Beware My Cheating Bart (S23, E18-504)

I'm not even 30 yet, but the old man in me couldn't cringe at this scene hard enough.

Plot Summary
Homer takes Bart to a mall with a movie theatre, dropping him and Milhouse off at a movie so he can go enjoy the food court, but is so out of shape a salesman is easily able to convince him to buy a state-of-the-art treadmill that comes with its own top notch television.  Meanwhile, Bart runs afoul of Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney and Jimbo's girlfriend Shauna.  Shauna doesn't want to see the movie the bullies do, but Jimbo doesn't want to leave Shauna alone as a target of someone else's eyes, so he orders Bart to prevent anybody from getting a peek at his girl, and Bart is forced to comply.  Bart does make someone stop talking with Shauna, and she's impressed with what Bart just did.  Jimbo forces Bart to spend time with Shauna again the next day, where Bart takes the fall for her shoplifting.  Shauna is really impressed with Bart's noble act and takes him to a private area to give him a reward, flashing her breasts at him for a good second or two.

The act leaves Bart stunned for quite awhile, but later on at school, Jimbo leaves Shauna with Bart yet again.  Bart gathers enough courage to tell Shauna that Jimbo is a jerk and she should stop going out with him.  Shauna is surprised someone is actually looking out for her, and takes a liking to Bart.  The two start going on in secret, kissing each other whenever possible, but eventually Jimbo catches Bart in the act and is ready to whale on him, but thanks to a distraction Bart is able to flee from him and the other bullies for awhile.  Bart tries to go home, but the bullies are not only waiting for him there, they've gained Marge's favor as well.  Shauna sides with Bart and he decides to hide out at the comic book store with her until the heat dies down, but Shauna insults the comic book guy, resulting in him calling the bullies over to catch Bart.

This time Bart is able to make it back to the treehouse with Shauna, and that's when Lisa pops in.  Lisa, whose been aware of Bart's story, decides its time to intervene.  Jimbo finds the three, but Lisa calmly advises Shauna to not go back with the jerk Jimbo, or the dorky Bart, but rather just "be Shauna" she actually says.  Shauna takes those words to heart, but Jimbo still has to take care of Bart.

Homer, in the meantime, starts off okay on the treadmill, but he learns from Lisa that the attached television can connect to the internet, and it can stream shows that ended several years ago.  Homer takes a liking to one such show: Stranded, a deep, confusing show full of island mysteries and plot holes.  Even so, Homer becomes deeply entrenched in the show's plot, and stops bothering to use the treadmill to actually run.  Eventually ditching the treadmill, Homer instead grabs DVDs of the show to keep watching non stop, which continues to annoy Marge - who saw the show in its initial run but couldn't get Homer to watch at the time because he said it was pretentious.  Homer even hosts a viewing party for the show, even though he's only three seasons in and everyone else already knows how it ends.  Marge finally has enough and quickly spoils the show for Homer before he can silence her.  This act upsets Homer pretty badly, but Marge makes it up to him by giving him some island-themed sex as Jimbo beats Bart up outside.

Quick Review
Shauna first appeared as part of a gag in the Season 20 episode The Good, the Sad and the Drugly, which was also an episode where Bart falls in love with a girl.  She's made one or two other appearances since, so its kinda odd she gets such a focus in this episode.

Neither that storyline nor the sideplot with Homer obsessing over the obvious Lost parody several years too late started off all that badly, but the last several minutes were just disastrous.  The 'flame war' between comic book guy and Shauna was just dreadful.  Needing to bring in Lisa from out of nowhere to settle the episode's conflict seems like such a boring cop out, and the ending the sideplot felt pretty rushed as well.  These factors combined to basically ruin the episode.

Final Score: 6.3

Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts (S23, E02-488)

All hail President Roosevelt!  May his four years be full of conquest!

Plot Summary
Bart's latest prank leaves Principal Skinner looking like a fool during a school auction.  Frustrated, Skinner isn't willing to deal with Superintendent Chalmers' usual remarks.  Instead, Skinner lashes out against Chalmers, insisting he try teaching Bart once to see what hell he goes through everyday.  Chalmers casually agrees, though in a private moment he needs to get himself together, not having actually taught in quite some time.

