The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly

The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly is the seventeenth episode of season 20. It originally aired on April 19, 2009. It guest stars Anne Hathaway.

Plot
When Bart and Milhouse pull off a prank at Springfield Elementary, they unscrew everything in the building and watch as almost everything falls apart. Milhouse takes the fall by Principal Skinner when he bumps into him and gets suspended from school. Homer forces Bart to sign in under Homer’s name and visit Grampa at his retirement home. Bart stays boring, until he sees a delightful 11-year-old volunteer named Jenny. He becomes smitten with her and, hoping to impress Jenny, Bart offers to volunteer at the home and fake being a good kid.

Meanwhile, Lisa does a report on what Springfield will look like in 50 years and becomes very depressed at the dreary outlook: people drinking soap after water runs out, the last drop of oil leading to a world war, the last available parking space filled forever and the last polar bear alive being hanged in prison. A concerned Marge takes Lisa to a psychiatrist who diagnoses Lisa with Environment-Related Despair and puts her on an antidepressant, named Ignorital, to cure her eco-blues. However, the drugs make Lisa see almost everything as a smiley face, including homeless people, drunken people on the street and Chief Wiggum being shot.

At school, Bart tells Nelson he wants to ask Jenny for a date. Nelson gives Bart some chewing gum to help him doing so. Bart and Jenny go to the park for a picnic, where he tells here he helps a man with mental problems to impress her, who turns out to be Homer. They get on a boat and see Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney kicking a duck. Bart jumps to the lake and swims to the bullies in order to save the duck. Jenny is impressed with how Bart saved the duck. He ultimately invites her for a dinner at his home. Everything goes well until Milhouse appears to ask Bart why he didn't visit him, and soon discovers Bart is in love. Looking for revenge, Milhouse follows Bart and Jenny everywhere to make Bart confess he is faking. At the Springfield Squidport, Milhouse shows Jenny a dolphin who is scared of Bart because he once made it swim in Seven Up. Bart can't stand it anymore and confesses to Jenny he was lying. She eventually breaks up with him, which makes Bart very sad. Meanwhile, Marge sees Lisa trying to kiss a fan (which looks like a smiley face for her), so she throws away Lisa's medicine (though Santa's Little Helper eats it).

At the Kwik-E-Mart, Lisa tells Bart that she realized you can't hide your problems and must face them head on. Bart agrees, and buys flowers to apologize (However, those flowers were for Lenny to put on his grandma's grave, so Apu suggests to put a cardboard cutout of Duffman on it instead). He apologizes to Milhouse. As a make-up prank, they ice the floors in Springfield Elementary, creating a massive ice rink.

Production
It was revealed on September 2008 that Anne Hathaway would guest star as Bart's girlfriend on an episode, which was later revealed to be this. Hathaway said that she grew up watching The Simpsons with her brothers, and said that "it stuck with me...high school, college, post, everything. I always stop whenever it's on." She said that she "flipped out" when she was offered a guest role and that it "might be the most [...] exciting thing" that has ever happened to her. Despite this, she had another guest role in another episode.

Reception
In its original broadcast, "The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly" was watched by 6.50 million households, received a 3.0 rating in the 18–49 demographic and was the second most-watched series in FOX's Animation Domination block, after Family Guy.

The episode received mixed reviews from critics due to its similarity to other episodes in which Bart falls in love.

The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly