Singin' in the Lane

The family is enjoying their dinner when Mr. Burns calls Homer to invite him to a basketball game, after running through an insanely long list of people (both Springfield residents and celebrities) who declined to spend time with him. Homer accepts, wanting to bring his friends. At Moe's Tavern, Homer invites Lenny, Carl, and Barney, but excludes Moe, as Homer only has four tickets, leaving Moe upset.

Back at the tavern after the game, a regretful Homer and his friends decide to reform the Pin Pals bowling team with Moe as their captain (Apu and Otto being busy with their own lives and Moe being incapable of bowling due to wrist damage from prolonged time pulling drinks). They become successful immediately and win a tournament that sends them to the state finals in Capital City, which takes place a fancy bowling building. Their foes, the Fund Bunch, though having lost the first round, bully people, including Moe and a group of geeky bowling competitors called the Number Crunchers. To stop them from bullying, they make a wager - if the Fund Bunch win, they win the bar and Moe has to change his name; whereas if the Pin Pals win, Moe will get something only a rich guy can have, though they find out how really good the rich guys are at bowling. For revenge, Lisa incites the Crunchers to find the Fund Bunch's weak spots while Bart tries the rich, snooty life.

Near the final round, Moe slips talking about Barney being bad when he is drunk and the Fund Bunch uses that trick to make him drunk so he will lose the game. Lisa and the Crunchers succeed in making them feel bad about their own weaknesses, and Bart and Lisa reconcile. Homer now needs to make three strikes, while Moe imagines his life starting over in France if he loses. Moe tries to stop Homer from striking, but fails, and the Pin Pals win the state finals.

Feeling rejected by his friends for being a bad coach, a depressed Moe returns to the tavern, where they surprise him, saying they are still a team and his friends. Since they won, the Fund Bunch get the Pin Pals something only a rich guy would have: a zero-gravity plane experience. Moe, Lenny, Carl, and Barney float inside the plane while Homer struggles due to his weight.

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C+, stating "Apart from not having a clear purpose, there are pleasures to be found in 'Singin’ In The Lane'. The episode looks especially bright and crisp, and the different locations and the uniforms give the visuals an eye-catching vitality. Azaria really is quite affecting as Moe, even though lines like ‘I just gotta go back to the worst thing in the world—bein’ me’ rely more on performance and character history for their effect, rather than the meager motivation they’re given in the episode. And credit where it’s due, as rehashes go, 'Singin In The Lane' isn’t the stone bummer last season’s long-delayed return to Kamp Krusty was. Instead, this revival is simply too inconsequential to make much of an impression at all, which is its own kind of disappointing".[1]

"Singin' in the Lane" scored a 1.1 rating with a 4 share and was watched by 2.67 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.[2]

• "Singin' in the Lane" at IMDb
• "Singin' in the Lane" at TV.com