Chalmers meets up with Bart at the library, and though Chalmers has trouble getting Bart to care about Presidents at first, the wise Superintendent gets Bart to focus on a specific one: Theodore Roosevelt, who led quite the wild life in his day.  Bart becomes completely engrossed in the life of the first President Roosevelt, and to supplement Bart's learning, Chalmers takes Bart out to a park founded by Roosevelt.  Bart recounts the tales of ol' Teddy to Milhouse, Nelson, Jimbo and Dolph, and they all want to be taught by Chalmers instead.

Chalmers is happy to see so many boys take an interest in Roosevelt, especially as he believes that public schools have become too wrapped up in teaching feelings instead.  He takes the five boys camping in hopes of uncovering a pair of spectacles worn by the President.  On that trip, Nelson finds the glasses while hanging off the edge of a cliff, but it gives way and Nelson takes a small yet painful fall.  Later, Nelson's mom threatens to sue the school for Nelson's injuries and as Chalmers took the boys on an unapproved trip, the comptroller relieves Chalmers of his duties.

Bart finds regular school boring again, and finds a defeated Chalmers hard to talk to.  Soon, Bart gathers up the "Brotherhood of the Spectacles", which includes himself, the four other boys as well as Kearney now, to come up with a plan to get Chalmers' job back.  Bart's plan is simple: take over the school and not relinquish it until Chalmers is hired again.  The operation goes rather smoothly as Bart is able to convince Skinner and every teacher to go outside to check on their equally pathetic cars.  As the boys threaten to ruin an expensive photocopier should Skinner try to break in, the police are brought in to end the standoff.  Chalmers then appears and tries to convince the boys to stand down, but they hold their ground.  Chief Wiggum is about to storm the school, but fumbles his gun and it shoots the comptroller in the knee.  The comptroller willingly gives Chalmers a better version of his job back, and Chalmers is back making Skinner feel bad again.  Chalmers and Bart go on another ride through Roosevelt's park, probably friends or something.

Quick Review
Not that long ago, I lamented over the change of Superintendent Chalmers' character, how even a character such as him that was introduced as being so normal could also succumb to be a caricature of his former self.  For the most part, this episode does a better job treating Chalmers' character right aside from a couple of odd Skinner-related moments.  The humor is also much improved from the previous episode, but there some sketchy moments as well that held the episode back a bit.  Overall, its still nothing special in terms of comedy but I appreciate the effort of an episode that focuses on Chalmers and doing it decently well.

Final Score: 6.9

How the Test Was Won (S20, E11-431)

Skinner is likely thinking "this is still not worse than Vietnam... right?"

Plot Summary
Its the first day of school, and the kids have varying levels of excitement for it.  However, Principal Skinner informs the kids that they'll be taking federally-mandated aptitude tests in a couple of weeks, and the students' performance will affect funding.  As a result, everyone in school goes through a two week course of test preparation, including learning answer patterns.  The day of the test arrives, and both Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers are there to inform Bart that he got a perfect score on a practice test, and as a result gets to skip the real test and have a pizza party elsewhere.  Bart is thrilled, but soon finds out that it was a ruse; the bus with the other 'top scores' includes only Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney, Nelson and Ralph.  It turns out that Skinner and Chalmers are pushing aside the kids who would provide low test scores and the school can't afford any screw ups.  Chalmers agrees, and tricks Skinner onto the bus as well as it goes off.

In a side story, Homer is tasked by Marge to pay the insurance bill, which has come in handy for Homer's various accidents.  However, Homer forgets, and soon two weeks have passed (the same two weeks as earlier), and Homer finally realizes what's happened.  He sends the bill directly to the office, but reads a sign stating nobody will be back until 3 PM, and makes it a mission to avoid getting hurt.  Upon carefully returning home, Homer also realizes that nobody else can get hurt on his property or he'll be liable.  Worse yet, Marge is hosting a book club, whose patrons are walking a fine line of danger.  Homer is able to keep everyone there safe, but accidentally throws out a small knife that hits someone outside.  It's Mr. Burns, but luckily for Homer it was 3:01 when Burns was hit, so insurance will have it covered (probably).

