We're on the Road to D'ohwhere
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We're on the Road to D'ohwhere is the eleventh episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It first aired in the USA on January 29, 2006 on FOX. This episode aired 12 days before the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
[edit] Plot
While messing around in the school’s steam tunnels, Bart and Milhouse trigger a massive escape of steam that destroys the school. Although Milhouse is free to go, Principal Skinner proposes that Bart be sent off to "Upward Bound", a behavioral modification camp. Meanwhile, Moe announces that he is treating all of his frequent barflies with a trip to Las Vegas, after a failed suicide attempt led to him suing the rope company that made a faulty noose and earning a hefty settlement. Homer takes Bart to the airport to send him to the camp in northwest Oregon (flying by way of Portland). But then it is discovered that Bart is on the No Fly List. Homer decides to drive him to the camp instead, but is annoyed at having to miss the Vegas trip. During the ride, Homer angrily blames Bart for missing his Vegas trip with his barflies. While they are stopped at a roadside diner, Bart pretends to respect Homer in order to escape; his plan works and he heads off home. However, he then reluctantly rescues Homer from almost driving off of a cliff and they are soon back on the road, this time with Bart chained and duct-taped in his seat, Homer now not able to trust his son.
Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa have a yard sale. It is initially a total failure until Otto discovers that Marge is selling the family's expired prescription drugs. Although reluctant, Marge soon makes lots of money selling prescription drugs, but Chief Wiggum eventually discovers the scheme and arrests her.
Homer gets Bart to the camp (in which Bart actually comes to enjoy on some level) but, after a moral dilemma, he decides to retrieve Bart and take him along to Vegas. In Vegas, Homer reportedly gets in a fight with a pit boss, loses track of Bart, and is thrown in Nevada State Prison. The episode ends with Lisa receiving phone messages from both her parents, asking for bail money. Instead of taking immediate action, Lisa tells Maggie that she anticipated the day that they (she and Maggie) would be the only ones left to fend for themselves in the family. Lisa walks off, adding that she'll look for work in the morning.
[edit] Cultural references
- The song the band class plays is "Louie, Louie".
- The song Flanders sings is the final chorus of "Joseph's Coat" from the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
- Bart is on the US government's No Fly List.
- "Intellectual Homer", who has been killed by "Serious Homer", has written on the floor in his own blood "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". This is the famous statement of Ernst Haeckel's recapitulation theory about the similarity of the embryonic development of organisms to its evolutionary history. Ironically, it has been debunked as a scientific principle. Presumably, Intellectual Homer wrote this before it was debunked, a testament to how long he had been dead.
- When Homer drives into the house on the side of the street it says "Birthplace of Matt Groening," the show's creator. Binky, from Life in Hell, is seen on the sign.
- The episode title is a reference to «Road To Nowhere», a Talking Heads song.
- Birchibald "Birch" T. Barlow a parody of Rush Limbaugh is seen in the backround bying drugs from Marges yard sale, a reference to Limbaughs prescription drug adiction
[edit] International Airings
- In Germany, at the end of this episode a dedication to Elisabeth Volkmann (German voice of Marge Simpson) was shown as this was the last time her voice would be heard on the show due to her death.
