22 for 30

Last updated

"22 for 30"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 28
Episode 17
Directed by Chris Clements
Written by Joel H. Cohen
Production codeWABF10
Original air dateMarch 12, 2017 (2017-03-12)
Guest appearances
Episode features
Couch gag Animated by Bill Plympton. The family is crudely-drawn on the couch. The scene pans out to reveal Maggie is the artist. Each family member is subsequently drawn by the next oldest, ending with Homer Simpson holding a spare pencil and a donut in his non-drawing hand. When he bites into the donut, he stabs himself in the eye with the pencil.
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Kamp Krustier"		Next →
"A Father's Watch"
The Simpsons season 28
List of episodes

"22 for 30" is the seventeenth episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons , and the 613th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Chris Clements and written by Joel H. Cohen. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 12, 2017.

Contents

In a parody of 30 for 30 , Bart goes from delinquent with detention to the star basketball player at Springfield Elementary. Lisa covers Bart's success for the school paper, and Homer becomes the team's coach. Things go awry when Bart gets involved with the mafia.

Plot

The story is done as a documentary about the rise and the fall of Bart Simpson's career on the Springfield Elementary School basketball team. It all started with a joke that got him in the longest detention in history, where he started shooting baskets in the detention room wastebasket. Bart became a starter and then a star, reveling in his abilities while also letting his success go to his head. Homer Simpson became the coach of the team, and Bart started disrespecting Homer, leading to ugly clashes between them. Fat Tony noticed this and came up with a plan to enrich both himself and Bart via Bart's unwitting point shaving practices (the mobsters would tell Bart how much they wanted the SES team to win by, and Bart didn't know this was based on a betting line that the mob would then cover and make a lot of cash from).

At the City Champions Final Four, Bart won the game after Homer choked him. However, Bart found out how much money Fat Tony was making, meaning that Fat Tony wanted him to lose the finals. The town hated him for that.

In the game, Milhouse (who was Fat Tony's other point shaving asset) tried to keep Bart from hitting the game-winning shot but failed. Lisa then used her journalism skills to get Fat Tony to back off his plan to murder Bart. When the mob boss was Bart's age, he was an incompetent player for the only city league team where he could play for: an all-girls' team.

Homer and Marge then tell the documentary crew that Bart's heyday didn't last much longer, as the minute he moved up to a league he was overshadowed by a tall kid on the court. The status of Lisa and Milhouse is outlined (along with a cameo by Stephen Curry), and the narrator of the story reveals himself to be Nelson's dad, Eddie Muntz, who gives Nelson sleeves for his vest and stays long enough just for a picture of the family to be taken before he disappears again.

Production

For the fifth time, the couch gag was created by animator Bill Plympton. [1] Voiceover artist Earl Mann was cast as the narrator for this episode. [2]

This episode is included as a bonus episode on the DVD set for the eighteenth season. [3]

Cultural references

The episode is a parody of ESPN's sports documentary series 30 for 30 . [2]

Reception

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B stating, "'22 For 30' dresses up The Simpsons’ formula in the gym togs of ESPN’s 30 For 30 sports documentary series, and, as far as stunts go, it’s a well-executed one. The arc of a traditional Simpsons episode and that of the average 'troubled sports figure' doc mesh up neatly, as Bart, after honing his crumpled paper ball shooting skills in an extra long detention, becomes the star of Springfield Elementary’s hoops team. Conflict comes in various forms: Bart adopts an entitled attitude; Homer coaching the team leads to father-son drama; and, naturally, Fat Tony pressures Bart into a little point-shaving. The episode—woven together further by the silky-smooth tones of professional sports voiceover legend Earl Mann—works by essentially wallpapering over the choppy and under-realized storytelling endemic to much present-day Simpsons with the glib packaging of the feel-good (or feel-bad) sports narrative. It’s a cheat, but an ambitious and well-realized one that results in a refreshing little season 28 detour." [2]

Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode 3.5 out of 5 stars. He called it one of the funniest episodes but did not like the perceived slickness. [4]

"22 for 30" scored a 1.1 rating with a 4 share and was watched by 2.61 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night. [5]

Related Research Articles

"'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky" is the sixteenth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 30, 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trilogy of Error</span> 18th episode of the 12th season of The Simpsons

"Trilogy of Error" is the eighteenth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 266th episode overall. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on April 29, 2001. In the episode, Homer's rush to the hospital to re-attach his severed thumb, Lisa's rush to school to win the science fair, and Bart's run-in with an illegal fireworks scheme are interconnected as each act tells the events of the same day, but from a different point of view.

