Bart After Dark

"Bart After Dark" is the fifth episode of Season 8.
==Synopsis==
While Lisa and Marge spend the day cleaning rocks after Captain MacCallister runs his ship aground, Bart gets in trouble for breaking the gargoyle of an old house, and the owner wants Bart to work for her to pay for it — by making him her right-hand man for her burlesque house.
==Full Story==
Lisa sees a report on the news that an oil tanker has crashed and has spilled thousands of gallons of oil on the beach. She asks Marge if she can go and help save the local wildlife, but Marge points out that there's no need to travel several miles to clean animals when they have to pets to clean here. After begging, even saying that this can be her birthday and Christmas present, (even though she got a peach tree as her present) Marge reluctantly agrees, mainly after Lisa "plays" with her tree like she says. Bart and Homer stay at home and quickly turn the house into a pigsty. Bart goes to Springfield Park to play with his friends and their remote control airplane. The airplane lands on the roof of a creepy looking house, and Bart climbs over the fence to get the airplane. Bart ends up falling off the roof, and as he falls, he knocks over one of the house's gargoyle statues, which falls off and breaks. The owner of the house, Belle, demands compensation, she takes Bart back to his house and informs Homer what happened, while not wanting to take action at first, he does so when Belle says that she'll inform Marge. So Homer takes Bart to Belle's house and tells his son to do chores for her to make up for the damages.
 Bart discovers that the house is actually a burlesque house (a place where men can have drinks, gamble, and watch racy stage shows featuring scantily-clad women and raunchy stand-up acts) and quickly takes a new enthusiasm to his job. Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa discover that the only people who can clean the animals are celebrities, who are doing so for photo opportunities. They are set to scrubbing rocks clean, which Marge is annoyed at as this is just like her chores. After a long and unfulfilling day scrubbing rocks, which only keep getting covered in more oil, they head home. While they were away, Homer has learned about the true nature of the Burlesque house, but does nothing about Bart working there. Soon, the Flanders and Lovejoys confront him on the matter after Principal Skinner sees Bart in the reception room. Marge, who has arrived home, overhears this and is furious, she asks Homer why Bart was working at the Burlesque house in the first place. Homer tells Marge he made Bart work there to pay off Belle's statue and punished him because it's what Marge would have done. He thinks he did the right thing but she is still not impressed with Homer.
 Marge asks (i.e. demands) Belle to close down the Burlesque house and leave, Belle refuses, pointing out that she's been living in Springfield for years, and so has the Burlesque, and she's got as much right as anyone else to be there. Calling a town meeting, Marge brings up the matter of the house and after embarrassing multiple important people, gets support of the town to destroy it, prompting an angry mob to gather.
As they are about to destroy the house, Bart convinces Homer to tell them to stop. He does so by breaking into a musical number, We Put the Spring in Springfield (accompanied by Belle and her backup dancers) which convinces the town not to destroy the house. However, Marge arrives with a bulldozer, having missed the song. She tries to make up her own song to express her views but to no avail, during which she accidentally puts the bulldozer into drive and damages the Burlesque house in the process.
To keep things from going further, Marge agrees to help Belle in order to pay for the damage. This results in her having to start working at the Burlesque herself, performing a ventriloquist act on stage.
==Behind the Laughter==
=== Reception ===
This episode won an Emmy for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics in a Comedy/Musical Film (An Hour or Less Long)" for the climactic musical number.
== Citations ==
fr:Bart chez les dames
it:Il notturno di Bart
pl:Bart After Dark
pt:Bart trabalha à noite
ru:Барт в теневом бизнесе
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Musical-themed Episodes
Category:Mayor Quimby episodes
Category:Professor Frink Episodes
Category:Superintendent Chalmers Episodes
Category:Episodes named after a character
Category:Principal Skinner episodes
Category:Marge episodes
Category:Homer episodes
Category:Lisa episodes
Category:Episodes named after Bart
Category:Episodes on DVD
Category:Episodes with alternate end credits
Category:Written by Richard Appel
Category:Directed by Dominic Polcino
Category:Highly Rated Episodes
Category:Sequels
Category:Helen Lovejoy Episodes
Category:Ned Flanders Episodes
Category:Maude Flanders Episodes
Category:Reverend Lovejoy Episodes