Simpson Tide

It guest-starred Rod Steiger as Captain Tenille and Bob Denver as himself, with one-time Simpsons writer Michael Carrington making an appearance as the Drill Sergeant.

While participating in a military exercise, Homer unintentionally has the captain fired out of a torpedo tube and pilots the submarine into Russian waters, which is seen by the United States government as an attempt to defect.

This event creates a political schism between the United States and Russia, with a Russian representative revealing that the Soviet Union never dissolved; the Berlin Wall rises from the ground, Soviet troops and tanks appear on the streets and a zombie-like Vladimir Lenin rises from his tomb in Moscow.

Nuclear war is anticipated until the US Navy drops depth charges on Homer's submarine, aiming either to destroy it or force it to surface.

In the DVD commentary, Al Jean says that Steiger claimed that he really did get stuck in a torpedo tube once, but this plot device was not related to his experience.

[5] Homer mentions that he and his friends joining the Navy is similar to The Deer Hunter, and the Russian roulette scene from the film is later parodied.

[4] A veteran says that he lost his eye in a drinking accident in Haiti; Operation Uphold Democracy was an American intervention in the Caribbean country in 1994.

[3] Bart gets his ear pierced at a mall where every store is converted into a Starbucks; Reiss said that some animators were unaware of the franchise at the time.

[2] In 2014, it was alleged that the episode's Soviet Union revival joke predicted the recent Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

[7] In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Al Jean responded to the prediction rumors by claiming that the gag was “very sad” and that “There is the kind of prediction, where we reference something that has happened, happening again — we hope it wouldn’t, but sadly, it does.”[8] In addition to the ordering the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who Jean blamed for the rising tensions,[8] has also previously made efforts to intervene in the affairs of other former Soviet republics as well, with another example being 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia.

[4] 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 it "a fairly straightforward episode where the biggest laugh comes from Homer being able to talk to penguins and Bart trying to impress his classmates by doing The Bartman.

Ryan also said that the episode deserves to be mentioned as part of the show's "golden era" for its frequent jokes, as well as a well-written structure in spite of its outlandish plot.