Lisa's Pony
In this episode, Homer goes drinking at Moe's Tavern instead of buying a new reed for Lisa's saxophone, making her flop at the school talent show.
"Lisa's Pony" features cultural references to films such as The Godfather and 2001: A Space Odyssey the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, and the Chuck Berry song "My Ding-a-Ling".
After Homer's attempts to mend his relationship with Lisa fail, he buys her, using a loan through the power plant credit union, the one thing she has always wanted: a pony.
After watching Bart take advantage of a sleep-deprived Homer at the Kwik-E-Mart, Lisa shares a heartbreaking goodbye with her pony.
When Homer—who was lazy, stole from the Kwik-E-Mart, and was rude to the customers—quits his job, Apu admits that he was the "best damned employee a convenience store ever had".
"Lisa's Pony" was written by Al Jean and Mike Reiss,[1] who were show runners of The Simpsons when the episode was produced.
Jean and Reiss were working approximately 80–100 hours a week when they were assigned to write an episode on top of their regular job.
After the episode came back from the animation studio in Korea, the staff noticed the light was colored blue, making Lisa look like "a Smurf".
Following Grau's death in 1995, the characters she voiced were retired out of respect, with the exception of Lunch Lady Doris, who stayed on the show without speaking roles until 2006.
[2] The beginning of the episode, in which Homer has a dream of himself as an ape, is a reference to the Dawn of Man sequence in the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
[1][5][6] The Simpsons director David Silverman had difficulties with making the ape resemble Homer and struggled with the design for several hours.
John Boylan, who produced the album The Simpsons Sing the Blues, personally appealed to Berry to clear the song for them.
[12] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called the episode "good stuff" and praised the "nice flashbacks to Lisa as a baby".
[14] Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed rated the episode a 5 (of 5), praising it for its references to The Godfather and 2001: A Space Odyssey which "film buffs will find uproarious".
[17] Molly Griffin of The Observer commented that "Lisa's Pony" is one of the third season's episodes that "make the show into the cultural force it is today".
[18] Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict said "Lisa's Pony" is a "priceless part" of the show because of its "meshing of old storylines with new experiences, combined with some of the best jokes in the series".
