Bart on the Road

"Bart on the Road"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	148
Directed by	Swinton O. Scott III
Written by	Richard Appel
Showrunner(s)	Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein
Production code	3F17
Original air date	March 31, 1996
Couch gag	The Simpsons are set onto the couch like bowling pins.
Guest actors	Jim Lau as Hong Kong Doctor
Commentary	Matt Groening Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Richard Appel David Silverman
Season 7 episodes September 17, 1995 – May 19, 1996 "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)" "Radioactive Man" "Home Sweet Homediddly- Dum-Doodily" "Bart Sells His Soul" "Lisa the Vegetarian" "Treehouse of Horror VI" "King-Size Homer" "Mother Simpson" "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" "Marge Be Not Proud" "Team Homer" "Two Bad Neighbors" "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" "Bart the Fink" "Lisa the Iconoclast" "Homer the Smithers" "The Day the Violence Died" "A Fish Called Selma" "Bart on the Road" "22 Short Films About Springfield" "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'" "Much Apu About Nothing" "Homerpalooza" "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" List of The Simpsons episodes
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"Bart on the Road" is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 1996. In the episode, Bart makes his own fake driver's license. He rents a car with it and takes Milhouse, Martin, and Nelson on a road trip to Knoxville, Tennessee. In Knoxville, however, the car gets destroyed, and they are stranded without any money or transportation. To get Bart home, Homer orders equipment for the power plant and ships it via courier from Knoxville, with the boys stowed away inside the crate.

The episode was written by Richard Appel, and directed by Swinton O. Scott III. The idea of a road trip was "so exciting" that the writers immediately knew they wanted to write it. This features cultural references to the 1991 film Naked Lunch, American singer Andy Williams, and Look magazine. Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from television critics, and Central Michigan Life named it the eighth best episode of the show. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 7.2, and was the fifth highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

Plot

Principal Skinner closes school the day before spring break and sends the children on a "go to work with your parents day" in order to take a trip to Hong Kong because he cannot afford the $7,000 needed to fix the mistakes in his original airfare (amongst other things, he was assigned a window instead of a center seat, and he specifically said he did NOT want a Kosher meal). Bart is forced to go to the DMV with his aunts Patty and Selma after Marge discovers that the project doesn't allow Bart to stay home with her, ruining his original plan, and Lisa decides to go to the nuclear power plant with Homer, where she makes his workday fun and enjoyable through creative use of the hazmat suits. At the DMV, Bart makes himself a fake driver's license, which he, Nelson and Milhouse intends to use to indulge in adult activities. It goes poorly however, as they are disappointed by a showing of Naked Lunch, decide against drinking a beer at Moe's after seeing the state of the drunken patrons, and are unimpressed by Milhouse's suggestion of renting a carper cleaner. However, spring break is saved when Martin appears, having earned $600 during his day with his father at the stock market (he originally earned over a million, but lost all but 600 when the stock plummeted), and the boys decide to use the license and the money to rent a car. The boys tell their parents they are going to attend the "National Grammar Rodeo" in Canada, but secretly take the rented car for a road trip to Knoxville, Tennessee after finding a brochure for the 1982 World's Fair. During the car ride, chaos ensues as they stop to see Nelson's favorite singer Andy Williams in Branson, and Nelson later manages to provoke an agitated father of a Canadian family traveling to Cape Canaveral to turn around and head back to Winnipeg. They also stop to pick up a drifter who looks disturbingly similar to The Hitchhiker from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and takes him for ice cream.

In Knoxville, however, they find out that the fair was held fourteen years earlier, and that its featured attraction, the Sunsphere, is now being used as a warehouse for a wig shop, now called the Wigsphere. The boys' car soon gets destroyed by the Sunsphere being toppled by a rock Nelson threw, and they are stranded without any transportation. On top of that, Martin spend their last $10 on an Al Gore action figure. After several failed attempts at earning money or finding alternative transportation, they sign up as couriers and then go to Hong Kong. Bart places a collect call to Lisa, who has spent the entire spring break with Homer at work, to ask her for advice. Lisa obtains Homer's promise that he will not get upset and she reveals Bart's predicament, causing Homer to scream in his safety helmet and very reluctantly agree with Lisa that he cannot combine a rescue of Bart and murdering his lying son when he gets back to Springfield. To get Bart home, Homer contacts the Oak Ridge nuclear facility and orders a new command module for the power plant, after spilling soda over the current one, which ships via courier from Knoxville, with Milhouse, Nelson, and Martin stowed away inside the crate and Bart as the courier. Bart makes up a bogus story about how he found the nonexistent Grammar Rodeo to be "too commercial" as Homer and Lisa look at him with undisguised contempt and anger, while Marge looks at him with oblivious happiness to have her son back at home.

