Every Way The Simpsons’ Original You Only Move Twice Plan Changed

‘You Only Move Twice’ has been called the best episode of The Simpsonsever, but how much did its original plans change from script to screen? After 33 seasons and over 700 episodes, it is tough for even a casual fan of The Simpsons to name the show’s best outing. Although critical consensus says that the long-running series peaked somewhere between seasons 3 and 12 in its so-called Golden Age, The Simpsons has so many classic episodes that it is almost impossible to decide on the best episode ever.

While the likes of Lady Gaga and Elon Musk’s Simpsons cameos are often called the show’s low points, the question of which Simpsons episode is the best comes with many more caveats. Should viewers go for the funniest episode or the one with the best story? Should it be the episode with the most jokes per minute, or a more thoughtful, subversive outing? However, there is one episode that manages to fulfill all these criteria and is often touted as one of the best Simpsons episodes ever as a result.

‘You Only Move Twice’ (season 8, episode 4) is often cited as the best episode of The Simpsons by fan polls, and for good reason. The plot, wherein Homer accepts a new job from eccentric billionaire/blatant supervillain Hank Scorpio and moves his family to Cypress Creek, manages to mix corporate satire, sillier humor, and character comedy. Meanwhile, the flexible canon of The Simpsons means the episode can introduce a lot of great one-off characters and surreal gags, but the faraway setting and standalone plot mean that the show never has to address these gags again. However, despite being one of the show’s most well-liked outings ever, not every Simpsons fan knows that ‘You Only Move Twice’ went through a lot of revisions throughout its production. With a jettisoned Grampa Simpson subplot, a James Bond cameo, and an appearance from fan-favorite Ralph Wiggum (sort of), ‘You Only Move Twice’ was almost a very different episode from what viewers got.

James Bond’s Canceled Simpsons Appearance

007 himself appears in ‘You Only Move Twice,’ during a hilarious scene wherein Homer accidentally thwarts MI6’s finest during the super-spy’s daring escape attempt. The Bond cameo is all part of a running gag wherein, despite operating out of a You Only Live Twice-inspired mountain base lair, Homer doesn’t realize his new boss – the charismatic Hank Scorpio – is a supervillain who makes no attempts to hide that fact. To make the joke work, The Simpsons writers wanted the real deal James Bond to appear on the show and originally wrote the character into the script. However, Fox was worried about being sued, and so viewers got the blatant parody “James Bont” instead since this alias was as close as the writers felt they could get to the character without getting into legal trouble.

The resulting gag still works well, and most viewers would hardly notice that the Bond parody doesn’t share the name of his famous inspiration. This was not the only time that The Simpsons avoided parodying a particularly famous movie by name, though. The fan-favorite ‘Treehouse of Horror’ segment ‘The Shinning’ saw Bart almost reference its inspiration, the Stephen King novel/Stanley Kubrick movie The Shining before Willie warned him not to get the show sued. Ironically, this joking avoidance of copyright infringement occurred before the James Bond/James Bont switch.

Grampa’s Canceled Subplot

Much of what makes ‘You Only Move Twice’ work so well is the ambitious decision to give every Simpson family member a story of their own in the move to Cypress Creek.  However, there is one clan member whose story was excised and it is one that many fans likely did not even notice. Grampa’s subplot was cut for time, as it mostly consisted of him getting greeting phone calls from the family after being left behind. While Grampa has anchored some great Simpsons gags, he isn’t the most dynamic character and it makes sense that the quick-moving plot of the outing (which needed to cover Marge’s boredom as a housewife, Lisa’s aversion to nature, Bart’s academic condescension, and Homer’s new job) needed to trim the plot.

Ralph Wiggum’s Cut Role

Although Ralph didn’t appear in ‘You Only Move Twice,’ originally he was used as inspiration for one of the episode’s gags — until the joke turned out more creepy than funny. Originally, all of the kids in Bart’s remedial class had the same haircut as the iconic character, until the writers decided this made them look “kind of troubled” and promoted a redesign. While the un-killable Ralph Wiggum is a beloved Simpsons character, it is understandable that this gag was cut since the supporting star’s haircut is not recognizable enough to work as a joke and instead made the remedial class members look oddly creepy.

Hank Scorpio’s Canceled Return

Many fans were enamored with ‘You Only Move Twice’’s Hank Scorpio, a supervillain who was authentically friendly to Homer and one of The Simpsons’ funniest one-episode guest stars. As such, Scorpio  was originally going to return in The Simpsons Movie but this was canceled when the writers went with a new character for the same voice actor, Albert Brooks. EPA head Russ Cargill was similar to Scorpio (with Brooks using his own instantly recognizable speaking voice for both roles), but almost the opposite in terms of character as a persnickety pencil-pushing bureaucrat. The better-than-anticipated Simpsons Movie made the right call not bringing back the beloved character, since pitting Springfield’s first family against Scorpio would have ruined the element that made the character so appealing in the first place – namely that Scorpio had a real soft spot for Homer despite his blatantly evil plans.

Better off limited to one episode, Scorpio’s mooted Simpsons Movie return is a lot like ‘You Only Move Twice’’s missing Grampa plot and Ralph cameo. The changes made to the episode all add up to a stronger outing for the series and ensured ‘You Only Move Twice’ became one of The Simpsons‘ most highly-rated outings since any elements that didn’t quite work were excised from the finished episode. This resulted in a classic Simpsons episode that remains a high benchmark for the show even decades later.

About The Author

Cathal Gunning
(1446 Articles Published)

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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