Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, Grampa (who’s sleeping), Santa’s Little Helper, and Snowball II are in a nine-square grid as seen in the opening credits of The Brady Bunch. Everyone (except for Grampa, who is still sleeping) runs to the couch, which is located in the center square.

Guest star(s)

Joan Kenley as the telephone lady

DVD
commentary

Matt Groening
Bill Oakley
Josh Weinstein
Jon Vitti
Susie Dietter

Season 7
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 all The Simpsons episodes

Seasons
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"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" is the third episode of The Simpsons' seventh season, which originally aired October 1, 1995. It was the first episode where Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein served as show-runners

1 Plot
2 Censorship
3 Cultural references
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Homer gives Marge a surprise trip to a relaxation center, leaving the children under the ineffective care of Grampa. Meanwhile, Bart has gotten lice from Milhouse's new pet monkey, forcing him to have his clothes burned in the school furnace. Lisa has had her prescription shoes stolen by her former friends, who say she has cooties. After Lisa denies this, the school intercom announces for Lisa Simpson to report to the nurses office for head lice inspection. The children go home wearing potato sacks, finding that their parents are not home, and the child welfare agency, prompted by Principal Skinner, has taken offense at the poor conditions of the house. Most of the work needing to be done has simply been postponed, but the agency misinterprets such signals as a stack of 20-year-old newspapers obtained for Lisa's history project. Homer and Marge arrive as the two snobbish welfare agents take Bart, Lisa and Maggie, convinced Marge and Homer are bad parents.

The Simpson kids are taken to a foster home - right next door, at the house of Ned Flanders. The kids have to get used to Flanders' style nachos (cucumbers with cottage cheese), bedtime at seven-o-clock with the sunlight still out, and hours of Bible bombardment. Bart and Lisa hate it, but Maggie enjoys being there (just because she is a baby). When Ned finds out that none of the Simpsons were baptized, he faints and takes it upon himself to give the kids an emergency baptism.

Meanwhile, there's no way for Homer and Marge to talk to their children, even by phone. They are forced to attend parenting classes, where they learn home care, such as putting garbage into garbage cans and leaving milk either in a refrigerator or a cool, wet sack. Marge is genuinely humiliated, while Homer seems to have learned a lot. After some blood tests, they are declared decent parents. When they go to pick up the kids, they see only a note at the Flanders' saying "Gone Baptizin'". They quickly head for the Springfield River. Homer gets there ahead of the others, just as Flanders is about to pour holy water on Bart's head. (Baptism as practiced by Protestant and Evangelical congregations tend not to involve the use of holy water at all.) Homer dives at Bart, shoving Bart over and the holy water splashes on Homer's head, baptizing him and apparently burning him. Homer has a moment of grace after his baptism but quickly reverts back to his old self and angrily reclaims his kids from Flanders. Nevertheless, Maggie would rather stay with the Flanders than with her real family until Marge shows up. The Simpson family is back together again, and they head home together, mocking the old paint cans in Ned's garage.

[edit] Censorship

On the flashback of how Bart first got lice (where he's playing with Milhouse's pet monkey), Milhouse originally said the monkey was found in a wicker basket at Pier 1. Because of complaints from Pier 1 over the insinuation that they have monkeys in wicker baskets, a later rebroadcast of the episode redubbed "Pier 1" with "Trader Pete's". The UK airing kept in the Pier 1 reference since Pier 1 isn't known in the UK. American syndicated versions and the season seven DVD version have the Pier 1 reference intact as well (though the subtitles do have the "Trader Pete" reference instead of Pier 1).

[edit] Cultural references

While the Flanders were driving to the Springfield river with the Simpsons' children, Maggie, who was sitting at the front row, spun her head around to look at Bart and Lisa. This is a parody of the infamous head-spinning scene from The Exorcist.
Milhouse being sick after playing with a capuchin monkey is a reference to the 1995 film Outbreak.

Lisa mentions that the Flanders' house is similar to the Simpsons' except for a Pat Boone-ish quality.
The Flanders sing their own version of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" to Maggie before she goes to bed. Their version includes lyrics about Marge and Homer's alleged negligence issues.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Because Bart is gone, in the middle of the episode, instead of choking Bart, Homer strangles a plant instead when he is angry.
While the Flanders' are playing Bombardment of Bible Questions, Maggie and Maude both have stars on their faces, but in all the following shots in the scene, their stars disappear.
The Child Welfare van runs over a tricycle on its way to the Simpsons' house.
There is an equestrian statue outside of the courthouse with the name Swartzwelder on it. John Swartzwelder is the reclusive writer of many episodes of The Simpsons.
This episode's opening scene parodies a deleted scene from the episode "Some Enchanted Evening", as Marge makes breakfast almost exactly the same way as she does in that scene.