You Only Move Twice

"You Only Move Twice" is the second episode of The Simpsons' eighth season, which originally aired November 3, 1996. It was directed by Mike B. Anderson and written by John Swartzwelder. The episode title is a reference to the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, and many elements of the episode parody the Bond films.

The episode, based on a story idea by Greg Daniels, has three major concepts: the family moves to a new town; Homer gets a new modern boss; and that boss, unbeknownst to Homer, is an evil genius. Bart, Lisa, and Marge each have individual secondary storylines. Setting the second and third acts in a new town, Cypress Creek, required the animators to create entirely new layouts and background designs. Albert Brooks, in his fourth Simpsons appearance, guest stars as the voice of Hank Scorpio, who is one of the most popular one-time characters on The Simpsons. IGN named "You Only Move Twice" the best episode of the eighth season.

Homer, the second most senior employee at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, is offered a job at the Globex Corporation. He informs his family that the new job pays better, but involves moving to Cypress Creek. The Simpson family originally opposes a move, but they watch a promotional video about the planned community and agree when they see that it is much nicer than Springfield. Abandoning their house, the Simpsons pack up and leave town.

Shortly after the Simpsons arrive at their new house in Cypress Creek and meet Homer's new boss, Hank Scorpio. Scorpio, who is very friendly and who seems like the perfect boss, takes a shine to Homer. After giving Homer a tour of the company, Scorpio tells him that his job is to motivate the three employees in the nuclear division. Meanwhile, Bart starts school, but he finds that his new class is far above the standards of Springfield Elementary. When his teacher discovers that Bart can't read cursive writing, he is sent to a remedial class. Lisa goes for a nature walk and discovers that she is allergic to all of the wildlife around Cypress Creek. Marge tries to go about her daily chores, but the house does everything automatically, which leaves Marge with nothing to do during the day but drink wine and mope.

Homer does an excellent job of motivating his team, but notices after a few days that they are starting to get overworked. He decides that the solution is to get them hammocks and visits Scorpio to ask where he can purchase some. Scorpio begins to tell Homer of "the Hammock district", but he is interrupted by some urgent business. He turns to a screen and threatens the United Nations Security Council. Scorpio declares that he "has the doomsday device" and that they have 72 hours to "deliver the gold" before blowing up the Queensboro Bridge to prove he is serious. Despite being in the same room, Homer remains unaware of Scorpio's evil plans.

At dinner, Homer proudly tells of his successes at work, but discovers that his family hates Cypress Creek and want to go back to Springfield. Dejected, Homer decides to visit Scorpio at Globex Headquarters. His visit coincides with an assault from the U.S. military, but Homer remains still unaware of what is taking place. He finds Scorpio, explains the situation, and ask what to do. Scorpio advises Homer that he should do what's best for his family. As Homer dejectedly walks away, absently kicking a grenade away before it explodes, Scorpio straps on a flamethrower and attacks the invading troops.

The next day, the family returns to Springfield. Homer, who previously confided to Scorpio his dream of owning the Dallas Cowboys, receives the Denver Broncos as a present from his former boss, who has taken over the east coast.^[1][2][3]

The original concept for the episode came from a story idea by Greg Daniels and the writing staff came up with three major concepts. The first involves the Simpson family moving out of Springfield, which the writers initially hoped would fool the audience into thinking it was a permanent move. As a result, they tried to work in as many characters as they could during the first act of the episode to make it seem that the family really was leaving. The second involved Homer getting a new job for an employee-friendly, modern boss who would stand in contrast to Mr. Burns, an authoritarian, 19th-century style boss. The third was that Homer's new boss, despite being friendly and personable, would be a supervillain in the mold of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. This element was meant to be in the background and Homer would be oblivious to it.^[4]

The writers sought to give every family member their own story. The writing staff debated the story about Marge's descent into alcoholism because they found it depressing.^[4] There was originally another involving Grampa, wherein he is left behind in Springfield and receives recorded greeting phone calls. The plot went on for four sequences, all of which were cut from the episode for time but later included in the DVD release.^[5] Cypress Creek was called "Emerald Caverns" during much of production,^[6] but the name was changed because the writers felt that "Cypress Creek" had more of a Silicon Valley feel.^[4]

