This then is Bart’s nightmare - not surprisingly, he’s the one starring in it and is able to do whatever he likes without anyone being able to punish him.
Treehouse of Horror episode: 2
Year: 1991
Season: 3
Segment: 2 of 3
Segment title: “The Bart Zone”
Writer(s): Al Jean, Jeff Martin, Mike Reiss, Sam Simon, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder
Characters:
T1: Bart, Homer
T2: Marge, Lisa, Maggie*, Snowball II*
T3: Mrs Krabappel, Principal Skinner, Moe, Otto, Krusty, Milhouse
T4: Sherri and/or Terri, Martin, Barney
* Note: Maggie gets a pass, as obviously she can't say a word, so although she should in reality be relegated to at best a Tier 4 role, she will generally be Tier 2, unless the episode revolves around her, in which case she will be promoted to a Tier 1. Animals such as Santa's Little Helper, Snowball etc will be treated in a like manner.
Homage to? Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life”
Basic premise: Bart is the boy with power to do everything and anything he wants, and keeps his family, and Springfield, in thrall, for fear of what might happen if they disobey.
Best quotes: Homer: “He gets it from your side of the family, you know: no monsters on my side!”
Otto: “This is fun isn’t it? We’re gonna die, aren’t we?”
Krusty: “Well, we’re still on: 346 consecutive hours and all because of one little boy who WON’T LET ME STOP!”
Dr. Marvin Monroe: “The problem is, Bart, you don’t care whether you get good attention - from, say, getting good marks in school, or bad attention - from, say, turning your father into a jack-in-the-box. Homer, I see you agree with me.”
Homer: “I’m not nodding: it’s the air-conditioning.”
Type of ending: Pretty cheesy really, a bit meh.
Synopsis: Not a lot to tell. If you’ve seen the episode you know the deal. Springfield is constantly on edge because everyone has to be happy - or pretend to be - all the time, otherwise Bart can turn them into whatever he feels like. When Homer tries to end the town's shared nightmare by killing Bart, he is turned into a jack-in-the-box. The never-in-any-way-missed Dr. Marvin Monroe advises Homer he should spend time with the boy. They have so much fun that Bart turns his father back into himself. The end. Yeah.
Rating: B- (I used to think “at least they had the thing about the jack-in-the-box, which is funny”, but no: that was in the Twilight Zone episode too, so they basically just rewrote it. And they really didn’t do much of a job with it. An interesting note: Monroe says to Homer “get to know him, maybe even love him.” These are almost verbatim the words Lisa uses in “Bad Dream House” when she speaks to the house. Given that there’s only a year and one THOH between the two, it’s pretty lazy writing I feel.
Score
Story: 2 (it’s just a copy of the episode with a few bits added in)
Laughs: 3
Originality: 1
Ending: 1
Longevity: 2
Total: 9