search for manna.
Homer's dream
Homer pictures himself as King Solomon. Lenny and Carl fight over ownership of a pie. Solomon cuts it in half, sentences Lenny and Carl to death, and then eats the pie, before presiding over a civil case between Jesus and Checker Chariot.
Bart's dream
Bart sees himself as King David, who kills Goliath, but has not won the war yet: Nelson is Goliath's son, Goliath II, who has killed Methuselah (Grampa), David's oldest friend in revenge. In retaliation, David challenges Goliath II, but having no stones to sling at him, David loses and is catapulted from the city, but not before cutting Goliath II's hair (as David got him confused with Samson). David then meets Ralph, a shepherd, who claims he can kill Goliath II. After Ralph is presumed dead, David then trains with Ralph's sheep to try to slay Goliath II. Having to climb up the enormous Tower of Babel beforehand (not before finding the remains of Jonah within the remains of the whale that ate him, which was eaten by Goliath II), David manages to subdue Goliath II by throwing a lit lantern down his throat. Goliath II is surprisingly still alive, but is quickly killed by Ralph's gravestone, hurled by Ralph himself, who also survived. Much to his shock, David is sent to jail as the townspeople claim that Goliath II was the best king they ever had, building roads, libraries and hospitals.
Epilogue
As the family wakes up, they find themselves alone in the church. Upon exiting they realize that the Last Judgement has come; fire rains from a red sky, and the Four Horsemen ride past. The Flanders ascend into Heaven, but the Simpsons do not; Lisa begins to ascend, but Homer grabs her leg and pulls her back down. Instead, the Simpsons descend via a staircase into Hell, where Homer follows the delicious scent of grilling only to be horrified by the lack of hot dogs and unappetizing dishes as "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC plays over the credits.
Production "Simpsons Bible Stories" was co-written by Matt Selman, Larry Doyle and Tim Long, and was the first episode Nancy Kruse directed for The Simpsons. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on April 4, 1999, the day Easter took place that year. According to executive producer and former showrunner Mike Scully, the idea for the episode was conceived when Fox requested an Easter-themed Simpsons episode that would air on the holiday. Normally, Fox would not broadcast any new Simpsons episodes on Easter, as it is considered a "low-ratings night", but "Simpsons Bible Stories" was an exception.Scully, Mike. (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. However, according to co-writer Selman, the idea for the episode came about when he and former staff writer Dan Greaney were pitching episode ideas for the tenth season with former staff writer Donick Cary. Cary and Greaney suggested a "Bible-trilogy" story, which then became "Simpsons Bible Stories".Selman, Matt. (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. "Simpsons Bible Stories" is the first of the trilogy episodes which, since the season 12 episode "Simpsons Tall Tales", The Simpsons produces once every season.
The first segment was written by Long. According to former staff writer Tom Martin, Long wanted the pig in the garden of Eden to have a "Tony British" accent.Martin, Tom. (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. The pig was voiced by regular cast member Hank Azaria, who portrays Moe Szyslak among other characters in the series.Groening, Matt. (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. The unicorn that digs a hole from the Garden of Eden was portrayed by Tress MacNeille. The second segment was written by Doyle. The episode's third segment was written by Selman. When writing segments for trilogy episodes, the writing staff usually follow the stories they are based on, while putting The Simpsons characters in the original characters' place. With "Simpsons Bible Stories"' third segment, Selman stated that he wanted to go a "fresh new way" by instead writing a sequel to the story of David and Goliath. According to Scully, Selman had a very clear vision of how he wanted the segment to be, and Selman said that he wanted to make a "dog's breakfast" of movie clichés at the time.
The song that plays during Bart's training montage is "Winner Takes It All" by American rock singer Sammy Hagar. Selman decided to include the song after hearing it in the 1987 action drama film Over the Top. According to Doyle, the scene was originally much longer, almost seven minutes in length.Doyle, Larry. (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. The song that plays during the episode's end credits is "Highway to Hell" by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. According to Scully, the staff could not use the song on The Simpsons at first, since AC/DC's record company refused to sell it. However, when Scully called the band's manager directly, it turned out he had not been told about the request. Scully said that when they asked if they could use "Highway to Hell", the band's manager "signed on right away" and gave The Simpsons staff a "huge discount."
Because most of the episode takes place in ancient history, the animators had to create completely new sets and designs for the episode. In the DVD commentary for the episode, Kruse stated that she and staff animator Alex Ruiz had to re-draw a majority of the episode, as the faulty scenes were drawn by six trainees. In order to receive an animator credit on The Simpsons, an animator has to draw ten scenes in an episode. Because the trainees did not draw ten scenes each, none of them were credited for their work on the episode. All the trainees were later hired to The Simpsons animation staff. Kruse stated that, while animating the episode, she was worried that the animation department would be offended by the episode's content, as many of the crew members were "very religious". However, as animation ensued, she found that most of the animators were not uncomfortable with the episode, as it mostly parodies the Old Testament. The only complaint she received was from an animator who refused to animate Jesus in the court room scene in Homer's dream.Kruse, Nancy. (2007). Commentary for "Simpsons Bible Stories", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.