Some Enchanted Evening (The Simpsons Episode) - Production

Production

Even though this episode aired as the last episode of the first season, it was the first episode in production and was intended to be the first episode to air from the half-hour show. The series is a spin-off from The Tracey Ullman Show in which the family already appeared in a series of animated one-minute shorts. The characters were already created, but had to be further developed in order to carry a half-hour show. The episode was therefore meant as an introduction to the characters. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and writer/producer Sam Simon (of such television series as Cheers) wrote the script for the episode. Both Groening and Simon are credited with developing the series. The name of Ms. Botz was based on a real person that once babysat Matt Groening.

The episode was first directed by Kent Butterworth. Klasky-Csupo, the animation studio that produced the earlier Simpsons shorts, was in charge of the animation, with one exception. During the years of producing the shorts, everything was created in-house. Due to the increased workload of the full-length episodes, production was subcontracted to South Korean animation studio AKOM. While character and background layout is done by the domestic studio, inbetweening, coloring and filming is done by the overseas studio. A debacle erupted when this episode, the first to return from animation in Korea, was screened in front of the production staff at the Gracie Films bungalow. The executive producer and developer James L. Brooks' initial reaction to the animation was "This is shit." After that reaction the room almost cleared. A heated argument ensued between Brooks and Klasky-Csupo animation studio head Gabor Csupo, who denied that there was anything wrong with the animation and suggested that the real problem was the quality of the show's writing.

The problem with the animation from the producers' point-of-view was that it did not exhibit a distinct style envisioned for the show. At the time there were only a few choices for animation style. Usually, they would either follow the style of Disney, Warner Bros., or Hanna-Barbera. Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons had a universe that was bendy and the characters seemed to be made of rubber. The producers wanted a realistic environment in which the characters and objects could not do anything that was not possible in the real world. One example with the early animation being cartoonish was that the doors behaved liked rubber when slammed. The style of Hanna-Barbera featured the use of cartoon sounds, which they did not want either.

The producers considered aborting production on the series if the next episode, "Bart the Genius", turned out as this episode, but fortunately it turned out to suffer only a few, easily fixable problems. Afterwards, the producers entreated Fox to postpone the series premiere for several months. The premiere then switched to "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which had to be aired in December, being a Christmas special. This ensured that more time could be spent fixing the animation problems with this episode. Directorial duties for the retakes were handed from Kent Butterworth to David Silverman, who already had considerable experience directing the shorts. Silverman estimates that about 70% of everything had to be redone. Most of these retakes consisted of changing the backgrounds. The result is an episode where the animation is uneven, because it shifts between the early animation and the retakes. It is still possible to see the doors slam like they were made of rubber. The Fox censors wanted to replace the sentence "the blue thing with the things", which they believed to be too sexual. Due to the fledgling position of the Fox network, Jim Brooks had obtained an unusual contractual provision that ensured the network could not interfere with the creative process by providing show notes, so the producers simply ignored the censors.

The episode featured a few early character designs. Moe Szyslak has black hair in this episode, which was later changed to grey. Barney Gumble has yellow hair, which was later changed to brown in order to differentiate the character's hair color from that of his skin. Because of the delayed airing, there are also a few continuity errors. Santa's Little Helper for example does not appear in this episode, despite being introduced in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Hank Azaria was at the time credited as a guest star for portraying Moe Szyslak. In this episode Moe was originally voiced by Christopher Collins, but when Azaria came with his version, they decided to overdub Collins' voice. Azaria became a regular cast member in the second season.