Skinner, despite having been betrayed by Chalmers, still follows the mission of taking the boys to Capital City for the day.  However, Skinner takes the boys for a bathroom break, and upon returning is stunned to find the bus scrapped for parts.  The group now travels Capital City on foot, but Skinner loses track of Ralph, who somehow winds up on a trash barge.  Skinner tries to warn a nearby crane operator, but accidentally knocks him out instead, causing the container the guy was lifting to bust open and spill out pianos, right in the path of Ralph and the barge.  Skinner busts into action and jumps on top of the container, and runs around it, using the principle of conservation of angular motion to move the container away from the barge.  The boys are impressed that Skinner has actually applied knowledge to save Ralph, and the group rides the barge back to Springfield.

Throughout all of this, Chalmers has handled the test day rather poorly, giving everyone test anxiety (except Milhouse apparently).  Worse yet, Lisa has completely fallen apart, finding herself unable to answer a single question, and is ready to lament the failure that will be the rest of her life.  However, Skinner busts in just in time with the boys, and puts a halt to the test, realizing that real knowledge is acquired not in school, but on the streets.  Lisa is saved, I guess, and to celebrate the occasion, Skinner abolishes his ban on dancing.

Quick Review
This episode starts off slow and ends on a worthless note with the dancing.  The portions inbetween were alright, particularly Homer when he isn't insured, but it isn't enough to save the episode.

Final Score: 6.6

Lisa the Drama Queen (S20, E09-429)

Imagination... or delusion?  You decide.

Plot Summary
Homer drops Bart and Lisa off at the recreation center.  There, Lisa finds a new friend: Juliet, whose parents have just moved to Springfield.  Lisa enjoys Juliet's intellect and taste in music, and the two become very good friends and, after having Juliet stay over for a night, the two become best friends.  That night, the two begin work on a fantasy land where everyone is equal except the two of them, who are its queens, calling it Equalia.

Juliet's family invites the Simpsons over for dinner, where Juliet openly disagrees with her father over music and runs off.  Lisa catches up to Juliet, who has deluded herself into fully imagining Equalia, and Lisa imagines it right with her.  The two become completely enveloped in Equalia and its adventures, chronicling them in a notebook.  However, Lisa's focus on Equalia has left her struggling in school, so Marge is left with no other option but to have Lisa stop seeing Juliet.  At school, however, Lisa is met by Juliet, who tells Lisa she's running away and wants Lisa to join her.  Lisa decides to forgo her important Model U.N. duties and the two run off together.

Juliet takes Lisa to an abandoned clam restaurant with a medieval theme out in the forest, and the two decide to stake out there.  Marge is informed by Model U.N. participant Martin that Lisa is absent, and Marge quickly realizes what's happened, and takes the family to where Marge believes two girls fantasizing about medieval castles would go.  Unfortunately, Marge guesses wrong as they head to the mini-golf course.  Meanwhile, Lisa and Juliet's new adventures are interrupted by Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney, who had made the restaurant their base.  They capture the girls, and leave Kearney to guard them as the other two go elsewhere for a time.  The two girls try to forget their troubles by continuing their Equalia adventures, but inadvertently intrigue Kearney as well.  Some time later, Kearney is as enveloped in Equalia as they are.  Jimbo and Dolph return, and decide to burn the notebook Lisa and Juliet had been working on.  Kearney, however, refuses to let his new favorite fantasy land burn away and attacks the other two, allowing Lisa and Juliet to escape with the book.  Lisa realizes that its not good to always stay in a fantasy land, and that being grounded in real life isn't a bad thing either.  Juliet disagrees, believing the real world to be devoid of imagination, and takes her leave, effectively ending their friendship.  Some time later, Lisa receives word that the Chronicles of Equalia have been rejected as a book, but Homer is... somewhat... inspired to write a fantasy novel of his own.  Then for some reason Bart lets Fallout Boy perform during the credits.

Quick Review
This episode has several bright spots, most notably during the Simpsons' dinner at Juliet's house.  However, the multiple scenes featuring Lisa and Juliet together were just... not funny.  There were several instances in those scenes where it didn't seem like humor was even attempted, and from that, this episode's score suffers harshly because it seemed like this episode would've been fine had it kept up with the comedy throughout.

As an aside, this is the first episode to break up into four segments instead of three, as the episode now begins immediately after the opening sequence.  Much more notably, this is the final episode to air in standard definition as the new production of episodes begins the following episode.  This is also the final episode to use the opening sequence that had been in place since Season 2.  It was used during the best of times and, for now, the worst of times.  It is definitely the end of an era.

