Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts
"Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" is the second episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.
After he takes Bart and his friends on an unauthorized field trip which results in one of the children breaking an arm, Chalmers is fired.
The episode was written by Tim Long, directed by Steven Dean Moore, and features the voice of Theodore Roosevelt through archive recordings.
Chalmers accepts and immediately gives Bart his own lesson plan, which primarily consists of former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.
With the success of his lessons, Chalmers plans to take them all on a field trip to Springfield Forest, in which Roosevelt left one of his spectacles.
Since it was an unauthorized field trip, Nelson's mother threatens to sue the school for medical expenses, which leads to Chalmers getting fired.
In order to save Chalmers' job, Bart and his friends, who now go by the name "The Brotherhood of the Spectacles", take over the school in a hostage situation and stand up for the teacher who made a meaningful impact to them.
[2] Showrunner Al Jean revealed to the press that "we [the staff] have actual audio of Roosevelt (taken from a speech circa 1918) in the show.
[4] In Chalmers' flashback from his teaching days, the scene looks like the library of Shermer High School from the film The Breakfast Club from 1985.
[6] This was the second time The Simpsons had chosen a guest director for its opening sequence, following the previous season's episode "MoneyBart", which was guest-directed by British graffiti artist and political activist Banksy.
The producers responded with the fourth season episode "The Front" (1993), in which The Ren & Stimpy Show is nominated for a cartoon award.
"[9] After the positive response to the opening sequence by Banksy, creator Matt Groening and Jean came to Kricfalusi and asked him if he could do something similar.
[15] The show received a 3.0 Nielsen rating in the demographic for adults aged 18–49, which was a 23% drop from the season premiere episode, and an eight percent audience share.
[17] For the week of September 26 – October 2, 2011, "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" tied for 29th place in the ratings among all network prime-time broadcasts in the 18–49 demographic.
"[4] Ology's Josh Harrison was also positive and gave the episode a rating of seven out of ten, while commenting that he "thought this was a definite downgrade from the season premiere in terms of sheer comedic value, but the sincerity of Bart's educational experience, combined with the enthusiasm of his mad quest for justice, definitely made this one a winner.
Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew called the opening revolutionary and explained that "in 35 short and sweet seconds, he liberates the animation of The Simpsons from years of graphic banality.
"[10] He continued: "The visual look of the show, which has been so carefully controlled by its producers, becomes a giddy and unrestrained playground for graphic play, and the balance of creative authority is shifted from the writers' room to the animators in one fell swoop."
When comparing the segment to Banksy's, Amidi concluded that it is "in fact, far more subversive because he focuses almost exclusively on making a pictorial statement, relegating the show's dominant literary elements to the back seat.
