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She of Little Faith

"She of Little Faith" is the sixth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network on December 16, 2001. In the episode, Bart Simpson and his father Homer accidentally launch a model rocket into the Springfield church, causing the church council to accept funding plans from Mr. Burns for reparation. Discontent with how commercialized the rebuilt church has become, Lisa abandons Christianity and seeks out to follow a new religion.

"She of Little Faith"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 13
Episode 6
Directed bySteven Dean Moore
Written byBill Freiberger
Production codeDABF02
Original air dateDecember 16, 2001 (2001-12-16)
Guest appearance
Richard Gere as himself
Episode features
Chalkboard gag"I do not have a cereal named after me"
Couch gagThe couch is a slot machine that shows Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa in the windows. Maggie, however, is replaced by lucky number “7” as a jackpot siren wails and a pile of gold coins spill out.
CommentaryAl Jean
Matt Selman
John Frink
Tom Gammill
Max Pross
Bill Freiberger
Pamela Hayden
Steven Dean Moore
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Blunder Years"
Next →
"Brawl in the Family"
The Simpsons (season 13)
List of episodes

The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Bill Freiberger, whom executive producer and show runner Al Jean had met while working on the television series Teen Angel. The plot idea for the episode was pitched by Jean, who wanted to expand on Lisa's personality, even though some of the Simpsons writers were concerned over the episode's originality. Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode. The episode features actor Richard Gere, who agreed to star as long as Buddhism was portrayed accurately, and as long as Lisa would say "Free Tibet".

The episode was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour) in 2002, which it ultimately lost to the Futurama episode, "Roswell That Ends Well".

Following the thirteenth season's release on DVD and Blu-ray, the episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.

Plot

While watching a 1950s science fiction movie, Bart and Lisa see a commercial for a model rocket kit and Bart orders it by using Homer's credit card number. Homer helps Bart and Milhouse build it, but it blows up before launching. Jealous that Ned Flanders built a superior rocket, Homer enlists the help of his former nerdy college roommates, Gary, Doug, and Benjamin, to build a rocket piloted by the hamster Nibbles. The rocket lifts off successfully, but it develops complications and Nibbles bails out. Homer attempts to shoot down the rocket with a 12 gauge shotgun, but the rocket crashes into the church. The church council meets up to decide how to come up with money to fund the repairs to the church. With no other aid available, they accept help from Mr. Burns and Lindsay Naegle, who wish to run the church as a business. The two rebuild the church as a commercial monstrosity, complete with advertising signs, a currency exchanger, a Lard Lad statue, a photo booth for the churchgoers to put their faces in a cut-out of Jesus from The Last Supper, and a Jumbotron known as "Godcam". Lisa is appalled at this and after Lovejoy welcomes The Noid to hold a sermon "on the sanctity of deliciousness," she abandons the church, feeling her religion has lost its soul.[1]

That night, Lisa prays to God and assures him she has not turned her back on Him, but plans to seek a new path to “Him” (or “Her,” she says). While on a walk around town, passing many sacrilegious signs, she finds Springfield's Buddhist temple. Inside she sees Lenny and Carl meditating, and Hollywood actor Richard Gere teaches the core concepts of Buddhism to her. An intrigued Lisa takes a pamphlet on Buddhism and studies it at home. It convinces her of the virtues of the faith, and Lisa announces out her window she has become, and forever will be, a Buddhist. Lisa plants her own bodhi tree in the back yard and begins to meditate, but Marge grows increasingly worried about Lisa's soul and tries to convince her to come back to Christianity.

At the church council meeting, Reverend Lovejoy tells Marge to use Christmas to bribe her back. Homer places a tasteless animatronic angel on top of Lisa's bodhi tree, and Marge bakes cookies, decorates the home, and has Ralph and Milhouse dress as a pony in wrapping paper to tempt her, but Lisa runs from the home when she realizes what is happening. At the Buddhist temple, she tells Gere her family tried to trick her, but Gere informs her that while Buddhism is about one finding inner peace, it is also about respecting the diversity of other religions based on love and compassion. Thus, Lisa is free to celebrate any holiday with her family, including Christmas. Lisa goes back home, falling asleep beside the Christmas tree and tells everyone that she will be celebrating Christmas with them and continue paying lip service to Christianity while practicing Buddhism for the rest of her life. As Marge takes her to the kitchen to get some cookies for her, Lisa asks about her pony, and Marge tries unsuccessfully to change the subject as Lisa calls out for her gift.

Production and themes

 
Al Jean (pictured) met the episode's writer, Bill Freiberger while they worked together on the television series Teen Angel.

