Homer Defined
Encyclopedia
"Homer Defined" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons
' third season
. It originally aired on the Fox network
in the United States on October 17, 1991. In the episode, Homer
accidentally saves the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant from meltdown
by choosing a button to a counting rhyme
. He is honored as a hero and receives praise from his daughter Lisa
, but he starts to feel unworthy because he knows that his so-called heroism was just luck. Meanwhile, Bart
is downhearted after learning that Milhouse
's mother has forbidden him to spend time with Bart anymore.
The episode was written by freelance writer Howard Gewirtz
and directed by Mark Kirkland
. Basketball player Magic Johnson
of the Los Angeles Lakers
made a guest appearance in the episode as himself, becoming the first professional athlete to do so on the show. He appears in two sequences, one of which sees him calling Homer to congratulate him on saving the plant. The second appearance comes later in the episode in a basketball game sequence that Lakers sportscaster Chick Hearn
also guest stars in.
The episode has received generally positive reviews from critics, particularly Johnson's appearance. In its original airing on the Fox network, "Homer Defined" acquired a 12.7 Nielsen rating
—the equivalent of being watched in approximately 11.69 million homes—and finished the week ranked 36th.
is eating jelly doughnuts and one of them splatters onto the core
temperature dial, which is nearing the red zone. Homer is unable to see the warning and the plant approaches a nuclear meltdown
. He seems to be the only person who can stop it, though he has no skills and cannot remember any of his training. In desperation he chooses a button via eeny, meeny, miny, moe
, and miraculously presses the button that averts the meltdown. Springfield
is saved and Homer is honored as a hero. The owner of the plant, Mr. Burns
, names Homer "Employee of the Month". Homer's family is also proud of him, especially his daughter Lisa
, who starts to see him as a role model. Meanwhile Homer himself is troubled by the fact that his so-called heroism was nothing but luck.
Burns introduces Homer to Aristotle Amadopoulos, the owner of the nuclear power plant in Shelbyville, Springfield's neighbor town. Aristotle wants Homer to give a pep talk to his plant's lackluster workers. Homer is hesitant to accept, but Burns forces him into it. At the Shelbyville plant, he gives a fumbling motivational speech. Suddenly an impending meltdown threatens also the Shelbyville plant. Amadopoulos and Homer go to the control room, and Amadopoulos asks Homer to avert the meltdown. In front of everyone, Homer repeats his rhyme and presses a button blindly. By luck, he again manages to avert a meltdown. Amadopoulos thanks Homer for saving the plant, but is angered to find out that it was done with just dumb luck, rather than heroic intelligence. Soon the phrase "to pull a Homer", meaning "to succeed despite idiocy," becomes widely used and is entered into the dictionary.
In the subplot
, the relationship between Bart
and his best friend Milhouse is tested. On the bus ride to school, Bart is upset to discover that Milhouse had held a birthday party the previous Saturday without inviting him. It turns out that Milhouse's mother, Luann Van Houten, thinks Bart is a bad influence on Milhouse. Suddenly deprived of his best friend, a sad Bart resorts to playing with his younger sister Maggie
. When Bart's mother Marge
finds out about the situation she decides to visit Luann. Although Marge admits to her that Bart is a "bit of a handful," she explains that he and Milhouse are best friends and only have each other. She asks Luann to allow the boys to play together, and Luann changes her mind after seeing the impact her decision has on her son. Later, Milhouse invites Bart over to his house, and Bart thanks Marge for standing up for him.
. It was one of many stories he pitched to the producers of the show. According to executive producer Al Jean
, Gewirtz's script ended up featuring one of the longest first acts (an act being the amount of time between commercial breaks) in the history of the show when the episode was completed. Gewirtz's script originally contained two uses of the word "ass", once from Bart and once from Burns. This was the first time a character in the show had used this word, and it led to problems with the network censors
. Eventually, the censors forced the producers to remove one instance, so that Bart's line was changed to "bad influence, my butt."
