Vulcan race every seven years. His taunting of "I am smart, much smarter than you, Hib-bert!" is also to the tune of the Star Trek fanfare. The episode also mentions actress Geena Davis and cartoonist Mell Lazarus, both of whom are members of Mensa. Reception Broadcast and controversy In its original American broadcast on May 9, 1999, "They Saved Lisa's Brain" received a 6.8 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 6.8 million viewers. It finished in 54th place in the ratings for the week of May 3–9, 1999. The episode's viewership was considered very low by the Boston Herald, who noted that it reached "historic lows" in the ratings. In a scene in the episode, Comic Book Guy announces that Springfield is in 299th place on a list of the United States' 300 most livable cities, with East St. Louis being in last place. A journalist for a "local East St. Louis paper" noticed this, and called Selman to ask him why they were "taking a shot at East St. Louis". Selman jokingly replied: "because it's a crack-ridden slum". After the interview, he went on vacation in Greece for two weeks. While Selman was on vacation, executive producer and the episode's showrunner Mike Scully received a phone call from The Simpsons publicist Antonia Coffman, who reported that Selman's comment on East St. Louis had been taken "very seriously" by the newspaper. The Simpsons staff received several angry letters from East St. Louis' residents, demanding an apology. Because Selman was out of reach, the other staff members had to take care of the controversy. When Selman returned, Scully scolded him and told him that he had to apologize to the mayor of East St. Louis, who, unbeknownst to Selman, was portrayed by Marc Wilmore. Wilmore, a former writer on the television comedy The PJ's, had been asked by Scully to participate in a practical joke, in which he would play the mayor of East St. Louis and confront Selman about his controversial statement. According to Selman, Wilmore gave an "Oscar-worthy performance". "I was terrified", he stated in the DVD commentary for the episode, "[we had] a twenty-minute discussion in which [Wilmore] said that [his] children were teased at school [because of Selman's comments], and that the Fox affiliate were gonna be thrown off the air..." According to Wilmore, Selman immediately blamed the other writers. Said Selman, "Well, everyone