The ending credits begin with an unsuspecting Marge getting phone calls from Principal Skinner (who spotted Bart in Hong Kong), the Tennessee State Police (who inquire about the crushed rental car), and the courier office (which has an assignment for Bart to deliver a human kidney to Amsterdam). Homer snickers at these calls, which leaves Marge baffled and annoyed.

Production

The writers decided that the characters would go to a "funny unlikely place", the Sunsphere in Knoxville, Tennessee

The episode was written by Richard Appel, who wanted to do an episode that had two things; a "go to work with your parents day" and Bart getting a driver's license. The "go to work with your parents day" idea appealed to Appel because it was something he "lost the right" to do when he went from public school to private school as a child. Appel considered those days to be his favorites because he "didn't have to do anything" at his parents' job. The idea of having a driver's license was something that Appel dreamed about when he was younger.

The writing staff had never done a spring break episode before so they thought, "What would Lisa and Bart do on spring break?" and came up with the road trip plot. Bill Oakley, the show runner of The Simpsons at the time, said that road trips were something that the writers liked to write stories about. The idea of four children going on a road trip was "so exciting" that they immediately knew they wanted to write it. There was a debate over where the children would go, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was first suggested, but the writers eventually decided to have them go to a "funny unlikely place". Oakley's show runner partner, Josh Weinstein, said that the writers were always looking for combinations of characters that had not been done many times on the show. Homer and Lisa had not been done "too often" and they wanted the two characters to bond and get closer to each other.

The episode was directed by Swinton O. Scott III. It was difficult to animate because the animators had to draw completely new designs for the locations outside of Springfield, such as Knoxville. The car scenes were also difficult to animate. At the time, The Simpsons was using traditional animation without computers, but they had to get one for a scene where the camera spins around the car from above. The car was difficult to animate because it had to "look real" and not "boxy like a truck". The car was based on a 1993 Oldsmobile car with rounded edges. The Simpsons animator David Silverman said that the episode was "probably the most difficult one" Scott had to direct on the show.

Cultural references

When Lisa and Homer are playing with the radiation suits, Lisa says "Houston, we have a problem- Homer 13 is spinning out of control!" This is a reference to the Apollo 13 incident, where an onboard oxygen tank exploded, causing the spacecraft to temporarily lose control.

Bart and his friends use Bart's fake license to see the R-rated 1991 film Naked Lunch, an adaptation of William Burroughs's novel dealing with heroin addiction, homosexuality, and hallucinogens.

The boys also go see an Andy Williams concert in Branson, Missouri, and the marquee advertising it outside says "Wow, he's still got it – Look magazine".

On the road, the boys pick up a hitchhiker who is based on the hitchhiker in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror film series.

Principal Skinner books a vacation with AmeriWestica, a parody of America West Airlines.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Bart on the Road" finished 63rd in the ratings for the week of March 25 to March 31, 1996, with a Nielsen rating of 7.2. The episode was the fifth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files, Cops, Party of Five, Martin and Melrose Place.

Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said that it "contains some superb touching character scenes between Homer and Lisa, a fascinating glimpse of Marge's insecurities, and some nice touches that take it above the show's very high average." Dave Foster of DVD Times said that "Bart on the Road" is an episode which is built upon a "frankly ludicrous" idea which if the writers were to "stumble upon" now, "we'd simply see Bart happen upon a license and skip town without anyone noticing, but here they do give the setup a great deal of consideration both on and off the screen." He thought the story was "partly believable, though the opportunity when Bart hits the road is largely wasted with only a few well constructed jokes to speak of." Foster thinks "what saves the episode is the opportunity to see Lisa and Homer connect, once again displaying what a strong season this is for Lisa as we see the two share some wonderfully tender moments, alongside some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode and said that he "loves" the children's experiences at their parents' jobs, "and when they head out of town, the fun continues. Any episode that sends the kids to the site of the World's Fair is OK by me." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best part of the episode to be when Patty and Selma explain their job at the DMV: "Somedays we don't let the line move at all. We call those weekdays." The website concluded its review by giving the episode a grade of B+. John Thorpe of Central Michigan Life named it the eighth best episode of the show. Robert Canning of IGN in a Flashback Review gave the episode a 9.5 saying it was "Outstanding" and also stated ""Bart on the Road" is a fun trip and very funny, but it's the way everything comes together that really makes it memorable".

External links

• "Bart on the Road" at The Simpsons.com
• "Bart on the Road" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Bart on the Road" at TV.com
• "Bart on the Road" at IMDb