Bart to the Future

"Bart to the Future"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	243
Prod. code	BABF13
Orig. airdate	March 19, 2000
Showrunner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	Dan Greaney
Directed by	Michael Marcantel
Chalkboard gag	"Non-flammable is not a challenge."
Couch gag	The living room is set up like a trendy night club (complete with a disco ball, a velvet rope, several club hoppers, and a bouncer). The bouncer lets Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie in, but sends Homer away.
DVD commentary	Mike Scully George Meyer Dan Greaney Matt Selman
Season 11 September 26, 1999 – May 21, 2000 "Beyond Blunderdome" "Brother's Little Helper" "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" "Treehouse of Horror X" "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" "Eight Misbehavin'" "Take My Wife, Sleaze" "Grift of the Magi" "Little Big Mom" "Faith Off" "The Mansion Family" "Saddlesore Galactica" "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" "Missionary: Impossible" "Pygmoelian" "Bart to the Future" "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" "Kill the Alligator and Run" "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" "Behind the Laughter" List of all The Simpsons episodes
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"Bart to the Future" is the seventeenth episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 19, 2000. In the episode, after their vacation in the woods is cut short due to a mosquito infestation, the Simpsons stop by at an Indian casino. There, Bart sneak in and ends up in the office of an Indian mystic who shows Bart's future in the year 2030 as a washed-up, wannabe rock musician living with Ralph Wiggum while Lisa is the President of the United States trying to get the country out of financial trouble. "Bart to the Future" has received mixed reception from critics.

Plot

The Simpson family goes to Larval Lake on a picnic. When they arrive, however, they find that mosquitoes have overrun the park. While driving back, the Simpsons find an Indian casino. Homer and Bart go in (leaving Marge in the car because of her gambling addiction, and Lisa because of her age and her conflict over the ethics behind Indian gambling), but Bart is turned away because of his age. Bart then finds ventriloquist Arthur Crandall and sneaks in through Gabbo the dummy's case. During a performance, Bart bursts out of the dummy case and gets caught by casino guards. Bart is sent to the casino manager's office, where the manager shows Bart a vision of his future if Bart does not change his ways.

Thirty years into the future, Bart is a 40-year-old beer-drinking slacker trying to launch his music career after dropping out of the DeVry Institute, and has resorted to mooching off his parents and Ned Flanders. The only gig Bart can get is at a beach bar owned by Nelson Muntz, and even then, Bart is only paid in popcorn shrimp. Bart lives with Ralph Wiggum in a beach cottage by the shore, from which Bart finds out that he has been evicted after his disastrous concert at Nelson's beach bar. Meanwhile, 38-year-old Lisa is the first straight female President of the United States, trying to rebuild the country after President Donald Trump's disastrous term. Bart tries to upstage her by using one of her addresses to the nation as a foot in the door for a professional music career, which leads Lisa to be branded unpopular when Bart reveals to the public on live television that Lisa will be imposing a tax to get the country out of debt. Lisa meets with America's creditor nations, who demand that America pay them back. Bart steps in and uses his skills at stalling debt collectors to save the day.

Meanwhile, Homer has heard about gold buried by Abraham Lincoln, but Marge tells him that he is insane. When Homer finally locates the "gold", it is in fact a scroll that Lincoln had written on explaining that his "gold" is pride in one's country. Homer does not appreciate the metaphor, however, and angrily curses Lincoln for planting the idea in his head. After the vision is over, Bart promises that he will change. Lisa finds Bart in the casino manager's office and tells him that the family's been kicked out after Homer pushed a waitress and Marge lost $20,000. Bart tells Lisa about his future vision where he has a rock band and a moped, while downplaying Lisa's future Presidency as "some government job."

Production and analysis

"Bart to the Future" written by Dan Greaney and directed by Michael Marcantel as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000). It was the second episode of the series to show the Simpson family's life in the future, following the season six episode "Lisa's Wedding" that aired five years earlier in 1995. In his 2006 book Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, author Jonathan Gray analyzed The Simpsons's many parodies of advertisements. He commented on "Bart to the Future", writing: "As if ads in children's toys or in churches are not enough, in 'Bart to the Future,' an episode in which an Indian shaman at a casino treats Bart to a vision of his future, even his vision is interrupted when future-Bart says, 'I guess I am an embarrassment,' and a ghost responds, 'You sure are. But, hey, there's an embarrassment of riches at the Caesar's Pow-Wow Indian Casino. You can bet on it!' Here, as with the church ads, The Simpsons uses parody with great effect, not only to illustrate how annoyingly and disrespectfully ads infringe on any territory, but also to mock their logic and rhetoric."

Release

The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 19, 2000. On October 7, 2008, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, George Meyer, Larry Doyle, Matt Selman, Carolyn Omine and Mark Kirkland participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.

"Bart to the Future" has received mixed reception from critics. Nancy Basile of About.com listed it as one of the episodes she felt "shined in season eleven". While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented "Bart to the Future", writing: "This kind of fantasy episode can be hit or miss, and that trend holds true here. However, more of 'Future' succeeds than flops. Though a few gags bomb, most of them prove pretty good. At no point does this become a classic, but it amuses much of the time." Hayden Childs of The A.V. Club wrote in 2011 that the episode "was not so good, although better than many of the real stinkers yet to come at that point. Still, it utterly failed to rise to the challenge of 'Lisa’s Wedding.'" In a 2003 article, writers of Entertainment Weekly listed "Bart to the Future" as the worst Simpsons episode of all time. They elaborated that "Choosing the lamest Simpsons episode is like picking the crowning installment of Shasta McNasty — it's all relative. So while 'Bart to the Future' was likely better than anything else on TV the week it first aired, even Mojo the monkey could've banged out a more inventive script [...] Plus, the whole looking-into-the-future premise is merely reliving past glory, carried out far more successfully in 1995's 'Lisa's Wedding.'" In an article discussing the three hundredth episode of The Simpsons, Ben Rayner of Toronto Star commented on "Bart to the Future", referring to it as "a lame 2000 outing" and noting that Entertainment Weekly "rightly dubbed [it] the 'worst episode ever'".

External links

• "Bart to the Future" at The Simpsons.com
• "Bart to the Future" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Bart to the Future" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Bart to the Future" at TV.com