The Bart Wants What It Wants

"The Bart Wants What It Wants"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 13
Episode 11
Directed byMichael Polcino
Written byJohn Frink
Don Payne
Production codeDABF06
Original air dateFebruary 17, 2002 (2002-02-17)
Guest appearances
Episode features
Chalkboard gag"The Giving Tree is not a chump"
Couch gagThe family and various acrobats form a kickline, which turns the living room into a huge circus extravaganza.
CommentaryAl Jean
Matt Selman
Tim Long
John Frink
Tom Gammill
Max Pross
Joel H. Cohen
Pamela Hayden
Mike Frank Polcino
Steven Dean Moore
Bill Freiberger
Episode chronology
List of episodes

"The Bart Wants What It Wants" is the eleventh episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 17, 2002. In the episode, Bart befriends Rainier Wolfcastle's daughter, Greta. While Greta falls in love with him, Bart only accompanies her because she owns a lot of entertaining things.

"The Bart Wants What It Wants" was written by John Frink and Don Payne while Mike Frank Polcino served as director. Although the episode's first draft was written by Frink and Payne, the idea for the episode was pitched by staff writer Matt Selman. Because the Simpsons visit Toronto in the episode, the Fox network wanted to promote it by having the city of Toronto declare February 17 "The Simpsons day", and award the Simpsons family a key to the city. Because the city does not allow for-profit companies to receive a key, the request was turned down.

"The Bart Wants What It Wants" also features guest stars Reese Witherspoon as Greta and Wolfgang Puck as himself. It also features references to Scrabble, Seinfeld and Whassup?, an advertisement campaign for Budweiser beer.

In its original broadcast, the episode was seen by approximately 6.4 million viewers, finishing in 27th place in the ratings the week it aired.

Following its broadcast, the episode received mixed reviews from critics.


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