7F07 - Bart vs. Thanksgiving (November 22, 1990)

Summary: Bart ruins Thanksgiving and runs away from home.

Episode Timeline:
Thursday (Thanksgiving):
- Maggie walks around observing the family, Bart and Lisa fight over glue, Bart and Homer watch the parade, Lisa shows the centepiece she is making
- Bart helps his mom with the cranberry sauce
- Homer and Maggie watch the Dallas Cowboys, Patti and Selma arrive
- Homer picks up Grampa
- Marge's mother arrives
- Maggie watches the rest of the halftime show
- Homer tries to make a fire, dinner begins, Lisa presents her centerpiece, Bart needs room for the turkey, Bart ruins Thanksgiving
- Homer says grace, Lisa plays some blues, Bart runs away
- Bart and SLH end up at Burns Manor
- Lisa writes a poem about Bart
- Bart crosses the tracks and sells some blood
- The family waits for Bart to apologize
- Bart passes out, some homeless folk take him to a rescue mission for food, Kent Brockman is doing a story on the homeless, Lisa wants to read her poem, Bart's on TV
- Bart gives his money to the homeless
- Homer and Marge talk to the police about Bart
- The relatives leave, Grampa must be back home by 9 or else he'd be considered legally dead
- Bart returns and considers the negative consequences
- Bart climbs on the roof, Lisa meets with him, Bart apologizes
- The family eats turkey sandwiches

References to Time:
- The security guard says Bart appears to be age 9 - 11
- According to Grampa, Homer was never stubborn and folded instantly to everything
- Brockman's dating the weather girl

References to Other Episodes: None

SLH Presence:
- SLH is present

Minimum Time Spanned: 1 day

Canon: Lou and Eddie's voices are switched

Favorite Moments: Where to begin?
- Radio personality Bill talking about the parade and saying how Bullwinkle got taste of his own medicine when his balloon sprung a leak, then saying he knows how the Pilgrims felt when he realizes his first sentence didn't make sense
- Maggie scribbling on Lisa's centerpiece
- Bart "helping with" the cranberry sauce, although Marge does all of the work
- Maggie sitting on the couch, watching TV
- Marge's mother: "Leave me alone."
- Maggie: "It's your fault I can't talk"

Review: This is my favorite episode of all time. I have a lot of favorite moments, especially from the first act, because the whole episode feels so real. The family does not act in a cartoonish way. And I like how the conflict of Bart running away doesn't occur until the second act. Until then, we are just allowed to see a typical Thanksgiving with the Simpsons. The whole cranberry sauce scene feels especially real, with a child wanting to help make dinner, yet not really knowing what to do, and singing "Mom, it's broken" when he can't work the can opener. The pace is slow, and there is no need for a joke every second. I put Maggie sitting on the couch as one of my favorite moments because it's just so simple. Nothing particularly funny happens; it's just a little slice of life. No other episode has the heart and soul of this episode, in my opinion. A+