Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment
"Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons' eighth season, which originally aired March 16, 1997. Prohibition is enacted in Springfield and Homer helps fight it by illegally supplying alcohol to the town. It was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Bob Anderson.Dave Thomas guest stars as Rex Banner and Joe Mantegna returns as Fat Tony.
Plot
A prohibitionist movement emerges in Springfield after Bart is accidentally intoxicated during a St. Patrick's Day celebration. The municipal government discovers alcohol has actually been banned for two centuries, and moves to enforce the law, prompting Moe to disguise his bar as a pet shop. With the town becoming impatient with the police's incompetence, Chief Wiggum is replaced by Rex Banner, an officer of the U.S. Treasury Department.
In the meantime, Homer figures out a way to keep Moe's bar operating, by becoming a bootlegger. One night, he and Bart sneak out to the city dump to reclaim the beer that was disposed of when the Prohibition law was enacted. He then sets up shop in his basement pouring the beer into the finger holes of bowling balls. Using an intricate set of pipes under the Bowl-A-Rama, he bowls the balls into Moe's. Upon discovering it, Marge actually finds it a very good idea (since Homer is actually using his intellectual faculties and that he's making enough money to support the family), though Lisa doesn't, prompting Homer, Marge, and Bart to send her to her room. The media realizes someone's allowing Springfield's underground alcohol trade to flourish, and they give the still-unknown Homer the nickname "Beer Baron". Rex Banner fails to catch the Baron and resorts to stopping people in the street to demand if they are the Beer Baron; he even arrests Ned Flanders who pleads guilty to drinking only root beer.