Final Score: 6.7

24 Minutes (S18, E21-399)

NON-STOP ACTION PACKED ACTION RIGHT HERE ON FOX!!!

Plot Summary
The episode is basically a full-blown spoof of 24.  You remember 24, right?

The intro sets up that Principal Skinner has created a new, high-tech facility to find and capture truants, with Lisa, Milhouse, Martin and Database as the main core of the group.  They learn that Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney have skipped school and they make efforts to bring them in.  Bart gets caught in another prank and is sent to detention.  Marge learns that the school's bake sale is less than 30 minutes away, and has to come up with something fast to sell there, and Homer is sent home from work after leaving a container of yogurt in the cafeteria fridge for way too long, leaving it full of mold and it stinks like all hell.  The rest of the episode takes place from 2:34 to 3:04 pm.

Milhouse is sent out to find the three, and trails them to the Kwik-E-Mart, where Homer has attempted to return his smelly old yogurt.  With Homer and Apu distracted, the bullies spy the pungent item and decide to take it.  Lisa communicates with Milhouse and has him spy on the bullies some more to learn what they would want with the yogurt.  However, Homer blows his cover, and the bullies put both Milhouse and Homer in a dumpster, sending them on their way.  With that loss, Lisa suggests to Skinner that they have only one other option to stop those bullies: Bart.  Bart agrees to help, with various conditions, and commandeers Skinner's car to go to Jimbo's house.  The bullies show that the yogurt is the key piece to a stink bomb they plan on releasing during the bake sale.

As Marge botches her raisin cake, burning it to a crisp in an attempt to cook it really fast, Bart approaches Jimbo's house.  However, Martin is a mole, and informs the bullies of Bart's approach, allowing them to escape.  After seeing the room where the stink bomb was made, Bart gets a crossed up call from Jack Bauer (you know, from 24!), and takes advantage of the opportunity to prank call Bauer.  The bullies infiltrate the school with Martin's help as they take the stink bomb to a ventilation room; not even Willie can stop them.  Homer arrives in the dumpster just in time for the sale, as does Marge with her abomination that could once be called a cake.

As Martin continues to hastily cover his tracks, Bart spies Nelson letting Martin go despite his flamboyancy.  Bart quickly learns that Martin is a mole, but Martin knocks him out before he can relay this to Lisa.  Bart wakes up tied up next to Willie and the stink bomb, with the bullies setting the timer for three minutes.  It turns out Martin was being blackmailed, as the bullies had stolen his ant farm (Martin later atones for what he did by giving himself a wedgie).  With the fan above him ready to spread the fumes of the bomb across the school, Bart spies a tube that carries a large quantity of used hot dog water.  In an attempt to short-circuit the fan, Skinner gives the go ahead to release that water, even though Bart and Willie will likely drown.  Bart isn't quite licked yet, and sees a small window nearby that reveals he's right next to the gymnasium where the bake sale is being held.  He makes himself noticed, but the window is bulletproof.  However, Marge uses his stone of a cake to break the glass, allowing hot dog water to seep into the gym along with Bart, Willie and the bomb.  Lisa quickly arrives to disarm it, relieved that it has a simple emergency cancel button on the top.  The day seems to be saved when suddenly Jack Bauer arrives to get his vengeance on Bart for the prank call, bringing in every agent to take him down, regardless of the price.

Quick Review
I'm going to start off by admitting that I've never seen 24, though I am vaguely aware of how it sets itself up.  So while I'm not going to say the crossover hurt the episode, because the show has already done two such episodes wonderfully), I do feel as though that some of the humor based around 24 and its themes were lost on me as this is the first time I hadn't watched a show that crossed over with The Simpsons.

I did enjoy the plot, though it isn't to say the plot was inherently funny.  The episode tries to sprinkle in some jokes while making a really serious attempt to copying 24, but in the end it makes for another subpar episode that isn't as bad as it could've been, but it wasn't that great either.

Final Score: 6.8

Marge's Son Poisoning (S17, E05-361)

Marge should just be proud that, in this scenario, Bart is probably some kind of administrator.

