Reception
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 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.
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." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson felt that " helped establish the show’s reputation as a master lampooner of pop culture. The introduction of cable into the home allowed to mock many different movies and other media outlets, and this helped make the episode very entertaining. It also worked in many other ways and offered a fine show." Writing for MacLean's magazine, Jaime J. Weinman described "Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment" as "the first truly great episode — the one that established The Simpsons as the funniest and most multi-layered sitcom around. The story of Homer stealing cable was an excuse for dozens of parodies of early 90s cable TV, but it was also a story about Homer and his daughter and an examination of how we rationalize little acts of theft in our daily lives."
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." Doug Pratt, a DVD reviewer and Rolling Stone contributor, wrote that "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" is "one of the many demonstrations that while may have pushed the censorship envelope for its day, it remained moral to its core. The running satire of cable programs is also quite amusing."
The episode won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour). It was the second episode of the show the win the award. It was also nominated in the "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special" category.
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Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)