Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for television. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (July 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary. It should be expanded to provide more balanced coverage that includes real-world context. Please to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

"Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play"
The Simpsons episode
A shocked Bart watches Tabitha Vixx's pole dancing in the promotional image.
Episode no.	Season 17 Episode 22
Directed by	Bob Anderson
Written by	Joel H. Cohen
Production code	HABF16
Original air date	May 21, 2006 (2006-05-21)
Guest appearances
Mandy Moore as Tabitha Vixx Stacy Keach as Howard K. Duff
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"Have a great summer, everyone"
Couch gag	The Simpsons go to sit on the couch, but the couch grows fangs and snarls at the family. The Simpsons run out into the street, where everyone’s chairs, sofas, and loungers are rising up and attacking their masters. Sherri and Terri are swallowed by their beanbag chairs, Officers Eddie and Lou are trapped in their police car as the couches rock it back and forth, Professor Frink is attacked by his futuristic couch, and Moe fights back against his bar stools by blasting them with his shotgun. Homer hides out from the rampaging seats in a store called “Couch World”, but is not safe there as all the couches pile on top of Homer and crush him.
Commentary	Al Jean Joel H. Cohen Matt Selman Tim Long Marc Wilmore David Silverman Jeff Westbrook
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Monkey Suit" Next → "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer"
The Simpsons (season 17)
List of episodes

“Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play” is the twenty-second and the final episode of the seventeenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 21, 2006.

Plot[]

The Springfield Isotopes win first place in the NL West thanks to their new acquisition of Buck “Home run King” Mitchell. During a game at Springfield Stadium, Buck's pop star wife Tabitha Vixx sings the first few bars of the American national anthem, then strips down to lingerie and launches into a lascivious performance of one of her own songs. Buck, humiliated, delivers a terrible performance at that night's game, and even accidentally lets go of the bat while swinging it which accidentally hits Sideshow Mel's fiancé, causing the crowd to boo at him. He later sees Homer and Marge kissing on the Jumbo-Vision.

Later that night, Buck shows up at the Simpsons’ front door and asks for help with his marriage in exchange for season tickets. Marge doubts their ability to counsel other couples. Her doubts lead to her and Homer flirting, which Buck sees as an example of what he wants with his own wife. At the first session—taking place in the Simpsons’ living room—Buck confesses he assumed Tabitha would give up her recording career to focus on his minor league baseball career, to which she responds she will not stay in a mismatched marriage. The next session takes place at Buck and Tabitha's mansion and goes much more smoothly. As a result of his now-steady personal life, Buck's game returns to superior form.

Tabitha continues her concert tour, and Homer comes to check up on her in her dressing room. There he gives her a neck rub; her loud moans and Homer's praise of the fried chicken he is eating are overheard through the door by Buck, who misinterprets them and barges in enraged and slugs Homer. Now with his marriage again on the rocks, Buck goes into another slump. Homer wants to get them back together, but Marge refuses to help. A few minutes later Tabitha knocks on the door; she tells a shocked Marge that she plans to leave Buck for good. Marge objects, insisting they stay together.

During Buck's next game, Homer hijacks the Duff blimp and spells out a message to Buck, supposedly from Tabitha proclaiming her love. Buck, reinvigorated, hits the ball into the blimp itself, causing it to crash into the field; as Homer alone runs from the wreckage, Buck realizes Tabitha had no part in the message. He charges Homer, bat in hand, but Marge dissuades him by saying that Homer was just trying to help, and that marriage is hard work but worth it. Tabitha then comes on the Jumbo-Vision to tell Buck she wants to stay together.

The episode closes with another Isotope player, Tito, saying he does not care about the healed marriage because bandits just kidnapped his mother.^[1]

References[]

External links[]

• "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play" at IMDb

Wikiquote has quotations related to: “Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play”