The Telltale Head

"I wish someone would cut his ugly old head off!"

- Jimbo Jones

"The Telltale Head" was the eighth episode of season 1. It originally aired on February 25, 1990. The episode was written Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Sam Simon and Matt Groening. Rich Moore directed it. This is the first episode of the series in which Sideshow Bob, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Krusty the Clown, Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwicz, Dolph Starbeam, Ms. Albright, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, and Kent Brockman appear.

Plot
The episode begins with Homer and Bart walking on a sidewalk in downtown Springfield at nighttime. Bart has the head of a statue in his arms. As the two turn the corner, an angry mob advances on them. Homer and Bart are forced to turn and run away. The mob corners Homer and Bart in the town square next to the headless Jebediah Springfield statue. As the mob angrily advances, Bart climbs up onto the statue and begs everyone to please listen to his story. Flashback to Sunday morning: the family's getting ready for church, and Homer's preoccupied with a football game.

On the way into church, Marge confiscates Bart's personal radio with headphones and gives them to Homer. During Sunday school, the teacher and students discuss the topic of who's allowed in Heaven. All of the students ask a lot of questions and, at the end, confuse and drive the teacher crazy. Back in the church, while the sermon's about sports gambling, Homer's oblivious because he's using Bart's headphones to listen to the game. On the way home from church, Marge expresses her disapproval of Homer's headphones and Bart sees the movie theater's playing , and begs to see it; Homer doesn't care, but Marge tells him no. Later at home, Bart asks for five dollars from Homer and takes off on his skateboard. Bart skates over to the movie theater. Once there, he encounters two of the worst kids in school: Jimbo and Kearney. Bart makes a good impression on them and, when Dolph pokes his head out the emergency exit door and says the coast is clear, they invite him to sneak into Space Mutants 4 with them. Bart, a little unsure of the situation, agrees to sneak into the movie.

Inside the movie theater, the kids watch the movie, are discovered by an angry usher, and are kicked out of the theater. Back outside, the group including Bart head to the Kwik-E-Mart. While Bart unwittingly distracts Apu and orders 4 Squishees, the other kids swipe a bunch of stuff from the store. Bart meets up with them in the parking lot, realizes he was used to help steal from the store, and, in an effort to stay cool with the group, he doesn't say anything. They all wander over to the town square to throw rocks at the Jebediah Springfield statue. Once again, Bart goes along with the group so they will like him. Later, while the group shoots the breeze, one of the kids says it'll be cool if somebody cut the head off the statue. When Bart hears this, he defends the town founder, Jebediah Springfield, and the other three ridicule and tease him for it. Bart walks away embarrassed. When Bart walks home by himself, he passes by the statue again, and, thinking about what the kids said earlier, he gets an idea. Bart arrives home and talks to Homer in the kitchen about the importance of being popular. Homer tells Bart that, no matter what it takes, popularity is the most important thing in life. That night after everyone is asleep, a black clad Bart sneaks out of the house and heads to the town square. Once at the square, Bart climbs to the top of the statue with a hacksaw and beheads the statue.

The next morning Bart wakes up in bed next to the head of Jebediah (an homage to The Godfather). Bart heads downstairs to the kitchen with the head in his backpack where everyone's eating breakfast when a report comes over the radio announcing the decapitation of the town statue. Bart starts to get nervous when he sees how everyone in the family becomes angry after hearing the report. Scenes from Moe's Tavern and the Retirement Castle reveal everyone else is upset about the statue as well. In town, Bart meets up with the three kids from the day before. He's about to show them the head when he hears them say they were just kidding about decapitating the statue and will like to pound whoever stole Jebediah's head. Bart quickly picks up his backpack and hurries away toward home, passing through a growing angry crowd downtown. On the way, Bart's guilty conscience talks to him in the form of Jebediah's voice.

Back at home, Bart quickly goes to the back yard and tries to bury the head, but his guilty conscience, acting as Jebediah, talks him out of it. Cut to the living room where the rest of the family's watching TV; Bart walks in with the head and confesses, much to the shock of the family. When Bart tells Homer he stole the head to become popular, Homer realizes he's at fault as well. Homer and Bart head back into town with the head, and now the story meets back up with the beginning of the episode. As Bart finishes the story, he apologizes to the angry mob, and they have a turn of heart and forgive him. Bart places the head back on the statue, and all's well as the mob cheers.

Production
This is the first episode of the series in which Sideshow Bob, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Krusty the Clown, Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwicz, Dolphin "Dolph" Starbeam, Ms. Albright, and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon appear.

Reception
Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said they enjoyed: "the Simpsons being grossly dysfunctional in church, Homer dispensing terrible advice, and a real moral dilemma for Bart." And DVD Movie Guide said "Good little moments abounded, and this was a generally solid episode. I liked the objects the boys saw in the clouds, and quite a few other funny bits appeared. “Telltale” wasn’t a great episode, but it was generally entertaining and clever."