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The episode was written by freelance writer Steve Pepoon and directed by Rich Moore. It is based on the Eighth Commandment ("Thou shalt not steal"). The episode marks the debut of Troy McClure, who was voiced by Phil Hartman and based on the typical "washed up" Hollywood actor. "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment"The Simpsons episodeLisa hallucinates what Hell is like because she fears her family is violating the Eighth Commandment ("thou shalt not steal") by watching stolen cable television. "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" was written by freelance writer Steve Pepoon and directed by Rich Moore.
Marge pleads with Homer to either cut the cable or pay for it, but he refuses to do either, saying that the cable will stay as long as he desires. Meanwhile, Bart sets up posters on the back door for his showing of an adult channel for 50 cents, but he is caught a few seconds later by Homer, who then forbids him from doing it. I found “Homer and Lisa Versus The Eighth Commandment” a little on the preachy side and methodically paced in a way that reminded me of the first season. Then again, it is an episode with one of the 10 Commandments in its title, so perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called the episode a "skilful demonstration of a moral dilemma that must have plagued millions since the inception of cable TV".
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The films that are watched by the family on the new cable are Jaws, Die Hard, and Wall Street. One of the X-rated films Bart and his friends watch on cable is called Broadcast Nudes. The title parodies Broadcast News, which was written by Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks. Towards the end of the episode, Bart mentions Atlanta Braves Baseball in reference to their frequent appearances on TBS in the 1980s. In its original broadcast, "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" finished 25th in ratings for the week of February 4–10, 1991 with a Nielsen rating of 15.2, and was viewed in approximately 14 million homes. It did better than the show's season average rank of 32nd, and was the highest rated program on Fox that week.
The Simpsons like the new channels and spend hours watching them. However, Lisa is suspicious about the cable hookup, and after a Sunday school lesson about the existence and nature of Hell, she fears that Homer is violating the Eighth of the Ten Commandments — "thou shalt not steal" — and will go to Hell when he dies. But what really drives the episode is the slight arc with Homer. Homer is just about dead set in keeping the stolen cable completely disregarding the ethics/morals from Lisa and his religious practice; though despite Homer's defiance, his conscious soon starts to catch up to him.
Storyline
I will say that it feels like this and a few others that would come later on, that it felt like it was playing up agenda and need to scare people into religion. There has always been this very naïve and straw man esque belief that people who are religious aren't in anyway morally sound or have any kind of ethics. That is very naive and far fetch thinking, since there are plenty of people who are indeed very religious, but they aren't ethical, kind, or morally sound, instead it becomes all about being egoistical, manipulative, selfish, and criminal. Point is, you can still be morally sound and have ethics, and concepts of right and wrong, without being religious, otherwise we still be living in that flashback sequence we saw at mount Sinai. But this episode feels like a very preachy, and strawman-based argument with really no nuance or the like.
Homer invites his friends from the power plant, as well as Apu, Moe and Barney to watch "The Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out!", on the pay-per-view movie channel The Blockbuster Channel. (Mr. Burns and Waylon Smithers come as well.) Meanwhile, Bart has set up posters on the back door for his showing of the adult-only channel "Top Hat Entertainment" for 50 cents , but is caught a few seconds later by Homer. Homer's conscience eventually bothers him, more so in the form of his daughter's distress than a moral objection to stealing cable, and he gives in to Lisa's protests, begrudgingly choosing not to watch the bout. Bart, on the other hand, plans to go back to watch the fight, but Homer forces him to stay in his room.
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Seeing as how she's scared of the idea of Hell and what will take you there. What makes this episode dated is the stuff involving the cable stealing. Stealing is wrong, we get it, but they hammer it in really hard to the point that it becomes obnoxious. But the preachiness comes in the form of the "Christan agenda" I see going on. But part of the appeal of why the Simpsons has been such an enduring show, was that it didn't feel like it was specifically made to please people of a certain ethnicity or majority.
