Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Lady Bouvier's Lover" finished 50th in the ratings for the week of May 9 to May 15, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 10.0. The episode was the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place.
Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson called the episode a "generally good program, though not one of the year’s best". Jacobson said he dislikes Marge's mother; "she’s one of the series’ less interesting characters, which is probably why she appears so rarely." However, he thinks Grampa is "always fun", and "it’s nice to see him in an ebullient mood, at least for a while." Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict gave the episode a B− grade and said he is "never terribly interested in episodes that revolve around Simpson". He believes Grampa is "great as a background character, but less so when he takes center stage". He added: "I'm also especially uninterested in episodes revolving around Marge's mother. Having said that, this episode does have a number of inspired moments—notably the subplot involving Bart's pursuit of an Itchy & Scratchy cel, as well as one of the series' many homages to The Graduate." Bill Gibron of DVD Talk gave the episode a score of 4 out of 5. 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: "Homer's nightmare vision of Bart, Lisa and Maggie as ordinary kids is a highlight of this especially crazy—surreal jokes, flashbacks and dream sequences whizz by at an alarming rate—installment."
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