Brother's Little Helper

"Brother's Little Helper"
The Simpsons episode
Bart, under the effects of Focusyn, becomes an insane conspiracy theorist convinced that Major League Baseball is spying on the town using satellites. The staff debated on whether Bart's pupils should be bigger or smaller than normal while on the drug.
Episode no.	Season 11 Episode 2
Directed by	Mark Kirkland
Written by	George Meyer
Production code	AABF22
Original air date	October 3, 1999 (1999-10-03)
Guest appearance
Mark McGwire as himself
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"Pork is not a verb"
Couch gag	The Simpsons are blank paint-by-numbers figures; Asian animators come in and color the family, but do not detail their eyes.
Commentary	Mike Scully George Meyer Mark Kirkland Ian Maxtone-Graham Matt Selman Tim Long
Episode chronology
← Previous "Beyond Blunderdome" Next → "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?"
The Simpsons season 11
List of episodes

"Brother's Little Helper" is the second episode of the eleventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 3, 1999. In the episode, Bart floods the school gymnasium and the schoolyard, which prompts the school's principal Seymour Skinner to diagnose Bart with ADHD. Bart is prescribed a psychostimulant drug called Focusyn (a parody of (Ritalin) and which sounds similar to the related drug Focalin, a drug released six years after the episode aired), and initially starts paying more attention to his studies. After a while however, Bart starts turning psychotic and is convinced that Major League Baseball is watching over the people of Springfield.

The episode was directed by director Mark Kirkland and was the first episode staff writer George Meyer received a sole writing credit for since the season 5 episode "Bart's Inner Child". Meyer, who was facing some psychological difficulties while writing the episode, felt so dissatisfied with the episode's first draft that he turned it in with a pseudonym. The episode satirizes the perceived misdiagnosis of behavioral disorders in children, which was a controversial topic at the time the episode was written.

The episode features former Major League Baseball player Mark McGwire as himself. Following its broadcast, the episode was positively received by critics.