Basketball player Magic Johnson
of the Los Angeles Lakers
guest stars in the episode as himself. He was the first professional athlete to do so on the show. Johnson appears in two sequences: first in a scene in which he calls to congratulate Homer on saving the plant, and later in the episode in a basketball game when he "pulls a Homer" by accidentally getting the ball into the basket after slipping on the floor. The recording of the episode was done during the National Basketball Association
's regular season, so the producers had a hard time scheduling Johnson's session. With the deadline approaching, the producers traveled to Johnson's home to record his lines. According to the San Jose Mercury News
, the recording equipment brought to his home did not work at first and "almost doomed the guest spot." Lakers sportscaster Chick Hearn
also guest stars in the episode, commentating on the game that Johnson plays.
Another guest star that appeared in the episode was actor Jon Lovitz
, who provided the voice for Aristotle Amadopoulos and a minor character that appears in a soap opera
. This was Lovitz's third appearance on the show. The character Amadopoulos that he played was designed to look like the Greek shipping magnate
Aristotle Onassis
. The character's dialogue was written to emulate Lovitz's comedic style, such as his ability for rapid mood swings. Amadopoulos returned a few episodes later in "Homer at the Bat
", though in that episode he was voiced by cast member Dan Castellaneta
rather than Lovitz.
Milhouse's mother, Luann Van Houten, makes her first appearance in this episode. She was designed to look very similar to Milhouse. Maggie Roswell
was assigned to voice the character and she originally based it on Milhouse, who is voiced by Pamela Hayden
. The producers felt that her impression sounded out of place so she ended up using a more normal sounding voice. It was Gewirtz who in this episode gave Milhouse his last name, Van Houten, which he got from one of his wife's friends.
Director Mark Kirkland
wanted the Springfield Power Plant to "look the best it had to date" and inserted shadows and back-lighting
effects to make the panels in Homer's control room glow.
and was viewed in approximately 11.69 million homes. It finished the week of October 14–20, 1991, ranked 36th, down from the season's average rank of 32nd. It ranked second in its timeslot behind The Cosby Show
, which finished 24th with a 15.5 rating. The episode was tied with In Living Color
as the highest rated show on Fox that week.
"Homer Defined" has received generally positive reviews from critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, described it as an excellent episode that added new depth to the show in the scene with Marge trying to convince Luann to let Milhouse play with Bart again. They added that Lisa's "faith in her heroic father makes a nice change", and said that the episode's ending, in which Homer enters the dictionary, "is most satisfying." Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide commented that after the episode "Bart the Murderer
", this episode marks a regression, saying it was almost inevitable that it would not match up to the previous episode. He went on to say that the subplot with Bart and Milhouse was more entertaining. Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed gave the episode a 4/5 rating, writing that he enjoyed the Homer story but found the Bart and Milhouse subplot more interesting. He added that "Milhouse's mom won't allow him to play with Bart because she thinks Bart is a bad influence. It's rare for the show to allow Bart to feel genuine emotion, but there is plenty of it in this episode that makes for a nice character oriented story."
Johnson's performance has also been praised. In 2004, ESPN
released a list of the top 100 Simpsons sport moments, ranking his appearance at number 27. Sports Illustrated
listed Johnson's cameo as the fifth best athlete guest appearance on The Simpsons. Meyers wrote that the episode "makes a lot of good points about the public making heroes in a rash, hysterical manner," and this point is made "with an amusing cameo by Earvin 'Magic' Johnson". The San Diego Union' s Fritz Quindt said the animators "did [Johnson's] likeness good," and noted that in the game the "colors on the Lakers jerseys and the Forum
court were correct. Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz
were almost lifelike, announcing at courtside in Sunday-color-comics sweaters. And Chick's play-by-play was so real Stu couldn't get a word in." Johnson's appearance was broadcast on CNN
's Sports Tonight
the day before the episode originally aired, and host Fred Hickman
stated that he did not find it humorous.
In his book Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, Jonathan Gray discusses a scene from "Homer Defined" that shows Homer reading a USA Today
with the cover story: "America's Favorite Pencil – #2 is #1". Lisa sees this title and criticizes the newspaper as a "flimsy hodge-podge of high-brass factoids and Larry King
", to which Homer responds that it is "the only paper in America that's not afraid to tell the truth: that everything is just fine." In the book, Gray says this scene is used by the show's producers to criticize "how often the news is wholly toothless, sacrificing journalism for sales, and leaving us not with important public information, but with America's Favorite Pencil."
