{{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox Simpsons episode | image = | caption = | season = 12 | episode = 12 | director = Jen Kamerman | writer = [[Ian Maxtone-Graham]] | production = CABF07 | airdate = {{Start date|2001|02|11}} | guests = * [[Andre Agassi]] as himself * [[Pete Sampras]] as himself * [[Venus Williams|Venus]] and [[Serena Williams]] as themselves | blackboard = "I will not publish the principal's credit report" | couch_gag = The living-room floor is frozen over. The Simpsons ice skate to the couch. When [[Homer Simpson|Homer]] sits down, his side of the couch falls through the ice. | commentary = [[Mike Scully]]<br>[[Al Jean]]<br>[[Ian Maxtone-Graham]]<br>[[Matt Selman]]<br>[[John Frink]]<br>[[Don Payne (writer)|Don Payne]]<br>[[Max Pross]]<br>[[Philip Rosenthal|Phil Rosenthal]] | prev = [[Worst Episode Ever]] | next = [[Day of the Jackanapes]] }} "'''Tennis the Menace'''" is the twelfth episode of the [[The Simpsons season 12|twelfth season]] of the American animated television series ''[[The Simpsons]]''. It originally aired on the [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox network]] in the United States on February 11, 2001. In the episode, [[Simpson family|the Simpsons]] build a tennis court in their backyard and are ridiculed by the entire town because of [[Homer Simpson|Homer]]'s inferior tennis ability. Homer therefore tries to please [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] by entering the two into a tournament, but they quickly turn into rivals when Marge replaces Homer with [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] as her partner.
The episode features guest appearances from tennis professionals [[Andre Agassi]], [[Pete Sampras]], and the [[Williams sisters]] as themselves. "Tennis the Menace" was directed by Jen Kamerman and written by [[Ian Maxtone-Graham]], who also directed the Williams sisters' performance. The episodes title is a parody of [[Dennis the Menace (1959 TV series)|Dennis the Menace]]. The animators of ''The Simpsons'' experimented with [[digital ink and paint]] on "Tennis the Menace", making it the first episode of the series to be animated using the process since [[The Simpsons season 7|season 7]]'s "[[The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular]]."
"Tennis the Menace" has received generally positive reviews from critics with particular praise for its guest stars.
Around eight million American homes tuned in to watch "Tennis the Menace" during its original airing, and in 2009 it was released on DVD along with the rest of the episodes of the twelfth season.
==Plot== The [[Springfield Retirement Castle]] holds a talent show, which the [[Simpson family]] attends. [[Grampa Simpson|Grampa]] wins the show after performing his version of the song "[[What's New Pussycat? (song)|What's New, Pussycat?]]". He wins a free autopsy, so the Simpsons visit a funeral salesman to claim the prize. While there, [[Homer Simpson|Homer]] decides to buy a casket and a tombstone for Grampa, who is then offered an expensive funeral plan that Homer cannot afford. The salesman tells Homer that the tombstone is produced from the same amount of cement as a tennis court, and this gives him the idea to build a tennis court in the family's backyard (although he initially regrets this, having confused tennis with [[foxy boxing]]).
The court is very popular with [[Springfield (The Simpsons)|Springfield]]'s residents, but they mock Homer and [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] for losing all the time, especially thanks to Homer's poor play. Marge pleads with Homer to take the game seriously, but he is too oblivious to how poorly he plays tennis. Instead, he tries to please Marge by entering the pair in [[Krusty the Klown|Krusty]]'s celebrity tennis tournament, the "Krusty Kharity Klassic". Marge, tired of being laughed at, ditches Homer and enters with [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] as her new partner. Homer is outraged that he was abandoned for a ten-year-old boy, and tries to get revenge by entering the tournament with [[Lisa Simpson|Lisa]] as his partner, despite Lisa's disapproval.
The change in partners leads the Simpson family to begin arguing and aggressively competing against one another. The tournament takes place, and in the stands are leading tennis professionals [[Andre Agassi]], [[Pete Sampras]], [[Venus Williams]], and [[Serena Williams]]. At the tournament, Homer ditches Lisa for Venus. In response, Marge replaces Bart with Serena as her partner. Ultimately, Serena and Venus replace Marge and Homer with Sampras and Agassi, respectively. This forces the family to go back to the bench and resume their normal places in the family. As they enjoy the exhibition of top-class tennis, they agree that it is better to watch things than to do things, and Homer offers to buy the family dinner with money that he took from Sampras' wallet.
==Production== [[File:Pete Sampras (2008) 1, cropped.jpg|thumb|[[Pete Sampras]], who guest starred in the episode, delivered his lines "very naturally" according to [[Al Jean]].]] "Tennis the Menace" was written by [[Ian Maxtone-Graham]] and directed by Jen Kamerman as part of the twelfth season of ''The Simpsons'' (2000–2001).<ref name="Maxtone-Graham">Maxtone-Graham, Ian (2009). ''The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season'' DVD commentary for the episode "Tennis the Menace". 20th Century Fox.</ref> Maxtone-Graham considers himself to be a bad tennis player and he has always wanted to win against his mother in a tennis match. This served as the inspiration for the episode, as he thought "family dynamics around tennis would be a fun show."<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/> Maxtone-Graham did a lot a research for the scenes at the beginning of the episode where the Simpsons visit a funeral salesman at a cemetery.
