Lisa with an 'S'

Lisa with an 'S' is the seventh episode of the twenty-seventh season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 581st episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on November 22, 2015. This marks the final episode to credit Sam Simon as executive producer.

Plot

Homer, Moe, Lenny, Carl and Barney start the episode by singing a parody of Tonight as they prepare for the poker night at Moe's bar. On his way out, Homer promises Lisa that if he wins, he will pay for her to attend an elite band camp she's been accepted to, a camp that is the best one on their side of the Mississippi River (which side they're talking about is left unspecified). But Homer fails on a full house and ends up losing $5,000 to Broadway legend Laney Fontaine, who is now dating Moe because he has a liquor license. Trying to convince Laney to give his money back, he invites her to dinner only to show her how miserable they are. Lisa asks her to sing a song while she plays the saxophone. That's when Laney realizes that Lisa has a lot of talent and could become a famous show biz kid. She asks Marge to take Lisa for a month to perform on her shows.

Marge angrily refuses, but Lisa convinces her to let her go, with a little help from Grandpa saying this might be the only opportunity to live her dreams. Laney takes Lisa to New York where they met Lisa's former ballet teacher Chazz Busby. She easily passes the audition and gets cast in one of the Broadway shows. Later, during a Skype conversation, Marge determines that Lisa is not in a good place and decides to take the family to New York to get her back. On their way to the Big Apple, the family encounters Ned Flanders' Amish cousin Jacob in Pennsylvania and learn that Ned is now considered "ultra liberal" and a black sheep because he lives in the modern world. In New York City, the Simpsons and even Marge realize that Lisa fits right into the Broadway show world and they decide to go back to Springfield without her. Laney sees Marge's sacrifice and immediately kicks Lisa out of the show on the grounds that Lisa got more cheers than her, leaving Lisa free to return home with the Simpsons.

The episode ends with Homer taking Ned's cousin to 744 Evergreen Terrace where Jacob makes Ned realize that he's guilty of pride. Both cousins reconcile by hugging Homer, much to his annoyance.

Reception

"Lisa with an 'S'" scored a 2.3 rating and was watched by 5.64 million viewers, making the episode Fox's highest rated show of the night.^[1]

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C+ saying, "Could this heap of half-realized plots coalesce into a satisfying episode of The Simpsons? Sure—if any of them were funny on its own, or if they all somehow tied together in the end. Instead, “Lisa With An ‘S’” just sort of exists, the final description of a lot of latter-day episodes (although there have also been a couple of genuinely great episodes this season). It wasn’t abysmal or infuriating—at least that would leave something to talk about. This episode was just...there."^[2]

References