Plot Summary
The Simpsons arrive at a pier-side festival just its being torn down.  As parts are being sold off, Homer buys a dumbbell while Marge decides to buy a tandem bicycle.  However, Marge can't get anyone to ride the bicycle with her, so she tries to ride it alone, which doesn't work at all.  Bart takes notice of this and, out of pity, decides to go on a ride with Marge.  They end up at a tea and cake shop in a different town or part of town or whatever, and the two really bond from that.  However, the next time they ride there they learn that the shop has closed down.  Bart decides that he and Marge can have a tea party in his treehouse, which Marge redecorates to fit the new theme.  However, as the two go out to buy a tea set, Bart is confronted by Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney who mock Bart for having become a "Mama's boy".  With Marge returning only to embarrass Bart further in front of the bullies, Bart rebels and reveals to Marge that he only did things with her because he felt sorry for her, and runs off.

All the while, Homer pumps up his right arm with his new dumbbell.  He eventually uses his newly built arm to save his barmates from a fallen pinball machine, where Moe gets the idea to have Homer use his arm in arm wrestling cons.  However, after their first attempt goes dicey, Moe decides to just have Homer enter an arm wrestling competition out of the town.  With Marge rather uninterested in his latest adventure (due to her spending time with Bart), Homer starts to miss Marge and, after winning the tournament, quickly goes home.

After tearing down the new additions to his treehouse, Bart finally calms down and, after seeing Marge depressed again, apologizes to her.  He then cheers Marge up by inviting her to a school-sanctioned karaoke night, where the two can sing as a duet.  Marge is ecstatic, and goes to practice at a karaoke shop, where she sees Principal Skinner and his mother, with Skinner bowing down to his mother's whims yet again.  At the karaoke night, Marge sees the two of them do their karaoke act, and imagines herself and Bart in their places, which freaks her out.  Marge puts a stop to the contest and encourages Bart to go back to his old ways so that he doesn't become as mother-dependent as Skinner.  Homer returns home just in time to comfort Marge, and everything is back to normal.

Quick Review
This wasn't that good of an episode.  Homer's arm wrestling subplot was actually pretty decent, but not much focus was given to it so it was pretty short.  The main plot about Marge and Bart didn't have much humor to go with it, and the episode's ending where the bullies sing all classy-like in front of the Simpson home was just bad.

Final Score: 6.0

This Little Wiggy (S09, E18-196)

"Ah, you've done grand, laddy.  Now you know what you
have to do: burn the house down!  BURN THEM ALL!"

Plot Summary
The Simpsons go to some kind of fun Science museum, a Knowledgeum.  While the family has some fun there, Bart comes across not just Ralph Wiggum, but the full assortment of bullies.  They toss Ralph into a model ear, while forcing Bart to kiss a virtual ass.  Later, as Ralph is pried free from the ear, Marge takes pity on the poor boy, and decides to have Bart play with him, much to Bart's disapproval, but Marge forces him to spend time with Ralph anyway, so what can he do?

Ralph messes around with Bart's stuff too much, so the two go outside.  However, Bart sees the bully brigade near (videotaping a crime spree), and quickly hides Ralph while trying to play it cool.  The two decide to go to Ralph's house.  After Ralph shows him his stuff, including a rock where a leprechaun appears to tell Ralph to burn things, Bart gets Ralph to show him where his father, Chief Wiggum, keeps his police stuff.  The fun quickly ends when Chief Wiggum comes home and promptly tweaks his back suspecting a criminal in the closet where said police stuff lies.  After Bart apologizes, he sees Chief Wiggum lay down a key, learning from Ralph that its the police's master key.

That night, Bart stays over, and is able to sneakily take the key while Chief Wiggum sleeps.  He and Ralph then have fun around town, playing in a toy store and eating a cake in another establishment.  At this point, the two run across the bully brigade again, but now that Bart has in his possession the master key, the bullies find him to be alright.  Bart then suggests they have fun with it at a new destination: an abandoned prison.  Ralph starts to get scared, forcing Bart to take the key away, but immediately regrets doing so.  The bullies tire of Bart's wishy-wash, and toss the key into the prison before departing to pick huckleberries.  Ralph and Bart go into the prison to retrieve the key.  Upon doing so, they find the room that contains an electric chair, and have fun with it, but are forced to leave when a guard comes near.  Notably, they leave the safety to the chair off as they depart.

