Marge in Chains

Plot

Troy McClure and Dr. Nick advertise a juicer called the "Juice Loosener" manufactured in Osaka, Japan. A packer in Osaka has the flu, contaminating every package, and the "Osaka Flu" spreads through Springfield. At the Kwik-E-Mart, Marge forgets to pay for a bottle of bourbon Grampa requested and is charged with shoplifting. Mayor Quimby publicly reveals her crime, damaging her reputation. The family hires Lionel Hutz, but his incompetence leads to Marge's conviction and a 30-day prison sentence.

Without Marge, the house falls into disarray, and the annual bake sale fails to raise enough money for a statue of Abraham Lincoln, forcing the purchase of a Jimmy Carter statue. Townspeople riot, and Quimby arranges Marge's early release. She returns to find the Carter statue altered with her hairstyle and the inscription "Marge Forever"; it becomes a tetherball post for Bart and Lisa.

Production

This was the first episode Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein wrote as staff writers, assigned after someone else conceived the idea. Their first draft was "slightly more realistic" due to research on women in prison, much of which was later replaced. For Apu and Sanjay's Hindi dialogue, the writers contacted the Embassy of India in Washington, which was not "interested or happy" but provided a translation. Show runner Al Jean stated in the 2004 DVD commentary that he disliked Jimmy Carter, though he would vote for him over George W. Bush.

Mike Reiss noted that one of Carter's grandsons recommended the show to Carter, and this was the first episode he saw. For the courtroom scene where Apu recites pi to 40,000 decimal places, the writers asked David H. Bailey of NASA for the 40,000th digit; Bailey sent a printout of the first 40,000 digits. The Troy McClure movie title "P is for Psycho" is Reiss's favorite joke he wrote for the show. The episode aired on Fox on May 6, 1993, and was included in the 1997 video collection "The Simpsons: Crime and Punishment" and its 2005 DVD release, as well as the season 4 DVD set released June 15, 2004.

Cultural references

The episode title references the band Alice in Chains. Bart requests Flintstones Chewable Morphine. Mayor Quimby gives away the plot twist of "The Crying Game". Maude watching Marge in the bathroom is modeled after a scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".

David Crosby appears as Lionel Hutz's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor; Nathan Rabin notes this is an in-joke because Phil Hartman designed an album cover for Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Crosby's line "and know that I love you" references their song "Teach Your Children". During Marge's trial, prosecutors show the Zapruder film and claim Marge was on the grassy knoll during JFK's assassination. Hutz's dream of a world without lawyers originally intended to use "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" but rights were unavailable, so a similar instrumental theme was used.

Homer complains he'll miss "Sheriff Lobo". Maude asks why God has forsaken the Flanders, and Ned recalls laughing at an off-color joke on "Married... with Children", lamenting "Watch Fox and be damned for all eternity!" The Carter statue inscription "Malaise Forever" references Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" speech, though Carter never used the word "malaise". During the COVID-19 pandemic, media outlets reported the episode "predicted" the outbreak; writer Bill Oakley alleged trolls created memes replacing "Osaka flu" with "coronavirus", stating his reference was the 1968 flu pandemic from British Hong Kong, calling it "just supposed to be a quick joke".

Reception

In its original broadcast, the episode finished 31st in ratings for the week of May 3–9, 1993, with a Nielsen rating of 11.1, equivalent to approximately 10.3 million viewing households, and was the second highest-rated Fox show that week after "Beverly Hills, 90210". Caroline Boucher of The Observer noted her domestic correspondent Simon watched the tape twice. Karl French of Financial Times characterized the plot as a "modern version" of "It's a Wonderful Life".

Dusty Lane of The News Tribune cited Lionel Hutz's quote about running over a dog and son among "Eight Great 'Simpsons' Quotes". Jessica Mellor of The Daily Mirror highlighted the episode in a review of the season four DVD release. Gary Russell and Gareth Roberts, in their book, commented positively on Bart's plan to rescue Marge as "Bartina" and Lionel Hutz's ineptitude.