There's No Disgrace Like Home

SEASON-1 (Episode-4)- Original Air Date: 28 January 1990

The act began where Bart Simpson and his sister, Lisa Simpson continued to push each other and they were both being accompanied by arguments. Their dad, Homer Simpson dashed towards them in order to stop their scuffle and explained to them to behave their best since they were planning to go for picnic to Mr. Burns’ company. He also mentioned that he did not want to be let down in front of everyone who attended the picnic, including Mr. Burns. Homer went to the kitchen and appreciated the jell-o that Mrs. Simpson was making. He thought of achieving brownie points since Mr. Burns had admired Marge’s jell-o in the past.

The Simpson family drove off to Mr. Burns’ house while each member carried the desserts on their laps. When they reached the mansion, Homer once again told his family that he expected them to conduct properly just for the sake of showing him some respect and love. Once they went near the entrance, Mr. Burns welcomed them. A child, who belonged to another family in front of the Simpson, made a comment but Mr. Burns did not like it. He immediately called to Mr. Smithers and commanded that the child’s dad to be thrown out of the company. As a result, Homer and his family members became quite anxious and made through their welcoming attitude by Mr. Burns, without getting into any trouble. At the lawn, Homer reminded his family again about the behavioral statement and told them to stay normal. Both the siblings, Bart and Lisa went off to play at the hydro fountain. Homer pursued after them while Marge and his youngest daughter Maggie Simpson were left behind.

Another lady who attended Mr. Burns’ mansion came over to Marge and gave the idea of having punch drink together after keeping their babies at the nursery. At the beginning, Marge was hesitant but when she noticed homer running after the indiscipline children, she changed her mind at once and approved of that lady’s suggestion. Homer went on teaching Bart on how to behave when Mr. Smithers appeared into the scene and informed about the sack race game between dad and son. Bart was told by Homer that they had to allow Mr. Burns to become first. Marge, while having conversation with wives of other employees started feeling unsteady from drinking too much of punch. The place where the sack race occurred, Mr. Smithers fired a gun and gave way for Mr. Burns to start the race. In front of others, Mr. Burns went and Bart could not take it any longer. He thought of running up to the finish line. His dad skipped forward right on time and tackled the situation, by stopping Bart while allowing Mr. Burns to reach the finish line first.

On the other hand, a really tipsy Marge became in charge of singing and dancing performance of every women. Right at that time, Homer spotted her while he was running after Bart and Lisa. He became extremely surprised by seeing his wife acting in that manner and reminded her to conduct properly after taking the punch drink away from her. He also mentioned to her that Mr. Burns was about to give a speech so they should pay attention.

When Mr. Burns started to give the speech all the people who attended the picnic got together and started to hear what Mr. Burns had to say. He showed gratitude towards everyone by thanking them for attending the picnic and told them to leave at once since his hounds were about to be set free within a few more minutes. Everyone started leaving the place at once. Homer found a boy from the family in front of his own, kissing his father and admitting to him what a great time he had at the picnic. Homer also observed that Mr. Burns became happy by seeing the child’s reaction and ordered Smithers to increase the salary of that man. At that instant, homer turned around and told Bart to do the same. At first, Bart hesitated but eventually he did as he was told by his father. Homer was not lucky enough like the other man whose salary had been raised because Mr. Burns had no reaction towards it.

Homer said to the father whose salary had been increased that he could put an end to all his pretensions. The father became rather surprised because he knew not what homer had been talking about. Homer perceived that the children who belonged to that father were as polite as can be. They managed to help each other out while opening the car door as their mom suggested of driving back home since they all had a long and tiring day. When he looked at his own family, he could find out that his son and his daughter fought with each other at the backseat while his wife seemed as if she was about to throw up. Homer started to visualize that a ray of light fell on them after clouds being opened and they traveled up to heavens. But the moment he looked back at his family he felt as if his family members were evil monsters who tried to bring him down to hell. He felt shameful of having such a family while he drove back home.

The children along with their mother, Marge ate dinner at the sitting room while watching TV. Just then Homer came and suggested that they should eat by sitting at the dinner table like all other normal families do. With everyone seated at the table, Lisa asked his dad if he was happy then or not and the moment he said that he was happy everyone began to shove food inside their mouths as quickly as they could. Homer instantly got infuriated and shouted at them. He also told Bart that he should have said his prayers before Bart began to eat. In the half way of offering his prayers Bart told his dad to do the same. While saying the prayers, Homer shared with his family the fact that how discontented he had been about the behavior of his family members. His wife and children admitted that they thought their family was perfectly fine and Homer immediately decided that he had to prove what he had in his mind about his family.

