| "Mad About the Toy"
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| Episode Information
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"Mad About the Toy" is eleventh episode of season 30 of The Simpsons and the six-hundred and fiftieth episode overall. It originally aired on January 6, 2019. The episode was written by Michael Price and directed by Rob Oliver. It guest stars Bryan Batt as Philip Hefflin, Lawrence O'Donnell as himself and Bill de Blasio as himself.
Synopsis[edit]
- "When Marge and Homer leave Grampa to babysit the kids, some little green army men trigger a PTSD episode, sending the family on a journey to Grampa's past to when he was a post-war toy model."
Homer and Marge get ready to go out on an anniversary date, however they don't have a babysitter as they are blacklisted. Homer tries to leave the kids with the Amazon Alexa and Google Home but Marge doesn't like this so they get Grampa to babysit instead. They need to get Grampa back to the Retirement Castle in an hour so they rush through their date. Meanwhile, the kids are bored at home, watching The Geezer Channel, which Grampa likes. Bart turns the TV off then swallows the batteries and the kids suggest they play a game instead. Digging through a box of toys in the basement, they find a box of old army men which causes Grampa to start screaming.
Assuming that Grampa's reaction is PTSD from World War II, the family takes him to the V.A. Hospital. The psychiatrist decides that there's nothing war-related wrong with Grampa due to him not reacting to war photographs. Bart then gets out the army men which sets Grampa off again. Lisa examines the army men and realizes that they are modeled on Grampa. Grampa then remembers how it happened and told the story about it. A couple of years after World War II, Grampa was left with nothing to do. A toy company, Whiz-Bang Toy Company, found him in his uniform and offered him a job modeling for toy army men. In return, he would get royalties for every one sold. Grampa accepts this and starts the job. However, he couldn't remember what happened after this. In the present day, upon realizing that Grampa's condition wasn't war-related, the psychiatrist was about to start charging them, before the family left the building in a hurry.
Annoyed at the fact he didn't get his money, Grampa went onto Channel 6 News before he was taken away to The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell. After arguing with Lawrence O'Donnell, he gets cut off. Shortly after this, the family gets a call from the toy company and they get an all-expenses paid trip to the company in New York City. The family explores the city for a bit before going to the company to confront them about what happened. Don, the CEO of the company, told Grampa that he never signed the contract due to the fact he ran out of the photoshoot unexpectedly. They never even knew his name until that week when he started appearing on the news. Grampa then remembers what happened and tells the story.
During the photoshoot, everything was going well. Grampa was getting friendly with the photographer, Philip Hefflin. Philip mistook Grampa's friendliness as flirting and kisses him, causing Grampa to freak out. They tried to continue the shoot but Grampa ended up running out. After Grampa recalls the story, Don tells the family that Philip was fired for being gay. On the plane journey home, the family decides to go visit Philip in Marfa, Texas, where he now lives, so Grampa can apologize to him.
Upon arrival in Marfa, Grampa walks into town on his own. He then sees a rainbow colored statue of himself and freaks out before backing into building. This building turns out to be Philip's art gallery. The two of them reconcile and Philip tells Grampa that his life was made better after getting fired. They then decide to finish off the photoshoot. After the shoot finishes, Grampa kisses Philip before apologizing again, saying that he is as straight as Gomer Pyle. Grampa then leaves but ends up putting a picture of him and Philip on the wall of his room. After this, Bart, Milhouse and Nelson are playing with army men before they decide to microwave them instead.
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