Episode no. 522 Written by Matt Selman Production code RABF06 | Directed by Chuck Sheetz Showrunner(s) Matt Selman
Al Jean | |
Original air date March 3, 2013 (2013-03-03) | ||
"Gorgeous Grampa" is the fourteenth episode of the 24th season of The Simpsons and the 522nd episode overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 3, 2013.
Contents
Plot
Homer becomes addicted to a reality TV show called Storage Battles and decides to participate in a storage unit auction as a result. He wins the storage unit with $1000, outbidding several townspeople and elephant Stampy. The family goes through its contents to find it is full of women's clothes and muscleman magazines belonging to Grampa Simpson. Marge comes to the conclusion that Grampa is a closeted homosexual who was forced to be heterosexual through most of his life. Homer and Marge set Grampa up with Waylon Smithers, but the plan fails when Mr. Burns arrives and scares Smithers off. Marge then admits to Grampa that she thought he was homosexual, to which Grampa becomes enraged and Mr. Burns reveals that Grampa actually used to be an old-time Gorgeous George-type wrestler called "Glamorous Godfrey", whose radical fighting style was heavily despised by the wrestling fan community, forcing him to retire. Burns reveals himself to be Godfrey's only fan; he then persuades Grampa to return to the wrestling scene, which Grampa does. Though he is again met with loathing, Grampa continues the act under Burns's manipulation.
Bart soon becomes fascinated with Grampa and starts mimicking the mannerisms Grampa uses in the ring. However, he also attracts hatred and it worries Homer and Marge, but pleases Grampa and Burns. Under Burns's supervision, Grampa and Bart partner up in a tag team wrestling match. Marge tries to appeal to Grampa, but he turns her efforts down. However, he changes his mind when he observes Bart harassing the audience and takes on another wrestling identity that he calls "Honest Abe" in order to convince Bart to stop his ways. When Burns protests against this, Grampa and Bart defeat him in the ring. Afterwards, the two retire from wrestling.
Critical reception
Robert David Sullivan of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B-, saying, "The season has already been heavy on nostalgia and on Grampa appearances, so it's not a pleasant surprise when the Simpsons stumble upon a storage unit with boxes of feather boas, wigs, and perfume sprayers in boxes marked 'Property of Abe Simpson'." Rob H. Dawson of TV Equals gave the episode a mixed review saying "What that leaves is an episode of The Simpsons that peaked early, fell flat quickly, and gave me nothing." Teresa Lopez of TV Fanatic gave the episode 3 out of 5 stars.
Ratings
The episode received a 2.2 in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total of 4.66 million viewers. This made it the most watched show on Fox's Animation Domination line up that night, beating The Cleveland Show, Bob's Burgers and a repeat of Family Guy.
Syndication edits
The "Homer Shake" couch gag was removed from repeated airings in the US and all airings in the UK, presumably due to what it parodies. The word "he-she" was changed to "transgender" in syndication for sensitivity.