When the Fox Broadcasting Company ordered “The Simpsons” to series, a team of writers sat down and wrote 13 episodes that would become the first season. At the time, the plan was for an episode called “Some Enchanted Evening” to serve as the premiere. In the episode, Simpson family matriarch Marge (Julie Kavner) is tired of being ignored by her husband Homer. To cheer her up, Homer plans a night out – the couple will first go to dinner and dancing at a fancy restaurant, and then spend the night at a motel. To make this romantic evening possible, Homer hires a babysitter to look after the Simpson children: mischievous troublemaker Bart (Nancy Cartwright), brainy Lisa (Yeardley Smith), and non-verbal infant Maggie.
As it turns out, the babysitter, Ms. Botz (Penny Marshall), is a notorious criminal known as the Babysitter Bandit – a fact that Bart and Lisa learn after watching the crime TV series “America's Most Armed and Dangerous.” After being captured, Botz ties up Bart and Lisa and grabs them, proceeding to rob the Simpson's house. Eventually, Bart and Lisa break free. They knock Botz unconscious, tie him up, and then run to a payphone to call for help. However, before help arrives, Homer and Marge arrive home. Believing that Ms. Botz was a victim of their troublemaking son, Homer frees the Babysitter Bandit, gives him extra money, and then sends him on his way just before the police and members of the media arrive. Homer is made a laughingstock for helping a man who robbed his own house escape.
If you're familiar with the first season of “The Simpsons,” you know that “Some Enchanted Evening” is actually the final episode of the season. No Premiere. So what happened?
