Episode 7G13
Written by George Meyer, Sam Simon, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti
Directed by Wesley Archer, Milton Gray
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Christian Coffinet, Tress MacNeille

Premise: Bart's bad behaviour forces Principal Skinner to enrol him in a foreign exchange programme. While the Simpson family welcome Albanian Adil, Bart becomes the grape-treading slave of two sinister Frenchmen.

Features: Principal Skinner, Milhouse, Lewis, Richard, Lenny.

Couch: Homer pops out on to the floor.

And introducing: Mrs Skinner.

Trivia:

• This is the first appearance of Bart's talking Krusty doll.

Homage: Cesar and Ugolin are lifted directly from L'eau des Collines by Marcel Pagnol, a two-part classic of French literature filmed as Jean de Florette (Claude Bern, 1986) and Manon des Sources (Claude Bern, 1986), which tells of two unscrupulous peasant farmers. Maggie's gift from France is a nod to Le Ballon Rouge (Albert Lamorrisse, 1956), a short French children's film.

Notes for the Uneducated: When Bart arrives in France, Cesar cycles him through several famous French paintings.

Notes: The first Simpsons episode devoted to jibes at a whole nation, and where better than France to start? A tour de force, perhaps the first episode to make the viewer's jaw drop at the audacity and invention of the series' makers.

By now Homer has lost what little fatherly dignity he had at the season's start, and has become the guzzling, lazy dimwit that is the lynchpin of the show's success.