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 3)
The Simpsons third season originally aired on the Fox network between September 19, 1991 and May 7, 1992. The show runners for the third production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss who executive produced 22 episodes the season, while two other episodes were produced by James L. Brooks, Matt...
. It originally aired on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on October 17, 1991. In the episode, Homer
Homer 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...
accidentally saves the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant from meltdown
Nuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency or by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission...
by choosing a button to a counting rhyme
Counting-out game
A counting-out game is a simple game intended to select a person to be "it", often for the purpose of playing another game. These games usually require no materials, and are played with spoken words or hand gestures....
. He is honored as a hero and receives praise from his daughter Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
, but he starts to feel unworthy because he knows that his so-called heroism was just luck. 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 downhearted after learning that Milhouse
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
's mother has forbidden him to spend time with Bart anymore.
The episode was written by freelance writer Howard Gewirtz
Howard Gewirtz
Howard Gewirtz is an American television writer, whose credits include Taxi, The Larry Sanders Show, Just Shoot Me, Wings, Oliver Beene, Everybody Hates Chris and The Simpsons.-External links:...
and directed by Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...
. Basketball player Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
of the Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
made a guest appearance in the episode as himself, becoming the first professional athlete to do so on the show. He appears in two sequences, one of which sees him calling Homer to congratulate him on saving the plant. The second appearance comes later in the episode in a basketball game sequence that Lakers sportscaster Chick Hearn
Chick Hearn
Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn was an American sportscaster. Known primarily as the long-time play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the legendary Hearn is remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, inventing colorful phrases such...
also guest stars in.
The episode has received generally positive reviews from critics, particularly Johnson's appearance. In its original airing on the Fox network, "Homer Defined" acquired a 12.7 Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
—the equivalent of being watched in approximately 11.69 million homes—and finished the week ranked 36th.
Plot
At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, employee 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...
is eating jelly doughnuts and one of them splatters onto the core
Nuclear reactor core
A nuclear reactor core is the portion of a nuclear reactor containing the nuclear fuel components where the nuclear reactions take place.- Description :...
temperature dial, which is nearing the red zone. Homer is unable to see the warning and the plant approaches a nuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency or by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission...
. He seems to be the only person who can stop it, though he has no skills and cannot remember any of his training. In desperation he chooses a button via eeny, meeny, miny, moe
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person to be "it" for games and similar purposes such as counting out a child that has to be stood down from a group of children as part of a playground game...
, and miraculously presses the button that averts the meltdown. Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
is saved and Homer is honored as a hero. The owner of the plant, Mr. Burns
Montgomery Burns
Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, who is voiced by Harry Shearer and previously Christopher Collins. Burns is the evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is Homer...
, names Homer "Employee of the Month". Homer's family is also proud of him, especially his daughter Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
, who starts to see him as a role model. Meanwhile Homer himself is troubled by the fact that his so-called heroism was nothing but luck.
Burns introduces Homer to Aristotle Amadopoulos, the owner of the nuclear power plant in Shelbyville, Springfield's neighbor town. Aristotle wants Homer to give a pep talk to his plant's lackluster workers. Homer is hesitant to accept, but Burns forces him into it. At the Shelbyville plant, he gives a fumbling motivational speech. Suddenly an impending meltdown threatens also the Shelbyville plant. Amadopoulos and Homer go to the control room, and Amadopoulos asks Homer to avert the meltdown. In front of everyone, Homer repeats his rhyme and presses a button blindly. By luck, he again manages to avert a meltdown. Amadopoulos thanks Homer for saving the plant, but is angered to find out that it was done with just dumb luck, rather than heroic intelligence. Soon the phrase "to pull a Homer", meaning "to succeed despite idiocy," becomes widely used and is entered into the dictionary.
In the subplot
Subplot
A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance...
