The Bonfire of the Manatees

"The Bonfire of the Manatees"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 17 Episode 1
Directed by	Mark Kirkland
Written by	Dan Greaney
Production code	GABF18
Original air date	September 11, 2005 (2005-09-11)
Guest appearances
Alec Baldwin as Caleb Thorn[1] Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"Does any kid still do this anymore?"
Couch gag	The Simpson family must go through a metal detector to go to the couch. Homer makes the metal detector beep and has to get looked at by a security guard.
Commentary	Al Jean David Silverman Mark Kirkland Nancy Kruse Matt Selman Dan Greaney Tom Gammill Max Pross
Episode chronology

"The Bonfire of the Manatees" is the first episode of The Simpsons' 17th season. It was first broadcast on the Fox network on September 11, 2005.^[2] The episode was written by Dan Greaney. Mark Kirkland is the director of the episode. In the episode, Homer Simpson gets in debt with Fat Tony and must let some people make a pornographic movie in his house. Marge and a marine biologist try to keep manatees safe from jet skis.^[3]

Alec Baldwin is a guest star as Dr. Thorn (the marine biologist).^[1] The episode's story was one of the ideas for the story of The Simpsons Movie. Al Jean wanted the movie to be about the Simpson family saving manatees. The idea was made into this episode instead.^[4] About 11.1 milion people watched the episode when it was first broadcast.^[5] The episode shows the Denver Broncos winning the Super Bowl over the Seattle Seahawks.^[6] The teams later played at Super Bowl XLVIII, but the Seahawks won the real game.^[7]

References

1. Bruno, Mike (August 2, 2007). "Springfield of Dreams: 16 Great 'Simpsons' Guest Voices". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
2. Topel, Fred (September 25, 2015). "Ranking All 26 Season Premieres of The Simpsons". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
3. Persaud, Christine (January 25, 2021). "The Worst Episodes Of The Simpsons, Ranked". Screen Rant. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
4. Harrison, Mark (September 3, 2020). "The Simpsons movies that never were". Film Stories. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
5. unknown (September 12, 2005). "NFL, Simpsons Take Sunday For FOX". Posted by Adam. Simpsons Channel. Archived from the original on August 3, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
6. Chase, Chris (January 31, 2014). "'The Simpsons' predicted a Broncos-Seahawks Super Bowl in 2005". USA Today. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
7. Debra Kate Schafer (October 25, 2020). "7 Times 'The Simpsons' Didn't Predict the Future". TV Insider. Retrieved March 12, 2021.

Other websites

• "The Bonfire of the Manatees" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Bonfire of the Manatees" at TV.com