The Old Man and the "C" Student
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- "I'm just trying to liven things up around here. These people need to ride motorcycles and play rockin' electric guitars like the old people on TV."
- ―Bart
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"The Old Man and the "C" Student"
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Episode Information
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"The Old Man and the "C" Student" is the twentieth episode of season 10 of The Simpsons and the two-hundred and twenty-third episode overall. It originally aired on April 25, 1999. The episode was written by Julie Thacker and directed by Mark Kirkland. It guest stars Jack LaLanne as himself and NRBQ as the "Can't Buy Me Love" performers.
Contents
Synopsis
- "After causing his fellow townspeople to lose the Olympic Games, Bart is forced to slave away his time helping the elderly residents of the local retirement home."
Plot
For a class assignment, everyone in Lisa's class wrote to the Backstreet Boys, whilst Lisa wrote to the International Olympic Committee to ask if the Olympic Torch could come through Springfield. After reading this letter, the chairman of the Olympic Committee decided to give Springfield the Olympic Games. When this was announced, Channel 6 sponsored a contest to find the Olympic mascot for the Springfield Olympics, which Homer entered with his mascot Springy. The town then got ready for the Olympics to arrive, cleaning up and changing the more seedy parts of the town. Eventually, the Olympic Committee arrived to inspect the town. Mayor Quimby then revealed that Homer's mascot had won and become the official mascot of the Springfield Olympics, beating out Patty and Selma's entree, Ciggy. The children of Springfield Elementary then put on a show, singing "Children Are Our Future", before Bart performs a comedy act, insulting all the committee members. Disgusted at this, the committee leaves Springfield, taking the Olympics away from them.
As punishment for the children making this act, everyone is given twenty hours community service. Bart is assigned to the Springfield Retirement Castle to look after the residents there, to his disgust. Bart was surprised at how boring the residents' lives seemed to be, doing the same things every day with very little freedom, so he kept trying to add some excitement into their lives, which just made things worse for them. Meanwhile, Homer received a shipment of springs which he ordered before Springfield lost the Olympics, so he decided to try and sell them off to other people, with a lot of failure.
At the Retirement Castle, the residents are going through "imagination time", with Lisa getting them to imagine being on a boat. After Lisa leaves the room, Bart convinces the residents to leave with him to go out and have fun. They all leave and end up going on a boat cruise together. Meanwhile, at the Simpson house, Marge gets sick of Homer's springs and tells him to get rid of them, so Homer starts to flush them down the toilet. Back on the boat cruise, Bart realizes that the old people enjoy their lives at the Retirement Castle. At that moment, Mr. Burns' yacht crashes through the boat, causing it to start sinking. Jack LaLanne then appears from the crowd, grabs a rope and starts to swim towards shore with the boat, before the front breaks off. As the boat sinks and everyone waits for their deaths, it bounces up again on the pile of springs that Homer flushed into the sea. The residents are then saved by a helicopter as Bart tells Grampa that he might come back to the Retirement Castle after school, even though he's finished his community service.
Production
The Olympic logo in the episode is different to the actual logo, with the rings not being interlocking and the colors being different. This was done for legal reasons.[1] The idea for the episode came around because the eldest daughter of Julie Thacker, who wrote the episode, and Mike Scully had to do community service to advance to the next grade at school. So Thacker signed up her daughter to the old folks' home in town.[2] George Meyer came up with the dance routine for "Children Are Our Future" and received a choreographer credit for it.[3] George Meyer came up with the idea for the Fireworks, Candy & Puppies store.[2]
This episode features the first of Lenny's many eye injuries[1] which was written in by Julie Thacker.[2] The proposition 217 joke was written due to 2/17 being the day Julie Thacker and Mike Scully met. The Bingo reward of a banana was also from the old folks' home Julie Thacker visited, where they gave out half bananas as prizes.[2] Jack LaLanne's lines were recorded separately from the other voice actors.[4]
Reception
As of December 2019, the episode has a 7.3 rating on IMDb[5] and a 8.2 rating on TV.com.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Scully, Mike (2007). Commentary for "The Old Man and the "C" Student", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Thacker, Julie (2007). Commentary for "The Old Man and the "C" Student", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ Meyer, George (2007). Commentary for "The Old Man and the "C" Student", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ Cartwright, Nancy (2007). Commentary for "The Old Man and the "C" Student", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ IMDb - "The Old Man and the "C" Student"
- ↑ TV.com - "The Old Man and the "C" Student"
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