The Simpsons 14×12: I’m Spelling As Fast As I Can
The kids are getting ready to go back to school. On the first day, Principal Skinner holds an all school Spelling Bee, which Lisa easily wins, allowing her to go to the state spelling finals. If she wins there, she can then go Spellympics. Meanwhile, Homer has been trying Krustyburger’s new “Ribwich” and enjoying it immensely. At the state Spelling Bee Lisa wins, but is disappointed with Homer who tells her that “very serious Daddy business” is going to keep him away from her celebration. Homer’s daddy business consists of getting more Ribwiches. He is disappointed when the Ribwich is no longer available. Another Ribwich fan (and member of Ribwich Nation) informs Homer that the sandwich is going to be tested in other markets and he shows him the tour schedule. For a moment, Homer considers joining them on their bus tour. For her spelling efforts, Lisa is rewarded with a double-wide locker and she prepares for the Spellympics. At the Spellympics, Lisa makes it to the finals. Homer regrets that he won’t be able to attend the finals, as he will be in San Francisco for the last day of the Ribwich. George Plimpton talks to Lisa about getting her to throw the spelling bee so that a more popular competitor can help keep spelling a viable sport. For throwing the bee, Lisa is offered a full scholarship to one of the seven sister’s college of her choice. Lisa wrestles with her conscience. In San Francisco, Krusty stops by and tells the crowd they will no longer be making the Ribwich and he tosses them the last one. Homer catches it, and offers are made to him for the last one. He realizes that he’s forsaken his daughter’s big day for a sandwich and he trades it for a car, which he drives off to Lisa’s big event. At the Spellympics, Homer arrives just in time for Lisa to do her final word. With her dad present, she blows the lid off of the rigged contest, but then misspells her word in the process. She loses the contest, but back home in Springfield she is celebrated as “the biggest winner this town has ever had.” They even have her likeness carved into the side of a mountain.
The Simpsons 14×11: Barting Over
Lisa dreams of being honored as one of three great Americans, only to be waken by Marge’s vacuum. Marge and the rest of the family have begun spring cleaning. Bart finds a box of old videotapes. He and Lisa start watching the tapes that are boring them, until Lisa finds a tape labeled “BART SAD.” They put in the tape, which features an episode of Perfect Strangers and a commercial for a product that fights bad breath for babies. The baby featured in the ad is none other than Bart, leading Lisa to realize the tape should have been titled “Bart’s Ad.” The baby in the ad is referred to as “Baby Stinkbreath,” which opens Bart up to name calling by his siblings. Bart confronts his parents about the ad and Homer tells him he was going to tell him on his “death bed.” They tell him he enjoyed making the commercials and he made a lot of money that Homer invested in a college trust fund. Homer confesses that he used the money to buy back incriminating photos. Bart demands the return of his money; Milhouse suggests that he get a lawyer. He finds a lawyer and tells him he wants a divorce from his parents. In court, Judge Harm renders her verdict, Bart is emancipated and half Homer’s salary is to go to Bart. Bart moves out and into a loft apartment. His first night alone he is scared by a rat and runs to the elevator that takes him up instead of down. The doors open to a loft apartment that contains skateboard ramps, “skate boarding legend Tony Hawk” and the band “blink - 182″ playing live in the corner. The family comes to visit Bart at his new home, where Bart appears to be living the good life. Homer makes a plea for his return, but Bart tells them he is taking off for six months to go on the “Skewed Extreme Sports Tour.” At the Springfield stop of the tour, Homer talks Tony Hawk into losing to him in a skateboarding contest so that Homer might win back Bart’s affection. When Homer wins the contest, Bart informs him it wasn’t about being cool, it was really about Homer not caring about how he felt. With a bit of advice from Tony Hawk, Homer makes an apology and gets a lucrative commercial endorsement for “Viagra-Gain” which allows him to repay Bart, who returns home.
