Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by TheListener (talk | contribs) at 05:44, 3 December 2006 (→Trivia: Getting rid of a random symbol). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Bart the Mother is the third episode of the 10th season of The Simpsons, originally aired on September 27, 1998. The episode is the show's version of the classic episode of The Andy Griffith Show, "Opie the Birdman".

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler When Marge takes the family to the Family Fun Center, she notices that Nelson is acting like an incredible nut, especially when he knocks Milhouse off the track and wins a BB gun. Bart and Nelson attempt to be friends, but Marge insists that she does not want him to be with Nelson. Bart uses Nelson's BB gun anyway, and when he does, he kills a bird, and leaves two eggs behind after the bird dies. Marge is mad that Bart killed an animal, but instead of punishing him, she refuses to have anything to do with his destructive ways. Bart secretly keeps the eggs warm; eventually, they hatch as lizards, which he names "Chirpy Boy" and "Bart Jr."

Bart and Marge take the lizards to the Springfield Birdwatching Society, and when they are there, Principal Skinner, a member of the Society, explains they are Bolivian tree lizards. A Bolivian tree lizard is a type of lizard that steals a bird's eggs and leaves their own eggs to be watched after by the mother bird. Skinner wants the lizards killed by law, because they have killed many bird species. Bart escapes and runs away with the lizards, which later decimate the entire pigeon population of Springfield. Much to Marge's surprise, the rest of the town considered the pigeons to be a nuisance, so they are in fact delighted.

Trivia

• This is the last episode in which Phil Hartman appears, as Troy McClure. Hartman was murdered earlier in 1998, and so the producers dedicated this episode to him.

• The "Bolivian tree lizard" is a fictional species. However, its behavior mirrors the habits of the cuckoo (though the cuckoo does not eat its host).

In this episode Marge does not like Nelson but in a recent episode Sleeping With the Enemy she takes a liking to Nelson

Cultural references

• Homer: (to Marge) "Who am I? Kreskin?" When Marge is puzzling about what Bart might be doing in his tree-house she asks Homer what he thinks, and in a very short quip he mentions Kreskin. George Kresge, better known as "The Amazing Kreskin," (b. January 12, 1935 in Montclair, New Jersey) is a mentalist, popular on North American television in the 1970s and still busy as a live performer. He appears annually on New Years Day on CNN to give his predictions for the upcoming year. Perhaps his best known trick is finding the check for his performance fee, which he instructs his hosts to hide before each show. He has only failed to find the check nine times.
• Nelson (to Bart): "You're an octowussy!" This is a pun on the title of the 1983 James Bond movie Octopussy.
• The episode's title and basic plot – Bart killing a mother bird with his BB gun – are taken from the classic Andy Griffith Show episode "Opie the Birdman" (wherein Opie adopts three baby birds after he kills their mother with a slingshot).
• Inside the arcade of the Family Fun Center, there is a game called "Pack-Rat Returns"; a reference to the arcade game "Peter Packrat".
• When Nelson goes inside to cook lunch on a frying pan after Bart kills the bird, he is seen humming the theme song to the show itself.

Goofs

• When Bart takes out the light bulb, Homer is seen falling down the stairs to the basement. The basement door is located next to the stairs to the second floor of the house. However, in Lisa the Skeptic, we see that Homer tries to stick a skeleton in a closet at the same location.
• When the tree lizards hatch, all the family runs to the nearby table, however, Homer left the refrigerator open, when the camera zooms to him, he is standing infront of the fridge, but the door has been closed.

Quotes

• Troy McClure: Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such nature films as Earwigs, Ew! and Man Vs. Nature: The Road to Victory.
• Lisa: (on the lizards) One, they don't have beaks. Two, they don't have feathers. And three, they're lizards!
  Bart: You're a lizard!
• Bart: Check it out, guys. I've been working on this regurgitation thing. (gagging) Ooooh yeah, hope you like Pop-Tarts.
• Lisa: You knew they could fly?
  Principal Skinner: Yes, I just hoped they didn't.
• Homer: Aw, I hate folding sheets.
  Marge: That's your underwear.
  Homer: Whatever this is, it's a two man job. Where's Bart?
  Marge: Bart!
  Homer: I'll get him, Marge. BAAAAAAAAAAART!
  Lisa: What the heck's going on?
  Marge: We need Bart to help fold your father's underpants. Where is he?
  Lisa: Uh, he went to play with a friend.
  Marge: He didn't go to Nelson's did he?
  Lisa: No, I'm sure he's at Milhouse's.
  Homer (leaning out the window): MILHOUSE!
  Milhouse (in the distance): What?
  Homer: TELL BART TO COME HOME!
  Milhouse: I think he's at Nelson's!
  Homer: WHO'S NELSON?
  Marge: Nelson! I explicitly forbade Bart from playing with that little monster. Oh, Bart is in deep, deep trouble! Oh, and punish Lisa for lying to us.
  Homer: All right, young lady! I want you to march yourself down to the Kwik-E-Mart and buy me some chips and a beer. (gives some money to Lisa, then gives her an extra dollar) And get a little something for yourself, sweetheart.
• (in Bart's fantasy, he is in a courtroom with an eagle, vulture, and a toucan)
  Eagle: Bart Simpson, do you know why you have been summoned before this tribunal?
  Bart: Yes sir, because I killed an innocent bird.
  (the judges gasp)
  Vulture: Dear lord! We just wanted you to put fresh newspaper on the tribunal floor!
  Eagle: We're knee-deep in our droppings. It's disgusting.
  Toucan: But since you've confessed to bird slaughter, we have no choice but to peck your face off!
  Bart: No! Not the face!
• Skinner: Okay that is exactly one moment...
• Homer (waiting for the eggs to hatch): This is the most exciting thing I've seen since Halley's comet collided with the moon!
  Lisa: That never happened, Dad.
  Homer: (sarcastically) Sure it didn't.
• Homer: Why is this taking so long? Bart was born in about five minutes.
  Marge: Actually, it took fifty-three hours.
  Homer: Wow, the time just flew by, didn't it?
• Skinner: Now, there has been some confusion over our bird watching rules. You cannot count birds you have seen at the zoo, on stamps, or in dreams.
  Moe: Well, I'm back to square one.
• Troy McClure: ...and sometimes the mother will regurgitate food for its offspring.
  Billy: Eugh, that's gross Mr. McClure.
  Troy McClure: Hahaha! It sure is Billy, it suuuuuuuure is!
• Principal Skinner: (referring to the Bolivian tree lizard) It's already wiped out the dodo, the cuckoo, and the ne-ne, and it has nasty plans for the booby, the titmouse, the woodcock, and the titpecker.
  Marge: How vile!

External links

• "Bart the Mother episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Bart the Mother" at IMDb

• The Simpsons episodes, season 10