"She of Little Faith" was directed by Steven Dean Moore and was the only episode Bill Freiberger wrote for The Simpsons. It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on December 16, 2001.[2]

Before returning to work full-time on The Simpsons, Jean had worked on a television series called Teen Angel together with Mike Reiss and Freiberger. While working on Teen Angel, Freiberger suggested that, if Jean was ever to run The Simpsons, he should hire Freiberger as a writer on the series. For the thirteenth season, Jean became show runner and assigned Freiberger to write the episode.[2] Freiberger wrote the first draft as a freelance script at his parents' barn in Pennsylvania, and when he returned to the writing staff to rewrite the story, Freiberger took so many notes that the script became 106 pages long. As a result, Freiberger spent more time editing down the script rather than writing it.[3] The episode's main plot, in which Lisa becomes a Buddhist, was pitched by Jean, who wanted to expand Lisa's personality. When he pitched the plot idea to the Simpsons writing staff, they became concerned about the episode's originality. They argued that the series had already explored religious themes in earlier episodes, but Jean assured them that the episode would be about Lisa first-and-foremost, rather than Buddhism. Unlike several other episodes in the series in which a character undergoes a change in their personality, Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode, much like her conversion to vegetarianism in "Lisa the Vegetarian".[2]

Freiberger pitched the subplot involving the model rockets in the beginning of the episode. He based it on a real-life experience, in which he, as a child, accidentally launched a model rocket into a window in his house.[3] A scene from this subplot was removed from the episode following the September 11 attacks. The scene would show a man named Hassan Jay Salam being arrested by policemen (who tells them to call his cousin Casey Kasem), who think the rocket Bart and Homer launched was launched by him (The rocket bears the abbreviation HJS, which stands for Homer J Simpson). After the attacks, the scene was considered too offensive by the Fox censors, so the scene was removed.[2] Originally, the subplot would involve Marge trying to get Homer to build model rockets with Bart. Homer would not want to at first, but after Marge convinces him, he would soon get more into it than Bart. The plot idea was encouraged by some of the writers who thought that Marge had "gotten short shrift," and, according to Freiberger, Marge would have had a "really big part motivating the story" had the subplot remained intact.[3]

 
Richard Gere agreed to appear as long as Lisa said "Free Tibet" in the episode.

The renovated church in the episode is built like a mall; several stores and merchandising is located inside, and Reverend Lovejoy plugs products and television programs during his sermons. The scene is used to satirize the so-called "megachurches" and the commercialization sometimes associated with these institutions.[2] The episode also argues that, even if Christmas has lost most of its meaning, it is more important to "keep these thoughts to oneself in order to make the family happy."[4] It also comments on what the writers believe to be the "all or nothing, we're right, you're all going to hell mentality" of some Christian movements.[5] Even though "She of Little Faith" is a Christmas episode, the holiday is not mentioned until the episode's third act. Jean stated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode that the writers did not want to make a conventional Christmas episode, and instead wanted to "slide into" the subject.[2]

The episode features actor Richard Gere as himself. Gere agreed to guest star under two conditions, the first being that Buddhism should be portrayed accurately, and his second and strongest request being that Lisa should say "Free Tibet" in the episode. Jean agreed, but Gere ended up with the line. However, Lisa did yell out "Free Tibet" in an episode in the following season. Gere's lines were recorded in New York City by Jean who, in the DVD audio commentary for the episode, stated that Gere was "great" and that he "didn't mind being made fun of" in the episode. He also mentioned that Gere was one of the only guest-stars they had that "looked handsome simpsonized."[2]

Release

In 2002, "She of Little Faith" was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour), but it ultimately lost to the Futurama episode "Roswell That Ends Well".[6] Matt Groening, creator of both series, joked that the award "gave [him] a chance to be bitter either way".[2] On August 24, 2010, the episode was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray set.[7]

Following its home video release, "She of Little Faith" received mostly positive reviews from critics.

Dominic von Reidermann of Suite101.com considered the episode to be a "comedy gem" and Casey Burchby of DVD Talk wrote that it "offers its fair share of laughs".[8][9]

Stuart O' Conner of Screen Jabber was also favorable, calling it a "first-rate" episode.[10]

Writing for Obsessed With Film, Adam Rayner derided Gere's performance as being "bland and dreary", however he went on to write that it couldn't ruin the episode, which he described as "great". He especially liked Flanders' line "My Satan sense is tingling."[11]

Jennifer Malkowski, who gave the episode a B−, wrote that the episode's "highlight" was a scene in which "Milhouse mourns his 'beautiful eyebrows'" that were burned off by Bart and Homer's model rocket.[12]