The Simpsons 14×10: Pray Anything
When Flanders wins a half-time money shot during a WNBA game, Homer asks him what the secret to his good fortune is. Ned reveals his secret as hard work, honest living and flossing his teeth, tail and toes. Also a little prayer now and again doesn’t hurt either. Homer focuses on the notion of the little prayer and when he needs to find the remote for his TV, his own little prayer works. He begins to pray for a number of things. His prayer for a new home pays off when he trips into a hole outside of the church. His lawsuit against the church wins him the deed to the church, since the church can’t afford to pay him $1 million. Homer turns the church into a party palace. Without a place to preach, Reverend Lovejoy and his wife leave Springfield, when preaching at the bowling alley and staying at Ned’s house just doesn’t work for the Reverend. The partying at the church gets out of hand; Marge asks Homer if he is afraid of incurring God’s wrath. Homer isn’t so sure, but then the rainfall begins and Homer is struck by lightning. Soon Springfield has started flooding. When an unruly mob starts to come after Homer, Reverend Lovejoy arrives on the scene asking for forgiveness on behalf of the town.
The Simpsons 14×9: The Strong Arms of the Ma
Marge gets mugged outside the Kwik-E-Mart and she starts feeling vulnerable and becomes scared to leave the house. Dr. Hibbert diagnoses her with agoraphobia. The family tries to help her get back out of the house, but their efforts drive into living in the basement. In the basement she finds their unused weight set and she begins working out. Two weeks later she is stronger than she ever was and realizes that she can leave the house. In fact while celebrating her release from her fears, she confronts and beats the crap out of her mugger. While out working out, Marge runs into Ruth Powers, the neighbor she once went on the lam with. Ruth tells her about how steroids can help her to get bigger. Marge starts taking the supplements and gets into a women’s bodybuilding competition. She takes 2nd place, which only entices her to do better next time. At Moe’s she tears the place apart when she suffers from steroid rage. Homer makes her realize that she has become everything that she can’t stand and she destroys the weight set.
The Simpsons 14×8: The Dad Who Knew Too Little
Homer fails to get the birthday present that Lisa wanted. The gift he gets her instead makes it obvious that he knows nothing about his daughter and that makes her disappointed in him. To win Lisa back, Homer hires a private detective to find out everything about her. The private detective comes through with information that restores Homer’s relationship with Lisa. Homer refuses to pay the detective’s $1000 expenses; to get even the detective arranges it so that Lisa is framed for a crime she didn’t commit. When the police arrive outside the Simpson home, Homer takes Lisa on the run. While they are holed up in a cabin, Homer confesses what he did to learn more about Lisa. The police trace them there and Homer and Lisa’s subsequent escape leads them to a circus, where they find evidence that will exonerate Lisa of the crime. Only first together they must deal with the crooked detective.
The Simpsons 14×7: Special Edna
Edna looks forward to the apple picking trip she is going to take Seymour, only he has to cancel because he needs to take care of his mother. Meanwhile, Bart looks for ways to keep from working on his research paper for WWI, including photocopying his butt and joyriding in a Blackhawk helicopter. The day before it’s due, he uses Grampa as a resource. Bart receives F for his effort he works on a revised version of the paper after school. When Bart sees how sad Principal Skinner has made Ms. Krabappel when he cancels a date with her in favor of his mother, Bart goes out with her for the evening. At Lisa’s suggestion, Bart decides to do more for his teacher, he nominates for the “Teacher of the Year” award. Knowing who she has to put with, the award committee selects Ms. Krabappel as their nominee. The award finals are held in Orlando, Florida at “Efcot Center.” As the nominator, Bart (and his family) gets to go to award ceremony as well. Who isn’t going, Seymour Skinner of course, that is until he changes mind. Of course, he has to bring mother along. At the award ceremony, Seymour is worried that he will lose Edna forever. He gets Bart to sabotage her chances at winning, but when it comes down to it he can’t let Bart go through with it. Edna doesn’t win the award, but she does get a marriage proposal from Seymour, with an engagement ring from Little Richard.
The Simpsons 14×6: The Great Louse Detective
The family receives an invitation to go to a health spa. While there Homer is alone in the steam room, when some unknown person locks him inside and turns the heat up to the “MURDER” setting. Homer and Marge go to see Chief Wiggum for help in finding Homer’s attempted murderer. Chief Wiggum decides to call in an expert on the twisted mind of a murderer. He takes the Simpson family to Campbell’s Chunky Soup Maximum Security Prison to consult with Sideshow Bob. Chief Wiggum strikes a deal Sideshow Bob that will allow him to stay with the Simpson family, which makes Bart nervous. A device is hooked to Sideshow Bob that will allow the family to shock him if he gets out of control. Sideshow Bob follows Homer through a “normal” day. Sideshow Bob sets up a Homer dummy as a trap for Homer’s potential killer. Everyone, including Homer beats the dummy up. At Moe’s someone takes a shot at Homer. Sideshow Bob recommends that Homer stay out of sight, which isn’t going to happen when Homer is elected King of Mardi Gras. At the parade Homer’s float becomes a runaway when its brake line is cut. Sideshow Bob launches himself out of cannon and saves Homer from certain death. Then Homer and Sideshow Bob go after and corner the potential killer, Frank Grimes Jr. Later that evening in Bart’s bedroom, Sideshow Bob appears and he tries to kill Bart quickly, but finds he can’t do it, as he’s “grown accustomed to Bart’s face.”
