Girl's in the Band
Lisa joins a youth orchestra with harsh training.
"Girl's in the Band" is the nineteenth episode of the thirtieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 658th episode overall. It aired on Fox on March 31, 2019, and was directed by Jennifer Moeller. The episode is notable as the first written by Nancy Cartwright, voice actor of Bart Simpson, making her the third of six main cast members to write an episode and the first female main cast member with a writing credit for the show.
Quick Facts
- Season
- 30
- Episode
- 19
- Director
- Jennifer Moeller
- Writer
- Nancy Cartwright
- Production
- YABF11
- Air date
- 31 March 2019
- Guests
- J. K. Simmons as Victor Kleskow; Dave Matthews as Lloyd
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Springfield Elementary's music teacher Dewey Largo wakes from a nightmare next to his partner Geoffrey, recalling his failed conductor career. At school, Largo receives an email from Victor Kleskow, musical director of the Capital City Philharmonic, who will attend the next night's concert. Largo trains the students with "The Stars and Stripes Forever". The concert succeeds with "Troika" from Lieutenant Kije, but Kleskow takes Lisa Simpson for his youth orchestra instead of hiring Largo. Homer and Marge struggle to schedule and pay for Lisa's new extracurricular work. At Capital City, Lisa finds Kleskow menacing and angered by small mistakes. Homer works a night shift to earn extra money. Bart is confined to a closet with siblings of other student musicians. Lisa wins first chair for saxophone but frowns at the toll on her family. Kleskow offers to advance her to a more expensive, farther class; she refuses, but he insists she try out. Homer, sleep-deprived, hallucinates dancing and drinking with bartender Lloyd from The Shining. To avoid more family problems, Lisa intentionally fails her audition, ending her saxophone career.
Production
Nancy Cartwright had previously submitted episode pitches that were rejected for resembling earlier ones. She drew this episode from her own childhood and her family’s encouragement of her niece, Sabrina Carpenter. Though she voices Bart, she identified more with Lisa and never considered writing a Bart-centered story. After turning in the script, she joined the writers room as they contributed ideas, including nods to the 2014 film Whiplash. Cartwright penned the chalkboard gag but not the couch gag. The other voice actors were unaware she had written the episode until the table read. J.K. Simmons was cast following the addition of the Whiplash references. Dave Matthews appeared as Lloyd, a bartender who advises Homer on how to eliminate his family.
Reception
"Girl's in the Band" scored a 0.8 rating with a 4 share and was watched by 2.07 million people. Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B−, stating that working through a conflict on The Simpsons is harder than it looks, and while the episode is not a bad effort at finding the narrative and comedic sweet spot, it is incomplete and unsatisfying. Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode a 4 out of 5 stars, feeling as if Lisa had written the episode while Bart wrote the jokes.
More in LGBTQ-related Animated Television Episodes
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced