'Round Springfield
[1] In the episode, Bart is hospitalized after eating a piece of jagged metal in his Krusty-O's cereal and sues Krusty the Clown.
Jean and Reiss, who were previously the series' showrunners, returned to produce this episode (as well as "A Star Is Burns") to ease the workload of the show's regular staff.
Bart soon collapses moments after his arrival to the nurse's office, which was staffed by Lunchlady Doris as a result of budget cuts.
While visiting Bart in the hospital, Lisa discovers her hero, jazzman Oscar "Bleeding Gums" Murphy, is a patient in another ward.
Penniless after having exhausted the royalties from his only album, Sax on the Beach, on a $1,500-a-day Fabergé egg habit, he made one last shot at a comeback with a guest spot on The Cosby Show in 1986, but just like with his appearance on The Tonight Show, Murphy's appearance was pretty much pushed aside so that Bill Cosby could ramble about why kids listen to rap music instead of jazz and then proceeds to say jazz is like Jell-O pudding pops, Kodak film, and New Coke.
The recital is a success after Lisa's improvisation is a hit with the crowd, but when she returns to the hospital to visit Bleeding Gums, she learns he has died, leaving her devastated.
Meanwhile, Lisa is the only person who attends Bleeding Gums' funeral, where Reverend Lovejoy misnames him and misidentifies him as a sousaphone player.
Still stricken with grief, Lisa decides that the best way to honor Bleeding Gums' memory is by having his album played on the local jazz station.
Lisa spots it at the Android's Dungeon for $250; after hearing that Bleeding Gums is dead, Comic Book Guy doubles the price to $500.
After seeing his sister's sad face through the shop window, Bart buys Lisa the album because she was the only one who believed his stomach ache was real.
She is satisfied and turns to leave, but Bleeding Gums appears from the heavens to tell Lisa that she has made "an old jazz man happy".
"'Round Springfield" was written by Joshua Sternin and Jennifer Ventimilia, based on a story idea by Al Jean and Mike Reiss.
[2][8] When a deceased Bleeding Gums Murphy appears to Lisa in a cloud towards the end of the episode, he is joined by Mufasa from The Lion King, Darth Vader from the Star Wars film series, and James Earl Jones representing his announcing work on CNN.
[8][11] Lisa and Bleeding Gums play Carole King's song "Jazzman" in this scene and in the hospital earlier in the episode.
[12] Mike Reiss and Al Jean thought that the episode would "get a ton of awards", and joked that this was why they opted to receive a story credit, which they usually would not.
[15] However, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide called the episode "dull", stating that "some of the moments connected to Bart's illness are funny", but that he "really hate[s] that 'Jazzman' song" and dislikes "the Bleeding Gums parts".
[16] In the episode, budget cuts at Springfield Elementary School force the janitor Groundskeeper Willie to be used as a French teacher.
It was used particularly in the run-up to the war in Iraq, having been popularized by the conservative National Review journalist Jonah Goldberg, to describe European and especially French opposition to military action.
[21] The term has been used in books by commentator Laura Ingraham,[22] and academics Stuart Croft,[23] Stephen Chan,[24] and Paul L. Moorcraft and Philip M.
