| "Helter Shelter"
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| Episode Information
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"Helter Shelter" is the fifth episode of Season 14. It first aired December 1, 2002. The episode was written by Brian Pollack and Mert Rich and Mark Kirkland directed. David Landers guest starred as Squiggy and Larry Holmes as himself.
Synopsis
The Simpsons attend a hockey game and Lisa brings home a souvenir hockey stick, but the stick has Russian termites, which quickly infest the whole house. When they learn that the house needs to be fumigated and will be uninhabitable for six months, the family look for other places to live and join a reality TV show where they must live like a family from 1895.
Plot
When Homer is injured at work, his compensation is the use of a luxury sky box at a Hockey Rink. The family enjoys the luxuries, but Lisa is bored and joins the masses rink side. She gives one of the players some score tying advice and is rewarded with a goal for the Ice-O-Topes and one of their players, Kozlov's, hockey "tree". The stick is mounted in Lisa's room where later that night termites break out of the stick and do much damage to the family home. Until the Russian no-wood-nick termites can be thoroughly exterminated, which would take 6 months, the Simpson family is homeless.
The family tries a number of options like staying with Lenny and Comic Book Guy, but settle upon trying out for a home on a TV show where they are required to live like its 1895. They pass the audition and start living the lifestyle. The family faced various hardships at first and were arguing with each other. However, they soon cooperate with each other and start living an ideal 19th Century life. When the "1895 Challenge" sinks in the ratings, the producers try to stir things up by adding Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley. When even that doesn't work, they relocate the house to a river and watch it float downstream. Eventually the house comes to shore and falls apart. The family finds themselves without food and shelter as the TV crew eats away. They encounter and tribe of refugees from another reality program and together they fight the TV crew and producers and return to civilization, where they can find quality scripted television. When even that fails them, they start to entertain themselves by watching Homer fail at using the hose.
