Separate Vocations

Season 3, Episode 18, Aired
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Episode Summary

After taking career aptitude tests, Lisa discovers that the occupation she's best suited for is homemaker, while Bart is pegged as a future police officer. Each takes the opportunity to explore their options as Lisa spends the day doing chores at home with Marge and Bart goes on a ride along with the police. Lisa hates her role and rebels by becoming a troublemaker at school, but police life fits Bart like a glove and he becomes a hall monitor.moreless
9.0
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EPISODE RATING: Superb
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Fan Episode Reviews (10)

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  • Perfect

    10
    "Perfect"
    By jmbsonic555, Oct 19, 2011 Report Abuse
    After taking career aptitude tests, Lisa discovers that the occupation she's best suited for is homemaker, while Bart is pegged as a future police officer. Each takes the opportunity to explore their options as Lisa spends the day doing chores at home with Marge and Bart goes on a ride along with the police. Lisa hates her role and rebels by becoming a troublemaker at school, but police life fits Bart like a glove and he becomes a hall monitor.
    Overall, this is a great episode, that gets a 10 out of 10moreless

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    0 0

  • perfect

    10
    "Perfect"
    By futuramarama, Aug 19, 2011 Report Abuse
    what i liked- act one ending in a 'to be continued' sign, bart going in the police car and the neighbor thinking he was being arrested, lisa going bad, bart taking the rep for lisa at the end of the episode, bart becoming the 'good guy' at the school, amongst other things.
    classic episode. it has good laughs and both lisa and bart's plots are really fun to watch. what more could you want? definitely worthy of an A+ in my book. never tire of this episodemoreless

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  • this was a good ep of the simpsons

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By cube2k8, May 15, 2010 Report Abuse
    in this ep of the simpsons bart and lisa have to take apitude test bart learns he could be a really good cop meanwhile lisa feels really sad becomes it told her she would not be the saxphone player she always wanted. and bart becomes a hall moniter and lisa starts pulling pranks on the teachers and it gest lisa introuble but bart decides to take the rap for lisa instead of her getting introuble . this was a great ep of the simpsons the pranks were funny and the simpsons 3rd season was great and this ep shows how great and funny it really wasmoreless

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  • Season three keep it going!!! WHOOOOOOOO BO YAHHHHH

    9.3
    "Superb"
    By Iverson82094, Jan 29, 2008 Report Abuse
    It is softball season in Springfield and many of the workers at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant are reluctant to sign up for the Power Plant team due to their previous unsuccessful year. Homer reveals that he has a secret weapon, a homemade bat named "Wonder Bat" and his co-workers eagerly join the team. Thanks in large part to Homer, the team goes through its season undefeated and earns the right to play in the championship game against the Shelbyville Nuclear Power Plant.

    Mr. Burns makes a million dollar bet with Aristotle Amadopoulos, owner of the Shelbyville plant, that his team will win. To secure victory in the game, Mr. Burns decides to hire major league stars and assembles a team that includes Honus Wagner, Cap Anson, Mordecai Brown, and a right fielder who has been dead for 130 years. Smithers informs Mr. Burns that the players he picked are all dead and thus Mr. Burns orders Smithers to find some current superstar players. He hires nine Major League Baseball players - Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey Jr., Steve Sax, Ozzie Smith, Jos Canseco, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Scioscia - and gives them token jobs at the plant so that they can play on the team, much to the dismay of the plant workers who got the team to the championship game in the first place.

    However, before the game can be played, eight of the nine players are involved in unrelated incidents: Roger Clemens acts like a chicken due to a bad hypontist; Wade Boggs is knocked unconscious by Barney; Ken Griffey Jr. overdoses on a nerve tonic, resulting in an extreme case of Gigantism; Steve Sax is arrested for all of New York's unsolved murders; Ozzie Smith disappears in the "Springfield mystery spot"; Jos Canseco misses the game while rescuing a woman from a fire; Don Mattingly is kicked off the team due to his "sideburns"; and Mike Scioscia is hospitalized due to radiation poisoning contracted from working at the Plant. Darryl Strawberry is the only star who can play and Mr. Burns is forced to use eight of his actual employees, excepting only Homer who remains on the bench because Strawberry plays his position. During the game Strawberry hits nine home runs, but Shelbyville is able to counter the star right fielder's offensive prowess. With the score tied and bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Burns elects to field a right-handed hitter against a left-handed pitcher and pinch hits Homer for Strawberry. The very first pitch hits Homer in the head, rendering him unconscious, but forcing in the winning run. Homer, still unconscious, is paraded as a heromoreless

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  • Another very good episode.

    8.7
    "Great"
    By DaGamePhreak, Aug 26, 2007 Report Abuse
    The school takes career aptitude tests, and Lisa is said she'll be a home wrecker, while Bart is a police officer. Lisa, so disgusted with that idea, decides to act like Bart. Meanwhile, Bart turns into a hall monitor, in a sense, taking Lisa's spot in the family. Teacher's editions books are stolen in the school and found in Lisa's locker. Instead of letting her take the blame, Bart does, and everything goes back to normal.

    "Separate Vocations" is a very good episode. The whole bit with Bart in the cop car is probably the funniest part, but the episode is still super well written.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • Dr. Pryor has pictures of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud on the wall behind his desk. Edit
    • Goof: When Bart and Principal Skinner are closing in on Lisa's locker, several shots of them opening lockers are repeated. Edit
    • When Bart is assigned detention, he has to write "I will not expose the ignorance of the faculty." on the blackboard over and over. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • According to the DVD commentary, it took nine takes to get guest star Steve Allen to pronounced "Aye, Carumba" correctly. Edit
    • In 1992, Nancy Cartwright won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for this episode. Edit
    • Blackboard Joke: I will not barf unless I'm sick. Couch Gag: After everyone sits down, Bart leaps into everyone's lap. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Lisa: Dear Log: This will be my last entry. For you were a journal of my hopes and dreams, and now I have none. Edit
    • Dr. Pryor: Here's your scientifically selected career. Janey: Architect. Kid: Insurance salesman, Ralph: Salmon gutter? Milhouse: Military strongman. Martin: Systems analyst. Systems analyst. Dr. Pryor: Systems analyst. Martin: All right! Lisa: Homemaker? Dr. Pryor: Mm-hm. It's like a mommy. Bart: Police officer? Well, I'll be jiggered. Edit
    • Principal Skinner: Some sick individual has stolen every "Teacher's Edition!" Teacher: What do we do? Mrs. Krabappel: Declare a snow day! Teacher #2: Does anyone know the multiplication table? Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • First Blood The scene, where Bart meets with the school counselor to determine his career choice, references the 1982 American film First Blood. The school counselor tells Bart that he believed Bart would become a drifter in his adult age. Bart then daydreams about himself as a drifter holding a green Army duffel bag who complains how the Sheriff drove him out of town. Echoing the sequence in First Blood where John Rambo is ushered out of town by the sheriff for being a drifter. Edit
    • Iowa Test of Basic Skills The "CANT" test that is given to the students of Springfield Elementary is flown to the Iowa non-international airport then trucked to the National Testing Center in Proctorville, Iowa. This is a poke at the "Iowa Test of Basic Skills" given to students up until the mid 1980's. Edit
    • The Wild One Principal Skinner asking Lisa what she is rebelling against, and her reply is taken directly from a scene in the 1953 Marlon Brando film, The Wild One. Lisa even has a toothpick in her mouth, just like the movie. Edit

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