Homer took them out to select some houses at random and watch those families’ behaviors. There was this first family that they managed to visit and they peeped through the window and found out that the family had been seated and enjoyed their fancy dinner. Bart commented that exceptions were always around so Homer and his family peeped through the window of another house. They observed that both the parents were nicely talking to their son. When the dad heard the Simpson, he chased them away with scattergun. The Simpson family ran away and reached the field of another house. As Bart commented about the rubbish state and Homer got hurt due to the flowerbed, they came to realize that house actually belonged to them. As everyone went back inside, Homer declared that he would visit Moe’s tavern for a short while.

As Homer started to drink beer while watching TV, Eddie and Lou who were two dishonest police officers, paid a visit at the same bar. They said that they were looking for a family trespasser whose dog went mad as he found Homer’s body smell. So the police officers left the place without any nuisance. After this, Homer expressed his feelings towards Barney and Moe and in return he had to hear from Barney that no one could control Homer’s children. Homer became really infuriated at this comment and he hit Barney on his face. An undaunted Barney was found to hit Homer back on his head while Homer fell on his back, copying the scene on TV. Still lying on his back, Homer looked at the TV and noticed an advertisement for the Family Therapy Center where Dr. Marvin Monroe treated his patients and he mentioned that he could give solutions to any kind of family problems or else he would return double of what customers had paid to him. With realization dawned that Homer finally got the solution to all his problems, he called up the phone number which was showed on the advertisement.

When Homer walked inside the living room just to announce to his family about what he had just done, he found his wife and children watching “Itchy and Scratchy.” As Homer declared that he had fixed an appointment with Dr Marvin at the Family Therapy Center and that his family members also had to go along with him, all the family members resisted. But Homer still persisted despite the fact that the fee was $250.

Homer decided that he would use up his children’s college fund and go to Family therapy Center, but then he soon realized that there was only $85.50 in there and this was not an adequate amount of money. So he decided to put the TV on mortgage for the remaining amount of money. His family begged of him so that he did not take such a step but Homer was determined to complete his mission of making a perfect family.

Once they all went to the Therapy center, Homer went to the cashier with all the money that he had, and started to think if he would get the thing that he had paid for. Then he saw a family which had walked out after the therapy treatment and they all looked very happy and once again he was influenced to make a better family. As Homer plopped the money down, Dr. Marvin came out to welcome the Simpson family.

The treatment began as Dr. Marvin brought the Simpson family inside his room and told each of them to draw picture of the source which they considered as the reason for their sadness. Mrs. Simpson and the children drew Homer’s picture but Homer got absent minded while thinking about the task given to him and started to draw the picture of an aero plane. Homer was explained by Dr. Marvin that everyone in his family considered Homer to be a strict member. Immediately, Bart approved of this statement. Homer became really angry and he picked up a lamp and warned Bart that he will shatter Bart with that. Dr Marvin tried to soothe Homer and gave the Simpson family another exercise which included hitting each other with big hammers made out of foam. The exercise was not working out in the proper way as the family members soon got fatigue due to swinging of the foam hammers. Eventually, the exercise reached an end as Bart managed to remove the foam off the hammer and struck it at Dr Marvin’s knee. Soon Dr. Marvin got to realize that the Simpson family did not respond to typical treatment and thus he recommended a different kind of exercise. Each of the Simpson’s was told to sit at respective chairs, which consisted of buttons that produced electric shock to another chair, when pushed. Dr. Marvin instructed them just to send a shock to the person if he or she had hurt him or him emotionally. Everyone in the Simpson family began to shove the buttons, shocking each and every member continuously and this exercise also turned into a terrible mess. The luminous situation in the Family Therapy Center as well as all around Springfield became dull and Mr. Burns expressed that he really liked the situation as it showed how people were consuming energy. Dr. Marvin, getting to tolerate no more, yelled at the Simpson so that they would conclude whatever they were doing. No one in the Simpson family could hear Dr. Marvin and eventually he had to stop the connection so that no one could send any shock to each other. Becoming so desperate due to the chaos that the Simpson had created he planned to expel them out of his chamber. Right at that moment, Homer asked Dr. Marvin to return double of what he had paid him, since that was the condition shown on TV. Dr. Marvin handed Homer $500 and the Simpson family went home gracefully. Everyone felt very intimate between each other and felt really happy since they had obtained $500. Each and everyone showed their feelings towards Homer, who lastly decided that he, would be getting a completely new TV with the amount of money that he had earned.