The Simpsons/Radio Bart

Radio Bart
Season 3, Episode 13
Airdate	January 9, 1992
Production Number	8F11
Written by	John Vitti
Directed by	Carlos Baeza
← 3x12 I Married Marge	3x14 → Lisa the Greek
The Simpsons — Season Three

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Radio Bart is the thirteenth episode of the third season of The Simpsons, and the forty-eighth episode overall.

The episode centers on the prank-pulling side of Bart's personality, when he makes the town believe a little boy had fallen into a well and became trapped. The stunt backfires on Bart when Lisa finds out the truth and warns him he will be found out ... and then, when trying to retrieve a radio he used to help him pull his shenanigans, he becomes trapped in the well for real, and an angry townsfolk unwilling to rescue him.

Guest Stars:

Plot Overview

More than 35 years ago, the story of 18-month-old Jessica McClure becoming trapped in a narrow well and her rescue made national headlines, and won over millions of hearts in the resulting media frenzy. Several years later, in the fictional world of Springfield, there was a little boy named Timmy O'Toole who became trapped in a well.

Only thing is, there wasn't anyone named Timmy who was trapped in a well ... only Bart pulling a stunt where he fools the entire town into believing the kid had fallen into an uncapped abandoned well. When the stunt backfires on him, he might just learn a valuable lesson about how practical jokes can go too far.

It all begins when Bart's birthday is coming up, and Homer is desperate to find a suitable present. His answer comes with a TV commercial for the Superstar Celebrity Microphone, which can be used to transmit the human voice over an AM radio signal. A party is then planned for Bart at Wall E. Weasel's, where he is woefully embarassed: robots of Wall E. Weasel and his band attempt to "sing" (if it can be called that), the guest list includes Martin and other classmates Bart considers uncool (although Nelson and Millhouse are there), and he is disappointed at the gifts, rejecting them all including the toy microphone. Seeing Bart is not necessarily thrilled, Homer encourages Bart by demonstrating its potential ... and that's all that's needed for Bart to realize, "Hey, this Superstar Celebrity Microphone" might just be fun after all, especially when he tricks Rod and Todd Flanders into believing God is talking to them, making the class think Mrs. Krabappel has problems controlling her farting and making Homer think that Martians are invading the Earth.

When Bart loses his transistor radio while walking near an uncapped well, he gets an idea ... .

Knowing the radio was still on and had strong batteries, he uses the microphone and changes the pitch of his voice to pretend to be a little boy, claiming to be trapped inside the well. When he gets a response to his "crying for help" act, Bart tells potential rescuers that the "boy" is an orphan named Timmy O'Toole and has fallen down the well. A rescue operation is mobilized – but it quickly becomes a circus, with people setting up a carnival, and they realize they can't get poor Timmy out. As Bart cackles that the whole event is getting the attention he had anticipated, news of "Timmy O'Toole" being trapped in the well makes national headlines, and Krusty the Klown recruits local celebrities and rock musician Sting to record a charity single, "We're Sending Our Love Down the Well," which instantly becomes a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

Eventually, Lisa catches on that Bart's "Timmy" act is a hoax, finding out when she catches him in the act and then getting into a fight with Santa's Little Helper over the microphone. Lisa warns him that he will be found out and the townspeople will be outraged. Bart tries to laugh her off, until Lisa reminds him that he used a label maker (another of Bart's birthday gifts) to place a label with his name on the radio.

"Oh crap!"

Bart, knowing he could face felony charges if the radio is found and his hoax is exposed, tries to retrieve the radio after nightfall, but as he is descending the well, officers Eddie and Lou undo the rope Bart was using to lower himself into the well, causing Bart to lose his grip, fall to the bottom of the well and become trapped for real.

Bart yells for help, and when he explains his predicament to the initial responders, Bart is forced to admit that Timmy O'Toole doesn't exist and that he was playing what he thought was a funny joke. Nobody in town is laughing, and Eddie and Lou and other emergency responders decide to teach Bart a lesson by refusing to rescue him. Bart is left to tearfully fear he'll die in the well and ponder What he would miss out on ... and more importantly, how his family would cope if indeed he were left to die.

As the fallout from Bart's ruse unfolds and Homer and Marge unsuccessfully plead for their son's rescue, a frustrated Homer finally has enough and decides to rescue Bart himself. Groundskeeper Willie sees this and does the right thing by putting aside his outrage and, recruiting Sting and others, joining Homer in the rescue operation. The rescue effort is a success, and Bart is rescued.

