Homer the Moe

"Homer the Moe" is the 3rd episode of the 13th season of The Simpsons. It was first shown on television on November 18, 2001. In the episode, Moe makes changes to his bar to make it look more modern. Moe's friends do not like the new bar, so his friends start their own bar.
Story
Moe thinks that his bar feels boring. He goes to a university that he used to take classes from and finds one of his old professors. The professor tells Moe to make his bar look more modern. A designer named Formico turns Moe's bar into a post-modern nightclub. Moe now gets more customers than his old bar would.
Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney do not like the new changes to Moe's bar. Homer turns his garage into a bar for his friends. Moe sees Homer's bar and tells him that it is illegal to own a bar in a private place. Homer says that his bar is for a hunting club. He gets a law book which says that a hunting club is allowed to serve beverages. Moe does not think that Homer is actually in a hunting club. Homer then says that he will shoot a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.
Homer tries to find a turkey, but hears a sound made by a cougar. Homer thinks that Moe is the cougar and shoots him on accident. Homer, Moe, and the Simpson family go back to Moe's bar, which was changed back to its old design. The rock band R.E.M. goes to the bar and gives a turkey meal to Moe and the Simpson family.
Production
Jen Kamerman directed the episode. Dana Gould was the screenwriter of the episode. The episode was shown on television on the Fox network on November 18, 2001. Dana Gould said that George Meyer came up with the idea of Bart digging a hole at the start of the episode. This was an attempt to be similar with John Swartzwelder's type of writing. Meyer also wanted the university Moe went to in the episode to be similar to the school in the television show The Paper Chase. Moe's old professor would also be similar to the professor from the show.
In one part of the episode, Homer creates a hunting club so that he can sell alcohol without a liquor license. This was based on the time Gould's father started a hunting club to sell alcohol without a license. Homer's bar was going to be the main story of the episode. This was changed when writers got the idea of making the design of Moe's bar post-modern.
The rock band R.E.M. appears as guest stars in the episode. Mike Scully said that R.E.M. were "big fans of the show" and that their appearance was a "fairly last-minute addition". R.E.M. did not want Bill Berry to appear in the episode, so the drummer in the episode was a session drummer. Moe's professor was voiced by Dan Castellaneta, the voice actor for Homer Simpson. Formico was voiced by Hank Azaria.
Reception
Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict said that "Homer the Moe" is a "tepid remix of previous Simpsons plots". R.L. Shaffer of IGN said that the episode is one of the worst episodes of the show. Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide thought that the episode's story was too similar to the season 3 episode "Flaming Moe's". However, he says that the episode "works resonably well" and is "one of the year's best episodes." Simon Crerar of The Times thought that R.E.M.'s performance in the episode was one of the funniest cameo appearances in the show.
References
Other websites
The Simpsons episodes
2001 television episodes
Thanksgiving television episodes