Episode no. 44 Showrunner(s) Al Jean & Mike Reiss Original air date November 14, 1991 | Directed by Jim Reardon Production code 8F07 | |
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Written by Ken Levine & David Isaacs | ||
"Saturdays of Thunder" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 14, 1991. In the episode, Homer takes a fatherhood quiz and realizes that he knows nothing about Bart. He strives to be a better father and learns that Bart is participating in a Soap Box Derby. Homer and Bart make a racer together; however, it is not very good. Bart decides to drive Martin's far superior racer instead, after Martin is involved in an accident where he receives a broken arm. Homer is at first devastated, but decides that he must be a good father and support Bart.
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The episode was written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs, and directed by Jim Reardon. American actors Larry McKay and Phil Hartman both made guest appearances as a television announcer and Troy McClure respectively. "Saturdays of Thunder" features cultural references to films such as Ben-Hur, Lethal Weapon, and Days of Thunder. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics, who praised its sports theme. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 14.9, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
Plot
Homer takes a fatherhood quiz and discovers he knows next to nothing about his son. He signs up for therapy at the National Fatherhood Institute and after a confidence-building pep talk, offers to help Bart build his own soapbox racer for the upcoming Soap Box Derby. At the qualifying race, Bart and Martin form an alliance vowing that either must somehow beat bully Nelson and his very intimidating racer, the Roadkill 2000, "armed with every dirty trick in the book." As the race starts, Bart can barely reach any kind of noticeable speed with Homer's racer and it eventually falls apart. Martin's sleek, aerodynamic racer easily wins, but loses control at high speed and crashes. Martin finds out that due to his injuries he can no longer race and opts for Bart and himself to combine forces by having Bart race Martin's racer over the racer he and Homer built.
Bart gladly accepts Martin's offer, as there is no other way he could win over Nelson. Homer, however, feels betrayed by Bart's choice to drive Martin's racer instead of the one he helped Bart to make. When Bart tries to apologize to Homer, he selfishly denounces both Bart and Martin, telling Bart to do whatever he wants. Marge steps in and tells Homer that she has defended him through a lot of things over the years, but his latest actions prove that he is a bad father. As Bart gets ready to race in the final match with Martin's newly tuned racer, Homer thinks to himself about how selfish he has been, realizing that Bart needs his support regardless of whose racer he is using, and he rushes off to the race. At the starting line, Homer wishes Bart good luck and tells him that no matter how the race ends he will still be proud of him. The race is tough as Nelson pulls every dirty trick in his arsenal, but eventually through his skill Bart finishes first and the team enjoys their victory.
Production
The episode was written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs, and directed by Jim Reardon. The inspiration for it originated from a line in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", a previous episode in which Marge bans Bart and Lisa from watching their favorite cartoon, The Itchy & Scratchy Show, and Bart says "I'm gonna go build a soapbox racer instead." Actor Phil Hartman made his fourth guest appearance on The Simpsons in this episode as the voice of celebrity Troy McClure. The character appears at the beginning of the episode in I Can't Believe They Invented It!, a television show that Homer watches. Larry McKay guest starred as the television announcer at the Soap Box Derby.
The idea for the subplot of Homer's parenting originated from a real fatherhood test executive producer Sam Simon found and brought to the Simpsons studio. Levine later commented on writing the episode, "At the time David and I were writing this, my son, Matt, was about Bart's age. [...] So for me there was a certain amount of guilt associated, like 'Do I know my son's hobby? Do I know my son's best friend?' etc." The scene in which Bart welds on his racer resulted in an argument between the staff of the show and the Fox network's censors. The censors were concerned that children would imitate Bart by misusing welding tools; however, the staff was able to convince them that very few children have access to welding tools.
Reception
"Saturdays of Thunder" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 14, 1991. It received high ratings due to the fact that it was immediately followed by the premiere of the music video for Michael Jackson's song "Black or White". In its original American broadcast, the episode finished 26th in the ratings for the week of November 11–17, 1991, with a Nielsen rating of 14.9, equivalent to approximately 13.7 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. Niel Harvey of The Roanoke Times called it a "classic bit of Simpsonia," and the Daily Record said it is "definitely one not to miss." The Orlando Sentinel's Gregory Hardy named it the sixth best episode of the show with a sports theme. Michael Coulter of The Age commented that "Saturdays of Thunder" is "one of the many excellent" The Simpsons episodes to feature a sporting theme. He went on to say: "A 'classic' Simpsons, insofar as it boasts a plot, rather than a sequence of surreal pop-culture parodies." The episode's parody of Ben-Hur, however, was named the eighth greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film's Nathan Ditum.
Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict looked unfavorably on the episode, writing that it "has a premise—Bart builds a soapbox racer—that frankly has very limited modern day appeal. We can't really get into the whole Martin/Nelson/Bart race dynamic and today, soapbox derby has been technologized all out of proportion to the point where very few, if any, practice it. With such a narrow target, many of the jokes just don't work." Gibron preferred the subplot of Homer's attempts to become a better father.
Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed was more positive about the episode, commenting that the episode's emphasis is on Homer's parenting, like many other season three episodes, and "contrary to popular opinion, Homer is actually a good father who tries to do good by his children." He thought the racing sequences featured "good animation and direction", but considered the highlight of the episode to be the clip from the film McBain that Homer watches in the video store. Meyers gave the episode a 4/5 rating. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson, who listed the episode as one of his favorites from season three, said that "on the surface, 'Saturdays of Thunder' essentially just rehashes" the theme of the previous episode, "Lisa's Pony", in which Homer tries to be a better father for Lisa. Jacobson commented that "Saturdays of Thunder", however, "simply seems funnier than 'Lisa's Pony'. The soapbox derby elements provide lots of great gags. [It] offers a great episode." Like Meyers, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide thought the highlight of the episode was the McBain video.