The animators needed to design completely new sets for the episode. Christian Roman, John Reiss, and Mike Anderson storyboarded the episode.^[7] It is a common misconception that Scorpio's design was modeled on Richard Branson.^[4] The final design, which underwent an overhaul, was hailed by the writers as "the perfect madman".^[7]

The man who Homer tackles, James Bont, was initially supposed to just be James Bond, but Fox's lawyers precluded them from using that name. The writers went with "Bont" because they felt it was the most similar name that they could legally use.^[4]

The show's writers did not worry too much about perfecting Scorpio's lines because they knew Brooks would rewrite or adlib new ones.^[4] Entire parts of Scorpio's dialogue, such as his hammock speech, are Brooks's lines and not the writers'. Dan Castellaneta described how, after he prepared something for Homer to say in response to Brooks's new Scorpio lines, Brooks would deliver totally different lines in the next take.^[8] Josh Weinstein said Homer's reactions are exactly like someone talking to Albert Brooks.^[4] In all, his recordings amounted to over two hours in length. Ken Keeler said that it was an incredible performance to listen to and subsequently saved a recording of the session.^[6]

The sign at the elementary school displays "www.studynet.edu". Weinstein said that this was one of the most dated jokes in the history of the show because it centered on the idea that it would be outlandish for a school to have its own website.^[4] All of the students in Bart's remedial class were initially given hair modeled on Ralph Wiggum's, but the staff felt that the kids looked "kinda troubled", so their designs were altered.^[7]

The final scene at Globex contains several references to several action and James Bond films. The episode title and many references are from the Bond film You Only Live Twice, with A View to a Kill also being referenced.^[3] A character modeled after Sean Connery's Bond is tackled by Homer and killed after a parody of the laser scene from Goldfinger.^[4] Mrs. Goodthighs from the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale makes an appearance in the episode^[8] and can be seen attacking a character modeled after U.S. Army general Norman Schwarzkopf.^[4] The song at the end of the show, written by Ken Keeler, is a parody of various Bond themes. Keeler originally wrote it to be three seconds longer and sound more like the Goldfinger theme, but the final version was shorter and the lyrics were sped up. Keeler felt that the change in tempo weakened the song and that it went a little too fast, although he does like the song.^[6] The writers wanted the song to be sung by Shirley Bassey, who sang several Bond themes, but they could not get her to record the part.^[4]

Hank Scorpio is the most popular Albert Brooks-voiced character.^[4] In 2006, Albert Brooks was named the best Simpsons guest star by IGN, who cited Scorpio as his best role.^[9] The Phoenix.com compiled their own list, placing Brooks in the first position.^[10] In his book Planet Simpson, author Chris Turner says Brooks is second only to Phil Hartman among Simpsons guest stars and that "Brooks brings hilarious satirical seamlessness to Scorpio's paradoxical nature". He also writes that the delivery of Scorpio's final line seals Brooks's place in Simpsons history.^[11] The Simpson family's new street address, 15201 Maple Systems Road, is writer Ken Keeler's favorite street name in the show.^[6]

IGN also named the episode the best of the eighth season, saying the episode "is a wonderful example of slowly building up the comedy [...] it's impossible to fathom this one not being very high up on any list of the best Simpsons episodes of all time."^[12] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, called it "a tremendous episode" saying it had "some really good moments, most of them involving Bart, Lisa, and Marge's loathing for Cypress Creek. The remedial kids are fab (especially Warren) and Lisa's second chipmunk encounter is inspired. Scorpio is a good character, especially his Christopher Walken-esque killing spree." They also stated that the owl killing the chipmunk during Lisa's trip to the forest is one of the all-time greatest sight gags in the show's history.^[3] Chris Turner would also say that the remedial kid Gordy's line may be "the broadest parody of a Canadian accent in the history of American pop culture".^[13]

Wikiquote has quotations related to "You Only Move Twice".

• "You Only Move Twice" at The Simpsons.com
• "You Only Move Twice episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "You Only Move Twice" at TV.com
• "You Only Move Twice" at the Internet Movie Database