Bart Star

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"Bart Star" is the sixth episode of Season 9 that first aired on November 9, 1997. The episode was written by Donick Cary and directed by Dominic Polcino. , Mike Judge and guest star.

Synopsis
Springfield's youth join a pee-wee football team. With Ned Flanders at the helm and Nelson at quarterback the team is undefeated until Homer strong arms himself into Ned's job and puts all his faith in under qualified Bart as his quarterback.

Plot
Following a Health convention held in Springfield, the children of Springfield are deemed to be overweight. To help them stay in shape, the parents enrole their children into pee-wee, including Bart. Ned Flanders end up being the coach and turns out to be great at it, allowing everyone to play including girls, however despite the teams undefeated streak under his coaching he eventually and angrily quits after being fed up with Homer's constant heckling from the sidelines (especially after Homer threw an already opened beer can at Flanders' head, not only hurting his head, but also humiliating him when the suds from the beer fell on him.).

Homer turns out to be a lousy coach, and far more stereotypical in it. He cuts more than half the team unnecessarily and acts tough toward Bart, but when he is reminded of when he was a child and how his father was hard on him, he decides to be nicer to Bart. The next day, he decides to cut many more players off the team including all the girls, and changes the from Nelson to Bart, causing an uproar in the team because Nelson had been carrying the team on his own after Homer took over as coach. Bart is unable to play the position well, and causes the team to lose a few games. The team then falls out with Bart and take a dislike to him.

Bart decides to pretend he is extremely injured so he can stop being the quarterback, but Homer claims that without Bart, the team must forfeit. Bart becomes angry, says he never wanted to be the quarterback anyway, and quits the team. Nelson is made the quarterback again and the team wins, but Homer has nobody to celebrate with and becomes lonely. Afterwards, Homer finds Bart and reconciles with him to join the team again. The next day during the final championship game, the score becomes tied when Chief Wiggum comes to arrest Nelson. Bart decides to pretend he is Nelson as he is assuming it is only for a petty crime, despite it actually being for and. However, the team finally wins the championship, and the team tries to carry Homer, unsuccessfully, off the field. Joe Namath appears to give his final thoughts on the episode, and it ends with Bart's fate being ambiguous as to how he will get out of trouble.

Production
The episode was written by Donick Cary, who obtained inspiration for it from when he was younger, where when he was in high school, he had a football coach who also had a son on the team. Similarly, Mike Scully used to be on a soccer team when he was younger, where the coach had a son on the team, which he gave special treatment to, as Homer did.

George Meyer got inspiration for the scene toward the beginning of the episode where Rainier Wolfcastle is taunting the kids when he was following behind during a hike, and Schwarzenegger also taunting his kids. Schwarzenegger's influence was again seen in the same scene, as he appointed to be the chairman of the, which he served from 1990-1993.

The final scene took a long time to be finally made. The writing process for it was considered to be difficult, and was originally different when it was read at the writing table.

Casting
The episode guest starred, , and Mike Judge. Scully claims that Judge was paid $1,000,000 to cast in the episode, where he voiced the cameo of. Other  characters appeared with Hank, but none of them spoke. Namath also guest starred on the episode, and was liked by the staff, as they claimed that, "He was very humble and was great coming in."

Originally, was going to play the part Firestone played as a sports radio host, but was immediately dropped following the controversial  that were made against him around the time the episode was being made.

Reception
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, thought well of the episode, saying, "A fun episode, where you root for Bart and, unusually, Nelson - all the way through. Homer is just too stupid for words, but that's excusable because we finally see Ned Flanders lose it, big time!" The director of the episode, Dominic Polcino, greatly enjoyed the episode, and claims that it is his favorite episode that he directed.

The fictional beer Homer mentions, Skittlebrau, has since inspired a clothing line, a website and many people have tried to make their own version.