Chief of Hearts
Encyclopedia
"Chief of Hearts" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons
' twenty-first season
. It aired on the Fox network in the United States
on April 18, 2010.
In this episode, Homer and Chief Wiggum become friends after Homer shares a sandwich with Wiggum during his community service sentence. Meanwhile, Bart becomes addicted to a Japanese kids' game called Battle Ball, but Marge and Principal Skinner believe that Bart is dealing drugs.
The episode was written by Carolyn Omine
and William Wright and directed by Chris Clements
, features guest star Jane Kaczmarek
as Judge Constance Harm, Maurice LaMarche
and Joe Mantegna
as Fat Tony
and has references to the television shows Starsky and Hutch
, Three's Company
, and Bakugan Battle Brawlers
. "Chief of Hearts" received mixed to positive reviews from critics and came first in its timeslot.
attempts to smuggle a candy apple
into a bank, he is mistaken for a bank robber and sentenced by Judge Constance Harm to community service
. While completing his community service, Homer offers Chief Clancy Wiggum a sandwich. Wiggum is touched by the offer, and the two become instant friends. The two spend more and more time together, and Clancy confesses to Homer that he has very few friends. Their "moment" is interrupted when the chief must rush to a robbery, where Clancy is shot by a thug in Fat Tony
's mob. Homer keeps a bedside vigil in the hospital until Clancy awakes, but grows tired of Clancy's neediness and goes to Moe's for a break. When Clancy finds him there, he declares Homer to be a bad friend and demands to Eddie and Lou arrest him, but when they refuse (since that being a "bad friend" is not unlawful) Wiggum yells at them and storms away. Neither police officers Lou nor Eddie can find the chief, but Homer finds him on the same hillside where they first hung out together. When they spot Fat Tony and his mob counterfeiting Lacoste shirts, Homer and Clancy are captured and thrown in the trunk of Tony's car. The situation seems hopeless, but Homer reveals that he has faith in Clancy to find a way out. Clancy rearranges the CDs and when "At Seventeen
" by Janis Ian
plays instead of a dramatic song it angers Tony. When he goes to confront Homer and Clancy, the two make their escape. They reconcile and proceed to hassle Ned Flanders
with the police helicopter. (They shine the spotlight into Ned's bedroom window and Flanders believes it is God. He still believes it when Homer, using a megaphone, tells him to do things like take off his clothes, shave his mustache and drink the shavings in cold cocoa to prepare for the impending Rapture)
Meanwhile, Bart
is introduced to a Japanese card game called "Battle Ball
" at Dylan's birthday party. While it is never resolved whether Dylan is male or female, Bart becomes hooked on this game. His jargon and secretive behavior lead Principal Skinner to suspect Bart of dealing drugs. Marge cannot believe that Bart would become involved with drugs, but she becomes suspicious and searches his room. When he catches her rifling through his things, he shows her his Battle Ball gear and she is satisfied that his interests are legal. Bart is horrified, though, that Marge thinks the game is cute and decides to flush it down the toilet, causing it to overflow.
The episode was written by Carolyn Omine
and William Wright and directed by Chris Clements
. The episode features guest appearances by Jane Kaczmarek
as Judge Constance Harm, Maurice LaMarche
and Joe Mantegna
as Fat Tony
. Sideshow Bob
makes a cameo appearance at the end.
can be seen. Also Edward G. Robinson
is seen. Bart's subplot parallels the South Park episode, "Chinpokomon
" and the sitcom Three's Company
. " The game Bart and his friends play is a parody of Bakugan (one of the kids says it makes Digimon
look like Pokémon
due for the fact that Digimon creatures kill each other off during a battle unlike Pokémon.). When Wiggum tells Krusty to go sort out the bums we see one of the bums is John Swartzwelder
.
".
The episode received mixed to positive reviews. The positive reviews include Robert Canning of IGN
, who gave the episode a positive review and a 8/10, and stated "There was a lot to enjoy in 'Chief of Hearts'. Pairing Homer with Wiggum had not been something overdone by the series, so having the two at the center of the episode had a certain freshness to it. The story maybe not so much, but the pairing worked." He also mentioned that "Bart's 'Battle Balls' storyline was also fun, even though there was absolutely nothing to it." Todd VanDer Werff of A.V. Club gave the episode a A- saying "A lot of latter-day Simpsons episodes do this to goose the climax, since the ending of a Simpsons episode, even a good one, is usually its weakest point. This was no exception, so that keeps the episode from the heights of some of the others this season, but it's nice to see the show try new things every once in a while".
