"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" is the fourteenth episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 9, 1997. In the episode, The Itchy & Scratchy Show attempts to regain lost viewers by introducing a new character named Poochie, voiced by Homer. The episode is largely self-referential and satirizes the world of television production, fans of The Simpsons, and the series itself. It was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Steven Dean Moore. Alex Rocco is a credited guest voice as Roger Meyers Jr. for the third and final time (having previously provided the character's voice in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" and "The Day the Violence Died"); Phil Hartman also guest stars as Troy McClure. Poochie became a minor recurring character and Comic Book Guy's catchphrase, "Worst episode ever", is introduced in this episode.
With this episode, the show's 167th episode, The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones in the number of episodes produced for a prime-time animated series, which had 166 episodes.
Plot
Krusty the Clown threatens to stop broadcasting The Itchy & Scratchy Show because the cartoon causes his show's ratings to plummet during the segment when it airs. Roger Meyers Jr. gathers a focus group of children to discover why The Itchy & Scratchy Show isn't as popular as it once was. In the focus group, Lisa explains that it's not the cartoon that's bad, it's that the characters have lost their impact on audiences after being on the air for so long.
Meyers decides that the cartoon needs a new character in an effort to appeal to a younger audience: Poochie, a dog with an "attitude" who surfs, raps, and plays electric guitar. At Bart and Lisa's suggestion, Homer auditions to be the voice of Poochie and gets the role. To promote Poochie's debut, Homer and veteran voice actor June Bellamy, who provides the voices of Itchy and Scratchy, make several publicity stops, where they encounter the show's hardcore fans. Homer invites his friends and relatives to watch the first Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show. However, the cartoon largely consists of Poochie spouting meaningless buzzwords and showing off, with none of the show's trademark violence, and Itchy and Scratchy themselves are not in the cartoon nearly as much as Poochie. Unimpressed by Poochie, Homer's guests abruptly leave—even Marge, Bart, and Lisa.
thumb|The intertitle revealing Poochie's demise.
Noticing how the new character only made things worse, Meyers decides to kill off Poochie, but Homer resolves to save him. In the next recording session, Homer goes off-script and implores the audience to give Poochie a chance. The show's production team appears moved by Homer's plea. However, when the episode airs, Meyers has dubbed over Homer's voice, Poochie gets clumsily removed from the short, and a handwritten intertitle explains, "Poochie died on the way back to his home planet." The studio audience cheers as Krusty displays an affidavit swearing Poochie will never return. Homer feels betrayed but attributes the affair to the fickle nature of show business. The network then runs classic Itchy & Scratchy episodes; Bart and Lisa laugh before deciding to watch something else.
Production
"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Steven Dean Moore. The episode was conceived as a commentary on what it was like to work on a television show that had long been on the air, but was considered to be nearing its end. This was intended to show that The Simpsons could still be good after eight seasons, even though it no longer had the "shock value" it did in the early years. Before production of season eight began, several executives at Fox suggested the staff add a new character to the show, who would live with the Simpsons on a permanent basis, in a bid to freshen up the series. The writers found the suggestion, usually considered a sign of desperation to boost a flagging series, Roy was originally conceived for the "Time and Punishment" segment of the season six episode "Treehouse of Horror V", living with the Simpsons in one of the alternate realities,
Cohen's initial vision for Poochie was that he would be annoying to fans because he was wealthy, aloof and unlikeable. In the episode's DVD commentary he read his script for the first cartoon featuring Itchy, Scratchy, and Poochie: