 = Boy @-@ Scoutz ' n the Hood = 
 
 " Boy @-@ Scoutz ' n the Hood " is the eighth episode of The Simpsons ' fifth season . It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 18 , 1993 . In the episode , Bart , intoxicated from an all @-@ syrup squishee , mistakenly joins the Junior Campers , a Boy Scout @-@ style organization that 's not affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America . After finding advantages to being a member , Bart gets taken in by the group and eventually goes rafting on a father @-@ son outing with Homer . 
 The episode was written by Dan McGrath and directed by Jeffrey Lynch . Ernest Borgnine guest starred in the episode as himself . He recorded his lines at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles . The episode makes cultural references to the films My Dinner with Andre , The Terminator , On the Town , Crocodile Dundee , Deliverance , Friday the 13th , and Boyz n the Hood ( in the title ) as well as the song " Sugar , Sugar " by The Archies . Since airing , the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics . It acquired a Nielsen rating of 13 @.@ 0 , and was the highest @-@ rated show on the Fox network the week it aired . 
 
 = = Plot = = 
 
 After being forced to leave the amusement arcade for being out of money , Bart and Milhouse find $ 20 that Homer lost and order a Super Squishee made entirely out of syrup from Apu at the Kwik @-@ E @-@ Mart . With their senses reeling from the high sugar content of the drink , they spend the rest of the money on a night out in town . The next morning , Bart wakes up with a hangover and realizes that in the revelry of the night before he joined the Junior Campers , a Boy Scout @-@ style organization that is not affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America . 
 Although Bart initially intends to drop out of the group as soon as possible , he decides to attend a meeting to avoid a pop quiz at school . Bart dislikes the first meeting , but when he finds out that he gets to have a pocket knife , he decides to keep attending . After a while , Bart starts to enjoy being a member of the Junior Campers , which Homer mocks him relentlessly for . Next , a father @-@ son rafting trip is to be held , so Bart has to bring Homer . Homer does not enjoy the experience , especially when he learns that he and Bart have to share a raft with Ned Flanders and his son , Rod . Due to Homer losing the map after making it into a makeshift hat , they accidentally take the wrong turn and find themselves lost at sea . They stay stranded with no food or water for several days , as no rescue is forthcoming ; the Springfield Police Department refuses to search for them because the Coast Guard boat they were using is out of refreshments . After several other failed attempts at being rescued or finding food , the raft springs a leak after Homer accidentally drops a pocket knife he was intending to gift to Bart. All seems lost , but then Homer smells his way to a Krusty Burger on an off @-@ shore oil rig . They are saved , and Bart is proud of his father . 
 Meanwhile , the other Junior Campers , led by Ernest Borgnine , take the correct route , ironically they end up in an even worse position : after finding themselves trapped in a dark , tangled swamp ( while being hunted by mountain men ) , they are attacked by a bear that Borgnine tries but fails to fight off ( due to Homer stealing his Swiss Army Knife ) , and they finally flee to an abandoned summer camp . At the camp , they start singing songs , but are soon attacked by an unseen figure lurking in the woods , and their fates are left unknown . 
 
 = = Production = = 
 
 " Boy @-@ Scoutz ' n the Hood " was written by Dan McGrath and directed by Jeffrey Lynch . The episode was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles . Ernest Borgnine guest starred in the episode as himself . The staff liked his work on the films Marty and From Here to Eternity , so they asked him to do a guest appearance on the show . Borgnine felt he could not say no to the offer because his grandchildren were fans of the show . In the final scene of the episode , Borgnine plays a guitar and sings campfire songs with the children . Borgnine was a guitar player in real life , so he brought his own guitar with him to the recording studio . Borgnine apologized because he felt that he was not being able to sing very well , but Nancy Cartwright , who provides the voice of Bart , thought his voice " added to the authenticity of his character " . The Simpsons 's creator Matt Groening thought the recording sessions with Borgnine were " so much fun " . Hank Azaria , who provides the voice of Apu , commented that Borgnine " had no idea what the hell he was doing . He 's a good actor , and he read his lines just fine , but he had no idea what the show was , no idea what we were doing . " 
 In her book My Life as a 10 @-@ Year @-@ Old Boy , Cartwright comments that she was a fan of Borgnine 's performance in Marty . She writes that the film had " changed [ her ] forever " , and that it made her " realize that actors have the power through their work to inspire and enlighten others . " She recalls that when Borgnine arrived for the recording session , she " lost all coolness " and ran up to him and exclaimed " ohmygod , Marty ! " 
 
