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"Bart vs. Thanksgiving"

Episode Information Showrunner: [[{{{showrunner}}}]]

"Bart vs. Thanksgiving" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons' second season. The episode aired on November 22, 1990.

Synopsis

It's Thanksgiving, and Lisa is making a centerpiece for Thanksgiving which honors women such as Georgia O'Keefe, Susan B. Anthony, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who worked her whole life to preserve the Florida Everglades. Meanwhile, Bart gets in Marge's way in the kitchen as she is trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner, while Homer watches Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and football on TV.

When the guests – Grampa, Patty, Selma, and Mother Bouvier – assemble at the table, Lisa brings in her carefully-crafted centerpiece and proudly shows it off. Bart brings in the turkey, and he complains that the centerpiece is blocking space for the turkey. Bart and Lisa get into a fight, and in the ensuing chaos, the centerpiece lands in the fireplace and quickly burns up. Lisa runs to her room in tears, and Bart's parents send him to his room as punishment.

After Marge consoles Lisa, she tells Bart he can come downstairs to dinner on the condition he apologize. Bart scoffs at the directive and is told he can stay in his room. Bart decides he doesn't have to take his mother's punishment and decides to run away. Homer throws out Santa's Little Helper when he tries to eat some of Bart's turkey, and the dog joins Bart on his adventure.

First, Bart sneaks into Burns' mansion, where he attempts to grab a freshly baked pie. However, Bart is caught. Bart and Santa's Little Helper then wander to the seedy part of town, and Bart donates his blood at a blood bank for $12.

Bart then goes to a soup kitchen, which is serving Thanksgiving dinner to homeless people. There, Kent Brockman is doing a report on the dinner, where he delivers a self-serving commentary on how the patrons – vagrants, the homeless and alcoholics – are forgotten on Thanksgiving. Later, Brockman interviews Bart, where – on live TV – he mocks his family and refuses to apologize. The family sees the report on TV, and Homer immediately calls the police (well, after he calls the operator asking, "Get me the number for 9-1-1!").

As Bart walks out of the shelter, one of the bums asks Bart if he's got a home. Bart reveals he stays with "this family" (referring to his own home), and seeing how the bums need the money more than he does, offers the money he got from his blood donation to the bums. A remorseful Bart, realizing how he has more than the bums he shared Thanksgiving with, decides to return home.

But once he arrives home, Bart considers what his folks might say to him. He imagines himself being greeted warmly and offering an apology, but then they scornfully mock him and laugh in his face as he grovels an apology. Bart decides to wait outside a little bit longer to sort out his feelings.

Meanwhile, as Homer and Marge are interviewed by the police, Lisa is upstairs, writing in her diary and conceding defeat. She begins to cry, after which Bart – who is on the roof – calls her outside. There, the two discuss what happened, and finally Bart apologizes. Lisa happily accepts.

Finally, Homer leads the family in prayer, as they thank God for "one more crack at togetherness," as they enjoy an 11 p.m. Thanksgiving of leftovers and displaying the thankful spirit that was absent from the earlier debacle.

Debut Appearances

Characters making a first appearance in this episode are:

• Jacqueline Bouvier (excluding her brief appearance during Marge's childhood flashback in Moaning Lisa)

Trivia

• Also Starring Greg Berg as Rory the bum.

Cultural references

• Homer and Bart watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They talk about the Helium balloons modeled after Bullwinkle and Underdog.
• 'The Simpsons is self-referenced when Homer tells Bart that if the parade "turned every flash-in-pan cartoon character into a balloon, it will be a farce", the TV shows a giant balloon of Bart. Not coincidentally, 1990 was the year the Bart Simpson balloon was added to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.
• Mr. Burns lives on the corner of Croesus and Mammon, two symbols of wealth.
• When Bart is discovered attempting to steal a pie from the window sill, one of the guards at Burns's mansion is reading Les Misérables, in which the main character is imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread after breaking a window.
• Kent Brockman references Emmett Kelly, the Charlie Chaplin character the Tramp and the Red Skelton character Freddy the Freeloader.
• The music Bart sings when he brings the turkey to the table is the music heard in the 20th Century Fox opening.
• The poem Lisa is seen writing in her room is a direct parody of the first lines of Allen Ginsberg's most famous poem, Howl.