Springfield Splendor

"Springfield Splendor" is the 2nd episode of season 29. The episode aired on October 8, 2017.

The episode was dedicated in memory of singer Tom Petty, who died on October 2, aged 66.

Plot
After having a nightmare about lockers at school, Lisa runs to Homer and Marge's bed. Lisa has had the nightmare four nights in a row and due to Homer having used all their insurance-covered counseling sessions, they take her to the Springfield Community College, where the students practice on people for a fraction of the cost.

Homer takes Bart to get groomed like a dog, while talks to Lisa, and she suggests art therapy, to draw a typical day for her in comic book form. Back home, Lisa is frustrated at her bad drawings, so Marge draws for her whilst Lisa tells her what to draw.

Lisa takes the drawings to the college, but loses them on the steps outside. Kumiko finds them and sells them at the The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop as a graphic novel, called Sad Girl. Lisa and Marge complain to Comic Book Guy and Kumiko, but when they see that people are buying the books, Lisa is happy and stops Kumiko from burning them.

Marge and Lisa get commissioned by Kumiko to do a sequel and they bond over working on the comic. When Bart and Homer see this, they agree to bond too and they go fishing, however they steal the fishing poles from another father and son and are beaten up for it.

At the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con, a panel is held by, with and. Marge and Lisa are also there to talk about Sad Girl. At the panel, Marge realizes that her work is underappreciated whilst Lisa gets all the fame. At home, Lisa and Marge argue with each other and decide to end their partmership. Upstairs they meet Guthrie Frenel, a theatrical director, and he offers to make a Broadway show based on Sad Girl.

However, the musical by Guthrie focuses on Marge's art, with the story taking a back seat. Lisa is upset and goes back to her therapist, who has become angry and stressed due to her newborn child. When the play is on, Marge sees how sad Lisa is and draws her face on a spotlight and shines it on the stage, enraging Guthrie. Guthrie spins the light into the control room, blinding the operator, which causes a chain reaction that ruins the show and forces people to evacuate.

At Springfield Sardi's, Guthrie reads a review of the musical to find it's considered a disaster, while Bart is drawing mustaches on pictures of celebrities on the wall. Afterwards Marge presents Maggie her comic The Adventures of Sad Girl's Mom, with everyone dancing at the end, but Maggie is disappointed of it, while Marge still thinks its good.

Production
The episode was scheduled to be the season 29 premiere. However, "The Serfsons" took its place and the episode will air the week after. On October 12, Matt Selman tweeted a video of a cut opening scene from the episode. The scene sees a dream in Homer's head where he's on a show called "Dream Date". He has three women to choose from; the friendly stewardess who winked at him 23 years ago, She-Hulk or the sexy ketchup bottle from the commercial he likes. Homer chooses the ketchup bottle, but then She-Hulk smashes her apart. Homer and She-Hulk then go out on a date, using the broken bottle of ketchup to dip food in.