Bart Gets An F - Production

Production

"Bart Gets an F" was the first episode of The Simpsons to be written by David M. Stern. It was directed by David Silverman. Over the summer of 1990, Bart's rebellious nature was characterized by some parents and conservatives as a poor role model for children while several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Bart next to captions such as "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?" and "Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')". Several critics thought that the episode was a response to these controversies. However, executive producer James L. Brooks responded that it was not, but added, "we're mindful of it. I do think it's important for us that Bart does badly in school. There are students like that. Besides, I'm very wary of television where everybody is supposed to be a role model. You don't run across that many role models in real life. Why should television be full of them?" Sam Simon commented that "there are themes to the shows we did last year, important themes, I think it's a tribute to how well we executed them that nobody realized we had a point. Bart says "Cowabunga" for the second time (the first time being in The Telltale Head), which was commonly associated with Bart through its use as a T-shirt slogan. Mayor Quimby makes his first appearance in this episode, without his trademark sash that says "Mayor". The sash was later added because the writers feared that viewers would not recognize him.

The episode was the first to feature a new opening sequence, which was shortened by fifteen seconds from its original length of roughly 1 minute, 30 seconds. The opening sequence for the first season showed Bart stealing a "Bus Stop" sign; whilst the new sequence featured him skateboarding past several characters who had been introduced during the previous season. Starting with this season, there were three versions of the opening: a full roughly 1 minute 15 second long version, a 45 second version and a 25 second version. This gave the show's editors more leeway. David Silverman believes that the animators began to "come into their own" as they had gotten used to the characters and were able to achieve more with character acting. During the scene where Bart delivers a speech where he states he is "dumb as a post", Silverman wanted to cut from several angles very quickly to give a sense of anxiety. Martin Prince's design was changed several times during the episode. There was a different model that had larger eyes and wilder hair designed for the scene where Martin betrays Bart and runs off. Silverman describes the "Snow Day" sequence as one of the hardest things he ever had to animate. It features several long pans which shows many different characters engaging in various activities and was difficult to time correctly. Bart's fantasy where he sees the founding fathers of the United States uses muted colors and variations of red, white and blue. Silverman also had to work hard to make Bart cry without making his design look too off-putting, and this is the reason why he was shown covering his face with a piece of paper.