Bart's New Friend

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"Bart's New Friend"
The Simpsons episode
Homer, who has been hypnotized to believe that he is 10 years old, bonds with Bart through a prank call.
Episode no.Season 26
Episode 11
Directed byBob Anderson
Written byJudd Apatow
Production codeTABF05
Original air dateJanuary 11, 2015 (2015-01-11)
Guest appearance
Episode features
Couch gag
In an updated version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Homer, Marge and Bart are shown walking into their home. They find out that someone has been eating their porridge and broke their couches but they catch Lisa who is sleeping on Bart's couch. She wakes up to find the three of them surrounding her, causing a fight between them that ends with the Simpsons eating parts of Homer's body. The scene is revealed to be a story Homer told to a traumatized Maggie.
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Man Who Came to Be Dinner" 		Next →
"The Musk Who Fell to Earth"
The Simpsons (season 26)
List of episodes

"Bart's New Friend" is the eleventh episode of the twenty-sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 563rd episode of the series. The episode was directed by Bob Anderson and written by Judd Apatow. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 11, 2015. The episode focuses on Bart's new friendship with his father Homer, who has been hypnotized in order to think he is a young boy.

Plot

hypnotist Sven Golly. Golly makes Homer believe that he is 10 years old again before evading Chief Wiggum when it is revealed that Golly is a criminal. At the hospital, Dr. Hibbert
explains that the only way to bring Homer back is to contact Golly again; or else risk permanent damage to his psyche.

This forces Bart to share his room with Homer, and he is surprised when the new Homer says that when he will grow up, he will not have a job or a family. Bart makes Homer his new best friend and accomplice, to Milhouse's dismay. On the other side, Marge takes up knitting as she begins to miss her husband, despite their children having fun with him: Lisa holds a concert with him and Bart evades bullies due to Homer's protection. Wiggum finally manages to capture Golly and plans to bring him back, but he and Marge discover that Homer and Bart have left the house and run off to Itchy & Scratchy Land for one more day together.

Homer is finally caught and torn between his love for Marge and his new bond with Bart. He chooses the former and says goodbye to his best friend, advising him to be 10 years old forever. Before reversing the hypnotism, Marge asks Golly to make Homer more affectionate; as he refuses to cuddle after sex. Golly then brings Homer back to his old self, but before Marge can explain what happened, Homer assumes that the reason of his presence at Itchy & Scratchy Land was because he was drunk and asks for forgiveness, which Marge gives. Later that night, Homer visits Bart in his room and confides to Bart that he had a special friend as a kid but cannot remember who it is. He also decides not to strangle him again and rather wants to begin a new step with him. Later, after having sex, Homer impulsively offers to cuddle Marge, who then becomes thankful for Golly's help.

Later, in a specially made cell, Golly manages to hypnotize Wiggum into thinking he is the actual prisoner, and leaves Wiggum locked in the cell before being visited by Loki.

Production

Judd Apatow wrote the episode, basing it on a spec script he had written in 1990

"Bart's New Friend" was written by

TVGuide, Apatow explained that "I also wrote a spec script for the great Chris Elliott show Get a Life. They at least brought me in for a meeting, but that didn't lead to any work, either. Then, all these years later, Al Jean calls and says, 'Hey, we'll make it now!'"[1]

Cultural references

The episode has a scene in remembrance of the victims of

Je Suis Charlie.[2] During the theatre scene, silhouettes of Crow and Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000
are seen in the bottom right of the screen.

Reception

The episode received an audience of 4.28 million, making it the most watched show on Fox that night. It was the third most watched show in its timeslot, led by coverage of the Golden Globe Awards on NBC.[3]

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, saying "I reject the idea that The Simpsons is out of stories, because there is no end to the stories to be spun out of the relationships and conflicts of the family unit."[4]

Writing for IGN, Jesse Schedeen concluded that while it was a "perfectly decent new chapter of the show", the episode felt typical of the current season instead of resembling the older episodes Apatow had been watching when he first wrote it. He gave it a score of 6.8 out of 10.[5]

Dan Castellaneta's role in the episode as Homer was nominated for the Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, one of three Simpsons actors to be nominated.[6]

References

  1. TVGuide. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original
    on March 10, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  2. ^ Hooton, Christopher (January 13, 2015). "The Simpsons threw in a last minute Je Suis Charlie tribute on Sunday night". The Independent. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  3. ^ Kondolojy, Amanda (January 13, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'The Good Wife' Adjusted Up + Final Rating for 'The Golden Globes' and NFL". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 14, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  4. ^ Perkins, Dennis (January 11, 2015). "Review: The Simpsons: "Bart's New Friend"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  5. ^ Schedeen, Jesse (January 11, 2015). "The Simpsons: "Bart's New Friend" Review - IGN". IGN. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  6. ^ Montgomery, Daniel (August 25, 2015). "Voice-Over Emmy: Tress MacNeille ('The Simpsons') vs. four past champs". Gold Derby. Retrieved September 7, 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bart%27s_New_Friend&oldid=1216736797"