0341 - Park Ranger (Patreon)

The final character of "Bart the Daredevil" is an extremely minor one, with only one line: "Hello children, and welcome to Springfield Gorge".

In the production script, she has a larger role: her name is Ranger Smythe, and she gives a few facts about Springfield Gorge before Bart decided to jump across it. As she never gets to issue information in the final episode, let's use this opportunity to discuss Springfield Gorge ourselves!

The location is obviously memorable because of the grand finale to this episode, in which Homer almost clears it on a skateboard - and then doesn't.

This is very subversive for a 1990 sitcom. The sappy emotional stakes of Bart respecting Homer's wishes, and the potential personal victory of Homer accomplishing this grand feat, are instantly undercut with a cartoonish fall depicted in a somewhat realistic and bloody way. This isn't Looney Tunes, there are real stakes to a calamity like this - even if it happens twice in quick succession.

I believe this to be an important and pivotal moment in the show's history. It crossed a line, giving them permission to go further and fully embrace the fact that they are making a cartoon - things will only get wackier from here. Sure, we've discussed subversive moments in the show before, but usually the subversion of traditional sitcom stakes still results in a happy emotional conclusion. Take for example the ending of "There's No Disgrace Like Home", in which the family cannot participate in Dr Monroe's shock therapy in a mature way and learn nothing. This still leads to a resolution in which the family are brought closer together, leaving the audience with a warm, fuzzy feeling. No such fuzzy feeling is offered at the end of "Bart the Daredevil" - just a man falling to his almost-death. Sometimes The Simpsons has heart, but this climax proved it didn't always need it.

The show clearly thinks this is an important and pivotal moment too, as all references to Springfield Gorge hereafter are paying some homage to this scene. This is mostly by using the actual clip, but in "Brother From The Same Planet", just 2 seasons later, Homer and Tom fight down and back up the gorge, highlighting how silly the stakes of the show are getting. Before, this fall put a man in hospital, now two men can wrestle down it without missing a beat.

The next major original visit to the gorge is in "Treehouse of Horror XIII", featuring another reference to "Bart the Daredevil". A plague of Homer clones are lured to fall down the gorge, only this time it actually results in their death.

In The Simpsons Movie, Bart and Homer jump the gorge on a motorbike, and this time they make it.

Jumping the gorge is such a beloved part of the Simpsons lore that they trusted the audience of the movie would remember it for this reference. Even in the Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode "The Simpsons Guy", the climax of Homer's fight with Peter Griffin happens at the gorge...after of course they fall down it.

If it wasn't for Dr Hibbert's introduction yesterday, Springfield Gorge - and the constant instances of falling down it - would be the most significant addition to the Simpsons mythos that "Bart the Daredevil" has to offer.

I hope the park ranger takes some solace in the fact that even though no-one remembers her, her workplace is world-famous.

This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.