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“Saturdays of Thunder” is the ninth episode of the The Simpsons’ third season, airing on November 14, 1991. The title is a spoof of the film Days of Thunder, and features the song “Watching Scotty Grow” by Bobby Goldsboro.

Alternate versions
The first Fox broadcast of this episode was cut and compressed to accommodate the world premiere of Michael Jackson’s new video, Black or White. However, CanWest Global System stations showed a full version with Bart writing “Hamsters cannot fly” on the blackboard. Fox broadcast the full version for the first time on April 2, 1992, but their version has Bart writing “I will not fake rabies” on the blackboard. (This is the version that’s on the Season 3 DVD boxset.)

The version for syndication is similar to the first Fox broadcast, except it wasn’t compressed and the opening sequence was taken from Season 5’s Rosebud. Unlike most syndication edits, however, this one actually includes a few scenes that aren’t in the “full” version.

In the “full” version, the scene at VHS Village (formerly Beta Barn) is faded in from the Simpsons’ driveway. However, the edit cuts this fade-in and swaps the VHS Village scene with the beauty parlour scene, which originally came after VHS Village.

In the edited version, the dialogue of the “Football’s Greatest Injuries” tape that Homer watches is changed. Originally a story about how “a big cat named Wayne Scheshevski” grabbed the “Galloping Gazelle”’s face mask and snapped his neck, you hear, “The compound fracture, truly one of football’s greatest injuries.”

In the “full” version, when Marge asks Homer what his son’s hobbies are, Homer tells Marge that Bart’s “always chewing on that phone cord”, then Marge tells Homer he hasn’t done that since he was 2, so Homer responds, “Then he has no hobby.” The edited version cuts the phone cord lines and changes Homer’s response to, “Kids don’t have hobbies.”

Plot
The local Soap Box Derby is held in Springfield, and Bart has his heart set on first prize. However, the catch is that he must build his own Soap Box Racer. In the meantime, Homer takes a fatherhood quiz and discovers he knows next to nothing about his son. He offers to help his son by building him one as a surprise.

Unfortunately, Homer can only manage a very shoddy, rickety piece of junk for a racer (named Li’l Lightnin’), especially so in comparison to Martin Prince’s personally designed and built space shuttle-like racer, Honor Roller. Unable to gather the courage to tell his father that his racer is terrible, Bart attempts to use it in the preliminary match, where he and Martin form an alliance vowing that either must somehow beat bully Nelson Muntz and his very intimidating racer, the Roadkill 2000, armed with every dirty trick in the book.

When the race is underway, Bart can barely reach any kind of noticeable speed with Homer’s racer, which eventually falls apart. Meanwhile, Martin has difficulty controlling his racer, as it is moving too fast, which eventually causes him to crash. After being injured, Martin finds that he can no longer race and opts for Bart and himself to combine forces by having Bart race Martin’s racer over the racer he and Homer built. Bart seeing no other way to win agrees, breaking Homer’s heart.

When Bart later apologizes and desires Homer’s best wishes, Homer selfishly denounces both Bart and Martin telling Bart to do whatever he wants. Dejected, Bart gets ready to race in the final match with Martin’s newly tuned racer. As he does this, Homer thinks to himself about how selfish he’s been, realizing he has learned a lot about his son, and that Bart needs his support regardless of whose racer he’s using and he rushes off to the race. At the starting line, Homer wishes Bart luck and tells him that no matter how the race ends he’ll still be proud of him. The race is tough as Nelson pulls every dirty trick in his arsenal, but eventually through his skill Bart comes out on top and the “team” enjoy their victory.

Cultural references
In the episode, Homer reads and quotes Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. While on hold, the song being played is “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin. The spikes coming out of Nelson’s racer are similar to those of the car in The Little Rascals.