The episode starts with the planning of the celebration of Skinner's 20th year as principal. Lisa and Ralph are given the job to report on his life. Bart is in charge of snacks and after Marge foils his plan of serving dog food, she bakes a cake. The night of the celebration, Skinner's mother tricks him into going to the school and the surprise that awaits. After a night of celebration, a man in uniform enters, and declares that he is the real Seymour Skinner. The whole room goes into shock. He says that he was captured, and sold to China to make sneakers at gun point. Then UN shut down the slave factory, and the embassy sent him here.

Skinner admits to this and tells the story of how he was a punk kid, named Armin Tamzarian. One day he was arrested, and was put into the army. Even in Nam, he didn't have any respect, and almost gets himself shot. The real Seymour Skinner saves his life, leading Armin under his wing, and tells him about his plan to become a principal once the war is over. Unfortunately Skinner is thought to have been killed one day. Armin goes to his mother to tell her the bad news, but she acts like he is the real Skinner, and they both start pretending he is.

The town is now very angry at Armin, and starts treating him with disrespect. After he announces his retirement, Skinner takes his place, and Armin leaves town. Armin tries to live his life as a "nogoodnik", and gets a job trying to get people into a strip club, but fails miserably at it. Meanwhile, Skinner is having trouble trying to get a class to say the pledge, and insults Ms. Krabapple. He also angers his mother by not following her rules. So The Simpsons, Mrs Skinner, and Ms. Krabapple go out to bring Armin back to Springfield, and after a small argument, they return.

Now the town is forced with the problem: Armin was the principal for 20 years; but, Skinner deserved to be the Principal after being a war hero. So, Homer has a solution: Armin is sent on a train, and a judge declares Armin is Skinner again, and nobody can repeat what happened, under penalty of torture.

Reviews at a glance:

September 21

This week's episode starts with Moe at the bar, noticing it's 4:59 and sending the rats away for the dinner rush. Moments later, in come Homer with 4 other guys, along with Barney who comes out from the bathroom saying good morning to Moe. Moe tells the group that he has been notified that the six of them have been responsible for 91% of Springfield's accidents. All laugh about this, then Moe gets serious and says that they need a designated driver every night. The driver will be determined by picking pickled onions from a jar, whoever gets black is the driver. All pick, and Barney is the driver. Homer is observant enough (and not yet drunk enough) to tell Barney that he got the black one. Barney must go the whole night without drinking. Of course, that night is the night that the Duff party mobile comes with a case of beer for Barney to chug. Barney can't cause he's the driver. We learn that Duff's position is to encourage the DD-of course.

After a night of partying, Barney must drive the 5 drunks home in Homer's car. Homer is last, and as he leaves he tells Barney to just slip it under the door when he's done. Two months pass, and Barney has not returned. Homer gets a letter from the state of New York telling him that his car is illegally parked, and he must claim it within 72 hrs. The family is thrilled about going to NY, and Bart even offers to pay the $9 charge. All notice that Homer doesn't seem so thrilled, and ask why he doesn't seem interested. Homer explains that when it gets dark out, the crazies come out. He tells a story about being in NY years ago: First his camera is taken. Then his bag is taken by the cop he was complaining to. Then his wallet is stolen. Then someone dumps garbage on his head, and finally, Homer throws a banana peel from the garbage away, and it hits someone, who chases Homer till he tries to climb a fire escape-which isn't attached, and he falls into a sewer. At the end of the flashback, Homer throws his wallet into the fire. Lisa points out that the wallet has their family pictures. Homer "not you too".

In NY, discovers that his car has a boot on it, and his teeth can't remove it. He finds out that he must wait by his car from 9 to 5, for a guy named Steve. He arranges to meet his family at 5:00pm in Central Park-around when it gets dark out. Meanwhile, the rest of OFF (Our Favorite Family) are out touring NY. Bart has a great line: Hey, it's ZZTop, you guys rock. Rabbis "yeah, maybe a little". Bart slips away for a minute while Marge and Lisa look at shoes, and he sees a building with a listing for Mad Magazine. Bart goes up, but is disappointed to see nothing but a receptionist, then a door opens and Bart looks in to see the whole Mad gang. Bart "I'll never wash these eyes again." They also go to Chinatown, and a lot of other places famous in NY, such as The Statue of Liberty, from which Bart yells to a boat of immigrants that there is no room in the country. "Oh well, you heard what the lady said, let's go to Canada."

Homer, though, is still stuck by his car. He sees a pizza place across the street, and tries stretching for it... closer, closer, then he gets a stick "Oh well still to far away. He'll have to settle for some strange food from a vendor, and lots of Crab juice". Within minutes, Homer has to go to the bathroom, but unfortunately the vendor has no bathroom in his cart. Homer decides to run for it to a tower near his car. He runs all the way up, to see that the bathroom is "out of order, use the one at the tower next door.Nooooooooo." Homer then runs up to the bathroom in that tower, and relieves himself, only to look out the window in the process to see himself getting another ticket, from Steve-$250 for failure to wait by car. This is what pushes homer over the edge-he decides to drive off with the boot attached. Pushing aside the tickets, Homer starts to go, but before it moves the car begins to smoke, then gets holes from the turning boot by the time Homer pulls into traffic. Homer can't go very fast, and many angry NY drivers are shouting at him. Homer sees a construction site ahead and has a stroke of genius. He goes up to the worker and tells him the boss fired him, the worker stalks off, leaving his jackhammer for homer to try on the boot. Though he does destroy the car a bit, Homer manages to get the boot off.

"Homer Simpson-1 NY-0." Homer drives off to catch the rest of OFF before it gets dark. Homer pulls alongside OFF, who were on a peaceful chariot ride until then. When they wouldn't jump, Homer cuts them off, and all run in. In the end, we see OFF driving back from NY, with Marge and Lisa looking back, dreamily-Lisa wants to come again next year. Homer: "we'll see" -as garbage from truck ahead files into his face through the cracked windshield.

One of the things that makes The Simpsons great is starting one plot, and then totaly changing it to another, something this episode did perfectly. The gags were great in the episode, not due to any high brow humor the Simpsons usually has, or unexpected jokes, but due to exaggeration; we all knew what was coming with the Mountain Dew Joke, the Sledge hammer, Mad Magazine, or the tower bathrooms, but was still made to be hilarious. Should the Simpsons do this a lot though? No, this doesn't bring memorable lines, such as in Secrets of a successful marriage with the "You want the truth..." line or Lisa's Rival, with the sugar cane jokes, nor does it bring any of the sophisticated humor, and the parodies, which is the icing on the cake. But nevertheless, this episode was hilarious, and a great sign of whats to come.

Reviews at a glance:
UP: I thought this was a great start to the season, with some great lines. His really helped redeem OFS (our favorite show) after last season, which many, myself included, hated. Great lines, and the boot was hilarious. A+/A
Josh Freak: Lots of laughs, a great start for the new season. A- DF: A great season opener. A,br> MB: This is better than last season, and if it is a preview of what is to come, we are in for a pretty good season. B+