The next day, the two see on TV that Mayor Quimby is at the same prison, planning to put it back into use to scare criminals.  To prove his point, Quimby plans on putting himself on the chair to show crooks what awaits them, unaware that the safety to the chair is set to off.  Bart realizes this and tries to think of a plan.  Ralph tells Bart to ask Lisa, who is good at coming up with plans.  She decides to tie a note to Bart's model rocket stating that the electric chair is on, and shoots it toward the prison.  However, it misses its mark and flies to the nuclear plant, flying in Mr. Burns' office.  He reads the note, and upon realizing that the old prison has been receiving free power for so long, promptly turns it off just as Quimby has received a few volts of electricity.  Everyone praises Ralph for coming up with the idea to ask Lisa (Lisa is at first offended that she's getting no praise but relents when Bart tells her Ralph could use a win).  Ralph's leprechaun friend then appears to make sure Ralph understands that its time for some house burnin'.

Quick Review
This was a pretty good episode, with what is just the second episode to focus on Ralph Wiggum.  Ralph, I think, is a character that can't really sustain an episode by himself especially as his character becomes more and more of a caricature of itself.  Still, his dynamic with Bart works for the most part, and the few scenes involving the bullies were well done as well.

Final Score: 9.0

Lisa's Date with Density (S08, E07-160)

Its like Lisa almost wanted Milhouse to get hurt.
Milhouse isn't helping his own cause, though.

Plot Summary
After the "H" on Superintendent Chalmer's Honda is stolen, Skinner does a search of every student's locker, ultimately finding it in Nelson Muntz's locker along with several other stolen items.  As Nelson is forced to return those items, Lisa chides Nelson for his behavior, while Nelson is further punished by being given a week's worth of janitorial work.  Later, during music class, Lisa spies Nelson pulling a prank on Willie, which she finds funny.  The laughter is misconstrued by the teacher, and Lisa is given detention.  After Nelson pops in to give Lisa tips on making detention less taxing, Lisa takes a moment to look at Nelson, realizing in momentary disgust that she's developing a crush on Nelson.

Meanwhile, Homer finds an auto-dialer tossed away by the police after a telemarketing raid.  Despite seeing the consequences of such actions first-hand, Homer takes the auto-dialer anyway and sets up a "Happy Dude" scheme, calling everyone in town in hopes of them giving Homer $1 each under the promise of "eternal happiness".  The plan starts off modestly, though at night the auto-dialer is set to redial on Flanders' number non-stop.

Lisa blurts her newfound crush to Milhouse, and has him deliver a message to Nelson: "guess who likes you".  Nelson mistakes it as a message from Milhouse, and promptly annihilates him.  Afterward, Lisa admits to Nelson that she was the one who wrote the message, and in an attempt to get him to like her has him visit her house (and later vice versa).  Nelson proves to be more difficult than Lisa anticipates, but Marge advises her to keep at it.

Lisa dresses Nelson up, and the two have a date up near the observatory.  Lisa tries to start up a conversation, but Nelson tires of it and 'shuts her up' with a kiss.  He comes to like it, though, and Lisa starts to believe her plan of changing Nelson is working.  Just then, Nelson's bully friends - Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph - appear and chide Nelson for his newfound feeling.  They found some expired cole slaw they want to sling at Skinner's house, and while Nelson does want to get back at Skinner, with Lisa around he refuses to go, much to Lisa's pleasure.

Later that night, after Lisa went home, Nelson meets up with the bullies at Skinner's house and throws cole slaw at it anyway.  The group is forced to disperse when the police arrive.  Nelson runs to the Simpson house to get help from Lisa, claiming they're after him for no reason, and she helps him flee.  The police arrive at the Simpson house, and open fire.  The target: the auto-dialer, which was annoying even Chief Wiggum.  The police then force Homer to come to court.  Elsewhere, the auto-dialer diversion allows Lisa and Nelson to escape, but Nelson blurts out that he was, in fact, causing mischief at Skinner's place.  Lisa finally realizes that she can't change Nelson, and two split up on relatively good terms.  Milhouse learns of this quickly and is overjoyed, while some time later, Homer uses the auto-dialer to send a court-mandated apology to everyone, while at the same time hoping they send $1 to "Sorry Dude".

