Tauschgeschäfte und Spione

Vorlage:Infobox Simpsons episode "The Crepes of Wrath" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' first season, and originally aired April 15, 1990. The episode was written by George Meyer, Sam Simon, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti, and was directed by Wes Archer and Milton Gray. In the episode, Bart is sent to France on a student exchange trip, where his hosts treat him as a slave. Meanwhile, an Albanian student takes Bart's place in the Simpsons family, and shows great interest in Homer's work at the nuclear power plant.

The episode received generally positive reviews from critics, and in 1997, David Bauder from TV Guide named this episode the greatest episode of The Simpsons, and the 17th greatest episode of any television show of all time.

Plot

Homer trips over Bart's skateboard and falls down the stairs, crippling his back, and is confined to the couch for several days. Marge punishes Bart by forcing him to clean his room and as he does, he discovers an old cherry bomb among his things and decides to flush it down the toilet in the boys' restroom at school. On the day he plans to flush it, Principal Skinner's mother accompanies Skinner to school. Bart ends up pulling his prank at the same time as Principal Skinner's mother is in the girls' restroom. The resulting explosion blows her off of her seat and enrages Skinner. In order to punish him, Skinner proposes deportation to the Simpsons, by having Bart participate in a foreign exchange program. They decide to send Bart to France, while the Simpsons host a student from the Albania, named Adil Hoxha. Bart is shown a picture of a lovely château in the heart of France and he immediately agrees to go, much to Homer and Skinner's delight.

In France, Bart arrives at the "beautiful château", which is actually a dilapidated farmhouse on a run-down vineyard. He is greeted by the two unscrupulous winemakers, César and Ugolin, who proceed to treat him like a slave. Bart is made to carry buckets of water, collect and crush grapes, sleep on the floor and test wine contaminated with antifreeze.

Meanwhile, in Springfield, Adil arrives and turns out to be a sweet and helpful boy. Homer immediately takes a shine to him, and it is noticeable that he is a better son and role model than Bart ever was. Unbeknown to the family, Adil is actually a spy sent by his government to obtain blueprints of the Springfield nuclear plant's reactor. Homer unwittingly takes him on a tour of the power plant and thinks nothing of the many photographs Adil takes, which Adil sends home by a secret fax machine in Bart's tree house.

When Bart is sent by his captors to Paris to buy a case of antifreeze, he sees a gendarme and tries to ask for help, but the gendarme does not understand English, and only gives Bart a piece of candy. Bart walks away, despairing over his own stupidity, then unconsciously begins speaking French to himself. Realizing he has become fluent in the language, he runs back to the gendarme and tells him everything. The wine-makers are swiftly arrested and Bart finishes his stay in France being hailed as a hero. Back in Springfield, Adil is caught by the FBI, and Bart returns to his family, bringing them gifts from France.

Production

Principal Skinner's mother, Agnes Skinner, makes her first appearance on The Simpsons in this episode.

Cultural references

The two winemakers, César and Ugolin, are named after the peasants from the 1986 French films Jean de Florette, and Manon des Sources. Bart's French gift to Maggie is a nod to Le Ballon Rouge, a short French children's film. On the way to the chateau, Bart and Ugolin drives pass through scenes depicted in several famous paintings, notably Bassin aux nymphéas by Claude Monet, Champ de blé aux corbeaux by Vincent Van Gogh, Le rêve by Henri Rousseau and Déjeuner sur l'herbe by Édouard Manet.

• The episode's title is a play on John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.
• Bart's airplane on his way back is called "Air France 1988"
• When the two french men are arrested and brought to jail by the police, Bart says good-bye to them using the words "Au revoir, les enfants!" ("Goodbye, Children!"). This is the name of a famous 1987 French movie by Louis Malle.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "The Crepes of Wrath" finished 29th place in the weekly ratings for the week of April 9–April 15, 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 15.9. It was the second highest rated show on the Fox Network that week.

"The Crepes of Wrath" received generally positive reviews from critics. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, said the episode was a "Tour de Force" and that this was "perhaps the first episode to make the viewer's jaw drop at the audacity and invention of the series' makers". In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 2.5/5, adding: "While the laughs are a bit dry in this episode, the over the top plot is indicative of zaniness to come." Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that "it’s clear that the writers had started to find their groove by the time this episode was produced. From start to finish, 'Crepes' offered a solid experience, as the show began to feature more style and subtlety." Scott Collura at Hollywood Video praised the episode in a review, saying "it is one of the best of the first season." In 1997, David Bauder from TV Guide named this episode the greatest episode of The Simpsons, and the 17th greatest episode of any television show of all time.

See also

• Wine fraud

External links

Wikiquote: The Crepes of Wrath – Zitate

• "The Crepes of Wrath" at The Simpsons.com
• Vorlage:Snpp capsule
• Vorlage:Imdb episode
• "The Crepes of Wrath" at TV.com