Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie

Marge and Homer attend a parent-teacher conference at Springfield Elementary School. Although Miss Hoover tells Homer that Lisa is doing well, Mrs. Krabappel tells Marge that Bart is continually causing trouble. She urges Homer and Marge to enforce stronger discipline and suggests that Bart could grow up to become a Supreme Court Justice if his behavior improves. Marge and Homer return home to find that Bart has stolen and broken Grampa's dentures. As punishment, Marge sends Bart to bed without dinner; however, Homer later brings Bart a slice of pizza and makes Bart promise to behave. However, Bart continues to get in trouble, always managing to distract Homer from punishing him. Eventually, Homer vows to give Bart an effective penalty. Bart buys himself a ticket for Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie, the highly anticipated film adaptation of The Itchy & Scratchy Show. While Bart is left home alone with Maggie, he watches television instead of paying attention to her. Maggie takes Homer's car for a joyride and crashes into the wall of Springfield Prison, releasing the prisoners. Homer then punishes Bart by tearing up Bart's ticket to Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie and banning him from ever seeing the movie under any circumstances. Bart begs for a different punishment, but Homer refuses. The film is released to wide acclaim, and every child in Springfield sees the film multiple times; since Bart is not allowed to see the film, his classmates shun him. Bart tries to buy another ticket, but discovers Homer has instructed the movie theatre employees not to sell him a ticket. Two months after the film's release, Marge and Lisa try to convince Homer to change his mind, with Marge claiming Bart has been punished long enough, but Homer refuses. Eventually, after a run of eight months and sweeping the Academy Awards, the film is removed from theatres. Bart reluctantly confesses that the punishment deeply affected him, to which Homer responds that consequently, he will learn to accept responsibility for his actions and will have a better life as a result. Forty years later, Bart, now Chief Justice of the United States, and Homer, a senior citizen, walk down the street and discover the film is back in the local theater as a classic re-release. Homer decides that Bart has officially learned from the experience, and the two happily watch the movie together. ==Production==

This episode, like many other Itchy & Scratchy–themed episodes, was written by John Swartzwelder, although the plot was originally pitched by Sam Simon. During the table read of the script, the first act received many laughs, but the second act got little positive reaction, leading Al Jean to believe that the script would require a huge rewrite, although the third act also received a positive reaction. The shot of the Korean animation studio angered the Korean animators at Rough Draft Korea; Gregg Vanzo, the overseas director, felt insulted and nearly sent the scene back. The episode features the first appearance of Bumblebee Man, who is a caricature of "El Chapulín Colorado" ("The Red Grasshopper"), a character created and portrayed by Mexican television comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños. ==Cultural references==

''. The opening Star Trek film is a parody of how old the crew of the original Star Trek cast looked in the later movies. The marquee says Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie has been re-released on a bill with Beauty and the Beast (1991). Homer and Bart are seen silhouetted against the screen, a reference to Mystery Science Theater 3000. Bart can be seen reading Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie: The Novel by Norman Mailer. ==Reception==

During the fourth season, The Simpsons usually aired on a Thursday, but "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" aired on a Tuesday because the executives at Fox had wanted to air an episode during the 1992 presidential election results because they felt it would mean increased ratings. Instead, the episode dropped from its normal audience. In the spring of 2002, the episode was released in the United Kingdom on a DVD collection titled The Simpsons Film Festival, along with the season eleven episode "Beyond Blunderdome", the season seven episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", and the season six episode "A Star Is Burns". Gary Russell and Gareth Roberts, the authors of the book ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'' called it a "superb episode", especially "[Homer]'s suggestion for punishing Bart's misbehaviour is to give him a present, and his trick for avoiding jury duty is 'to say you're prejudiced against all races.'" Nathan Ditum of Total Film ranked "Steamboat Itchy" as the show's 46th best film parody. In 2014, The Simpsons writers picked "Steamboat Itchy" from this episode as one of their nine favorite "Itchy & Scratchy" episodes of all time. Nathan Rabin writes that "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" "isn’t just funny and sweet: It’s also the definitive parody of event-movie mania, though it’s as much a loving tribute to the hubbub and frenzy surrounding a truly epic event movie as it is a spoof", likening the release of the movie within the episode to the release of The Simpsons Movie fifteen years later. ==References==