"Lisa the Iconoclast" | |
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The Simpsons episode | |
Episode no. | 144 |
Directed by | Mike B. Anderson |
Written by | Jonathan Collier |
Showrunner(s) |
Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein |
Production code | 3F13 |
Original air date | February 18, 1996 |
Couch gag | The family is portrayed as The Brady Bunch. |
Commentary | Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Jonathan Collier Yeardley Smith Mike B. Anderson David Silverman |
Guest appearance(s) | |
Donald Sutherland as Hollis Hurlbut |
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Season 7 episodes
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Seasons | |
Donald Sutherland as Hollis Hurlbut
Phil Hartman as Troy McClure
"Lisa the Iconoclast" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 18, 1996. In the episode, Springfield's bicentennial approaches, and Lisa writes an essay on town founder Jebediah Springfield. While doing research, she finds a confession revealing that Springfield was a murderous pirate named Hans Sprungfeld who never cared about the people of Springfield. Lisa and Homer decide to get the message out but instead anger the town council.
The episode was written by Jonathan Collier and directed by Mike B. Anderson. It was Anderson's first directing role and the story was inspired by the 1991 exhumation of President Zachary Taylor. Donald Sutherland guest starred as the voice of Hollis Hurlbut, a part that was written specifically for him. The episode includes several references to Colonial and Revolutionary America, including Gilbert Stuart's unfinished 1796 painting of George Washington. The episode features two neologisms, and , which were intended to sound like real words but are in fact completely fabricated (although it was later discovered that C. A. Ward had used "embiggen" in 1884).Embiggen, coined by Dan Greaney, has since been used in several scientific publications, while cromulent, coined by David X. Cohen, appeared in the Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon.