The Bonfire of the Manatees

Bonfire of the Manatees is the first episode of The Simpsons ' seventeenth season. It aired September 11, 2005. It was the first episode to air in September and first non-Halloween episode to start out the season since season 11's "Beyond Blunderdome". The episode was watched by 11.1 million people. Marge leaves her house after discovering Homer was filming a dirty film there, and she meets a man that spends his life saving manatees.

Plot
Homer is watching a football game, where he lost a bet due to the Denver Bronchos winning the game, complaining that he didn't bet on what Professor Pigskin told him to bet on. Lisa attempts to warn him that it is a scam, but he doesn't listen and pays them. He later loses another bet in a football game. This time he betted on the Raiders, who were not only looking awful, but were actually composed of drunks because the star players were down with the flu, causing them to be beaten easily. Lisa asks how much money he bet, to which Homer explained that he actually borrowed money from Fat Tony. Fat Tony, at their window, states that they'll "hammer out" a payment plan, which they do... literally, as Fat Tony has Homer restrained by Legs and Louie with Louie hammering Homer's right hand. Unable to repay his gambling debts to the Mafia, Homer is forced to let Fat Tony use the Simpson home as a set for the "gentlemen's film" "Lemony Lick-It's A Series of Horny Events" (although Homer ended up having both hands hammered by the Mafia after Homer, mistakenly thinking that the adult film was a gay pornography film, made the mistake of asking if they were the "gay mafia.") Homer sends Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie to "Santa's Village" with tickets supplied to him from Moe to get them out of the way. During production, Lenny and Carl enter the house to get a board game and stumbles on the production of the film. Homer attempts to get them out of the house, but then after Carl asks how Marge allowed him to do the film, Homer bribes them with letting them be in the movie if they don't tell Marge about what's going on (with Carl getting the sex scenes and Lenny being the dirty mouth boy).

When Marge and the kids return early (due to leaving the Santa's Village early due to it being a bad experience), they discover what is going on and a disgusted Marge walks out, leaving Homer alone with the kids. Before she can be reconciled with Homer, Marge meets Dr. Caleb Thorn, a good-looking scientist devoted to saving the endangered manatee. Homer and the kids go to stay with their "country cousins" while looking for Marge (their dog is Santa's Little Helper's brother) who turn out to be much more modern and sophisticated than Homer believes. Meanwhile, Caleb helps Marge realise that Homer is the same man she fell in love with - the only problem is that she still expects him to change. Homer tries to win Marge back by saving a herd of manatees from a gang of jet skiers. He manages to talk the gang into leaving but is overheard calling them "Rubes". The gang turns around and starts beating up Homer. Despite his attempts to organise the manatees to attack the gang, they all flee. Luckily, Homer's country cousin shows up with a notarized court order which puts paid to the gang. Impressed, Marge declares she is taking home "the real endangered species: the devoted husband." Homer then places a Manatee as a substitute for himself at the SNPP for a week while they vacation there.

Production
Al Jean originally pitched the idea of an episode based around the Simpsons rescuing manatees in 2003 during the writers' retreat sessions for The Simpsons Movie. Although not used in the movie, the idea eventually became an episode in its own right.

Reception

 * On May 11, 2008, Entertainment Weekly named Alec Baldwin's role as Caleb Thorn as the first of 16 great guest stars on The Simpsons.