The Simpsons 14×5: Helter Shelter
When Homer is injured at work, his compensation is use of a luxury sky box. The family enjoys the luxuries, but Lisa is bored and joins the masses rink side. She gives one of the players some score tying advice and is rewarded with Kozlov’s hockey “tree”. The stick is mounted in Lisa’s room where later that night termites break out of the stick and do much damage to the family home. Until the Russian no-wood-nick termites can be thoroughly exterminated, 6 months from now, the Simpson family is homeless. The family tries a number of options but settle upon trying out for a home where they are required to live like its 1895. They pass the audition and start living the lifestyle. When the “1895 Challenge” sinks in the ratings, the producers try to stir things up by adding Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley. When even that doesn’t work, they relocate the house to a river and watch it float downstream. Eventually the house comes to shore and falls apart. Now the family finds themselves without food and shelter as the TV crew eats away. The encounter and tribe of refugees from another reality program and together they fight to return to civilization, where they can find quality scripted television. When even that fails them, they start to entertain themselves.
The Simpsons 14×4: Large Marge
Marge sees Homer flirting with two women and later tries to decide whether he is still interested in her or not. Homer’s response is to fall asleep. Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse are watching Krusty playing the villain “Clownface” on an episode of the old Batman television series and are inspired to recreate the carousel sequence. Marge asks Manjula what she should do about Homer and Manjula responds by taking her to a plastic surgery clinic. Marge goes in for a liposuction procedure and winds up with breast implants. The doctor gives her 48 hours to try living with them before he will take them out. At school, Bart gets Milhouse spun at a high speed on the carousel; so fast that he spins out of control, resulting in his knocking over the flagpole and throwing up on the flag. When confronted for his part in this act of unpatriotic behavior, Bart cites Krusty as the influence; making Krusty a very unpopular figure. Homer discovers her implants and at dinner the next night, Homer and the men of Springfield sing the praises of her new endowment. Marge gets offered a trade show modeling job. Marge gets into her new image until the extra weight up front of starts giving her back problems. At the trade show, Bart’s old friend Stampy and Marge’s gifts are used to help Krusty get his reputation back. Afterwards surgery is preformed to reverse Marge’s condition and the Baha Men sings the praises of her Jugs with a little help from Homer.
The Simpsons 14×3: Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade
Tired of “suckling on the six network teat,” with their endless array of “reality shows,” the Simpson family gets a satellite dish. Homer and Bart spend hours surfing all of the available channels. While Lisa studies for the school’s upcoming achievement test; Bart doesn’t, as he engrossed in Japanese Friends amongst and other lame satellite TV programming. Bart zones out during the test and daydreams about everything he’s been watching lately. At a school assembly the next day, Principal Skinner announces that because of Lisa’s high test score, she is being promoted to the 3rd grade. When Bart makes a comment about Lisa, Principal Skinner responds by also announcing that because of his low test score, Bart is being demoted to the 3rd grade. They’ll be in class together, much to each other’s horror. Lisa has a hard time adapting to the 3rd grade, as Bart is coming off as a much better student than he actually is. They go on a field trip to Capital City and Bart and Lisa are put together via the buddy system. Their teacher, Mrs. McConnell, decides that the students are going to help the state design a new flag. When Bart overhears Lisa breaking bad on him, he redesigns their entry. Lisa’s anger with Bart causes them to fight and miss their bus back home. Bart and Lisa attempt to get home on their own, meanwhile Principal Skinner reports their disappearance to Homer and Marge, who subsequently journey to Capital City to try to find them. Bart and Lisa encounter a family of mountain folk, who take them back to the big city to reunite them with their family. Realizing that the “status quo” is best all-around, Principal Skinner returns Bart and Lisa’s academic careers to normal.






















