Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother
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"Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother"
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Episode Information
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"Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother" is the first episode of broadcast season 37 of The Simpsons and the seven hundred ninety-first episode overall. It originally aired on September 28, 2025. The episode was written by Jessica Conrad and directed by Gabriel DeFrancesco. It guest stars Paul Brittain as Shawn Garrett Evanson and Keagan, Cole Escola as Devin, David Herman as John Clinch, and Stephanie Hsu as Vidalia.
"Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother" was dedicated in memory of composer Alf Clausen, who died on May 29.
Synopsis[edit]
- When Lisa starts wearing Marge's "vintage" clothes from the 90's, she's welcomed into the school's super-elite fashion club. But as they run out of retro looks, the funky fashionistas become obsessed with getting more...by hook or by crook.
Plot[edit]
The Simpson family is driving toward the Aztec Theater when Bart points out the movie they were going to watch was going to be free on streaming in three days, so they head back. But when they switch on the TV to watch the movie, weird ads keep playing, showing skin care products with words not suitable for TV in them. While the others laugh it off, Marge unplugs the TV and brings out DVDs.
While Marge and Lisa watch Keagan's Pond, a drama series for teenagers, Homer and Bart start watching Clincher, a more manly show. When season 1 of the show is over, Marge and Lisa go to the attic to retrieve season 2, when Marge spots the dress she had at Lisa's age and suggests she try wearing it at school the next day, saying no one would look, which is the opposite of what happens. At the bus everyone is looking at her and then at school she is going to be judged by the most fashionable kids, Devin and Vidalia. Marge soon arrives at the school, just to witness the scene of Lisa being cheered on as the fashion club kids like her outfit.
Marge gives Lisa more of her old clothes and Lisa is invited by Devin and Vidalia to the fashion club and thrifting with them. Meanwhile, at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer shows everyone Clincher and everyone joins him in watching the show, even when fellow employee Smitty gets into a life-threatening situation. Marge invites Lisa to the Nostalgi-Con the same day she is going thrift shopping with the fashion club. Lisa agrees to meet her there. Marge goes to the Springfield Convention Center for Keagan's Pond, meeting Keagan. However, she gets stood up by Lisa, who takes the fashion club to her house to see Marge's clothes. When Marge gets home she gets angry at her, with the others cutting up her clothes, and prohibits the kids from using them.
At school, the fashion club do not reject her for what Marge did, and invite her to the Wiggum house, where they play with Ralph. But then they start disappearing from the room and later tell her it is time to go. Outside she discovers that they stole Sarah's old clothes from the attic. After some persuasion from the other fashion kids she agrees that the plan is good, to get the clothes out of the greed of Big Thrift, and when Skinner announces the mother-son dance, they see the perfect opportunity to steal all the clothes at once.
To distract the dads, Lisa uses a universal remote to change their TVs to Clincher. When Marge forces Bart to go to the dance, the plan starts, but when Bart escapes her grasp, Marge discovers their plan on a whiteboard. At the Prince house, things do not go to plan as they do not have a TV, and Gareth Prince sounds the alarm, alerting the police. The other kids get out safely on the ladder, but Lisa delays to get a replacement shirt for the one she broke for Marge, and she gets trapped in the attic, but is saved by Marge on a dinghy.
They reconcile and Marge tells her that she tracked her down with the A Mother Always Knows app that she installed on her phone and that Bart is still at the dance, dancing with Luann. Homer takes care of the cops, Clincher style, but it is revealed he just shows them the show instead of acting like Clincher. In the end, Marge makes the Fashion Club return all the clothes, except the shirt Lisa grabbed for her, while Vidalia compliments Lisa's classic dress, and Devin shuts down the idea of watching Keagan's Pond together.
Production[edit]
Episode writer Jessica Conrad got the idea from her own experiences as a teenager. In an interview with Cartoon Brew, Conrad said that she "used to wear my mom's clothes all the time, and it felt so cool when they came back in style" and that the "episode gave me the chance to bring that to Lisa in a way that also comments on how the show constantly fudges its timeline of what counts as 'retro.'" Conrad worked with the animators to design the retro outfits that Lisa and the school's fashion club wore, using references from old Delia's catalogs and teen dramas like Dawson's Creek to make outfits that "[captured] that late '90s, early 2000s feel while also making it resonate with what kids are wearing now."[1]
Director Gabriel DeFrancesco said that the "sheer number of wardrobe swaps was the big challenge" of the episode. DeFrancesco also joked that he was living through the episode's storyline himself when his mother-in-law "kept sending boxes of her old clothes to my kids."[1]
Gallery[edit]
References[edit]
Promo videos[edit]
"get ready to level up your sunday 💯 don't miss the season premieres of #TheSimpsons, #universalbasicguys, #bobsburgers and #krapopolis TOMORROW on #FOX and next day on @hulu." on Twitter
Marge is Fed Up With the Inappropriate Ads at YouTube
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