Eight Misbehavin' - Production and Themes

Production and Themes

"Eight Misbehavin'" was written by Matt Selman and directed by Steven Dean Moore as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000). Guest starring in the episode were Jan Hooks (as Manjula), Garry Marshall (as Larry Kidkill), and Butch Patrick (as himself). According to Jonathan Gray in his 2006 book Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, the episode makes fun of the "conflation of real time and occasional predilection for time jumps" often seen in sitcoms. He further noted that in "Eight Misbehavin", "in order to fit a character's pregnancy into one episode, we skip nine months." Here, Gray refers the part in the episode where a new scene starts and Homer says: "Man, the last nine months sure were crazy." Bart responds "I'll say. I learned the true meaning of Columbus Day," and then Marge says "I enjoyed a brief but memorable stint as Sideshow Marge," followed by Lisa who says "I became the most popular girl in school, but blew it by being conceited." Bart then concludes by commenting: "And then I learned the true meaning of winter." Gray wrote in his book that "Here, we are treated to a parody not only of how awkwardly time jumps are proposed, but also of how ultimately irrelevant any sitcom time is — nothing really changes, after all — and finally, of the sort of plots that traditionally fill sitcom time."