Principal Skinner creates "Go to Work with Your Parents Day." While Lisa goes to the Nuclear Plant with Homer, and Bart is sent to be with Patty and Selma at the DMV. While Patty gets several licenses laminated, Bart takes the opportunity to create a fake license. Using it, he, Nelson, Milhouse, and Martin do stuff only allowed for people over 21.
They soon rent a car and go on a Spring Break road trip with Martin's $600 from stocks, and the children tell their parents that they are going to a National Grammar Rodeo in Canada. The lie seems to work on everyone, except Lisa. Meanwhile, Lisa has found that her time with Homer is actually fun, and they end up doing lots of activities at the Power Plant. With everyone gone, Marge finds her life to be very boring with little to do.
On the road trip, Milhouse asks where they are going. Looking at a brochure in the car's glovebox, they find out about a World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, and decide to go there. But when they arrive, they find that the fair was actually in 1982, just how old the brochure was. They spend their last of their money on wigs (from an outlet store in the fair's Sunsphere, now called the Wigsphere), and an Al Gore doll. To make things worse, Nelson throws a rock at the Sunsphere, and it collapses on their car, stranding them in Knoxville.
With no other options, Bart calls home and talks to Lisa, confessing what happened and where they are, and asks her how they can find some way to get home. Lisa suggests that Bart become a courier. This leads him to making all sorts of deliveries around the world, but does not get him any closer to getting home. Bart claims he needs to find something that can be shipped to Springfield, and be big enough to also fit Nelson, Milhouse, and Martin. At the power plant, Lisa tells Homer that Bart is stranded in Knoxville.
Homer is at first upset, but then decides to help. Noting the control console at his workstation, the two figure they can get the courier service to deliver a new one to the Power Plant. They spill soda on the console, Homer makes a call for a replacement in Knoxville, and the boys make it home. Later that evening, there were several phone calls: one from Principal Skinner asking if Bart has ever been to Asia, another telling of a smashed rental car under the Sunsphere, and a request for Bart to deliver a human kidney to Amsterdam.
My thoughts:
Storyline: I loved this episode a lot. It's a very relaxed episode. I think if this story premise were previewed to us today we'd all be like "OH MY GAWD Bart's getting a driver's license and driving across country and he's ten years old!" It's pretty far fetched, but who cares though? It worked because the episode was just very fun to watch. I liked the Radio Love song in the start of the second act when the camera goes around the car they rented.
You rarely see the kids hang out together this casually in the series, and now especially it's pretty much as rare as you can get which is another reason this episode was nice. The guys have funny chemistry, and Homer and Lisa's B-plot was laid back too, it showed a side to both characters you don't see often together during this time in the series.
There's enough humor in there to keep that end going too. From "Bart, can we have ice cream?", to Homer's prank call to Moe, the family from Winnipeg, and Skinner seeing Bart in Japan, they were all great. The Andy Williams scene was interesting, and that NELSON out of all people liked him was odd. Must be Andy's biggest fan.
Homer is at first upset, but then decides to help. Noting the control console at his workstation, the two figure they can get the courier service to deliver a new one to the Power Plant. They spill soda on the console, Homer makes a call for a replacement in Knoxville, and the boys make it home. Later that evening, there were several phone calls: one from Principal Skinner asking if Bart has ever been to Asia, another telling of a smashed rental car under the Sunsphere, and a request for Bart to deliver a human kidney to Amsterdam.
My thoughts:
How many times have I watched it: 6 times.
There's enough humor in there to keep that end going too. From "Bart, can we have ice cream?", to Homer's prank call to Moe, the family from Winnipeg, and Skinner seeing Bart in Japan, they were all great. The Andy Williams scene was interesting, and that NELSON out of all people liked him was odd. Must be Andy's biggest fan.
Overall, an excellent story, and in my top 5 Simpsons episodes.
My grade: A+
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