Homer the Father

"Homer the Father" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons' twenty-second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 23, 2011. Joel H. Cohen won the Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing in Animation at the 64th Writers Guild of America Awards for his script to this episode.[1]

"Homer the Father"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 22
Episode 12
Directed byMark Kirkland
Written byJoel H. Cohen
Production codeNABF05
Original air dateJanuary 23, 2011
Guest appearance(s)

James Lipton as Himself
David Mamet as Himself
Michael Paul Chan as Chinese Agent
Garry Marshall as Sheldon Leavitt

Episode features
Chalkboard gag"Prince is not the son of Martin Luther King"
Couch gagThe family chases the couch throughout the pages of The Springfield Shopper. The couch then reunites with them after seeing an advertisement about itself in the classified section.

Plot

Homer becomes obsessed with a 1980s family sitcom called Thicker Than Waters and starts acting like the show's father. Emulating this character's values, he refuses to give Bart a mini-bike he wants, because Bart would never learn to appreciate things if they come to him too easily.

Bart then realizes that he could sell secrets about the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant to other countries. He agrees to sell them to China in exchange for a mini-bike. To gain access to the nuclear plant's computer system, Bart begins doing typical father-son activities with Homer, eventually leading to Homer bringing Bart to work. When Homer falls asleep, Bart goes around the plant downloading information onto a USB storage device.

After Bart leaves the flashdrive with the downloaded data at the zoo and takes the bike, Homer reveals to him that he has bought him a mini-bike for being such a good child. Bart, feeling bad for betraying his country and his father, rushes back to the zoo in attempt to recover the flashdrive. There he meets the Chinese agents, who threaten to kill him if he does not cooperate. Homer steps in and offers himself in Bart's place, as he has a lifetime of nuclear experience. In China, he leads the construction of a nuclear power plant, which explodes right after the grand opening ceremony. Back at the house, Bart tells Homer how much he appreciates him, and that they have "the best kind of bonding": sitting in front of the television while making no eye contact at all.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Homer the Father" was viewed by an estimated 6.50 million households with a 3.1 rating/7 share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49.[2] The number of viewers increased slightly from the previous week and the 18-49 demographic stayed steady in spite of going up against the hugely viewed AFC Championship.[2] In Canada, the episode was watched by 962,000 viewers.[3]

Tvfanatic.com,[4] gave the episode a 3.8 out of 5 stating, "This week's installment was loaded with plenty of hilarious meta jokes about the television industry, thanks to its storyline about Homer mimicking his favorite 80s sitcom father, who seemed to be a mishmash of every fictional patriarch from that decade."

References
  1. Fernandez, Jay A. (19 February 2012). "Writers Guild Awards: Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  2. Seidman, Robert (2007-08-28). "Updated TV Ratings Sunday: CBS Wins With Most Watched AFC Championship Ever That Averaged 54.9 Million + 'Hawaii Five-0,' Fox Animations". Tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
  3. "Ratings across Canada Jan. 17 - 23".
  4. "The Simpsons Review: "Homer The Father"". TV Fanatic. 2011-01-24. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
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