On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister
"On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' sixteenth season. The episode aired on March 6, 2005 in the US. It first aired in Australia on April 12, 2005 at 7:30pm.
Synopsis
The students of Springfield Elementary School head for a field trip to the Springfield Glacier. Unfortunately, the glacier has melted heavily, and Lisa blames the melt on global warming, as a ranger tries to shut her up. Bart torments her as Lisa desperately asks the students to save the glacier, to no success. Meanwhile, while Homer and Marge go shopping at the Sprawl-Mart, Grampa loses his people greeting abilities and wants Homer to succeed him as the people greeter. Homer does a successful job of being the new people greeter that the manager says Homer can get a full time position without any form of advancement.
The next day, Lisa gets a restraining order filed against Bart. Under the order, according to Chief Wiggum, Bart is forced to be twenty feet away from Lisa at all times, or he will face more legal consequences. Wiggum shows the family a Gary Busey-hosted videotape, "Get Out of My Dreams and Also Out of My Car: A Guide to Your Restraining Order", which teaches Bart how to live with a restraining order. To make the restraining order more fun, Homer makes a 20 foot pole that can be used to keep them apart easier, but it actually impacts Bart's life at home and school. Marge appeals in court to get the restraining order removed. Bart testifies that Lisa is bad and the judge has no sense of humor, but Judge Constance Harm only increases the restraining order to 200 feet. Bart can now only live at the edge of the Simpson family property.
When he lives at the edge of the property, Bart takes a look at nature and embraces it. At Sprawl-Mart, Homer is forced to work overtime without being paid, and he cannot leave the store, and lobby the associates at Sprawl-Mart to shut the store down, but they insist that they have learned to accept the things he cannot change and steal whatever is not nailed down, and Homer leaves the store on his own, along with several plasma TVs. Bart, still in the backyard, does a statue of Lisa using wicker. She actually likes it so much, she forgives him, and as it is being burnt, she throws the restraining order and the pole Homer made into the fire.
Trivia
- This is the first episode written by former Futurama writer Jeff Westbrook.
- Grampa was earlier seen working at Sprawl Mart in the episode The Fat and the Furriest.
- Gary Busey is the first celebrity this season to host a Troy McClure-esque video. In the very next episode, Robert Wagner would do the same.
Cultural References
- The title is taken from the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.
- The episode's couch gag spoofs the 1977 science education movie Powers of Ten, which shows the house, Springfield, the continent, the planet, the Milky Way, the universe and back to Homer's body. This gag was first used in The Ziff Who Came to Dinner.
- The song played during the Lisa/Bart montage is "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police.
Quotes
- Lisa: (After being told Global Warming is not happening) Help! I'm sinking in the lake! Park Ranger: You mean you're walking... on... the glacier.
Lisa: Whatever! - Lisa: Name one good thing Bart has done for me.
Marge: He brought your homework home for you when you were sick.
Lisa: Yes, but he thought it was a bad thing! - Bart: I think the world's my potty now.
- Grandpa: (As he's about to hit a large display of garden gnomes) Gnooooo…oomes!
- Üter (as all the students are pulling the school bus): I feel like I'm in Fitzcarraldo.
Nelson: That movie was flawed! - Wiggum: Hey, whoever you are, get off this channel. We're combing the woods for a killer.
Lou: Let him do it, Chief. It lightens the mood. (blood splatters on his cheek) Oh...my...GOD!!! That used to be a face! - Principal Skinner: (showing glacier) Behold Springfield glacier! Crane your necks to see its natural beauty! (puts down picture of glacier, uncovering the actual glacier, which is now a pile of slush with nothing but a frog sitting on top)
Lisa: What happened to the glacier? (points at glacier and gasps) This must be due to global warming!
Park Ranger: Young lady, the federal government's stance on global warming is that it doesn't exist. The glacier's doing just fine.
Lisa: No, it's a pile of slush; look at it!
Park Ranger: I have a little girl just like you at home. (sinister) And that's where she stays! At home! - Bart: Look in your heart. I beg you. Look in your heart!
Lisa: Don't worry. I'm relinquishing the pole.
Bart: That means you're sharpening it, right? - Bart: Hey, Lisa. Ready for the trip?
Lisa: I sure am!
(Bart sticks out his foot and trips Lisa; he laughs)
Bart: See ya next fall!
Lisa: Ugh, you make the same joke every time!
Bart: Whatever. (Bart trips Lisa again; he laughs.) See ya next fall! - Marge: Please lift this restraining order, judge Harm. It's poking our family apart.
Judge: Bart, do you have anything to say?
Bart: My sister has no sense of humour. I'm sure you understand. That's why you've become a judge instead of finding a husband.
Judge: I have a husband!
Bart: What is he, blind and deaf?
Judge: From now on, the restraining order is set at 200 feet (Slams hammer)
Spectators: Oooh...
Judge: That's 61 meter.
German, French and Dutch spectators: Ooh...
French spectator: Sacre bleu!