He read [[Jessica Mitford]]'s book ''The American Way of Death Revisited'', which discusses the funeral industry, and was able to take a tour with funeral salesmen at [[Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery]] in Los Angeles. At the time, he did not reveal that this was for research, and instead pretended to have a dying relative.<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/> According to Maxtone-Graham, the tour helped him find out "all about urns versus coffins, and cremation. I asked sort of questions about, 'Well, do the bodies smell?' They were very nice and gave me all the answers. It was quite fascinating."<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/>
The opening of "Tennis the Menace" is what Maxtone-Graham describes as a "screw you" beginning, as the viewer has "no idea that the twist is going to be tennis".<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/> The part of the story revolving around tennis does not begin until around eight minutes into the episode. ''The Simpsons'' [[show runner]] [[Mike Scully]] has said that he thought this was "probably too long to wait before getting the story started."<ref name="Scully">Scully, Mike (2009). ''The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season'' DVD commentary for the episode "Tennis the Menace". 20th Century Fox.</ref>
Maxtone-Graham has similarly said that while he thinks these types of openings "are kind of funny", they may be best avoided.<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/> However, Scully liked the fact that the staff included a comment in the episode on its "screw you" beginning by having Homer say "I'll bet you didn't see that coming!" to the viewers when he decides to get the tennis court.<ref name="Scully"/> The writers had a number of alternate endings to "Tennis the Menace" before deciding on the one eventually used.<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/> For instance, at one point, the family was to return home to watch the match in which Serena and Sampras faced off against Venus and Agassi on television. The staff changed it to the final one because they did not want it to feel like the episode petered out.<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/>
"Tennis the Menace" features guest appearances from [[Andre Agassi]], [[Pete Sampras]], and sisters [[Venus Williams|Venus]] and [[Serena Williams]]. All of them appeared as themselves.<ref>{{cite news|last=Berkowitz|first=Lana|title=YO! remote|newspaper=[[Houston Chronicle]]|date=2001-02-08|page=3}}</ref><ref name=Storm>{{cite news|last=Storm|first=Jonathan|title=Guests of Homer and Marge|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]|date=2010-01-10|page=H13}}</ref><ref name=McEntire>{{cite web|last=McEntire |first=Mac |title=Buy The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season at Amazon The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season |url=http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/simpsons12.php |publisher=[[DVD Verdict]] |access-date=2011-11-01 |date=2009-09-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103131117/http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/simpsons12.php |archive-date=2011-11-03 }}</ref> Executive producer [[Al Jean]] directed Sampras, who Jean thought delivered his lines "very naturally", while Maxtone-Graham directed the Williams sisters.<ref name="Frink">Frink, John (2009). ''The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season'' DVD commentary for the episode "Tennis the Menace". 20th Century Fox.</ref> Agassi recorded his lines in the summer of 2000.<ref name=Elmore/> The Williams sisters, however, recorded their lines in Los Angeles sometime in the winter of 2000–2001.<ref name=Elmore>{{cite news|last=Elmore|first=Charles|title=Woo-hoo! Williamses in toon turney|newspaper=[[The Palm Beach Post]]|date=2001-02-09|page=1B}}</ref> According to Maxtone-Graham, the sisters were "incredibly nice and incredibly generous with their time."<ref name="Maxtone-Graham"/>
This is the third episode—after season seven's "[[Radioactive Man (The Simpsons episode)|Radioactive Man]]" and "[[The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular]]" (both 1995)—to be animated with [[digital ink and paint]]. This kind of digital coloring would not be used permanently on the show until the [[The Simpsons season 14|season fourteen]] episode "[[The Great Louse Detective]]" (2002), although "[[Treehouse of Horror XIII]]" was animated digitally as a test run.<ref name="Jean">Jean, Al (2009). ''The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season'' DVD commentary for the episode "Tennis the Menace". 20th Century Fox.</ref> It was used on "Tennis the Menace" primarily to test the technique.<ref name="Jean"/><ref name="sprcon">{{cite book |last1=Reiss |first1=Mike |last2=Klickstein |first2=Mathew |title=Springfield confidential: jokes, secrets, and outright lies from a lifetime writing for the Simpsons |date=2018 |publisher=Dey Street Books |isbn=978-0062748034 |page=98|location=New York City}}</ref> The reason for the gap between this episode and "The Great Louse Detective" was that the staff of ''The Simpsons'' wanted to refine the look some more before doing it full-time.<ref name="Jean"/>