 = = Cultural references = = 
 
 When Bart and Milhouse visit the local video arcade at the beginning of the episode , Martin Prince is seen playing an arcade game based on the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre . Other games at the arcade include a game based on the 1984 film The Terminator . The " Springfield , Springfield " number performed by Bart and Milhouse on their night out in town is a reference to the musical number " New York , New York " from the film On the Town , starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra . During a scene in which Hans Moleman and Moe fight with knives , Hans tells Moe , " You call that a knife ? This is a knife ! " , a reference to a line from the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee . Ernest Borgnine introduces himself a la Troy McClure to the Junior Campers by recalling his role in From Here to Eternity , a film which modern children are unlikely to have seen . During a hallucination , Homer imagines himself singing the song " Sugar , Sugar " by The Archies while dancing with lollipops and ice cream cones . While on the raft , Homer misquotes lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner when he says " Water , water everywhere / Let 's all have a drink . The scene in which Borgnine and the other rafters drift through a dark forest watched by mountain men is a reference to a scene in the 1972 film Deliverance , and the scene features the music from the film 's " Dueling Banjos " scene . The unseen person or creature that attacks Borgnine at the end of the episode is implied to be Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th film series . 
 
 = = Reception = = 
 
 In its original American broadcast , " Boy @-@ Scoutz ' n the Hood " finished 35th in the ratings for the week of November 15 to November 21 , 1993 , with a Nielsen rating of 13 @.@ 0 , translating to 12 @.@ 3 million households . The episode was the highest @-@ rated show on the Fox network that week . 
 Since airing , the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television 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 , wrote : " A terrific episode , with Homer so stupid it isn 't true , yet still saving the day . Seeing Ned Flanders get it wrong is great , but the show @-@ stealer is a toss @-@ up between Borgnine 's great self @-@ deprecating role , the ironic seagull , and the dolphins . " DVD Movie Guide 's Colin Jacobson called it a " brilliant episode from start to finish " . He commented that " We see what an amazing amount of goods and services one can purchase in Springfield with only $ 20 , and we get a fun spoof of scouting . Add to that terrific rivalry moments between Bart and Homer and the show excels . " Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict called the plot of the episode " typically inspired " , and gave it a grade of A. Bill Gibron of DVD Talk gave the episode a score of 5 out of 5 . TV DVD Reviews 's Kay Daly wrote : " And just when you think the Simpsons ' creators have taken parody as far as it can go , they air an episode like this . The writers cram the 22 @-@ minute episode with allusions to movie genres including disaster movies , Broadway musicals , adventure @-@ suspense and classic teen horror . " Adam Suraf of Dunkirkma.net named it one of his ten favorite episodes of the show . He called the musical sequence a " classic " . Rick Porter of Zap 2 It wrote in that he was not a " fan " of the episode 's second half : " Despite the presence of Borgnine , Homer is a little too aggressively stupid for my taste " . He thought the first part was " absolutely brilliant " , though . 
 Kurt M. Koenigsberger analyzed a scene from the episode in his piece " Commodity Culture and Its Discontents " , published in the compilation work Leaving Springfield : The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture edited by John Alberti . He commented that The Simpsons ' literary and cultural awareness extends to the " conventions of its own medium " in this episode . Bart criticizes an Itchy & Scratchy episode because Itchy stakes down Scratchy 's appendages and props his belly to form a tent with faulty knots . With Homer looking on from the couch , Lisa reminds Bart that cartoons do not simply reproduce reality , a point hammered on as a second Homer meanders past the living @-@ room window . Koenigsberger said that " this moment and many others like it reveal a strong sense of self @-@ awareness within the show , an awareness especially characteristic of high modernism . " 
 In the United Kingdom , when the 300th episode was shown , Sky 1 held a Golden D 'ohnuts evening , in which viewers voted for their favourite episodes to win in each category . This episode won the category of : Best School Jinx . 
 
 