Homer, Bart, and Lisa see the newest Cosmic Wars film, The Gathering Shadow, and the movie turns out to be less than what they expected.

At home, Marge suggests that Bart and Lisa write a letter to Cosmic Wars creator Randall Curtis.

This forces the Simpsons to go on a trip to California, where Homer and Marge go to wineries, and Bart and Lisa go to the Cosmic Wars Ranch.

Curtis agrees, and decides to go back to his storytelling roots by watching more samurai films and Westerns for inspiration.

Unfortunately, when they go to an Oktoberfest featuring Grammy-winning nuclear polka band Brave Combo, Marge, who tries to go through the night without drinking, gives in and ends up drunk along with Homer.

According to Carl Finch, founding member of the band, within two weeks, the network contacted them for video reference material for the animators for their "Springfield-yellow likenesses".

[2] Cosmic Wars and Randall Curtis are parodies of the Star Wars prequel trilogy and its director George Lucas; the parodies focus on negative reaction the films received, particularly the criticism of the character Jar Jar Binks, which is represented as "Jim-Jam", and the over-focus on politics.

[6] James Greene of Nerve put the episode sixth on his list "Ten Times The Simpsons Jumped the Shark", singling out the storyline of Homer deliberately framing Marge for a crime he committed just to save his own skin.