"
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" is the fifteenth episode of
The Simpsons<nowiki>'</nowiki>
second season. It originally aired on the
Fox network in the United States on February 21, 1991. In the episode,
Grampa confesses that
Homer has a half-brother, whom Homer immediately tries to track down. He eventually discovers that his brother is
Herbert Powell, the head of a car manufacturer. Herb immediately starts to bond with
Bart and
Lisa, and he invites Homer to design his own car. Homer's car design turns out to be a disaster, which causes Herb to become
bankrupt.
The episode was written by
Jeff Martin and directed by
Wes Archer. American actor
Danny DeVito provided the voice of Herb. The episode features cultural references to cars such as the
Edsel, the
Tucker Torpedo, the
Ford Mustang, and the
Lamborghini Cheetah. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a
Nielsen rating of 15.4, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired. Some fans were upset with the sad ending of the episode, and as a result the producers decided to write a sequel, "
Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?", in which Herb regains his fortune and forgives Homer.
Plot
After watching the latest
McBain film,
Grampa suffers a mild
heart attack. Thinking he might die, he is prompted to confess a long-hidden secret:
Homer has a half-brother. Grampa explains that he met a carnival
prostitute before...
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