Whistler's Father
"Whistler's Father" is the third episode of the twenty-ninth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 621st episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 15, 2017.
| "Whistler's Father" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 29 Episode 3 |
| Directed by | Matthew Faughnan |
| Written by | Tom Gammill and Max Pross |
| Production code | WABF16 |
| Original air date | October 15, 2017 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
Nick Fascitelli as Professor Whistler | |
| Episode features | |
| Chalkboard gag | It's unfair to judge a president on his first 300 days |
| Couch gag | The Simpson family is the furniture instead of the characters on the couch: Homer is the couch, Bart is the left lamp, Lisa is the right lamp, Maggie is the painting above the couch and Marge is the TV antenna. Couches comes in to sit on Homer and painting-Maggie tilts herself once they're settled. |
This is the final episode with a credit to longtime Simpsons score composer Alf Clausen, who was fired from his position shortly before the season began airing.
Plot
Marge is out for the evening with Luann Van Houten, Bernice Hibbert and Helen Lovejoy, and asks Homer to take care of Maggie. The women, led by Helen, criticize Marge's taste in interior decorating.
Meanwhile, Homer discovers Maggie has a talent of being a whistling savant. Homer starts dreaming of using her talent to become famous.
Meanwhile, Marge thinks about her tastes, and resolves to decorate a late-pick-up room for Springfield Elementary like the set from The Wizard of Oz, but Lisa remembers there never was one. The Hibbert family changes their opinion on Marge's style, but Helen is not convinced yet while Fat Tony appears with his cousin's son Michael D'Amico, offering her a decorating job.
At Moe's Tavern, Homer tried fooling the guys, but Grampa Simpson unveils his trick, telling the story of his whistling talent being stopped by a performance going wrong, and asks Homer to bring her to become as popular as he once was. They bring Maggie to the Springfield City Zoo to teach her new whistles, and Bart Simpson is disappointed he's the only son not to have talent, while vultures try to take Grampa, unsuccessfully.
At the Springfield Post Office, Fat Tony asks Marge to redecorate it. At the Get It and Regret It Hardware store, a family tries a couch, imitating the family's couch gags, and Squeaky Voice Teen tells them they have to buy it after trying the couch, while Marge buys stuff to redecorate the post office, but she discovers that Fat Tony turned it into a whorehouse.
The family, reunited to eat, is hiding secrets from each other, including Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II kissing each other. Homer brings Maggie to Channel 6, where the Hot Shot Tots Springfield Audition is held, and finds out how show business works and tries to convince Maggie to stop but she refuses, while the women discover what happened to the post office. Marge convinces Fat Tony to close the whorehouse down while Maggie, in front of the public, can't whistle anymore due to a tooth growing in her mouth.
Back at home, Homer says good night to Maggie, telling her to hide any other talent she has. When he's gone, she pulls out a beautiful black and white painting of Homer.
In bed, Homer and Marge reveal the secrets they held from each other. Shortly after that, Homer finds out Marge is letting out his pants making him think he's thinner as he weeps about this.
Reception
Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C stating, "There are weeks where evaluating a latter-day Simpsons is simply a numbers game. Absent an inherently interesting premise, guest star, plotline, or performance, watching an average Simpsons these days means totting up what fringe benefits you can find, subtracting things that either underwhelm or actively piss you off, and determining relative worth. ‘Whistler’s Father,’ being genuinely average across the board, seems to call for such a formulaic judgement."[1]
"Whistler's Father" scored a 1.3 rating with a 5 share and was watched by 2.91 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.[2]
References
- Perkins, Dennis (October 15, 2017). "Dueling plotlines both miss the mark on a pleasantly average Simpsons". Avclub.com. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
- Porter, Rick (October 17, 2017). "'Madam Secretary' and 'Wisdom of the Crowd' adjust down, '60 Minutes, 'AFV' and NFL up: Sunday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
