Radio Bart
Homer sees a television commercial for the Superstar Celebrity Microphone — which can broadcast anyone's voice over AM radio — and impulsively buys one for Bart's birthday.
At first, Bart dislikes the microphone, but he later uses it to play practical jokes, such as tricking Ned's sons, Rod and Todd, into believing that God is talking to them, eavesdropping on Lisa and Janey's conversations about boys, and convincing Homer that Martians are invading.
Bart ends up losing the radio down the well, but plays this to his advantage, tricking the townspeople into thinking an orphan named Timmy O'Toole has fallen down the well.
"Radio Bart" was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Carlos Baeza, though series creator Matt Groening came up with the idea for it.
"[2] The producers approached singer Bruce Springsteen to appear in the episode because he had participated to the charity song "We Are the World", on which "We're Sending Our Love Down the Well" is based.
"[3] The Simpsons director David Silverman said Sting's appearance in the episode worked for his persona because he has campaigned for political and social causes in real life.
Both commercials feature a boy riding by in a car full of friends saying, "Hey, good-looking, we'll be back to pick you up later", a line the staff thought was "hilarious".
[2] The plotline is similar to an incident involving Jessica McClure, a young girl who fell into a well and received support from citizens and celebrities.
The background music heard when Bart sneaks down the well is based on "Axel F" from the film Beverly Hills Cop,[3] and would later become a recurring track in other episodes.
[14] The episode was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program, but lost to Will Vinton's A Claymation Easter on CBS.
From Bart's crappy birthday to his pranks to the public reaction to Timmy's trapping, the humor flies fast and furious in this excellent episode.
[18] DVD Times's Chris Kaye said "Radio Bart" is "another demonstration of the series' knack for cultural references, parodying the Billy Wilder movie Ace in the Hole".
[19] Entertainment Weekly ranked "Radio Bart" as the 20th best episode of The Simpsons and commented that "it's a media parody so sharp, we're still stinging a bit.
[21] The authors of the book “I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide,” Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, commented that "The Police had a song called 'Canary in the Coalmine' (the episode contains a scene where a canary dies in the well, but is later determined by Dr. Hibbert to have died by 'natural causes'), and Sting had made a point of campaigning for good causes, which explains why he was singled out in this sharp critique of celebrity posturing and media panic.
[22] Nathan Rabin writes that "For all its transgressive naughtiness and impish satire, there’s something unmistakably old-fashioned, all-American and borderline wholesome about The Simpsons", praising the episode's parodies of Ace in the Hole and celebrity activism.
[23] In the wake of the September 2017 Puebla earthquake in Mexico, the Mexican Navy reported that a child named Frida Sofia had been trapped within the debris of a fallen school.