The mixed reviews include TVFanatic.com who gave the episode 2.5/5, stating "It's shocking that a Simpsons episode that focused on a friendship between Homer and Clancy would be so mediocre. If the main story wasn't disappointing enough, the side story with Bart becoming addicted to Battle Balls is barely worthy of mention." Ariel Ponywether of Firefox News gave the episode a C+, stating "The episode's biggest fault is that it's only somewhat funny. There are only a scattering of laugh-out-loud lines, but nothing special or memorable." She also mentions that "Bart’s section of the plot is a flop – it has no resolution of any note." Jason Hughes of TV Squad said " Homer Simpson and Clancy Wiggum becoming BFFs should have been comedy gold; instead, this episode of 'The Simpsons' was a colossal bore. It seems like everything hilarious you can do with the Springfield police - high-speed car chases, putting squirrels down your pants for the purpose of gambling - has already been done. They never even go out for donuts!"
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 21)
The Simpsons twenty-first season aired on Fox from September 27, 2009 to May 23, 2010. It was the first of two seasons that the show was renewed for by Fox, and also the first season of the show to air entirely in high definition....
. It aired on the Fox network in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on April 18, 2010.
In this episode, Homer and Chief Wiggum become friends after Homer shares a sandwich with Wiggum during his community service sentence. Meanwhile, Bart becomes addicted to a Japanese kids' game called Battle Ball, but Marge and Principal Skinner believe that Bart is dealing drugs.
The episode was written by Carolyn Omine
Carolyn Omine
Carolyn Omine is an American television writer. She has written for Full House, The Parent 'Hood and The Simpsons. She was credited as an executive producer by the Simpsons' 17th season, although this changed to a producer in the 18th....
and William Wright and directed by Chris Clements
Chris Clements
Chris Clements is an animation director with The Simpsons and has directed four episodes. Prior to that, he was a character layout artist with the show...
, features guest star Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. Kaczmarek is a three-time Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy Award nominee...
as Judge Constance Harm, Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...
and Joe Mantegna
Joe Mantegna
Joseph Anthony "Joe" Mantegna, Jr. is an American actor, producer, writer,director, and voice actor. He is best known for his roles in box office hits such as Three Amigos , The Godfather Part III , Forget Paris , and Up Close & Personal...
as Fat Tony
Fat Tony
Marion Anthony "Fat Tony" D'Amico is a recurring character in the animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Joe Mantegna and first appeared in the third season episode "Bart the Murderer"...
and has references to the television shows Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
, Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
, and Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
is a Japanese action adventure anime television series produced by TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto. The story centers on the lives of creatures called Bakugan and the battle brawlers who possess them...
. "Chief of Hearts" received mixed to positive reviews from critics and came first in its timeslot.
Plot
When HomerHomer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
attempts to smuggle a candy apple
Candy apple
Candy apples, also known as toffee apples outside of North America, are whole apples covered in a hard sugar candy coating. While the topping varies from place to place, they are almost always served with a stick of sorts in the middle making them easier to eat...
into a bank, he is mistaken for a bank robber and sentenced by Judge Constance Harm to community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
. While completing his community service, Homer offers Chief Clancy Wiggum a sandwich. Wiggum is touched by the offer, and the two become instant friends. The two spend more and more time together, and Clancy confesses to Homer that he has very few friends. Their "moment" is interrupted when the chief must rush to a robbery, where Clancy is shot by a thug in Fat Tony
Fat Tony
Marion Anthony "Fat Tony" D'Amico is a recurring character in the animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Joe Mantegna and first appeared in the third season episode "Bart the Murderer"...
's mob. Homer keeps a bedside vigil in the hospital until Clancy awakes, but grows tired of Clancy's neediness and goes to Moe's for a break. When Clancy finds him there, he declares Homer to be a bad friend and demands to Eddie and Lou arrest him, but when they refuse (since that being a "bad friend" is not unlawful) Wiggum yells at them and storms away. Neither police officers Lou nor Eddie can find the chief, but Homer finds him on the same hillside where they first hung out together. When they spot Fat Tony and his mob counterfeiting Lacoste shirts, Homer and Clancy are captured and thrown in the trunk of Tony's car. The situation seems hopeless, but Homer reveals that he has faith in Clancy to find a way out. Clancy rearranges the CDs and when "At Seventeen
At Seventeen
"At Seventeen" is a song by Janis Ian, released in 1975 on Between the Lines and as a single. Ian's most successful recording, the song is a commentary on adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst, as reflected upon from the maturity of adulthood...
" by Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
plays instead of a dramatic song it angers Tony. When he goes to confront Homer and Clancy, the two make their escape. They reconcile and proceed to hassle Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
with the police helicopter. (They shine the spotlight into Ned's bedroom window and Flanders believes it is God. He still believes it when Homer, using a megaphone, tells him to do things like take off his clothes, shave his mustache and drink the shavings in cold cocoa to prepare for the impending Rapture)
Meanwhile, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
is introduced to a Japanese card game called "Battle Ball
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
is a Japanese action adventure anime television series produced by TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto. The story centers on the lives of creatures called Bakugan and the battle brawlers who possess them...
