text: bart star " bart star " is the sixth episode in the ninth season of the american animated television series the simpsons . it originally aired on the fox network in the united states on november 9 , 1997 . written by donick cary and directed by dominic polcino , the episode guest starred joe namath , roy firestone , and mike judge . the episode sees homer becoming the coach of a pee - wee football team and expresses nepotism for bart by making him the quarterback which receives backlash from the whole team , including bart himself . the episode was critically well received . plot following a health convention held in springfield , the children of springfield ( including bart ) are deemed to be overweight . to help them stay in shape , the parents enroll their children in pee - wee football . the coach , ned flanders , helps keep the team undefeated , but homer heckles him relentlessly . flanders finally snaps and turns the job over to homer . homer initially acts tough towards bart , but when he is reminded of how his father was hard on him as a child , he decides to be nicer to bart. the next day , he decides to cut many players from the team , and replaces star quarterback nelson with bart , causing an uproar from the team . bart is unable to play the position well and causes the team 's first loss . while training at night bart meets joe namath , who promises to help him , but soon after joe 's wife fixes the car , which had broken down due to vapor lock , joe leaves without helping bart. lisa suggests that bart pretend he is injured to get out of quarterbacking , which he eagerly does , but homer claims that without bart the team must forfeit . this causes bart to become angry and quit the team . the next game , nelson is made quarterback again and the team wins , but homer has nobody to celebrate with and becomes lonely . afterwards , homer finds bart and persuades him to rejoin the team . the next day , during the championship game , the score is tied when chief wiggum comes to arrest nelson . bart decides to pretend he is nelson and the team finally wins the championship . production the episode was written by donick cary , who obtained inspiration from an experience in high school he had with a football coach who had a son on the team . similarly , show runner mike scully had been on a soccer team whose coach would give his son special treatment . george meyer obtained inspiration for the scene toward the beginning of the episode where rainier wolfcastle is taunting the children from an experience he had with arnold schwarzenegger . he was following schwarzenegger during a hike , and overheard him taunting his children . schwarzenegger 's influence was seen in the same scene , as he was appointed to be the chairman of the president 's council on physical fitness and sports , on which he served from 1990 to 1993 . the final scene took a long time to write . the writing staff found it difficult to come up with a resolution that would end on positive terms for bart and homer , and was originally different when it was read at the writing table . casting joe namath , roy firestone , and mike judge guest starred in the episode . scully claims that judge was paid $ 1 , 000 , 000 to appear in the episode , where he voiced the cameo of hank hill . the appearance was actually a cross - promotion for judge 's animated show king of the hill which followed the simpsons on fox 's sunday schedule in 1997 . other king of the hill characters ( hank 's niece , hank 's wife peggy , hank 's son bobby , and hank 's friends , dale gribble , bill , and boomhauer ) were present in the scene , although none of them spoke . marv albert was originally going to play firestone 's part as a sports radio host , but was dropped following sexual assault charges that were made against him around the time the episode was in pre - production . albert would later appear , however , in the season 20 episode " the burns and the bees " . reception in its original broadcast , " bart star " finished 27th in ratings for the week of november 3 – 9 , 1997 , with a nielsen rating of 10 . 8 , equivalent to approximately 10 . 6 million viewing households . it was the third highest - rated show on the fox network that week , following the x - files and king of the hill . since airing , the episode has received positive reviews from 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 , thought well of the episode , saying , " a fun episode , where you root for bart and , unusually , nelson - all the way through . homer is just too stupid for words , but that 's excusable because we finally see ned flanders lose it , big time ! " in 2011 , keith plocek of la weekly 's squid ink blog named the scene in which homer tries to purchase " beer that has candy floating in it " ( which homer calls ) at the kwik - e - mart as the fourth best food moment on the show . the director of the episode , dominic polcino , greatly enjoyed the episode , and claims that it is his favorite episode that he directed .