"Half-Decent Proposal" | |
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The Simpsons episode | |
Episode no. | Season 13 Episode 10 |
Directed by | Lauren MacMullan |
Written by | Tim Long |
Production code | DABF04 |
Original air date | February 10, 2002 |
Guest appearance | |
Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff | |
Episode features | |
Chalkboard gag | "I will not bite the hand that feeds me Butterfingers" |
Couch gag | The Simpsons arrive to find two repo men taking the couch away. |
Commentary | Al Jean Ian Maxtone-Graham Matt Selman Tim Long Dan Castellaneta Lauren MacMullan Matt Warburton James Lipton |
"Half-Decent Proposal" is the tenth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 10, 2002. In the episode, Homer's snoring interferes with Marge's sleep. To earn money to cure Homer's snoring, Marge agrees to spend a weekend with Artie Ziff if he vows to not grope her as he did during their high-school prom date ("The Way We Was"). While spying on Marge and Artie, Homer mistakenly thinks they are making out, so he leaves with Lenny to work on an oil rig.
Although the episode was written by Tim Long, the idea for the episode was pitched by series' co-creator and executive producer James L. Brooks. The episode was directed by Lauren MacMullan, who ordered several complicated sequences from the animators, leading to some tensions among The Simpsons staff. The episode's plot and title is based on the 1993 film Indecent Proposal, and the episode also features references to M*A*S*H, Midnight Cowboy and Five Easy Pieces. The episode features Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff, the first time he portrayed Ziff since the season 2 episode "The Way We Was".
In its original broadcast, the episode was seen by approximately 7.5 million viewers and finished in 36th place in the ratings the week it aired.
Since its original broadcast, "Half-Decent Proposal" has received mostly positive reviews from critics, some of whom considered it among the best episodes of the season. However, the episode has also been criticized for parodying Indecent Proposal nine years after its release, a criticism that the episode's showrunner Al Jean responded to in the episode's DVD commentary.