In 2007, Simon Crerar of The Times listed Gere's performance as one of the thirty-three funniest cameos in the history of the show.[13]

Ron Martin of 411Mania, who consider episodes about Lisa to be "traditional channel changers", wrote that it "offers one of the worst ‘Lisa episodes’" of the series.[14]

Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide criticized the episode for being "little more than a retread" of earlier episodes of the series. He argued that the episode borrows plot elements from both "Lisa the Vegetarian", "Lisa's Pony" and "Grift of the Magi", and went on to write that the episode is "a pretty unoriginal piece of work". He concluded his review by writing that the episode "fails to deliver more than a chuckle or two".[7]

Cultural references

The episode title is a reference to the common phrase "O ye of little faith".

References

  1. ^ Moleman, Hans. "The Simpsons - Mr Burns takes over the Springfield Church [Funny Simpsons Clips]". YouTube. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Jean, Al. (2010). Commentary for "She of Little Faith", in The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  3. ^ a b c Freiberger, Bill. (2010). Commentary for "She of Little Faith", in The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ Chocano, Carina (December 20, 2001). "What I learned about Christmas". Salon. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  5. ^ Boss, Nate (September 8, 2010). . Project-Blu. Archived from the original on June 22, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  6. ^ . Emmys.org. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
  7. ^ a b Jacobson, Colin (September 2, 2010). "The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season [Blu-Ray] (2001)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  8. ^ von Riedemann, Dominic (September 8, 2010), The Simpsons The Thirteenth Season DVD Review, Suite101.com
  9. ^ Burchby, Casey (August 24, 2010). "The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season". DVD Talk. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  10. ^ O' Connor, Stuart (August 24, 2010). "The Simpsons: Season 13 review (DVD)". Screen Jabber. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  11. ^ Rayner, Adam (September 20, 2010). . Obsessed With Film. Archived from the original on November 26, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  12. ^ Malkowski, Jennifer (September 6, 2010). . DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on December 9, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  13. ^ Crerar, Simon (July 5, 2007). "The 33 funniest Simpsons cameos ever". The Times. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  14. ^ Martin, Ron (September 15, 2010). . 411Mania. Archived from the original on October 15, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2020.