Homer sees a commercial for "The Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out!", a much-anticipated boxing match in which Drederick Tatum will fight for the World Heavyweight Championship. Homer decides to have a party and invites all of his friends to come over and watch the fight. Lisa tries to boycott the party, and this results in Homer making her stay outside on the lawn. Homer’s conscience eventually bothers him, more in the form of his daughter's distress than a moral objection to stealing cable due to a hallucination that he is in prison for stealing cable.
At Sunday school, Lisa and Bart learn of the unimaginable horrors of Hell. Bart seems pretty jazzed about the whole proposition, especially the part that involves pirates. He seems awfully jazzed about having free reign to say “hell” as well. Lisa disapproves when Homer has cable television installed illegally into their home.
The episode finished second in its timeslot to The Cosby Show, which aired at the same time on NBC and had a Nielsen rating of 16.8. Lisa additionally opposes other examples of common thievery all around her. She even convinces Marge to pay the cost on two grapes she sampled in a grocery store. Lisa pays a visit to Reverend Lovejoy at church, where he suggests that Lisa cannot turn her father in to the police for the illegal hook-up, since she must continue to "Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother", according to the Fifth Commandment. He instead encourages Lisa to not watch anything on Homer's cable hook-up, setting a good example that he hopes others will follow.
Though of course you know that the cable party is over once Lisa and Bart learn about Hell and the "Ten Commandments" I don't blame Lisa for being really scared, the concept of Hell, as a Christian myself I don't doubt nor deny its existence. Whether any of you believe it or not one thing is always certain, everyone that violates Ethics in one fashion, or another eventually suffers the consequences. The Simpsons season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" .
Eventually Homer's conscience bothers him and he begrudgingly chooses not to watch the fight, dragging Bart outside with him. When his friends leave, Homer hesitantly cuts the cable hookup over Bart's objections. This episode is not terrible as it is preachy, dated and systematic of a much bigger problem with the early seasons of The Simpsons. First off, it's ironic that Lisa would go on to become a Buddhist later in the shows run.
It shows that there are some consequences when it comes to stealing cable. In this episode, "Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment," Lisa is shocked that Homer stole cable and in order to protest, she refuses to watch the cable and even protests a big boxing match that Homer and all his friends were going to watch. In its original broadcast, "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" received a Nielsen rating of 15.2, finishing 25th the week it aired.
Seasons are the mainstream episodes, the seasons that were the best and the most comfortingly familiar and the funniest. This is a morality tale with Homer being comically guilt-tripped by Lisa over breaking the law in what feels like a trivial way most people in Springfield. In The Gospel According to The Simpsons, Mark I. Pinsky writes that the episode has "the structure of an exquisitely crafted twenty-two minute sermon". The episode won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program . Another is the Boxing promo where one of the boxers dramatically dedicates a fight to his late Manager. And then there is this Mike Tyson like character that does the same and of course it results in the cliched prefight roundness.
Homer sits the match out and when it is over, he hesitantly cuts his cable hookup, despite Bart's objection. He accidentally cuts the electricity to all of Springfield in his random wire-cutting, before finally cutting the cable wire, abruptly ending the episode with static showing onscreen. The first scene is Homer dreaming on the hammock that he is a Hebrew in the time of Moses, breaking one of the Ten Commandments by stealing.
In addition to McClure, Hartman also provided the voice of the cable guy. The character Drederick Tatum, one of the boxers in the boxing match Homer and his friends watch, also makes his first appearance on the show in this episode. His physical appearance was based on the American boxer Mike Tyson, and he was named after a real boxer Simpsons writer George Meyer had seen. Homer invites his co-workers and bar buddies to watch Drederick Tatum fight for the World Heavyweight Championship during a cable-TV boxing match. Unfortunately for Homer Mr Burns also finds out and decides to attend the gathering to watch the match. When Lisa announces she will boycott the screening, Homer banishes her to the lawn, where she is joined by Marge and Maggie.
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