Simpsons – We're on the Road to D'ohwhere (s17e11)

We’re on the Road to D’ohwhere is the eleventh episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It first aired in the USA on January 29, 2006 on FOX.

Chalkboard: Teacher was not dumped — it was mutual
Couch gag: A parody of the opening from Bonanza
Download: NEW 40MB link (rapidshare.com) | Yes, 40MB Xvid | Try “sape”

Synopsis

While messing around in the school’s steam tunnels, Bart and Milhouse trigger a massive escape of steam that destroys the school. Although Milhouse is free to go, Skinner proposes that Bart be sent off to Upward Bound, a behavioral modification camp. Meanwhile, Moe announces that all of his frequent barflies will be going to Las Vegas, courtesy of him. Homer takes Bart to the airport to send him to the camp in northwest Oregon (preferably flying to Portland). But then it is discovered that Bart is on the no fly list and needs to be driven to the camp, thus excluding him from Moe’s Vegas trip. During the drive Homer is acts very annoyed and complains about his life, in which he states he is 38, despite the fact his age is mentioned as being 39 in other episodes. After driving to a roadside diner, Bart escapes, and Homer has to duct-tape him to a chair and add chains. Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa have a yard sale. It is a total failure until Otto discovers that Marge is also selling the family’s expired prescription drugs. Although reluctant, Marge soon makes lots of money selling prescription drugs, but Chief Wiggum quickly discovers the scheme and charges her with selling drugs illegally.

Homer gets Bart to the camp, but, after a moral dilemma, he decides to pick up Bart and take Bart to Vegas with him. In Vegas, Homer gets in a fight with a pit boss, loses track of Bart, and is thrown in Nevada State Prison. Then Bart steals his car, escapes from Las Vegas, and takes off on a beautiful joyride. The episode ends with Lisa receiving phone messages from both her parents, asking for bail money. She tells Maggie that she will get a job to provide for both of them and to get their parents out of jail.

Cultural references

• We’re on the Road to D’ohwhere is a take on the Talking Heads song Road to Nowhere. It may also refer to the famous series of Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road to… movies, which have been spoofed thrice by Family Guy. This is at least the third time that the Talking Heads have been referenced by the Simpsons, not including “Dude, Where’s My Ranch?” (which guest-starred David Byrne)
• The song the band class plays is “Louie, Louie“.
• The song Flanders sings is the final chorus of “Joseph’s Coat” from the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
• Bart is on the US government’s No Fly List.
• Intellectual Homer, who has been killed by Serious Homer, has written on the floor in his own blood “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”. This is the famous statement of Ernst Haeckel’s recapitulation theory about the similarity of the embryonic development of organisms to its evolutionary history. Ironically, it has been debunked as a scientific principle. Presumably, Intellectual Homer wrote this before it was debunked, a testament to how long he had been dead.
• When Homer drives into the house on the side of the house it says “Birthplace of Matt Groening,” the show’s creator.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

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