External links

little, faith, sixth, episode, thirteenth, season, american, animated, television, series, simpsons, first, aired, united, states, network, december, 2001, episode, bart, simpson, father, homer, accidentally, launch, model, rocket, into, springfield, church, c. She of Little Faith is the sixth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons It first aired in the United States on the Fox network on December 16 2001 In the episode Bart Simpson and his father Homer accidentally launch a model rocket into the Springfield church causing the church council to accept funding plans from Mr Burns for reparation Discontent with how commercialized the rebuilt church has become Lisa abandons Christianity and seeks out to follow a new religion She of Little Faith The Simpsons episodeEpisode no Season 13Episode 6Directed bySteven Dean MooreWritten byBill FreibergerProduction codeDABF02Original air dateDecember 16 2001 2001 12 16 Guest appearanceRichard Gere as himselfEpisode featuresChalkboard gag I do not have a cereal named after me Couch gagThe couch is a slot machine that shows Homer Marge Bart and Lisa in the windows Maggie however is replaced by lucky number 7 as a jackpot siren wails and a pile of gold coins spill out CommentaryAl JeanMatt SelmanJohn FrinkTom GammillMax ProssBill FreibergerPamela HaydenSteven Dean MooreEpisode chronology Previous The Blunder Years Next Brawl in the Family The Simpsons season 13 List of episodesThe episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Bill Freiberger whom executive producer and show runner Al Jean had met while working on the television series Teen Angel The plot idea for the episode was pitched by Jean who wanted to expand on Lisa s personality even though some of the Simpsons writers were concerned over the episode s originality Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode The episode features actor Richard Gere who agreed to star as long as Buddhism was portrayed accurately and as long as Lisa would say Free Tibet The episode was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program For Programming less than One Hour in 2002 which it ultimately lost to the Futurama episode Roswell That Ends Well Following the thirteenth season s release on DVD and Blu ray the episode received mostly positive reviews from critics Contents 1 Plot 2 Production and themes 3 Release 4 Cultural references 5 References 6 External linksPlot EditWhile watching a 1950s science fiction movie Bart and Lisa see a commercial for a model rocket kit and Bart orders it by using Homer s credit card number Homer helps Bart and Milhouse build it but it blows up before launching Jealous that Ned Flanders built a superior rocket Homer enlists the help of his former nerdy college roommates Gary Doug and Benjamin to build a rocket piloted by the hamster Nibbles The rocket lifts off successfully but it develops complications and Nibbles bails out Homer attempts to shoot down the rocket with a 12 gauge shotgun but the rocket crashes into the church The church council meets up to decide how to come up with money to fund the repairs to the church With no other aid available they accept help from Mr Burns and Lindsay Naegle who wish to run the church as a business The two rebuild the church as a commercial monstrosity complete with advertising signs a currency exchanger a Lard Lad statue a photo booth for the churchgoers to put their faces in a cut out of Jesus from The Last Supper and a Jumbotron known as Godcam Lisa is appalled at this and after Lovejoy welcomes The Noid to hold a sermon on the sanctity of deliciousness she abandons the church feeling her religion has lost its soul 1 That night Lisa prays to God and assures him she has not turned her back on Him but plans to seek a new path to Him or Her she says While on a walk around town passing many sacrilegious signs she finds Springfield s Buddhist temple Inside she sees Lenny and Carl meditating and Hollywood actor Richard Gere teaches the core concepts of Buddhism to her An intrigued Lisa takes a pamphlet on Buddhism and studies it at home It convinces her of the virtues of the faith and Lisa announces out her window she has become and forever will be a Buddhist Lisa plants her own bodhi tree in the back yard and begins to meditate but Marge grows increasingly worried about Lisa s soul and tries to convince her to come back to Christianity At the church council meeting Reverend Lovejoy tells Marge to use Christmas to bribe her back Homer places a tasteless animatronic angel on top of Lisa s bodhi tree and Marge bakes cookies decorates the home and has Ralph and Milhouse dress as a pony in wrapping paper to tempt her but Lisa runs from the home when she realizes what is happening At the Buddhist temple she tells Gere her family tried to trick her but Gere informs her that while Buddhism is about one finding inner peace it is also about respecting the diversity of other religions based on love and compassion Thus Lisa is free to celebrate any holiday with her family including Christmas Lisa goes back home falling asleep beside the Christmas tree and tells everyone that she will be celebrating Christmas with them and continue paying lip service to Christianity while practicing Buddhism for the rest of her life As Marge takes her to the kitchen to get some cookies for her Lisa asks about her pony and Marge tries unsuccessfully to change the subject as Lisa calls out for her gift Production and themes Edit Al Jean pictured met the episode s writer Bill Freiberger while they worked together on the television series Teen Angel She of Little Faith was directed by Steven Dean Moore and was the only episode Bill Freiberger wrote for The Simpsons It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on December 16 2001 2 Before returning to work full time on The Simpsons Jean had worked on a television series called Teen Angel together with Mike Reiss and Freiberger While working on Teen Angel Freiberger suggested that if Jean was ever to run The Simpsons he should hire Freiberger as a writer on the series For the thirteenth season Jean became show runner and assigned Freiberger to write the episode 2 Freiberger wrote the first draft as a freelance script at his parents barn in Pennsylvania and when he returned to the writing staff to rewrite the story Freiberger took so many notes that the script became 106 pages long As a result Freiberger spent more time editing down the script rather than writing it 3 The episode s main plot in which Lisa becomes a Buddhist was pitched by Jean who wanted to expand Lisa s personality When he pitched the plot idea to the Simpsons writing staff they became concerned about the episode s originality They argued that the series had already explored religious themes in earlier episodes but Jean assured them that the episode would be about Lisa first and foremost rather than Buddhism Unlike several other episodes in the series in which a character undergoes a change in their personality Lisa has remained a Buddhist since this episode much like