The Simpsons
Bonfire of the Manatees
TV Flash files “Bonfire of the Manatees” as the first listed hour of season 17 — The Simpsons (1989–present) on Fox, season 17, episode 1, aired 2005-09-11, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S17E01: listed hour 357 of 802 in the The Simpsons guide, first listed hour of season 17. It aired 2005-09-11 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Father, Son and Holy Guest-Star” (S16E21). Next is “The Girl Who Slept Too Little” (S17E02). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Marge is outraged when she discovers Homer allowed Fat Tony to shoot a "gentleman's" film in their house to make restitution for his football gambling debt. So she takes off and leaves Homer with the kids. While on her journey of self-discovery, Marge befriends Caleb Thorn, an attractive marine biologist who is on a quest to save not only the endangered manatee, but Marge from a husband who doesn't seem to appreciate her. Blackboard 'Does anyone still do this anymore?'.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Bonfire of the Manatees sit in the The Simpsons guide?
S17E01 is listed hour 357 of 802 — first listed hour of season 17, season 17 episode 1.
When did The Simpsons S17E01 air?
Bonfire of the Manatees aired 2005-09-11 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
Dan Castellaneta voices Homer Simpson — the yellow everyman who turned “D’oh!” into a global punctuation mark. Decades of The Simpsons mean his throat is half of American cartoon history. TV Flash tips the doughnut to the man behind the…
- 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
Yeardley Smith’s Lisa Simpson is The Simpsons as a living joke encyclopedia — Fox’s yellow family still adding pages while the country litigates whether the golden age is over. On TV Flash she is Springfield grammar: the saxophone, the…
- 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…