Wild Barts Can't Be Broken
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"Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"
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Episode Information
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"Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" is the eleventh episode of season 10. It originally aired on January 17, 1999. The episode was written by Larry Doyle and directed by Mark Ervin. Cyndi Lauper guest stars as herself.
Contents
Synopsis
- "Homer and his drunken cohorts celebrate an improbable victory by the Springfield Isotopes by trashing the local elementary school. But when the police force fails to locate the actual vandals, the town's children are hastily blamed for the rowdiness and punished with a new sunset curfew."
Plot
At the Springfield War Memorial Stadium, Cyndi Lauper's singing "The Star-Spangled Banner". After she finishes, everyone starts to leave the stadium only to be reminded there's a baseball game about to start. The Springfield Isotopes enter the field and start to play the game. Homer quickly gets fed up of their playing badly and leaves the stadium early, getting the car ready for the rest of the family. The rest of the family comes out and gets in the car, and Marge tells Homer the Isotopes lost the game. At Moe's Tavern, the Isotopes are playing another game and were winning. Upon hearing this, Homer quickly changes into an outfit, gets a giant foam finger, and starts to cheer for them, being seen by Kent Brockman and thought to be a super fan.
After the Isotopes win their game, Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney all get drunk to celebrate. Homer drives them around town where they see the baseball field at Springfield Elementary School and drive around it. They drive through the school and trash it, eventually getting together in the locker room showers and singing naked. The next day, Homer wakes up with a massive hangover, not being able to remember what he did the previous night. On the news, the school's revealed to be trashed. With no suspects, Chief Wiggum blames kids for it and orders a curfew for all kids to be home before sundown, annoying Bart and Lisa. Later that day, the kids are out playing when an ice cream truck comes by. Before they can go to it, though, Chief Wiggum sends all of the kids home. The kids all go home where they become bored.
The next day, the kids are in the playground at school discussing the curfew and how they all hate it. That same day, a large billboard of Chief Wiggum's installed in town telling kids they're being watched. At home that night, Bart and Lisa are bored again and watching primetime TV. Then an advert for The Bloodening comes on, interesting both of them. Bart and Milhouse spread the word to all kids they're gonna watch the film at the Springfield Drive-In theater, breaking curfew to do so.
That night, all of the kids sneak out of their houses to see the film. After watching it, Chief Wiggum catches them all and makes them all do community service, cleaning the billboard. Annoyed at this, the kids decide to come up with a plan where they reveal the adults' secrets like the kids in The Bloodening did. They set up a radio station behind the billboard and started to broadcast the secrets. The next day, a town meeting's called to discuss this. During the meeting, another broadcast is held. Chief Wiggum and Professor Frink work to track down the broadcast, finding it behind the billboard. There's a standoff between the adults and kids, resulting in an argument via song. During this, the senior citizens come along and are annoyed at all of the noise keeping them awake. A vote for a curfew of everyone under 70 is held, and it passes by one vote because all of the seniors voted, and Homer didn't. The senior citizens take the night for themselves, playing in the street.
Production
Mike Scully wanted to do an episode where the kids of Springfield had a curfew. He came up with the idea for an episode where the kids and adults face off with the kids being blamed for something the adults have done.[1] The baseball announcer Dennis Conroy is named after writer Larry Doyle's uncle. Dan Castellaneta ad-libbed Homer singing the line "Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini..."[2] This was only added to the episode in order to fill time.[1]
Reception
As of April 2018, the episode has a 7.8 rating on IMDb[3] and a 9.0 rating on TV.com.[4]
References
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Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken". |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Scully, Mike (2007). Commentary for "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ Doyle, Larry (2007). Commentary for "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season.
- ↑ IMDb - "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"
- ↑ TV.com - "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"