her conversion to vegetarianism in Lisa the Vegetarian 2 Freiberger pitched the subplot involving the model rockets in the beginning of the episode He based it on a real life experience in which he as a child accidentally launched a model rocket into a window in his house 3 A scene from this subplot was removed from the episode following the September 11 attacks The scene would show a man named Hassan Jay Salam being arrested by policemen who tells them to call his cousin Casey Kasem who think the rocket Bart and Homer launched was launched by him The rocket bears the abbreviation HJS which stands for Homer J Simpson After the attacks the scene was considered too offensive by the Fox censors so the scene was removed 2 Originally the subplot would involve Marge trying to get Homer to build model rockets with Bart Homer would not want to at first but after Marge convinces him he would soon get more into it than Bart The plot idea was encouraged by some of the writers who thought that Marge had gotten short shrift and according to Freiberger Marge would have had a really big part motivating the story had the subplot remained intact 3 Richard Gere agreed to appear as long as Lisa said Free Tibet in the episode The renovated church in the episode is built like a mall several stores and merchandising is located inside and Reverend Lovejoy plugs products and television programs during his sermons The scene is used to satirize the so called megachurches and the commercialization sometimes associated with these institutions 2 The episode also argues that even if Christmas has lost most of its meaning it is more important to keep these thoughts to oneself in order to make the family happy 4 It also comments on what the writers believe to be the all or nothing we re right you re all going to hell mentality of some Christian movements 5 Even though She of Little Faith is a Christmas episode the holiday is not mentioned until the episode s third act Jean stated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode that the writers did not want to make a conventional Christmas episode and instead wanted to slide into the subject 2 The episode features actor Richard Gere as himself Gere agreed to guest star under two conditions the first being that Buddhism should be portrayed accurately and his second and strongest request being that Lisa should say Free Tibet in the episode Jean agreed but Gere ended up with the line However Lisa did yell out Free Tibet in an episode in the following season Gere s lines were recorded in New York City by Jean who in the DVD audio commentary for the episode stated that Gere was great and that he didn t mind being made fun of in the episode He also mentioned that Gere was one of the only guest stars they had that looked handsome simpsonized 2 Release EditIn 2002 She of Little Faith was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program For Programming less than One Hour but it ultimately lost to the Futurama episode Roswell That Ends Well 6 Matt Groening creator of both series joked that the award gave him a chance to be bitter either way 2 On August 24 2010 the episode was released as part of The Simpsons The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu ray set 7 Following its home video release She of Little Faith received mostly positive reviews from critics Dominic von Reidermann of Suite101 com considered the episode to be a comedy gem and Casey Burchby of DVD Talk wrote that it offers its fair share of laughs 8 9 Stuart O Conner of Screen Jabber was also favorable calling it a first rate episode 10 Writing for Obsessed With Film Adam Rayner derided Gere s performance as being bland and dreary however he went on to write that it couldn t ruin the episode which he described as great He especially liked Flanders line My Satan sense is tingling 11 Jennifer Malkowski who gave the episode a B wrote that the episode s highlight was a scene in which Milhouse mourns his beautiful eyebrows that were burned off by Bart and Homer s model rocket 12 In 2007 Simon Crerar of The Times listed Gere s performance as one of the thirty three funniest cameos in the history of the show 13 Ron Martin of 411Mania who consider episodes about Lisa to be traditional channel changers wrote that it offers one of the worst Lisa episodes of the series 14 Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide criticized the episode for being little more than a retread of earlier episodes of the series He argued that the episode borrows plot elements from both Lisa the Vegetarian Lisa s Pony and Grift of the Magi and went on to write that the episode is a pretty unoriginal piece of work He concluded his review by writing that the episode fails to deliver more than a chuckle or two 7 Cultural references EditThe episode title is a reference to the common phrase O ye of little faith References Edit Moleman Hans The Simpsons Mr Burns takes over the Springfield Church Funny Simpsons Clips YouTube Retrieved November 2 2022 a b c d e f g h Jean Al 2010 Commentary for She of Little Faith in The Simpsons The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD 20th Century Fox a b c Freiberger Bill 2010 Commentary for She of Little Faith in The Simpsons The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD 20th Century Fox Chocano Carina December 20 2001 What I learned about Christmas Salon Retrieved May 8 2020 Boss Nate September 8 2010 The Simpsons The Thirteenth Season Project Blu Archived from the original on June 22 2011 Retrieved April 4 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search Emmys org Archived from the original on February 15 2009 Retrieved February 21 2010 a b Jacobson Colin September 2 2010 The Simpsons The Complete Thirteenth Season Blu Ray 2001 DVD Movie Guide Retrieved April 4 2011 von Riedemann Dominic September 8 2010 The Simpsons The Thirteenth Season DVD Review Suite101 com Burchby Casey August 24 2010 The Simpsons The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD Talk Retrieved April 4 2011 O Connor Stuart August 24 2010 The Simpsons Season 13 review DVD Screen Jabber Retrieved April 4 2011 Rayner Adam September 20 2010 DVD Review THE SIMPSONS SEASON 13 Obsessed With Film Archived from the original on November 26 2010 Retrieved April 4 2011 Malkowski Jennifer September 6 2010 The Simpsons The Complete Thirteenth Season Blu Ray DVD Verdict Archived from the original on December 9 2011 Retrieved April 4 2011 Crerar Simon July 5 2007 The 33 funniest Simpsons cameos ever The Times Retrieved May 8 2020 Martin Ron September 15 2010 The Simpsons Season 13 DVD Review 411Mania Archived from the original on October 15 2010 Retrieved May 7 2020 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to She of Little Faith The Simpsons portal She of Little Faith episode capsule The Simpsons Archive She of Little Faith at IMDb Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title She of Little Faith amp oldid 1119658618, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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