, the relationship between 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...
and his best friend Milhouse is tested. On the bus ride to school, Bart is upset to discover that Milhouse had held a birthday party the previous Saturday without inviting him. It turns out that Milhouse's mother, Luann Van Houten, thinks Bart is a bad influence on Milhouse. Suddenly deprived of his best friend, a sad Bart resorts to playing with his younger sister Maggie
Maggie Simpson
Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Maggie was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James...
. When Bart's mother Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
finds out about the situation she decides to visit Luann. Although Marge admits to her that Bart is a "bit of a handful," she explains that he and Milhouse are best friends and only have each other. She asks Luann to allow the boys to play together, and Luann changes her mind after seeing the impact her decision has on her son. Later, Milhouse invites Bart over to his house, and Bart thanks Marge for standing up for him.
Production
The episode was written by freelance writer Howard GewirtzHoward Gewirtz
Howard Gewirtz is an American television writer, whose credits include Taxi, The Larry Sanders Show, Just Shoot Me, Wings, Oliver Beene, Everybody Hates Chris and The Simpsons.-External links:...
. It was one of many stories he pitched to the producers of the show. According to executive producer Al Jean
Al Jean
Al Jean is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on The Simpsons. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss...
, Gewirtz's script ended up featuring one of the longest first acts (an act being the amount of time between commercial breaks) in the history of the show when the episode was completed. Gewirtz's script originally contained two uses of the word "ass", once from Bart and once from Burns. This was the first time a character in the show had used this word, and it led to problems with the network censors
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
. Eventually, the censors forced the producers to remove one instance, so that Bart's line was changed to "bad influence, my butt."
Basketball player Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
of the Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
guest stars in the episode as himself. He was the first professional athlete to do so on the show. Johnson appears in two sequences: first in a scene in which he calls to congratulate Homer on saving the plant, and later in the episode in a basketball game when he "pulls a Homer" by accidentally getting the ball into the basket after slipping on the floor. The recording of the episode was done during the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
's regular season, so the producers had a hard time scheduling Johnson's session. With the deadline approaching, the producers traveled to Johnson's home to record his lines. According to the San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
, the recording equipment brought to his home did not work at first and "almost doomed the guest spot." Lakers sportscaster Chick Hearn
Chick Hearn
Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn was an American sportscaster. Known primarily as the long-time play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the legendary Hearn is remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, inventing colorful phrases such...
also guest stars in the episode, commentating on the game that Johnson plays.
Another guest star that appeared in the episode was actor Jon Lovitz
Jon Lovitz
Jonathan "Jon" Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
, who provided the voice for Aristotle Amadopoulos and a minor character that appears in a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
. This was Lovitz's third appearance on the show. The character Amadopoulos that he played was designed to look like the Greek shipping magnate
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Sokratis Onassis , commonly called Ari or Aristo Onassis, was a prominent Greek shipping magnate.- Early life :Onassis was born in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna to Socrates and Penelope Onassis...
. The character's dialogue was written to emulate Lovitz's comedic style, such as his ability for rapid mood swings. Amadopoulos returned a few episodes later in "Homer at the Bat
Homer at the Bat
"Homer at the Bat" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons third season, which originally aired February 20, 1992. The episode follows the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team, led by Homer, having a winning season and making the championship game. Mr. Burns makes a large bet that the...
", though in that episode he was voiced by cast member Dan Castellaneta
Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
rather than Lovitz.
Milhouse's mother, Luann Van Houten, makes her first appearance in this episode. She was designed to look very similar to Milhouse. Maggie Roswell
Maggie Roswell
Maggie Roswell is an American film and television actress and voice artist from Los Angeles, California. She is well known for her voice work on the Fox network's animated television series The Simpsons, in which she has played recurring characters such as Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Miss...
was assigned to voice the character and she originally based it on Milhouse, who is voiced by Pamela Hayden
Pamela Hayden
Pamela Hayden is an American actress, best known for providing various voices for the animated television show The Simpsons.-Biography:...
. The producers felt that her impression sounded out of place so she ended up using a more normal sounding voice. It was Gewirtz who in this episode gave Milhouse his last name, Van Houten, which he got from one of his wife's friends.