Reunited with his family, a truly sorry Bart tells everyone he has learned a lesson about how practical jokes can have serious consequences.

But has the town learned a lesson about what to do about uncapped wells, as the possibility still existed someone might actually become trapped inside one in the future?

Instead of capping the well or demanding its removal, Willie simply posts a warning sign – "Caution: Well" – in front of it.

Notes

Title Sequence

• Blackboard: "I will not carve gods."
• Couch Gag: The family bounce around on the couch cushions, over and under each other until they land in different areas of the couch.

Trivia

The Show

• The dramatic decline in popularity of "We're Sending Our Love Down the Well" (after Bart's ruse is made public) and plummet from No. 1 to No. 97 on the Billboard charts was something that never happened in real life. The biggest real-life one-week declines from No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts to this point (aside from holiday songs that reached No. 1, which sometimes fell directly off the chart after reaching its peak position the week after Christmas) came in October 1974, when Billy Preston's "Nothing From Nothing" and Dionne Warwick & the Spinners' "Then Came You" each fell to No. 15 a week after hitting No. 1; it would be nearly 30 years after the fictional "... Well" fell dramatically from No. 1 for a song to drop as far, with "Heartless" by The Weeknd dropping to No. 17 in December 2019.
• "Convoy" by C.W. McCall was used as the song Homer sings to demonstrate the Celebrity Superstar Microphone to Bart, rather than the earlier-proposed "The Wreck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot. The story has always been that had the producers insisted on the original choice, they would have needed permission from the surviving families of the 29 victims of the 1975 disaster, due to Lightfoot giving sales proceeds from the single release to the families.

Allusions and References

• Ace In the Hole (the Big Carinval): The 1951 movie starring Kirk Douglas, about a fledging newspaper reporter covering a boy who becomes trapped in a well, but the resulting coverage literally becoming a circus, was used when, after "Timmy" becomes trapped in the well, a carnival is set up outside the well and the focus becomes on fun and games rather than a rescue.
• America's Top 10: The Casey Kasem-hosted televised spinoff of the radio program American Top 40 is shown, where a Kasem expy announces the previous week's No. 1 song, "We're Sending Our Love Down the Well," fell from No. 1 all the way to No. 97 in a single week.
• Charity singles: "We Are the World" and "Do They Know It's Christmas," among other all-star songs performed for various charities. Krusty's off-key vocal in the refrain of "... Well" is somewhat reminiscent of Bob Dylan's distinctive solo in the refrain of "We Are the World."
• Chuck E. Cheese's: Wall E. Weasel's, the family entertainment center where Bart has his birthday party, is a parody of the restaurant chain ... complete with mediocre pizza, poorly-maintained and operated animatronic robots, video games and slogan promising fun ("We cram fun down your throat!").
• Kennedy Assassination: Kent Brockman's live-breaking report on the assassination of a squirrel is stylized almost exactly like Walter Cronkite's live reports on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, including the announcement of his death.
• Jessica McClure: The 2-year-old girl who (legitimately) fell down a well and became trapped for days, and became the center of a media frenzy inspired the main plot of the episode.
• Milli Vanilli and Kid N'Play: The two hip-hop/rap duos are expied with the duo Funky-See Funky-Do on the TV show Homer watches. The show's host states that the group will lip-synch another of their songs, something that Milli Vanilli did in real life – studio session singers were the actual performers on their albums – and, once exposed, lost their popularity and had several awards withdrawn.
• Mr. Microphone: The Superstar Celebrity Microphone Bart receives as a birthday present was inspired by Ronco Toys' microphone, which could transmit sounds on local AM radio signals. The TV commercial Homer watches for the microphone was patterned after the real-life commercial, where a teen-aged boy uses a Mr. Microphone to impress teen-aged girls.
• Soul Train: The dance show Homer watches while channel surfing, complete with a Don Cornelius-knockoff hosting the show. His announcement that Funky-See Funky-Do would be back after a commercial break to "lip-synch another one of their hits" is an allusion that many performers are not actually singing live but are lip-synching to a recording taped beforehand (although one explanation of the reference has always been that Funky-See Funky Do was parodying the fraud perpetuated by Milli Vanilli).

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