Reception
The episode has received positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote, "A cracking opener to the second season - especially memorable for the sequence in which Bart prays for school to be cancelled the following day only to find himself exiled from the ensuing winter wonderland." Virginia Mann of The Record felt that it was "not as wildly funny as last season's best episodes, well-done, humorous, and, at times, poignant." The episode was praised for its emotional scenes. Tom Shales wrote that the episode is "not only funny, it's touching" and praised it for its scenes where Bart prays, writing "There are few if any other entertainment shows on television that get into philosophical matters even this deeply. The Simpsons can be as thoughtful as a furrow-browed Bill Moyers pontification - yet infinitely more amusing." Hal Boedeker of The Miami Herald felt that it "pulls off a finale that's thoughtful without being preachy, tender without being sappy. Despite the tears, the show keeps its edge. And the way TV usually smears on the schmaltz, that's quite an achievement." Phil Kloer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote "The episode does a good job of emphasizing the importance of studying without getting gooky. For all the talk about the anarchy of "The Simpsons," the show sometimes has smuggled in an occasional message, as it does again." In his book The Gospel According to the Simpsons, Mark I. Pinsky writes that "Bart Gets an F offers the most detailed portrayal of the dynamic of prayer on The Simpsons." Steve L. Case later included the episode in his book Toons That Teach, a list of 75 cartoons that help teach biblical lessons.
The episode was ranked 31st on Entertainment Weekly's list of "The 100 Greatest Moments in Television", writing that it "stands as classic irreverent family TV". In 2007, Larina Adamson, a supervising producer on The Simpsons, named "Bart Gets an F" as her favorite episode of the series. In 2010 BBC named "Bart Gets an F" as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show, calling it "insightful and poignant."
Read more about this topic: Bart Gets An F
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“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)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)