Bart Star

"Bart Star" is the sixth episode of the ninth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, which originally aired November 9, 1997. It was written by Donick Cary and directed by Dominic Polcino, and guest starred Joe Namath, Roy Firestone, and Mike Judge. The episode sees Homer becoming the coach of a pee-wee football team, where he favors Bart to the other players until Bart quits, causing a grudge between the two.

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 football, including Bart. The coach, Ned Flanders, helps keep the undefeated, but finally quits and gives the job to Homer after he hassles him on the bench too much.

Homer initially 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 players off the team, and changes the quarterback from Nelson to Bart, causing an uproar in the team. Bart is unable to play the position well, and causes the team to lose a few games.

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. This causes Bart to become angry and quit 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 burglary and arson. 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, show runner 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 Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, 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 Joe Namath, Roy Firestone, and Mike Judge. Scully claims that Judge was paid $1,000,000 to cast in the episode, where he voiced the cameo of Hank Hill. Other King of the Hill characters appeared with Hank, but none of them spoke. Namath also guest starred on the episode, and was was liked by the staff, as they claimed that, "He was very humble and was great coming in."

Originally, Marv Albert was going to play the part Firestone played as a sports radio host, but was immediately dropped following the controversial sexual assault charges 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.