Marge in Chains

"Marge in Chains" is the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.

The family hires attorney Lionel Hutz to defend her at trial, but she is found guilty and sentenced to 30 days in prison.

After its initial airing on Fox, the episode was later included as part of a 1997 video release titled The Simpsons: Crime and Punishment.

The authors of I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide commented positively on the episode, as did reviews in The Daily Mirror and The Observer.

Troy McClure and Dr. Nick star in a TV advertisement for a juicer called the "Juice Loosener", which is manufactured in and shipped from Osaka, Japan.

On a trip to the Kwik-E-Mart, Marge's exhaustion causes her to forget to pay for a bottle of bourbon that Grampa requested, and she is soon charged with shoplifting.

The first draft of the script was "slightly more realistic" than the final version of the episode because Oakley and Weinstein had done a lot of research about women in prison, much of which was later replaced.

[2] In the 2004 Season 4 DVD commentary for this episode, show runner Al Jean said that he did not like Carter, although he would vote for him ahead of George W.

[3][4] Kwik-E-Mart operator Apu testifies in a courtroom scene in the episode that he is able to recite pi to 40,000 decimal places, correctly noting that the 40,000th digit is the number one.

[8] Nathan Rabin writes that "This is a bit of an in-joke, because the great Phil Hartman, the voice and smarmy soul of Lionel Hutz and so many others, designed an album cover for Crosby, Stills, and Nash back in the 1970s.

Maude asks why God has forsaken the Flanders, and Ned recalls that he laughed at an off-color joke on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children.

"[19] Comparisons to the episode experienced a resurgence in May 2020, following advisories by Washington state regarding Asian giant hornets in the region,[21] citing a scene where an angry crowd tips over a truck they believed contained a "placebo" for Osaka flu, and accidentally unleashing a swarm of killer bees from a crate in the process.

This was likened to many politicians who violated their own "stay-at-home" orders during the pandemic, as well as Ted Cruz allegedly abandoning his constituents during the 2021 Texas power crisis to flee to Cancún.

"[29] Jessica Mellor of The Daily Mirror highlighted the episode in a review of The Simpsons season four DVD release, along with "Kamp Krusty", "New Kid on the Block", and "I Love Lisa", commenting: "Springfield's finest prove once again why they are the cleverest thing on telly.

"[30] In a section on the episode in their book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood wrote: "We like Bart's plan to rescue Marge from prison by becoming the glamorous Bartina, and Lionel Hutz is supremely inept".