" at Dylan's birthday party. While it is never resolved whether Dylan is male or female, Bart becomes hooked on this game. His jargon and secretive behavior lead Principal Skinner to suspect Bart of dealing drugs. Marge cannot believe that Bart would become involved with drugs, but she becomes suspicious and searches his room. When he catches her rifling through his things, he shows her his Battle Ball gear and she is satisfied that his interests are legal. Bart is horrified, though, that Marge thinks the game is cute and decides to flush it down the toilet, causing it to overflow.
Production
Carolyn Omine
Carolyn Omine is an American television writer. She has written for Full House, The Parent 'Hood and The Simpsons. She was credited as an executive producer by the Simpsons' 17th season, although this changed to a producer in the 18th....
and William Wright and directed by Chris Clements
Chris Clements
Chris Clements is an animation director with The Simpsons and has directed four episodes. Prior to that, he was a character layout artist with the show...
. The episode features guest appearances by Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. Kaczmarek is a three-time Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy Award nominee...
as Judge Constance Harm, Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...
and Joe Mantegna
Joe Mantegna
Joseph Anthony "Joe" Mantegna, Jr. is an American actor, producer, writer,director, and voice actor. He is best known for his roles in box office hits such as Three Amigos , The Godfather Part III , Forget Paris , and Up Close & Personal...
as Fat Tony
Fat Tony
Marion Anthony "Fat Tony" D'Amico is a recurring character in the animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Joe Mantegna and first appeared in the third season episode "Bart the Murderer"...
. Sideshow Bob
Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared briefly in the episode "The Telltale Head". Bob is a self-proclaimed genius who is a graduate of Yale, a member of...
makes a cameo appearance at the end.
Cultural references
During the episode an episode of Starsky and HutchStarsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
can be seen. Also Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
is seen. Bart's subplot parallels the South Park episode, "Chinpokomon
Chinpokomon
"Chinpokomon" is the 10th episode of the third season of the American animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 3, 1999, making it the 41st episode of the series...
" and the sitcom Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
. " The game Bart and his friends play is a parody of Bakugan (one of the kids says it makes Digimon
Digimon
, short for , is a Japanese media franchise encompassing digital toys, anime, manga and video games. The franchise's eponymous creatures are monsters of various forms living in a "Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks.-Conception and...
look like Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...
due for the fact that Digimon creatures kill each other off during a battle unlike Pokémon.). When Wiggum tells Krusty to go sort out the bums we see one of the bums is John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
.
Reception
This episode was watched in 5.93 million households and a 8-49 Nielsen Rating of 2.7 and a share of 8% coming first in its timeslot. The episode ranked 24th in the weekly 18-49 rating dropping four positions from last weeks, "American History X-cellentAmerican History X-cellent
"American History X-cellent" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons twenty-first season and 458th overall. In this episode, Burns is arrested for possessing stolen art and Smithers is chosen to run the nuclear plant—only to turn into a misanthropic slave driver when his co-workers begin taking...
".
The episode received mixed to positive reviews. The positive reviews include Robert Canning of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, who gave the episode a positive review and a 8/10, and stated "There was a lot to enjoy in 'Chief of Hearts'. Pairing Homer with Wiggum had not been something overdone by the series, so having the two at the center of the episode had a certain freshness to it. The story maybe not so much, but the pairing worked." He also mentioned that "Bart's 'Battle Balls' storyline was also fun, even though there was absolutely nothing to it." Todd VanDer Werff of A.V. Club gave the episode a A- saying "A lot of latter-day Simpsons episodes do this to goose the climax, since the ending of a Simpsons episode, even a good one, is usually its weakest point. This was no exception, so that keeps the episode from the heights of some of the others this season, but it's nice to see the show try new things every once in a while".
The mixed reviews include TVFanatic.com who gave the episode 2.5/5, stating "It's shocking that a Simpsons episode that focused on a friendship between Homer and Clancy would be so mediocre. If the main story wasn't disappointing enough, the side story with Bart becoming addicted to Battle Balls is barely worthy of mention." Ariel Ponywether of Firefox News gave the episode a C+, stating "The episode's biggest fault is that it's only somewhat funny. There are only a scattering of laugh-out-loud lines, but nothing special or memorable." She also mentions that "Bart’s section of the plot is a flop – it has no resolution of any note." Jason Hughes of TV Squad said " Homer Simpson and Clancy Wiggum becoming BFFs should have been comedy gold; instead, this episode of 'The Simpsons' was a colossal bore. It seems like everything hilarious you can do with the Springfield police - high-speed car chases, putting squirrels down your pants for the purpose of gambling - has already been done. They never even go out for donuts!"
External links
- "Chief of Hearts" at The Simpsons.com
- "Chief of Hearts" at The Simpsons ArchiveThe Simpsons ArchiveThe Simpsons Archive, better known as snpp.com or simply SNPP , is a Simpsons fan site that has been online since 1994...