spend time with her, Marge scolded him for making her needlessly stay awake late the night before a debate tournament. She lost the debate to Artie, who asked her to be his prom date. Homer was unaware Marge accepted Artie's invitation and unexpectedly arrived at her house on prom night. When Artie arrived moments later, Homer despondently left her house and attended the prom alone. Artie and Marge were crowned prom king and queen and shared the first dance. Marge found a heartbroken Homer crying in the hallway. He confessed his feelings for her and although she was sympathetic, she urged him to accept her love for Artie. At Inspiration Point after the prom, Artie tried to make out with Marge in the back seat of his car; when he tore her dress in a fit of passion, Marge slapped him and demanded to be taken home, passing by Homer walking alone after he ran out of money to pay for his limousine rental. Realizing she was in love with Homer, and spurred on by overhearing her father criticize him, Marge returned in her car to pick him up and apologized for her foolish mistake she made. Homer fixed the torn strap of her dress with the corsage he had bought for her. As Marge ends her flashback, Lisa and Maggie are touched, but Bart makes gagging sounds of disgust. Production The episode was written by Al Jean, Mike Reiss, and Sam Simon, and directed by David Silverman. Jon Lovitz guest starred as Artie. It was his first guest appearance on The Simpsons, but he has appeared many times since. Artie's departing line to Marge after he drops her off was supposed to be "Good night. I'm Artie Ziff!", but short on time, the editors shortened it to just "Good night?". Characters making their first appearance on the show in this episode are Wiseguy, Artie, Rainier Wolfcastle (as the fictional action hero McBain), Principal Dondelinger, and Marge's father Clancy Bouvier. Artie's appearance and body language is based on a man Silverman went to high school with named Mark Eisenberg. Silverman said that when he directed the episode, he went through his own high school yearbook for character ideas and designs because he also had attended high school in the seventies. Wolfcastle's voice and design was based on actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The writers actually invented Wolfcastle for the episode "Oh Brother,