Who would have thought a tour to the Nuclear Power Plant could be so fun?  In season one, episode three of The Simpsons, “Homer’s Odyssey”, Bart’s class takes a field trip to the Nuclear Power Plant.  Auto, the stoned, music loving, death metal bus driver takes the kids on the “shortcut” to the power plant passing by Springfield’s Toxic Waste Dump, the Tire Yard, Springfield’s State Prison, past their school once more, then finally to the Nuclear Power Plant.  On the bus ride to the plant, the only seat left for Bart to sit in is next to Wendell, the kid that always pukes on the bus.  Ms. Krabopel tells Bart that if he makes any noise on the bus ride, he’ll have to sing a song she chooses, just to embarrass him. The twins, Sherry and Terry want to get Bart in trouble, so they come up with a plan to make him yell – they both kiss him on the cheek.  This of course makes Bart yell, and then he has to sing the rest of the way to the plant.

Once they arrive, Smithers (who is apparently black in the first few episodes, then changes to white?!) gives the students a presentation on why nuclear energy is good for the environment (ahh, gotta love cartoons, right?!).  After the presentation, Smithers takes the children on a tour of the plant.  As they pass by the enormous windows where you can see where the power plant’s water meets the streams, you see an interesting, and kind of cute three-eyed fish swimming around (nothing to do with the nuclear power plant, of course). 

As the children are on the tour, the twins Sherry and Terry make fun of Bart’s dad, Homer, telling him that their dad says Homer is incompetent, Bart of course did not know what that meant.  While the children are on their tour, Homer is taking a break from work (if you call it working) to eat a donut.  One of his co-workers suggests that he does something interesting for the kids to see, such as actually work.  Homer takes off in his little work cart heading back to his station.  On the way Bart sees his dad driving and yells for him.  Homer looks up to see who is calling his name, and as he does that, Homer crashes into a huge pipe which combusts and sets off alarms all over the building.  Sherry and Terry’s dad runs out to see what’s going on and fires Homer in front of Bart’s whole class (talk about embarrassing).

Lisa tries to help Homer look for a job, but he’s not satisfied with any in the paper that Lisa suggests.  Suddenly the whole family convinces Homer that he’s caused tons of nuclear accidents in the past, and still bounces back.  This gives Homer hope and he goes out to find a job.  Door after door slammed in Homer’s face (including mechanic shops, fast food and his own house door), he heads over to Moe’s Tavern for a beer.  Moe gets a prank call from Bart for I.P. Freely, everyone in the bar laughs, and Moe looks like a donkey.  Homer finishes his beer and goes for another when he realizes he does not have any more cash.  He asks Moe to cover him, but Moe refuses thinking that Homer will never get another job again.  Marge feeling bad and wanting to help, tells Homer she can get a job at her old work (as a waitress on wheels). 

Homer, losing hope, stays home and lays on the couch all day.  While watching television, he sees an ad for Duff beer, but he has no money, so he goes into Bart’s room, steals his piggy bank, brakes it open to find only a few cents.  After he realizes there is not enough to buy beer with, he writes his family a note and tries to commit suicide by tying a rock around his waist and throwing it off the bridge.  Instead his family almost gets run over by a truck and he saves them.  This makes him realize he has a reason to live – to make sure that intersection (D street & 12^th) gets a stop sign.   Once the council men approve his stop sign, he goes all over to make sure signs are put up wherever needed.  Homer decides he wants to go bigger than that, he wants to shut down the Nuclear Power Plant.

Once Mr. Burns sees that Homer is trying to over power his plant and take it down, he offers him the Safety position at the plant.  Homer takes the job, and his first line of business is to tell his rioters down below that the plant is safe.  Everyone cheers for him and is happy that he’s the new safety instructor at the plant.

Favorite quote for this episode:

*Homer is leaving his suicide note, “Dear Family, I am an utter failure and you’ll be better off without me.  By the time you read this, I’ll be in my watering grave.  I can only leave you with the words my father gave me: stand tall, have courage, and never give up. I only hope I can provide a better model in death than in life. Warmest regards, with love, Homer J. Simpson.”