Since her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City on March 9, 1959, Barbie has dominated the toy doll industry, with sales of 1.49 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 alone. Her success has weathered both contenders and controversies and has seen the Barbie brand on everything from clothing to Christmas ornaments. Barbie has been featured in video games and in a lucrative, ongoing series of computer-animated TV shows and films. Her appearance in Toy Story 2 was lauded, and Ms. Roberts (Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, and now you know) is soon to take center stage in the upcoming live-action Barbie movie this July. The Barbie movie looks fantastic, but to date, there hasn't been a story in her long-time multimedia presence that has captured the attention of the public. No, the best Barbie story doesn't even have Barbie in it. That story is in the 14th episode of The Simpsons Season 5: "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy."
What Happens in "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy"?
At the Center for Geriatric Medicine, Dr. Hibbert (Harry Shearer) introduces the idol of seniors everywhere: Ben Matlock. Abe (Dan Castellaneta) is taken aback by his television idol being mobbed by his geriatric fans, and spurred on by the belief that death could come at any time, he gives the family their inheritances early. This includes a box of old silver dollars, which the family intends to spend at the mall right away. At the toy store, a mob of girls is swarming around a Malibu Stacy display, prompting Lisa (Yeardley Smith) to join the fray, becoming one of the first to grab the new Talking Malibu Stacy doll. Upon their return home, Lisa opens her Talking Malibu Stacy box, anxious to hear what pearls of wisdom Stacy has for little girls everywhere. Turns out, nothing terribly great: "I wish they taught shopping in school!" and "Let's bake some cookies for the boys!"
The outraged Lisa decries the dated sexist phrases that Stacy is saying and how they are impacting young girls. Getting nowhere with the company behind Malibu Stacy, Lisa visits the owner of the world's biggest Malibu Stacy collection, Waylon Smithers (Shearer), and with his help, tracks down the creator of Malibu Stacy, Stacy Lovelle (Kathleen Turner). Stacy Lovelle agrees to work with Lisa on creating a new talking doll, Lisa Lionheart, voiced by Lisa and using encouraging phrases. But on the day the doll is released, the creators of Malibu Stacy release a "new" set of Malibu Stacy dolls. Same doll, new hat. The scheme of Stacy's creators to sink Lisa Lionheart is successful, but one little girl buys a Lisa Lionheart doll, which Lisa says makes the whole venture worthwhile if it makes a difference in one life. Stacy agrees but murmurs that it would be better if the girl spends $46,000 on the doll, allowing Stacy to recoup her costs.
"Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" Is an Accurate Satire of the True Story of Barbie
The strength of The Simpsons is its ability to satirize elements of society and pop culture on a multitude of levels, and "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" is one of the best examples of that. The episode plays strong to those with only a passing knowledge of Barbie, poking fun at some of the more obvious targets of the Barbie brand (and related targets too). Stacy Lovell lives in a mansion that is very clearly a nod to the Barbie Dream House. Her ex-husbands are a who's who of actual and fictitious male-oriented dolls action figures like Ken, Johnny West, G.I. Joe, Doctor Colossus, and The Six-Million Dollar Man himself, Steve Austin. The event that Smithers references in the show, StacyCon '94, has a real-life equivalent for Barbie fans, the National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention (July 4th-8th, 2023 in Orlando!). Malibu Stacy's "new toy hat" is an amusing touch, a reference that brings to the parent's mind countless times spent in the Barbie aisle of the toy store, trying to discern the minute differences from one box to the next. The episode itself found its basis in a real-life news story. In June 1992, Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie, a version of the iconic doll programmed to say a random four things from a pool of 270 sayings. One of those statements generated a wave of criticism: "Math class is tough." While surely not as bad as Malibu Stacy's "Don't ask me. I'm just a girl," it nevertheless drew the ire of math teachers and activists across North America.
"Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" References True Barbie Stories
A look at Barbie's history makes it clear that the writers of the episode did their homework, with a number of references made even better when one compares them to the lesser-known moments in the history of the iconic doll. According to Stacy Lovell, the reason she was forced out of the company was due to her way of thinking not being "cost-effective," but it's implied that the actual reason is that she was funneling profits to the Vietcong in Vietnam. Funny in context, as Ruth Handler, creator of Barbie, was indicted by a grand jury in 1978 of false reporting to the Security and Exchange Commission, fraud, and conspiracy and was ordered to pay $57,000 in fines, with Ruth and her husband forced to end their involvement in the company.
Waylon Smithers possesses the largest Malibu Stacy collection in Springfield (and the greatest screen-saver ever), while one of the largest collections of Barbie dolls belongs to Jian Yang of Indonesia, with a collection of over 12,000 dolls. The best reference in the episode is a seemingly throw-away line when a Talking Malibu Stacy that belongs to a friend of Lisa's says in a low voice "My spidey sense is tingling. Anybody call for a web-slinger?" It's an odd but funny moment, but it too has a real-world connection to Barbie. In 1993, a group called the Barbie Liberation Organization performed "operations" on dozens of Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls. They took the dolls, switched their voice boxes around, and returned the dolls to the store, resulting in an almost too-good-to-be-true number of girls playing with the Teen Talk Barbies that heard Barbie say "Vengeance is mine!" and "Eat lead, Cobra!"
The episode plays deftly with its satire of Barbie alongside its honoring of key points in the history of the legendary doll. So now we wait to see if Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie's film returns with a Malibu Stacy shot of its own.