Rate and Review: "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" (NABF17)

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

October 2, 2011: When Superintendent Chalmers manages to make learning about Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders fun for Bart and his class he is promptly fired. Bart and the class decide to hold the school hostage to get Chalmers his job back in the all new "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" episode of The Simpsons. Discuss!


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[IceDoesntHelp]

That couch gag...was kind of creepy. (Didn't get the reference obviously)
The first and second act were actually very good. I enjoyed the story. The jokes weren't carried on to long either. But a very sloppy way to make things back to normal.
I was surprised they let Jimbo say "bitches."

Parts I found funny:
The father bear trying to eat the baby bear
"Just drive" *Otto steps on it, and hits a tree*
"You guys need to get a women"
The time for change poster with Ralph
Willy's line.
Milhouse was pretty funny overall.
Well if the Muppets can take Manhatten

give it a 3.5/5 round it to 4.

[Financial Panther]

That episode...I didn't feel it. It was a lot like Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song, an episode I don't care for much. I can't really buy Bart becoming obsessed with Teddy Roosevelt. Maybe if there was a legitimately good reason, but there didn't seem to be one that could realistically captivate Bart like it did. I also feel that the episode tried to explore Chalmers a bit more, but it didn't really work. Chalmers is a pretty flat character, and I think they tried to find more than there was with him. It was also a little light on the jokes. Still, nothing was offensively bad. 2/5.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

This one had aspects of several other episodes going on. I was reminded of Sweet Seymour Skinner, Grade School Confidential, and Lisa Gets an A at some points. This one was definitely more of an interesting, story driven episode than gag fest. As such laughs were minimal but I still managed to enjoy it. The couch gag by Ren and Stimpy creator John K. was alright but I felt pretty neutral about it honestly.

The opening at the fundraiser was pretty slow but things definitely picked up when Skinner told off Chalmers. I enjoyed seeing this new side to his character including learning about his wife and his thoughts on the education system. The episode's resolution was really rushed though. Parts I did laugh at include: The pic of Roosevelt punching Burns, Homer's first trip up the treehouse about cyber-bullying, Lisa and Bart's little Roosevelt debate and Grampa's diatribe, and Nelson duct taping Martin to the door. Easily the funniest gag of the night though for me was the Breakfast Club reference.
Overall I'll say similar quality to last week actually, 3.5/5 rounded up to 4.

PS: Was not expecting the Night at the Museum reference at the end so that got a smile out of me as did the basic design/look of Bart wearing the hat and spectacles.

[irvine_11]

My god, what the hell was I watching?

The very idea that a bad egg like Bart could be turned around that fast, even by a really good teacher, is very implausible. Soon, it becomes a rehash of Seymour Skinner's Badass Song, but with Chalmers as the subject. After that, Bart's group takes over the school, followed by him being rehired as "super-duper-intendent?" WTF? While it was a little better than last week, it was still a very weak and nonsensical episode. It barely even raised a smile.

D+ is my final grade.

[biffwestwood]

I liked the premise in which there was a outstanding set up with the auction. We had some great interaction with Bart, Superintendent Chalmers, and his peers. The discussions of Teddy Roosevelt was interesting. But it took a dumb turn and dragged into a situation that was like "Whacking Day" meets "Grade School Confidential"

3/5

Now we have Lisa playing a tuba in the intro and John Kricfalusi of Ren and Stimpy fame writing the couch gag?

[RachaelLane1984]

3/5 It was good. Had an interesting storyline to it, however, I find it hard toRoosevelt believe that Bart would have become that interested in Teddy Roosevelt. However, with the way commericals are anymore they really have to get to the point a lot quicker than what they use to. Anyway, I got a couple of chuckles out of it but nothing that was laugh-out-loud funny to me but still it was good for what it was.

[The Wiggs]

I liked it. It had a very fresh feel to it. It's not often Chalmers gets this much attention and he seemed like a pretty cool character. I especially enjoyed the fact that the story kept moving. There wasn't a boring/pointless/annoying B-story getting in the way. Some good laughs too. I liked this one. 4/5

[irvine_11]

Sorry, Wiggs, but I disagree. I thought this episode needed a B-story. It was obvious that this premise was too thin to be a single plot.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Too thin? I actually think the episode could've used more time, both to give some time for Bart's Roosevelt obsession to sink in and make it more believable, as well as to better flesh out the ending, so no B plot was necessary and the main plot was probably too thick for one episode actually, certainly not too thin.

[zartok-35]

The relationship between Chalmers and Bart and the boys was very nice. The forest trip was the best part of the episode. I didn't see a whole lot after that, though.
I thought the couch gag was particularly funny, considering how long it was.

[Jims]

But it took a dumb turn and dragged into a situation that was like "Whacking Day" meets "Grade School Confidential"

Yeah, I found it a little derivative in that regard as well, especially when you factor in the whole "Sweet Seymour" thematic connection that others have pointed out. From the writers' point of view, this observation is unfair. We all realize that doing a completely original plot is going to become more difficult, the farther you go into the series. So the similarity is understandable, I guess. But these kinds of observations kinda come with the territory for such a long-running series. It's another one of those indications that The Simpsons isn't really a fresh show.

Overall, kind of a mixed bag. I feel like the dialogue writing was noticeably stronger here than in other episodes, with not as many stilted "Who would actually say that?" kind of moments. And some of the jokes worked all right for me. I laughed pretty hard at Chalmers and Jimbo's exchange about the school failing. A nice clever wordplay joke right there.

I also liked the heart of the episode with Chalmers teaching the kids. It makes a lot of sense that a more hands-on experience approach would work with that group. I picked on the episode earlier for that "Sweet Seymour" similarity (this time with Bart/Chalmers), but at least having all the other kids there made the episode feel a little different.

