The Simpsons
The Heartbroke Kid
TV Flash files “The Heartbroke Kid” as hour 352 of 802 in the TV Flash guide — The Simpsons (1989–present) on Fox, season 16, episode 17, aired 2005-05-01, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S16E17: listed hour 352 of 802 in the The Simpsons guide, hour 17 of 21 in season 16. It aired 2005-05-01 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Don't Fear the Roofer” (S16E16). Next is “A Star is Torn” (S16E18). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Bart becomes addicted to junk food when a new vending machine is installed at Springfield Elementary. His steady diet of processed foods leads to a massive weight gain and health issues. When he's unable to stick to his prescribed low-fat diet, the Simpsons stage an intervention and ship Bart off to "Serenity Ranch - A Forced Starvation Facility," headed up by former food addict Tab Spangler. While Spangler tries to help Bart overcome his obsession, Homer and Marge turn their home into a hostel for German travelers in order to pay for the costly Serenity Ranch.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Heartbroke Kid sit in the The Simpsons guide?
S16E17 is listed hour 352 of 802 — hour 17 of 21 in season 16, season 16 episode 17.
When did The Simpsons S16E17 air?
The Heartbroke Kid aired 2005-05-01 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start if I am not watching all 800 episodes?
Start with the 1989 Christmas premiere, then a handful of golden-age hours from seasons four through eight. Treat the rest as a library, not a novel.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as a living joke encyclopedia, not a series you owe from pilot to present. The early years still teach how American satire learned to reset weekly; the later catalog is optional weather. You already speak Springfield. This is how the grammar got written.
The first image is a couch, and then it is not. The Simpsons treats the opening gag as a weekly contract: we will reset the living room, and we will still find a new joke about the country that owns it. Fox put a yellow family on Sunday nights in 1989 after the Tracey Ullman shorts, and the half-hour that followed did not merely popularize adult animation. It installed a shared vocabulary. People who stopped watching still speak Springfield.
Filed against
- Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson
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- Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson
Julie Kavner’s Marge Simpson is the blue-hair patience of Fox’s yellow family — a reference language still adding pages while the country litigates whether the golden age is over. Not a sitcom you finish. On TV Flash she is the…
- Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson
Nancy Cartwright’s Bart Simpson is Springfield’s weekly reset in a kid’s voice — the prank as American satire’s engine since Fox put a yellow family on Sunday nights in 1989. The Simpsons is a joke encyclopedia still adding pages; she is…
- Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson
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- Hank Azaria as Moe / Chief Wiggum
Hank Azaria voices Moe and Chief Wiggum on The Simpsons — Springfield as a living joke encyclopedia, bar and badge as two dialects in Fox's yellow reference language. TV Flash files him as the show's vocal furniture: the early years still…
- Harry Shearer as Mr. Burns / Ned Flanders
Harry Shearer is Springfield in stereo: Mr. Burns’s death-rattle capital and Ned Flanders’s neighborly hymn, often in the same half-hour. The Simpsons installed a shared vocabulary for American satire; his voices are two of its most…