The Girl Who Slept Too Little


"The Girl Who Slept Too Little" is the second episode of The Simpsons' seventeenth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 18, 2005, and was seen by 9.79 million people during this broadcast.

Plot

When construction on a stamp museum wakes up the Simpsons, everyone in Springfield protests against its construction. Soon, Mayor Quimby, moves it to where the Springfield Cemetery used to be, and the cemetery is moved next door to the Simpsons' house. Lisa is the only member of the family whose room overlooks it. Lisa is scared and cannot sleep at night, and ends up sleeping with Homer and Marge. The next night Lisa meets a white-haired man known as Gravedigger Billy, who is Groundskeeper Willie's cousin. After a hand comes out of a tomb, Lisa goes to Marge and Homer's room and makes a promise that if they go to the Springfield Stamp Museum, Lisa will sleep in her room. At the museum there is a lecture for Milton Burkhart's book "The Land of the Wild Beasts", and an advertisement based on the book for a restaurant called The Hillside Wrangler.
Lisa then feels that she can sleep in her room with the cemetery, but is already afraid, and sleeps in Homer and Marge's room. Homer and Marge then come home, and Marge tells Lisa she is breaking her promise. Marge and Homer then spend a night in Lisa's room and find out how scary the view really is. Marge and Homer then contact a psychologist, and find out that it is expensive and her fears are mostly going to be solved by herself, as she was not nurtured enough as a baby. Lisa, however, does not want to go see a therapist, and goes with Bart and Santa's Little Helper to overcome her fears at the cemetery, but Bart and Santa’s Little Helper leave.
Lisa then changes her mind, but the gate is locked, and Lisa is left alone. Afterwards, Lisa's head is hit by a tombstone and faints. In the meantime Marge and Homer worry about Lisa and Bart not doing anything except for watching Itchy & Scratchy cartoons. Lisa is then in a dream, where she is eaten by a skeleton, and then is on a web in a slime pond with a slug resembling Milhouse, and a spider resembling Bart. Lisa is then in another vision, with the monsters from "Land of the Wildbeasts," and Lisa finds out they are funny, instead of scary, and that it is okay to be scared. Marge and Homer then find Lisa, wake her up, and they go home.

Reception

was nominated for a at the 58th Writers Guild of America Awards for his script to this episode.