How they got to that point and how they finished it was the problem. The opening setpiece with the fundraiser worked pretty well and Bart's "prank" was all right. Bart just strolling back in there afterwards felt a little OOC, though, like even he's not really trying anymore. And I don't completely buy the hand-off to Chalmers. They don't really do a good job of explaining what makes this instance worse (or different) than other Bart pranks, where Chalmers wants to step in. I get the "repeat offender" logic to it, but they don't do a good job establishing beforehand that Chalmers is cracking down (or changing his mood). It felt more like, "the plot dictates that I need to arbitrarily decide that enough is enough, so enough is enough."

And then they have to raise the stakes by Chalmers being fired and the kids taking over the school. This kind of scenario has been seen enough times (on this show and others) that I just got kind of bored with it. There's nothing particularly memorable about it. It's just the kids taking over the school, the police show up, kids get what they want. Hooray for everything.

Overall, we'll call it a 2/5. I do appreciate its effort to flesh out Chalmers' character a little more, just didn't care for the execution of the plot.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Better than the craptacular premiere. I honestly enjoyed this one, as Gary Chalmers is probably one of my favorite underdeveloped characters on the recent episodes. I thought Teddy would have a slightly bigger role for some reason, but it was good enough.

Anyone notice Theodore and Mr. Burns boxing, and Teddy's knocking him out?

Overall, a pretty good episode. 4/5.

[Xt'Tapalatakettle]

Interesting idea for a story, executed moderately well. Humor not bad, but a bit lacking. Loved the Breakfast Club part (particularly Chalmers' line at the end), though a bit peeved they didn't use the same exact song from that scene in the movie.

Probably around a B-, so I'll be nice and give it 4/5.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts

Well; we haven't had a Chalmers episode in like ever, so I'm guessing this is it... Frankly it's disappointing...

For one... I do appreciate the efforts to flesh out Chalmer's character but it's all for naught; as the episode mainly focuses on Bart rather then Chalmers... The stuff they do expose for Chalmers do does seem to be moderate, as in "He's a guy who wants to be known was a strict educator but deep down wants to live his way of education by taking the kids out and connecting with them on a deep level/cowboy." (That flashback/refrence added something but I did not enjoy that Breakfast Club reference, it just felt really, really cheap.) I would of liked to see more of Chalmers as it would of made his character more unique and less cliched but I guess they don't know how to utilize the four acts for a Chalmers based episode.

The episodes focus on Bart does somewhat work as he delivers some good lines (and a good imagination sequence, I'm very susprised by that.) but other then that he feels unbelievable and this obsession with Roosevelt is sudden. I mean there's no natural buildup; there's no buildup with skinner. It's like he's suddenly obsessed with Teddy Roosevelt (though a mention set it off, it still feels sudden as he reads through books, looks through websites and well, suddenly gets excited. I mean buildup is needed to understand why Bart loves Roosevelt, why Chalmers wants to teach Bart and how this entire thing is bonding them together; without buildup you have to rely on the suspension on disbelief, which means that you'll have to trick yourself into believing that Bart is genuinely interested in Roosevelt; and you always feel bad when you trick yourself...

The time Bart and Chalmers do spend does feel a bit magical and with work, could resemble an old-school Simpsons episode; I mean the bullies dialog adds to the episode (could of needed more of it even though they were forced in to the story.) and the various stuff they do have the basic elements, but since this is a modern-era Simpsons episode, most of it does feel awkward and forced, such as that Nelson thing where he instantly mentions that life is getting better but it's immediately going to get worse (the good thing then a bad thing moment) and it's executed in the most cheapest way possible; had they put some more time in it, we could of had more of Chalmers character (I mean just look at Bart and Skinner, that was a natural relationship and one that was not done in a forced/unnatural way.), we could of had the feelings of Nelson and we could of had a better scene with the school board which results in Chalmer's firing (which is sudden, and yet we don't get more of Chalmer's character.), but aside from that, they do seem to have somewhat of a good chemistry and again with work; it could work naturally (as in a natural Bart and a natural Chalmers bonding and forming a relationship.)

Of couse, Bart and Chalmers isn't the most important thing; I mean we do get some scenes at the school and while we get a glimpse of the school board and some of the teachers, it just isn't pulled off in a way that can help the episode. I mean most of the board members remain silent, the ones that we've come to seen constantly have the lines and it just doesn't seem to expand pass the (school is cheap, horrible to work at and everything is valuable.) Hell, some of the scenes in the school during the first act is good but it just plays part to a Bart prank which I can't even question anymore, I'm guessing Bart has the ability to convince operators now; how else can his pranks work in every episode possible... Also it wasn't a very good prank, I just felt bored while watching it but hey, anything to move the episode along right.

Everything does move up to a point where Bart and the Bullies he's bonded with team up to take over the school (and with mostly no buildup whatsoever, mostly to play way for a lame Homer line.) and while it does provide some interesting possibilities, it's mostly wasted for Jokes and a parody of a hostage situation... I mean we don't even get the sense that he's scared or that he's in way deeper then he is. All we know is that he's doing this to get the Superintendent back and it doesn't even seem like even they take the situation seriously. Chalmers and Bart converse like in the movie "First Blood" and many other movies but it just isn't there, there's no emotion or character; nothing... I blame the 4 act structure for this, with a 3 act structure it could be more coherent, more involving just more... good... and it ends with seconds on the clock with Wiggum shooting the guy just before he would of took over the school by having his gun drop and shoot the school guy who gives his job back for mostly some reason other then getting shot before they invade the school. And everything returns to normal with Chalmers and Skinner pals and a small scene with Bart just to close everything out; I'm guessing Bart and Chalmers will become enemies again once the next episode airs...

So, while