Homer's Phobia

] As thanks for his performance, the show's staff sent Waters an animation cel from the episode which he now has hanging in his office. [] Mike Anderson won the Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement: Directing in a TV Production, [cite web|url=http://annieawards.org/25thwinners.html|title=Legacy: 25th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1997)|accessdate=2008-01-15|publisher=AnnieAwards.com] and the WAC Award for Best Director for Primetime Series at the 1998 World Animation Celebration. [cite web|url=http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.12/2.12pages/2.12wacintro.html|title=The World Animation Celebration: Pasadena's Festival|accessdate=2007-05-13|publisher=Animation World Magazine|author=Kenyon, Heather] Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation called it "a shining example of how to bring intelligent, fair and funny representations of our community onto television"; [cite web|url=http://www.glaad.org/publications/archive_detail.php?id=2163|title=Homer's Phobia?|accessdate=2007-02-14|date=1997-02-21|publisher=Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation] and awarded it the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV - Individual Episode.cite book | last=Alberti | first=John (ed.) | year=2003 | title=Leaving Springfield: 'The Simpsons' and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture | publisher=Wayne State University Press | pages=p. 241 | id=ISBN 0-8143-2849-0]

In its original American broadcast, "Homer's Phobia" finished tied for 47th place in the weekly ratings for the week of February 10–16, 1997 with a Nielsen rating of 8.7. It was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox Network that week. [cite news|title=NBC's sky falls on rest of TV's broadcast networks|date=1997-02-21|accessdate=2008-06-24|page=D-2|publisher=The Florida Times-Union|author=David Bauder] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood stated in their book "I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide", that: "Only "The Simpsons" could do this so tongue-in-cheek that nobody could get in a tizzy about it. Very good indeed." John Alberti praised the episode's critiquing of "the most common misconception about homosexuality: namely that gayness is somehow contagious", as well as its other themes. In his review of "The Simpsons - The Complete Eighth Season" DVD, Todd Gilchrist said that "Homer's Phobia" "certainly qualifies as one of the all-time greatest episodes." [citeweb|url=http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/725/725343p1.html|title=The Simpsons - The Complete Eighth Season|accessdate=2007-03-01|author=Gilchrist, Todd|date=2006-08-14|IGN.com] When the episode aired, the production team received "very few" complaints about its content, with most of the response being positive. It was placed fifth on "Entertainment Weekly"'s top 25 "The Simpsons" episode list. [cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,417748~3~0~25bestand1,00.html|title=The Family Dynamic|accessdate=2007-02-13|date=2003-01-29|publisher=Entertainment Weekly] In 2003, "USA Today" published a top 10 chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive, which had this episode listed in tenth place. [cite web|url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-02-06-fan-favorites_x.htm|title=10 fan favorites|accessdate=2007-02-13|author=Paakkinen, Jouni|date=2003-02-06|publisher=USA Today] It was again placed tenth on AskMen.com's "Top 10: Simpsons Episodes" list, [cite web|url=http://uk.askmen.com/toys/top_10_60/64_top_10_list.html|title=Top 10: Simpsons Episodes|accessdate=2007-02-13|author=Weir, Rich|publisher=Askmen.com] with The Screen Directory placing it fifth on their list. [cite web|url=http://www.thescreendirectory.com/cat4/top_tens.php?c=49|title=Simpson Episodes|accessdate=2007-05-13|publisher=The Screen Directory] IGN.com ranked John Waters's performance as the ninth best guest appearance in the show's history, [cite web|url=http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/730/730566p4.html|title=Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances|accessdate=2007-02-13|author=Goldman, Eric; Iverson, Dan; Zoromski, Brian|publisher=IGN] with "TV Guide" naming him the third best film related guest star. [cite news|url=http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Interviews-Features/Article/default.aspx?posting=%7BC5678D42-E7E2-499C-B8F7-89EA5ABD903A%7D|title=The Simpsons Turns 400: We Name the Greatest Guests!|accessdate=2008-01-12|author=Arnold Wayne Jones|publisher=TV Guide|date=2007-05-18] In a 2008 article, "Entertainment Weekly" named Waters as one of the sixteen best "Simpsons" guest stars. [cite news | title = Springfield of Dreams: 16 great 'Simpsons' guest stars | publisher = Entertainment Weekly | date = 2008-05-11 author=Wook Kim | url = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20049408_12,00.html | accessdate =2008-05-11]

In 2002, "Off the Telly" writers Steve Williams and Ian Jones named "Homer's Phobia" one of the five worst episodes of "The Simpsons", stating that it "leaves such a nasty taste in the mouth", as Homer is "quite simply a bastard" throughout the course of the episode. The pair concluded by saying "this is a side of the show we'd not seen before, nor particularly wanted to see." [cite web|url=http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/comedy/simpsons/bestworst.htm|title=FIVE OF THE BEST ... AND FIVE OF THE WORST|accessdate=2007-05-13|author=Williams, Steve; Jones, Ian|publisher=Off the Telly] In June 2003, Igor Smykov sued the Russian television channel REN TV on claims that "The Simpsons", along with "Family Guy", were "morally degenerate and promoted drugs, violence and homosexuality." As evidence, "Homer's Phobia" was shown to the judge to prove that "The Simpsons" promoted homosexuality, and thus should not be aired again on the channel. The case was thrown out after one day. [cite news|url=http://www.sptimes.ru/story/3199|title=Court Rules for Simpsons Cartoon|accessdate=2007-03-07|publisher=The St. Petersburg Times]

References

External links

* [http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/0815.htm "Homer's Phobia"] at The Simpsons.com
*snpp capsule|4F11
* [http://www.tv.com/homers-phobia/episode/1453/summary.html "Homer's Phobia"] at TV.com
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701126/ "Homer's Phobia"] at the Internet Movie Database