==Release== [[File:Andre Agassi Indian Wells 2006.jpg|thumb|Tennis player [[Andre Agassi]] guest starred in the episode and was praised by ''[[The Times]]'' critic Simon Crerar.]] The episode originally aired on the [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox network]] in the United States on February 11, 2001.<ref name=Jacobson>{{cite web|last=Jacobson|first=Colin|title=The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season (1999)|url=http://www.dvdmg.com/simpsonsseasontwelve.shtml|publisher=DVD Movie Guide|access-date=2011-11-01|date=2009-09-02|archive-date=November 3, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103131030/http://www.dvdmg.com/simpsonsseasontwelve.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Alberti>{{cite book|last=Alberti|first=John|title=Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture|year=2004|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-2849-1|page=324|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6vZJnxK1XYC&dq=%22season+12+%282000%22&pg=PA324}}</ref> It was viewed in approximately eight million households that night. With a [[Nielsen ratings|Nielsen rating]] of 8.2, the episode tied the ''[[The X-Files|X-Files]]'' for the 41st place in the ratings for the week of February 5–11, 2001.<ref name="ratingsOrlando"/> The episode was the fourth-highest-rated broadcast on Fox that week, following episodes of ''[[Temptation Island (TV series)|Temptation Island]]'', ''[[Ally McBeal]]'', and ''[[Boston Public]]''.<ref name="ratingsOrlando">{{cite news|last=Associated Press|author-link=Associated Press|title=NBC tumbles to 3rd after XFL's fumbles|newspaper=[[The Orlando Sentinel]]|date=2001-02-15|page=E9}}</ref>
On August 18, 2009, "Tennis the Menace" was released on DVD as part of the box set ''The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season''. Staff members Mike Scully, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, [[John Frink]], [[Don Payne (writer)|Don Payne]], [[Matt Selman]], [[Max Pross]], as well as television writer and producer [[Philip Rosenthal]], participated in the DVD [[audio commentary]] for the episode.<ref name="tvshowsondvd">{{cite web|url=http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Simpsons-Season-12/11928|title=The Simpsons - Season 12 Street Date, Detailed Contents & 'Comic Book Guy Head' Box|date=2009-05-20|access-date=2011-11-01|last=Lambert|first=David|publisher=[[TVShowsOnDVD.com]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090522020622/http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Simpsons-Season-12/11928|archive-date=2009-05-22}}</ref>
Critics generally received "Tennis the Menace" quite well.
Jerry Greene of the ''[[Orlando Sentinel]]'' listed it at number nine on his 2004 list of the show's "Top 10 Sporting Episodes".<ref>{{cite news|title=D'oh! The end may be near for The Simpsons|last=Greene|first=Jerry|date=2004-04-07 |work= [[Orlando Sentinel]]|page=D2}}</ref>
Nancy Basile of [[About.com]] wrote in her 2003 review that the plot of the episode "allowed us to see more secondary characters than usual. It also gave Springfield a sense of community that we sometimes don't get in recent seasons. Though the blatant use of guest stars has [[Nielsen ratings#Sweeps|sweeps]] written all over it, the tennis stars were funny and able to make fun of themselves. Homer had some wonderful lines, too, such as, 'Take your hands off me. They feel like salad tongs.' Overall, a very funny episode."<ref name=Basile>{{cite web|last=Basile|first=Nancy|title=Tennis the Menace|url=http://animatedtv.about.com/library/reviews/bltennis.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030416235858/http://animatedtv.about.com/library/reviews/bltennis.htm|publisher=[[About.com]]|archive-date=2003-04-16|access-date=2011-11-02}}</ref>
In July 2007, Simon Crerar of ''[[The Times]]'' listed Agassi's performance as one of the thirty-three funniest cameos in the history of the show.<ref name="Crerar">{{cite news|last=Crerar |first=Simon|title=The 33 funniest Simpsons cameos ever|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article2021776.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005132549/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article2021776.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 5, 2009|access-date=2011-08-09|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=2007-07-05}}</ref>
In his review of the twelfth season of ''The Simpsons'', Jason Bailey of [[DVD Talk]] wrote that the staff members' "habit of using the first act as a red herring, only semi-connected to the rest of the show, is ingenious and hilarious [...] They'd been doing this kind of thing for years, but it still plays; what's more, they've begun to acknowledge it, and wink about it."<ref name=Bailey/>
He noted the scene from this episode in which Homer tells the viewers that "I'll bet you didn't see that coming!", adding that a "moment like that is ''The Simpsons'' at its best: smart, knowing, and ridiculously funny."<ref name=Bailey>{{cite web|last=Bailey|first=Jason|title=The Simpsons: The Twelfth Season|url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/38345/simpsons-the-complete-twelfth-season-the/|publisher=[[DVD Talk]]|access-date=2011-11-01|date=2009-08-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505171038/http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/38345/simpsons-the-complete-twelfth-season-the/|archive-date=2017-05-05}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote|The_Simpsons/Season_12#Tennis_the_Menace|"Tennis the Menace"}} {{Portal|The Simpsons}} *{{Snpp capsule|CABF07}} *{{IMDb episode|id=0701223}}
{{The Simpsons episodes|12}} {{Good article}}
[[Category:The Simpsons season 12 episodes]] [[Category:2001 American television episodes]] [[Category:Tennis animation]] [[Category:Tennis in fiction]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Andre Agassi]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Pete Sampras]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of tennis players]] [[Category:Television episodes written by Ian Maxtone-Graham]]