Some Enchanted Evening

"The way I see it, if you raise three children who can knock out and hogtie a perfect stranger, you must be doing something right."

- Marge Simpson

"Some Enchanted Evening" is the thirteenth and final episode of Season 1. It aired on FOX on May 13, 1990. Homer and Marge go out for dinner one night while having Bart, Lisa and Maggie responsible by a babysitter called Ms. Botz. Unbeknownst to the family, Botz is known as a wanted bandit for babysitting, and is covering her identity while Homer and Marge spend their time fairly.

Although the episode was the first produced of Season 1 and the series, with its production code as 7G01 as opposed to later codes such as 7G08 from the first episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", production was delayed and overhauled after a workprint of the episode had been poorly received and covered 70% of the episode. This share of the episode had to be remade, while airing "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" for it being a Christmas special, having to air it in Christmas 1989 and becoming the first episode during this hiatus. Penny Marshall guest stars as Lucille Botzcowski.

Synopsis
Homer and Marge go out together, after Marge feels Homer takes her for granted. They face a slight delema when they realize they have no one to look after their kids, so they hire a babysitter named Ms. Botz. Things seem to be going well, until Bart and Lisa find out something shocking about their babysitter.

Full Story
The episode starts with the Simpson family eating breakfast on a Friday morning. Lisa and Bart have tug-of-war over a doughnut, causing the box to rip open, and Homer (who eats the doughnut) is reading the newspaper. After the children leave for school, Homer leaves for the power plant without even noticing Marge. Marge and Maggie are then left alone at home listening to Arnie Pye on the radio, yelling at Kent Brockman. Suddenly, a commercial comes on the radio, urging Marge to call Dr. Marvin Monroe's on-the-air therapy. She does so, and tells him she's tired of Homer.

At work, Homer hears his wife talking about him on the phone and instead of going home that night, goes to Moe's and asks Moe for advice. Moe tells Homer he should take her to a fancy restaurant, spend one night at a hotel, and buy her some flowers. He ends up buying her a box of chocolates and a single rose, as the flowers are very expensive, and goes home and tells Marge he loves her. Marge's complection softens, and he decides to take her where Moe suggested.

Meanwhile, Bart has made various prank calls to Moe's Tavern. However, the parents are faced with a problem when they realize their kids have nobody to watch over them. Marge picks up the phone to find out that Moe is still yapping at Bart for the Oliver Clozoff prank. Marge picks it up again and calls the Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers Babysitting Service, and the receptionist immediately freaks out, telling her she must be kidding. Homer then calls under the alias "Homer Sampson", and hires a rather rude babysitter named Ms. Botz.

When Ms. Botz arrives, Marge says that Maggie has to go to sleep. Ms. Botz (sarcastically) remembers that Marge also said that Bart and Lisa can stay awake longer and watch the Happy Little Elves Meet the Curious Bear Cub. Ms. Botz makes them watch the video (against Bart's wishes) while she puts Maggie to bed. After a while, Bart gets bored, and decides to switch to America's Most Armed and Dangerous, where the host is talking to the audience about the notorious "Babysitter Bandit", whose real name is Lucille Botzkowski. The host also warns the viewers that she might be using a clever alias. They then show Bart and Lisa, and the rest of their TV audience, a picture of the criminal - who looks just like Ms. Botz.

As if on cue, Ms. Botz, who is really the Babysitter Bandit, comes into the room and ties up Bart and Lisa. Bart keeps on talking and moaning that she won't get away with it so, Ms. Botz tapes Bart's mouth up so he can't talk. Bart squirms around for a while making mumbling noises but eventually gives up when a smug lisa (who is tied up but can still talk because her mouth is not taped) tells him to shut up and make the best of the situation. this episode is rather popular because they take Bart who is always shown as a troublemaker and put him in his place. Meanwhile, the parents are enjoying a fancy dinner at a restaurant. Once done with their meal, the Simpson adults go to their fancy hotel, where Marge discovers there is no answer at home due to Ms. Botz, who had disabled all the phones earlier.

Back in the house, Maggie wakes up and goes downstairs to find her siblings tied up, just as The Happy Little Elves video ends. Bart starts trying to talk again but can't so just starts hitting his head on the couch, desperate to talk. Lisa tells Maggie she'll be able to watch the film again if she unties them. The baby complies, saving the day once more.

The Simpson children hatch a plan. Maggie goes up the staircase and into the room where the Babysitter Bandit is robbing the closet. She then sucks on her pacifier and walks out of the room. Botzkowksi, tired of the incompetent children, follows Maggie's pacifier sucking sounds and into a dark closet, where she is hit on the head by Bart, wielding a baseball bat. It turns out Bart was harnessing Maggie's pacifier to accomplish the deed. With no way to call out from the house, the kids then rush to a local pay phone and alert the authorities, but not before tying the Babysitter Bandit up and gagging. then forced her to watch The Happy Little Elves.

Marge and Homer arrive home, worried about getting no answer. They find "Ms. Botz" tied up and gagged, and then send her home with all her suitcases (in which the stolen items are contained), plus three times her regular pay. The police then arrive, along with the media, and the officers ask Homer if he really did aid the Babysitter Bandit in escaping. Homer says, "Not exactly aid..." Homer, later in bed, watching himself on TV, turns it off, saying he's just not that bright. Marge says she loves him the way he is, and that if he has three children who managed to capture a criminal by themselves, he must be doing something right. Consoled, Homer turns out the light, to have a relaxing sleep.

Production
A workprint of the episode was the first to come back from Korea as episodes of The Simpsons are often animated overseas to a South Korean animation studio AKOM due to the overload of episodes and saving costs in lower developed countries like Korea. The Simpsons Shorts where everything was produced in-house in Klasky-Csupo although the domestic studio produces only the character and background layout of episodes. The original, rough version of "Some Enchanted Evening" is incomplete as it ends when Bart and Lisa just find out Ms. Botz is America's Most Wanted and sound effects and a soundtrack are absent and would have been inserted had there been a final version. The incomplete rough version is included on the The Complete First Season DVD box set. The workprint was not well received in the Gracie Films bungalow, with James L. Brooks giving a response with profanity.

The producers wanted a realistic environment for The Simpsons as other studios had unrealistic styles for animation such as Disney, Warner Bros, Hanna-Barbera, etc. The former two had a universe where the universe was bendy and characters seemed to be made out of rubber. Hanna-Barbera used cartoon sounds which were also declined. While the shorts lacked much realism in animation, the half-hour series had been intended to be as realistic as possible despite the unrealistic animation.

70% of the episodes had to be redone. The episode was worked on during the course of the first season until finally being aired on May 13, 1990 as the season finale. The producers considered aborting production of the series if the next episode, "Bart the Genius" has similar production difficulties although fortunately had several fixable animation problems. They convinced FOX to postpone the season premiere for several months. Although "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", the eighth episode in production order, had to be aired as it was a Christmas special in December of 1989, becoming the first episode of the first season and the first episode of The Simpsons overall.