The Blunder Years

"The Blunder Years"
The Simpsons episode
Waylon Smithers Sr (left) and Mr. Burns (right)
Episode no.	Season 13 Episode 5
Directed by	Steven Dean Moore
Written by	Ian Maxtone-Graham
Production code	CABF21
Original air date	December 9, 2001 (2001-12-09)
Guest appearances
Paul Newman as himself Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony Judith Owen as herself
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"I am not Charlie Brown on acid"
Couch gag	The family members freeze in mid-air as the camera pans in bullet time from the TV to the couch.
Commentary	Mike Scully Al Jean Ian Maxtone-Graham Carolyn Omine John Frink Don Payne Matt Selman Steven Dean Moore Joel H. Cohen
Episode chronology
← Previous "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" Next → "She of Little Faith"
The Simpsons season 13
List of episodes

"The Blunder Years" is the fifth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 9, 2001. The episode sees Homer, after being hypnotized by the hypnotist Mesmerino while having dinner at the restaurant Pimento Grove, reminded by a repressed traumatic experience from his childhood, including the moment he discovered the dead body of Waylon Smithers' father while having a fun at an abandoned mine. The Simpsons set out to find the corpse that triggered Homer's psychological trauma, which evolves into a murder mystery later in the episode.

The episode was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham while Steven Dean Moore served as the director. The original idea for the episode came from current show runner Al Jean, which involved the murder mystery in the episode. The writers then incorporated Homer's flashbacks, at which point the episode was titled "The Blunder Years", a parody on the television show The Wonder Years.

Following the release of The Simpsons' thirteenth season on DVD and Blu-ray, the episode received mixed reviews from critics.