Co-Dependents' Day

"Co-Dependents' Day"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 15
Directed by	Bob Anderson
Written by	Matt Warburton
Original air date	March 21, 2004
Episode features
Couch gag	The Simpsons sit on the couch as normal, but then begin to decay and turn to dust.

"Co-Dependent's Day" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season. The episode aired on March 21, 2004.

Plot

Homer, Bart, and Lisa see the newest Cosmic Wars film, The Gathering Shadow, and the movie turns out to be less than what they expected. At home, Marge suggests that Bart and Lisa write a letter to Cosmic Wars creator Randall Curtis. Two weeks later, they get a reply from Curtis, which completely ignores their criticism, having sent them Jim-Jam merchandise. This forces the Simpsons to go on a trip to California, where Homer and Marge go to wineries, and Bart and Lisa go to the Cosmic Wars Ranch.

Bart and Lisa visit Curtis and tell him that his Cosmic Wars movies have lost their way. He does not like what they are saying until Lisa points out that better technology is no way to make the story better. Curtis agrees, and he decides to go back to his storytelling roots.

Brave Combo on The Simpsons

Bart and Lisa rejoin Homer and Marge, who are both drunk from free samples of the wine. Back in Springfield, Homer and Marge go to Moe's Tavern and drink more wine. Moe opens a bottle of Chateau Latour 1886 vintage wine, clearly unaware of its value. Homer and Marge then continue to drink heavily for several days, until Marge suffers a particularly painful hangover. She tells Homer that they should not be drinking, and he agrees. Unfortunately, when they go to an Oktoberfest featuring Grammy-winning nuclear polka band Brave Combo, Marge, who tries to go through the night without drinking, gives in and ends up drunk along with Homer. He tries to drive them home, but in a drunken stupor overturns the car.

In order to avoid an arrest, Homer makes things look like Marge (who is drunker than he is) was the driver. She is arrested, but he bails her out. Later, Barney suggests that Marge go to a rehab clinic for a month, and when Marge is gone, Homer lets Flanders take care of the kids. When he sees her at the clinic, he confesses, but Marge is angry and drinks again. Later on, the other rehab patients help her discover that she likes being with Homer more than she like drinking, and forgives him and returns home.

Production notes

• The scene where Homer sings at Moe's Tavern while Marge plays the piano was cut from this episode, but later used in Mommie Beerest as a postscript scene during the end credits.
• Homer references a prior DUI when explaining why he cannot be caught in the drivers seat. This could possibly be referring to the episode, Duffless, where he fails a breathalyzer test, and is arrested for a DWI.

Cultural references

• Cosmic Wars and Randall Curtis are parodies of the Star Wars prequel trilogy and its director George Lucas; the parodies focus on negative reaction the films received, particularly the criticism of the character Jar Jar Binks (which is represented as "Jim-Jam"). Curtis is also shown as living in rural Californian ranch which houses a high-tech visual effects workshop, a reference to Lucas' Skywalker Ranch.
• The film which Otto watches at the cinema parodies several films about coal mining in Northern England (in particular Yorkshire and County Durham) such as Kes, Billy Elliot and Brassed Off. Otto blames Margaret Thatcher for the hardships, echoing the films' left wing (often pro-Scargill) perspective. The film stars English actor Jim Broadbent.
• The title refers to the movie Independence Day.
• The giant robot in The Gathering Shadow sits down and reads the Evening Standard, which is the evening newspaper sold in London, England.
• The songs that Homer sings while placing the rehab-center operator on hold are "Wichita Lineman" and "MacArthur Park", both written by Jimmy Webb.
• In this episode of The Simpsons, Marge and Homer were seen leaving The Lizzie McGuire Movie, scared.
• On entering the Creature Works building in the tour of the Cosmic Wars Studio, the guide says "If you can dream it, We can make it", this is a reference to the tagline of the now-defunct Horizons attraction at Epcot, Walt Disney World in Florida, which was "If we can dream it, we can do it".

Reception

James Greene of Nerve.com put the episode sixth on his list Ten Times The Simpsons Jumped the Shark, criticizing the portrayal of Homer in the episode and stating that "This Homer wasn't a sometimes-insensitive-but-largely-sympathetic lug. He was just a douche." He did however like the B-story, but found that it was "completely overshadowed by a very uncomfortable moment in the Simpson-Bouvier union".