Serenity Ranch
Serenity Ranch
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Location Information
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Serenity Ranch is a maximum security fat camp located an hour's drive from Springfield. Its slogan is "When diet, exercise and surgery aren't enough." Bart went to the camp for treatment after he became hooked on junk food and as a result gained a dangerous amount of weight.
History
Tab Spangler is the counselor at Serenity Ranch. A retired Marine, Spangler runs the camp in a very military style. He constantly berates the fat camp clients, strongly reminiscent of a military drill instructor working with new recruits. Spangler rouses the clients in the morning by banging garbage cans and lids together while hollering things such as "Wake up, fatties!" and "Dream calories are real calories!" The treatment has both physical components, such as having the clients run and pull a chariot; and psychological components, such as making the clients take responsibility for their weight gain and putting them through exercises where they vocalize hating junk food and throw it in the trash.
After Bart became fat (to the point of having a heart attack) from eating the snacks from the Scammer and Z-Dog machines at Springfield Elementary School, his family and friends staged an intervention and sent him to Serenity Ranch to kick his junk food addiction. While Bart was at Serenity Ranch, the other attendees (and their reasons for being there, if specified) were:
- Kent Brockman - Confessed to gorging on kettle corn during the sports and weather segments of Channel 6 News.
- Ranier Wolfcastle - Gained weight for one of his movie roles; then needed help with losing it.
- Apu Nahasapeemapetilon - Reason not specified.
When Spangler caught Bart cheating at the ice cream exercise, he took him back to Springfield and showed him what his family was going through: In order to afford the cost of the fat camp treatment, the Simpsons had turned the family home into a youth hostel and taken in a large group of German backpackers, who constantly berated and humiliated them. Confronted with the true cost of his addiction, Bart kicked his junk food habit. He then put Spangler's teaching into practice by breaking into Springfield Elementary, smashing the junk food machines with an axe, and stealing the money from them. Bart then took the money home to his parents, and they were able to both pay for the treatment and kick the backpackers out of the house.
After this, Spangler announced that the family still had unused (and non-refundable) treatment time left, and suggested that they take advantage of it. Homer ended up going to Serenity Ranch, but the outcome of his treatment isn't known.