Quick Review
While the Lisa and Nelson plot was okay on its own, Homer's auto-dialer subplot was superb, and both Skinner's and Milhouse's few appearances in the episode were worth several laughs as well.

Final Score: 9.2

Kamp Krusty (S04, E01-060)

"Yeah Bart, I am so Krunchy the Klown." *burps*

Plot Summary
It's the beginning of a new season!  For Bart, Lisa, and the other kids at Springfield Elementary, Summer is that new season, and on the last day of school the two are awaiting their final grades.  Homer has promised to send each one to Kamp Krusty if they had a "C" average.  Lisa has no problems in this, although her B+ in conduct leaves her a bit despondent.  Bart, however, gets straight D minuses, and worries he won't be able to go as a result.  He tries to forge the grades to make them look like A pluses but Lisa tells Bart he should've gone for a more plausible grade.  Homer later agrees when he sees the forgery, but lets Bart go to Kamp Krusty anyway because he didn't want the boy hanging around during the summer anyway.

Promised good times, exciting adventures and Krusty the Klown himself, the children are more than eager to start camp.  However, they learn Krusty is not there but will be there at some point.  Instead, the camp is run by a Mr. Black and three camp counselors: Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph.  The place is a shoddy, run down death trap with broken canoes, falling rocks, bears, and imitation gruel.  As the kids begin to wear down from the experience, Bart hangs in there by telling himself that Krusty will be coming.  As it is, Krusty is in England for the summer.

One day, Mr. Black tries to humor the kids by bringing in Krusty, however Bart angrily determines that it's not really him (rather, its Barney clumsily dressed up to kinda look like Krusty).  Finally reaching a breaking point, Bart leads a revolt against Black and the counselors, forcing them away.  Soon, the new camp, now called "Camp Bart", makes local headlines, and Krusty gets wind of what's occurred.  Meeting up with the kids, Krusty breaks down in tears over how run down everything is, only agreeing to the camp because of the money it brought in, and decides to make it up to the kids by taking them to Tijuana, where good times were had by all.

Quick Review
Kamp Krusty starts off Season 4 on a strong note, full of jokes and humor and little if anything brought the episode down.  The episode also solidifies Krusty as a commercial sellout, willing to put his name on anything regardless of its actual quality.  This fact gets brought up in later episodes in humorous detail, and this episode makes note of it very nicely as well.

Final Score: 9.1

The Telltale Head (S01, E08-008)

He killed a bear with his b-a-r-e hands!

Plot Summary
A lot of Simpsons continuity was established with The Telltale Head.  First off, the statue featuring the aforementioned head is that of Jebediah Springfield, the man who founded the town and supposedly killed a bear with his bare hands (or the bear killed him, reports are apparently sketchy).  It also introduces Sideshow Bob in a minor, non-speaking role, as well as Jimbo Jones and his pals Dolph and Kearney.

The episode establishes that the latter three are the "bad kids" in town, who have no problems stealing or sneaking into movies for free.  Bart attempts to join the bunch by partaking in these events, but feels bad each time.  It all comes to... ugh, a head, when its mentioned that it'd be cool if somebody decapitated the head of the Jebediah Springfield statue, that it'd anger a lot of people.  Bart, desperate to be part of the clique and given indirect approval to do so from Homer (who says that being popular is the top priority), Bart does the deed late at night.  With the town crushed in grief the next day, Bart then learns that Jimbo and pals didn't really mean what they said and that they'd pound whoever actually took the head.  Bart, desperate for a way out, tells his parents about it, and when its found out that Homer gave Bart the encouragement, the two go off to put it back.  On the way, they are found by an angry, bloodthirsty mob, who Bart is able to calm down by explaining what had happened.  Suddenly its a-okay and the head is back on and everybody is happy.  The end.

Quick Review
This episode was alright for the most part, with some good jokes throughout.  A part early on where Reverend Lovejoy and the football game audio from the radio Homer was secretly listening to sync up was among the best parts of the episode.  However, I really found the ending to be a bit awkward, like as though there was no good way for the town to get off Bart's back after he stole the head, so the story, followed by adding the head back onto the statue magically makes them happy again.  It put a bit of a damper on what was otherwise a solid episode, but there's still a lot of good to be had here.

Final Score: 7.0