Bart vs. Thanksgiving
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"Bart vs. Thanksgiving" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons' second season. The episode aired on November 22, 1990.
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[edit] Synopsis
It's Thanksgiving, and Lisa is making a centerpiece for Thanksgiving which honors women such as Georgia O'Keefe, Susan B. Anthony, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who worked her whole life to preserve the Florida Everglades. Meanwhile, Bart gets in Marge's way in the kitchen as she is trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner, while Homer watches Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and football on TV.
When the guests – Grampa, Patty, Selma, and Mother Bouvier – assemble at the table, Lisa brings in her carefully-crafted centerpiece and proudly shows it off. Bart brings in the turkey, and he complains that the centerpiece is blocking space for the turkey. Bart and Lisa get into a fight, and in the ensuing chaos, the centerpiece lands in the fireplace and quickly burns up. Lisa runs to her room in tears, and Bart's parents send him to his room as punishment.
After Marge consoles Lisa, she tells Bart he can come downstairs to dinner on the condition he apologize. Bart scoffs at the directive and is told he can stay in his room. Bart decides he doesn't have to take his mother's punishment and decides to run away. Homer throws out Santa's Little Helper when he tries to eat some of Bart's turkey, and the dog joins Bart on his adventure.
First, Bart sneaks into Burns' mansion, where he attempts to grab a freshly baked pie. However, Bart is caught. Bart and Santa's Little Helper then wander to the seedy part of town, and Bart donates his blood at a blood bank for $12.
Bart then goes to a soup kitchen, which is serving Thanksgiving dinner to homeless people. There, Kent Brockman is doing a report on the dinner, where he delivers a self-serving commentary on how the patrons – vagrants, the homeless and alcoholics – are forgotten on Thanksgiving. Later, Brockman interviews Bart, where – on live TV – he mocks his family and refuses to apologize. The family sees the report on TV, and Homer immediately calls the police (well, after he calls the operator asking, "Get me the number for 9-1-1!").
As Bart walks out of the shelter, one of the bums asks Bart if he's got a home. Bart reveals he stays with "this family" (referring to his own home), and seeing how the bums need the money more than he does, offers the money he got from his blood donation to the bums. A remorseful Bart, realizing how he has more than the bums he shared Thanksgiving with, decides to return home.
But once he arrives home, Bart considers what his folks might say to him. He imagines himself being greeted warmly and offering an apology, but then they scornfully mock him and laugh in his face as he grovels an apology. Bart decides to wait outside a little bit longer to sort out his feelings.
Meanwhile, as Homer and Marge are interviewed by the police, Lisa is upstairs, writing in her diary and conceding defeat. She begins to cry, after which Bart – who is on the roof – calls her outside. There, the two discuss what happened, and finally Bart apologizes. Lisa happily accepts.
Finally, Homer leads the family in prayer, as they thank God for "one more crack at togetherness," as they enjoy an 11 p.m. Thanksgiving of leftovers and displaying the thankful spirit that was absent from the earlier debacle.
[edit] Trivia
- First appearance of Marge's mother, Jackie Bouvier.
- It's revealed that the Dallas Cowboys are Homer's favorite team in this episode. Later in the series, in episode 3F23, "You Only Move Twice", Homer says he always wanted to own the Cowboys as his lifelong dream, but he gets the Denver Broncos from Hank Scorpio instead.
- The halftime show features the well-groomed young go-getters Hooray for Everything.
- The football game is played at the Pontiac Silverdome. Ironically, both the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions traditionally play their home games on Thanksgiving.
- A sign in the Springfield Retirement Castle says "Thank you for not discussing the outside world".
- The tube Bart walks through after running away has "El Barto" written on it.
- Mr Burns lives on the corner of Croesus and Mammon.
- After Homer says, "If they start building a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character, you'll turn the parade into a farce", notice the Bart Simpson balloon on their TV. Earlier on the day this episode first aired, a similar float appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, except it was riding a skateboard.
- Maggie actually "speaks" in this episode; She says, in a nightmarish vision Bart has when the Simpsons blame him for everything, "It's your fault I can't talk!" Her lips do not move, however, and her pacifier stays in her mouth. This was with Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa, voicing her.
- Before, in this sequence, Homer says to Bart "It's your fault I am bald" This is perhaps because that, in the later part of Simpson and Delilah, an earlier episode, Bart accidentally spills a bottle Dimoxinil, the cure for Homer's baldness.
- Uncle Sam is seen as Bart is considering what his family will say to him when he apologizes.
- This was going to be called "The Simpsons Thanksgiving Episode" but switched to "Bart vs. Thanksgiving". This is the first episode with the "<character> vs. ..." title format.
[edit] Cultural references
- Homer and Bart watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They talk about the Helium balloons modeled after Bullwinkle and Underdog.
- One of the guards at Burns' mansion is reading Les Misérables
- Kent Brockman references Emmett Kelly, the Charlie Chaplin character the Tramp and the Red Skelton character Freddy the Freeloader.
- the music bart sings when he brings the turkey to the table is the music heard in the 20th Century Fox opening.
[edit] External links
- "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" at the Internet Movie Database
