extensive parody of the shower scene from Psycho, in which the music and camera angles are almost identical. The music heard while the children play outside is the first movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, and is similar to a segment of the Disney film Fantasia. The scenes of deserted swings blowing in the wind and empty playgrounds seem to reference the 1983 film Testament. Reception In its original broadcast, "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" was watched by 22.2 million viewers, finishing 34th in ratings for the week of December 17–23, 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 12.9. It was the highest-rated show on Fox that week. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide praised the episode, saying that "Homer's doomed attempt to build a spice rack is only the start of another great episode, which works as a superb debate about television violence and politically inspired censorship [and that] the ending is especially poignant, as the pedagogues of Springfield swoop on Michelangelo's David as an example of filth and degradation". Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club praised the episode for its satire. He wrote, "[The episode] contains one of my favorite sequences not just in The Simpsons but in television as a whole. In it, a censorship-happy Marge has neutered Itchy & Scratchy to the point where the children of Springfield are moved to do the unthinkable: stop watching television. [...] A dystopia instantly becomes a small-town paradise, a happy realm of frolicking children and sunny innocence as kids wake up from a TV fog and embrace life's rich pageantry. It's a lovely, lyrical, even beautiful sequence even if it's light on gags. It presents, then ruthlessly yanks back, an alternate universe Springfield ruled by dewy innocence rather than greed and mob mentality." He also felt the episode "got to make a relevant point in line with writer John Swartzwelder's libertarianism without sacrificing the momentum of the episode or losing track of the characters and turning them into mere sounding boards for their creator's beliefs". Empire named the Psycho parody as the second best film parody in the show. "The best throwaway gags blindside the unsuspecting viewer in episodes that are nominally about something else [...] Hitchcock is ripped off more than any other director but this is the most lovingly rendered reference." The Psycho parody