Episode 9F12
Written by Jon Vitti
Directed by Jeff Lynch
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor
Special guest voices: Marcia Wallace (as Ms Krabappel), Phil Hartman (as Lionel Hutz)

Premise: Bart feels neglected by Homer, and applies to the Bigger Brothers agency for a replacement role model. He gets the strapping, action-loving Tom. Vengeful Homer joins Bigger Brothers and gets himself a little brother, Pepe. Meanwhile, Lisa's got hooked to non-threatening boy Corey Masterson's phone hotline.

Features: Nelson, Milhouse, Ms Krabappel, Krusty, Martin, Principal Skinner, Lionel Hutz, Grampa, Kent Brockman.

Couch: The Simpsons rush in, sit down - and the wall rotates, leaving an identical empty sofa.

Trivia:

• Lisa reads Non-Threatening Boys magazine.

Homage: Homer's female double is singing Helen Reddy's 1974 hit I Am Woman. Tom and Bart watch a very faithfully recreated episode of Ren and Stimpy. Homer's accusation of Bart is a re-creation of Richard Burton's accusation of Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966), and Milhouse's garbled reception of Bart's psychic message recalls The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980). The flying nun glimpsed by Bart outside the football ground is a reference to a 1960s US sitcom The Flying Nun about, er, a flying nun.

Notes for Brits: Bobby Sherman was a minor pop star of the mid-sixties.

Notes: We love Homer sitting at home trying to remember to pick up Bart - he's watching a TV show about a baseball star called Bart, with pictures of Bart on all sides, and even Maggie seems to be calling her brother's name.