Bart Star

"Bart Star" is the sixth episode of Season 9.
==Synopsis==
Peewee football comes to Springfield as a means to fight childhood obesity, and when Homer becomes the coach (after Flanders angrily gives him the position to keep Homer from heckling him), he promotes Bart to star player status despite the boy's lack of talent.
== Full Story ==
Springfield holds it's annual health convention where everyone is doing different exercises and programs. Following the health convention, the next day the town is declared unhealthy or rather in terrible shape, especially the children who are deemed to be overweight. Lisa calls Bart tubby but Bart doesn't mind, on the news, Kent Brockman suggests ways to help them stay in shape by joining sports, the parents enroll their children into pee-wee , including Bart. Ned Flanders becomes the coach and turns out to be great at it, allowing everyone to play, including girls. However, despite the team's undefeated streak under his coaching, he eventually and furiously quits after being fed up with Homer's constant heckling from the sidelines (especially after Homer threw an already opened beer can at Flanders' head, not only hurting his head, but also humiliating Ned when the suds from the beer fell on him), making Homer the new coach (while also using Homer's insult regarding Ned's coaching abilities against him by replying with "Half a brain, huh? Well, it sounds like you just volunteered!"). Homer then admits that Ned was actually doing a good job as coach.
 Homer turns out to be a lousy coach, and far more stereotypical in it. He cuts more than half the team unnecessarily and acts tough toward Bart, but when Marge reminded Homer of when he was a child and how his father was hard on him, he decides to be nicer to Bart. The next day, he plans to cut many more players off the team including all the girls, and changes the from Nelson to Bart, causing an uproar in the team because Nelson had been carrying the team on his own until Homer took over as coach. Bart is unable to play the position well, and causes the team to lose a few games. The team then falls out with Bart and take a dislike to him, even though Bart himself never asked for any of these changes. After losing one match too many, Nelson makes it very clear that if Bart costs the team just one more game, he will pay. Bart tries to practice, but his attempts to improve yield no results. Desperate, he goes to Lisa for advice telling her that if he plays the team will lose and everybody will beat him up, but if he doesn’t play as quarterback he will let Homer down. When Lisa suggests that Bart simply lie to Homer, Bart has no problem with this (since he is always lying to Homer). The next day, Bart shows up heavily bandaged and using crutches. He claims to be extremely injured, making it impossible for him to play. For a moment, it looks as though the ruse worked. Homer turns to Nelson who is all set to lead the team to victory. Unfortunately, Homer asks Nelson to take a note over to the referee, saying that the team forfeits. The team is shocked and hurt by this, but Homer shoots down their protests, insisting that they simply cannot win this match without Bart. Once again he claims that his son is the team's star player. 
Bart is offended by this, but still does not want to hurt Homer's feelings. Desperate, he once again tries to tell his father that he is a terrible quarterback and not the star player that Homer thinks he is. The rest of the team back Bart on this. Unfortunately, Homer still won't listen. Refusing to take the hint, he continues to proclaim Bart the best player and express complete faith in his son. 
This proves to be the last straw for Bart, whose patience has finally run out. He throws down his crutches and rips off his neck brace, showing his father that he was never injured in the first place and was faking it in order to get out of the match. No longer caring about Homer's feelings, Bart glares up at his father and shouts right in his face that he never wanted to be his "stupid quarterback" or star player. With Homer having sucked all of the fun out of the game since taking over, Bart, who has had enough of his father's interference and blatant favoritism, quits the team on the spot. Homer is initially shocked at this, but quickly angry. Furious, he shouts after Bart that he is cut from the team. Homer also cuts Milhouse presumably for being Bart's friend, much to Milhouse's delight. 
Bart and Homer have a massive falling out following this incident. Bart clearly feels bad about hurting Homer's feelings, but still refuses to play unless he is not the quarterback. Homer meanwhile believes that he was doing his son a favor and that Bart is just ungrateful. Initially he fails to realize that his actions were making Bart unhappy and refuses to accept that he was the one at fault. Nelson is made the quarterback again and the team wins, but Homer has nobody to celebrate with and becomes lonely. After a while, Homer realizes his mistake, finds Bart and apologizes for blindly encouraging him for something he clearly is not good at. The pair reconcile and Homer is able to persuade Bart to rejoin the team again on a different position.
The next day, during the final championship game, the score becomes tied when Chief Wiggum comes to arrest Nelson on an outstanding warrant. To keep Nelson in the game, Bart plans to pretend he is Nelson as he is assuming it is only for a petty crime, despite it actually being for and . Eventually, the team finally wins the championship, and the team tries to carry Homer, unsuccessfully, off the field. Joe Namath appears to give his final thoughts on the episode, finishing with Bart's fate being ambiguous as to how he will get out of trouble.
During the ending credits, Homer "cuts" all of the cast and crew members (except for Namath), as well as the Gracie Films logo.
==Behind the Laughter==
=== Production ===
The episode was written by Donick Cary, who obtained inspiration for it from when he was younger, where when he was in high school, he had a football coach who also had a son on the team. Similarly, Mike Scully used to be on a soccer team when he was younger, where the coach had a son on the team, which he gave special treatment to, as Homer did.
George Meyer got inspiration for the scene in the beginning of the episode where Rainier Wolfcastle is taunting the kids when he was following behind Arnold Schwarzenegger during a hike, and Schwarzenegger also taunting his kids. Schwarzenegger's influence was again seen in the same scene, as he appointed to be the chairman of the , which he served from 1990 to 1993.
The final scene took a long time to be finally made. The writing process for it was considered to be difficult, and was originally different when it was read at the writing table.
=== Casting ===
The episode guest starred Joe Namath, Roy Firestone and Mike Judge. Scully claims that Judge was paid $1,000,000 to cast in the episode, where he voiced the cameo of Hank Hill. Other characters appeared with Hank, including the Hill family, Dale Gribble, Bill, and Boomhauer, but none of them spoke, where they were watching the Springfield's 
game against Arlen, and after Arlen loses, Hank exclaims "We drove 2000 miles for this?". Namath, who was one of the guest stars, was liked by the staff, as they claimed that "He was very humble and was great coming in".
Originally, was going to play the part Firestone played as a sports radio host, but was immediately dropped following the controversial that were made against him around the time the episode was being made.
=== Reception ===
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, thought well of the episode, saying, "A fun episode, where you root for Bart and, unusually, Nelson - all the way through. Homer is just too stupid for words, but that's excusable because we finally see Ned Flanders lose it, big time!" The director of the episode, Dominic Polcino, greatly enjoyed the episode, and claims that it is his favorite episode that he directed.
The fictional beer Homer mentions, Skittlebrau, has since inspired a clothing line, a webpage and many people have tried to make their own version.
== Citations ==
fr:Fou de foot
pl:Bart Star
pt:O craque é Bart
Category:Sport-themed Episodes
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Homer episodes
Category:Episodes featuring guest stars
Category:Episodes named after a character
Category:Work-themed Episodes
Category:Nelson episodes
Category:Episodes named after Bart
Category:Sherri and Terri episodes
Category:Episodes with a alternative Gracie Films logo
Category:Flashback episodes
Category:Episodes with alternate end credits
Category:Episodes on DVD
Category:Directed by Dominic Polcino
Category:Milhouse episodes
Category:Ralph episodes
Category:Episodes where Lisa cries
Category:Ned Flanders Episodes