The promotional image for the episode: Homer and Grampa on a drinking binge in O'Flanagan's Pub in Ireland.
Episode no.
Season 20 Episode 14
Directed by
Ralph Sosa
Written by
Matt Marshall
Production code
LABF11[1]
Original air dates
March 17, 2009 (on Sky1)[2] March 22, 2009 (on Fox)[3]
Guest appearances
Colm Meaney: Tom O'Flanagan Glen Hansard: Street musician Markéta Irglová
Episode features
Chalkboard gag
"Four leaf clovers are not mutant freaks"
Couch gag
The family members participate in a dog show; Bart wins and Homer attacks him.
Episode chronology
← Previous "Gone Maggie Gone"
Next → "Wedding for Disaster"
The Simpsons season 20
List of episodes
"In the Name of the Grandfather" is the fourteenth episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Sky1 on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2009 and aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 22, 2009. It was the first episode of the show to premiere in Europe before airing on Fox. In the episode, the Simpsons buy a new hot tub and spend so much time relaxing in it that they neglect Abraham "Grampa" Simpson. Homer decides to make it up to Grampa by helping him do one thing he wants to do. Grampa reminisces about O'Flanagan's pub in Ireland where he once had the best night of his life so the Simpsons travel there. Marge, Bart and Lisa visit various Irish landmarks while Homer and Grampa buy O'Flanagan's during a night of binge drinking and soon discover that pubs are no longer popular in Ireland.
"In the Name of the Grandfather" was directed by Ralph Sosa and was the first episode of the show to be written by Matt Marshall. Marshall pitched the idea in 2007 and the script was ready for a table read later that year, but the Writers Guild of America strike delayed work on the episode. Described by executive producer Al Jean as "an affectionate love letter to Ireland", the episode was inspired by a New York Times article about the effects of Ireland's smoking ban on pubs. Guest stars for the episode include Colm Meaney as Tom O'Flanagan, Glen Hansard as a street musician and Markéta Irglová as an Eastern European woman. The episode contains numerous jokes about Ireland and references to Irish culture including the Giant's Causeway, Blarney Castle, James Joyce, leprechauns, Guinness, Riverdance, U2 and the film Once.
The special broadcast of the episode in Ireland was part of Fox's year-long "Best. 20 Years. Ever." celebration which commemorates the 20th anniversary of the show. To promote the broadcast, Jean, Brooks and voice actor Nancy Cartwright visited Ireland and participated in the Saint Patrick's Day parade in Dublin. Critics in Ireland mostly enjoyed the jokes about the nation but felt that the episode itself was average. The initial broadcast on Sky1 in Ireland was watched by 511,000 viewers, with a 33 share making it the most watched Sky1 broadcast in Ireland ever. In the United Kingdom, an average of 957,000 viewers (with a 4.7 share) watched. The first airing of the episode on Fox in the United States finished with a 3.6 Nielsen rating and was viewed in 6.15 million homes, finishing third in its timeslot.
^Reg. # PAu003355663 in the U.S. Copyright Records database Retrieved on September 12, 2008.
^Dowell, Ben (23 February 2009). "Sky1 gets world premiere of Simpsons episode". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 February 2009.
^"Primetime listings (March 15-March 21)". FoxFlash. 27 February 2009. Archived from the original on 22 March 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
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