Release and Reception
In its original American broadcast on February 24, 2002, "The Lastest Gun In the West", along with a rerun of Malcolm in the Middle, put Fox in second place for the night among adults between ages 18 and 49. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode received a 5.9 rating, meaning it was seen by 5.9% of the population in said demographic. On August 24, 2010, the episode was released as part of The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray set.
Following its television broadcast, The Lastest Gun in the West received a lot of negative feedback from The Simpsons fans. The Simpsons staff, who, according to Jean, are susceptible to criticism, were surprised by the amount of scorn the fans showed towards the episode. Jean, who thought the episode was "great", stated in the DVD commentary for the episode that he " never been able to quite figure out", and speculated that, since Westerns have not been popular since the 1960s, "they just don't care about them at all."
Following the home video release of the thirteenth season of The Simpsons, reviews of "The Lastest Gun in the West" were mixed. On the negative side, describing the episode as a "clunker", Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict stated that the episode is "frightfully thin" and criticized the premise as being "lazy." Nate Boss of Project:Blu criticized the premise as well, writing that the episode was "just a couple jokes thrown together" rather than a complete story. Writing for Blu-ray.com, Casey Broadwater described the episode as being "just plain dull." On the other hand, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide praised the episode as "offer good laughs" and wrote that, while the episode was not "brilliant", it was overall "an enjoyable experience." Giving the episode a positive review as well, Ron Martin of 411Mania described the episode as being "easily one of the best of the season."
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