<i>The Simpsons</i> opening sequence Opening sequence of the TV series The Simpsons

The Simpsonsopening sequence is the title sequence of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It is accompanied by "The Simpsons Theme". The first episode to use this introduction was the series' second episode "Bart the Genius".

"Moonshine River" is the first episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. The episode was directed by Bob Anderson and written by Tim Long. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 30, 2012.

"Luca$" is the seventeenth episode of the twenty-fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons and the 547th episode of the series. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 6, 2014. It was written by Carolyn Omine and directed by Chris Clements.

"Days of Future Future" is the eighteenth episode of the twenty-fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 13, 2014. It was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Bob Anderson.

"Diggs" is the twelfth episode of the twenty-fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons and the 542nd episode of the series. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on March 9, 2014. The episode was written by Dan Greaney and Allen Glazier and directed by Mike Frank Polcino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barthood</span> 9th episode of the 27th season of The Simpsons

"Barthood" is the ninth episode of the twenty-seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 583rd episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Rob Oliver and written by Dan Greaney. It aired in the United States on Fox on December 13, 2015. The episode parodies the 2014 film Boyhood.

"Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles" is the eleventh episode of the twenty-seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 585th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Timothy Bailey and written by Joel H. Cohen. It aired in the United States on Fox on January 10, 2016.

"Dad Behavior" is the eighth episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 604th episode of the series overall. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 20, 2016. The plot revolves around Homer discovering an app that makes his life easier, and Grampa learning that he's about to become a father again. It was the first episode to be written by Ryan Koh, and was directed by Steven Dean Moore. Matt Leinart makes a guest appearance as himself.

"Looking for Mr. Goodbart" is the twentieth episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 616th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Mike Frank Polcino and written by Carolyn Omine. It aired in the United States on Fox on April 30, 2017, and the United Kingdom on Sky 1 on May 14, 2017.

"Dogtown" is the twenty-second and final episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 618th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by J. Stewart Burns. It aired in the United States on Fox on May 21, 2017 and the United Kingdom on Sky 1 on May 28, 2017.

"Gone Boy" is the ninth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 627th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Rob Oliver and written by John Frink. It aired in the United States on Fox on December 10, 2017. The title is a spoof of the novel Gone Girl.

"3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage" is the thirteenth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 631st episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Matthew Nastuk and written by Tom Gammill and Max Pross. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 25, 2018. The title is a reference to the 1973 Swedish television miniseries Scenes from a Marriage.

"No Good Read Goes Unpunished" is the fifteenth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 633rd episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Mark Kirkland and written by Jeff Westbrook. It aired in the United States on Fox on April 8, 2018.

"The Winter of Our Monetized Content" is the thirty-first season premiere of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 663rd episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on September 29, 2019. The director of the episode was Bob Anderson, and the writer was Ryan Koh.

"Gorillas on the Mast" is the fifth episode of the thirty-first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 667th episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on November 3, 2019. The episode was directed by Matthew Nastuk and written by Max Cohn.

"Woo-Hoo Dunnit?" is the twenty-second and penultimate episode of the thirtieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 661st episode overall. The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Brian Kelley. It aired in the United States on Fox on May 5, 2019.

"Manger Things" is the 16th episode of the thirty-second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 700th episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 21, 2021. The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore and written by Rob LaZebnik.

"The Many Saints of Springfield" is the thirteenth episode of the thirty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 741st episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on February 19, 2023. The episode was directed by Bob Anderson and written by series showrunner Al Jean.

References

  1. ↑ Mufson, Beckett (March 9, 2017). "Bill Plympton's Newest Simpsons Couch Gag Is Gruesome". Vice . Archived from the original on July 24, 2023. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Perkins, Dennis (March 12, 2017). "The Simpsons shifts into sports documentary mode for its amusing "22 For 30"". The A.V. Club . Archived from the original on March 14, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  3. ↑ Lacey, Gord (July 22, 2017). "The Simpsons - Three Years Later - Season 18 is Coming!". TVShowsOnDVD. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  4. ↑ Sokol, Tony (March 13, 2017). "The Simpsons Season 28 Episode 17 Review: 22 for 30". Den of Geek . Archived from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  5. ↑ Porter, Rick (March 16, 2017). "'American Crime' premieres low, 'Chicago Justice' fairly steady: Sunday final ratings". TV by the Numbers . Archived from the original on March 17, 2017. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.