Director Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...
wanted the Springfield Power Plant to "look the best it had to date" and inserted shadows and back-lighting
Backlighting (lighting design)
Backlighting refers to the process of illuminating the subject from the back. In other words, the lighting instrument and the viewer are facing towards each other, with the subject in between. This causes the edges of the subject to glow, while the other areas remain darker. The backlight can be a...
effects to make the panels in Homer's control room glow.
Reception and analysis
In its original airing on the Fox network, the episode acquired a 12.7 Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
and was viewed in approximately 11.69 million homes. It finished the week of October 14–20, 1991, ranked 36th, down from the season's average rank of 32nd. It ranked second in its timeslot behind The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
, which finished 24th with a 15.5 rating. The episode was tied with In Living Color
In Living Color
In Living Color is an American sketch comedy television series, which originally ran on the Fox Network from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Brothers Keenen and Damon Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in association with 20th Century...
as the highest rated show on Fox that week.
"Homer Defined" has received generally positive reviews from critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, described it as an excellent episode that added new depth to the show in the scene with Marge trying to convince Luann to let Milhouse play with Bart again. They added that Lisa's "faith in her heroic father makes a nice change", and said that the episode's ending, in which Homer enters the dictionary, "is most satisfying." Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide commented that after the episode "Bart the Murderer
Bart the Murderer
"Bart the Murderer" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 10, 1991. In the episode, Bart stumbles upon the Mafia bar, Legitimate Businessman's Social Club, after having a terrible day at school. The owner of the...
", this episode marks a regression, saying it was almost inevitable that it would not match up to the previous episode. He went on to say that the subplot with Bart and Milhouse was more entertaining. Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed gave the episode a 4/5 rating, writing that he enjoyed the Homer story but found the Bart and Milhouse subplot more interesting. He added that "Milhouse's mom won't allow him to play with Bart because she thinks Bart is a bad influence. It's rare for the show to allow Bart to feel genuine emotion, but there is plenty of it in this episode that makes for a nice character oriented story."
Johnson's performance has also been praised. In 2004, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
released a list of the top 100 Simpsons sport moments, ranking his appearance at number 27. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
listed Johnson's cameo as the fifth best athlete guest appearance on The Simpsons. Meyers wrote that the episode "makes a lot of good points about the public making heroes in a rash, hysterical manner," and this point is made "with an amusing cameo by Earvin 'Magic' Johnson". The San Diego Union
The Forum (Inglewood, California)
The Forum is an indoor arena, in Inglewood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. From 2000 to 2010, it was owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church, which occasionally used it for church services, while also leasing the building for sporting events, concerts and other events.Along with Madison...
court were correct. Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz
Stu Lantz
Stuart Burrell Lantz is a retired American basketball player and the current television commentator for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association on Fox Sports West and KCAL...
were almost lifelike, announcing at courtside in Sunday-color-comics sweaters. And Chick's play-by-play was so real Stu couldn't get a word in." Johnson's appearance was broadcast on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Sports Tonight
Sports Tonight (CNN)
Sports Tonight was a show that aired on CNN from 1980 to 2001, and on CNNSI from December 12, 1996 to the station's demise on May 15, 2002. It normally aired at 11 p.m. ET.-The early years:...
the day before the episode originally aired, and host Fred Hickman
Fred Hickman
Fred Hickman is an American sports broadcaster who has had stints with CNN, TBS, YES Network, and ESPN. Born and raised in Springfield, Illinois, he graduated Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1978, joining as an original co-host of the CNN show Sports Tonight in 1980...
stated that he did not find it humorous.
In his book Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, Jonathan Gray discusses a scene from "Homer Defined" that shows Homer reading a USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
with the cover story: "America's Favorite Pencil – #2 is #1". Lisa sees this title and criticizes the newspaper as a "flimsy hodge-podge of high-brass factoids and Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
", to which Homer responds that it is "the only paper in America that's not afraid to tell the truth: that everything is just fine." In the book, Gray says this scene is used by the show's producers to criticize "how often the news is wholly toothless, sacrificing journalism for sales, and leaving us not with important public information, but with America's Favorite Pencil."
External links
- "Homer Defined" at The Simpsons.com