13 Homer to the Max

The Simpson family looks through new mid-season TV shows, and realize they are all pretty lousy. They settle on the pilot episode of Police Cops, a show which follows a suave and dashing detective named Homer Simpson and his partner Lance Kaufman. Homer is delighted with the positive attention he receives because he shares the dashing, intelligent character's name. Despite the family telling him it is just a coincidence, Homer begins to receive congratulatory phone calls. He begins imitating the character, adopting his distinctive scarf and catchphrase, "...and that's the end of that chapter."

Unfortunately, by the second episode of Police Cops, the Homer Simpson character has been rewritten from a handsome man into a stupid, fat, and lazy detective who uses a now ridiculous catchphrase "Uh-oh, Spaghetti-Os!" when he makes a mistake, which results in Homer being mocked by his friends. Humiliated at being laughed at and being the subject of negative attention, Homer appeals to the producers to change the character back, demanding to know why they changed the character into a bumbling oaf. The producers refuse to either explain their reasons or change the character back, instead incorporating Homer's heartfelt speech in a scene where the Homer character is hung from a flagpole by his underwear by the police chief to further humiliate the real Homer. Then, after unsuccessfully attempting to sue the company for improper usage of his old name, Homer legally changes his name to "Max Power" (a name he got off of a hair dryer).

Max seems to be more well-adjusted with his new name as all the negative attention had faded away for good, but Marge is somewhat unhappy that he changed his name without consulting her, saying that she fell in love with "Homer Simpson", as well as her having a tattoo of his original name. At work, Mr. Burns is impressed by the new name and compliments Max, who decides to shop at Costington's in order to further improve his image. There, he meets a successful businessman named Trent Steel and, after a chat, they go out to lunch.

Trent invites Max and the family to a garden party. Despite Marge's reservations, the couple attend the party, where they meet lots of famous people, including actor Woody Harrelson, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, TV producer Lorne Michaels, and actor Ed Begley, Jr.. Max finds out that the garden party is nothing more than an excuse to save a redwood forest from destruction, something which Max does not like but is forced to go along with anyway due to getting swept along with the crowd. After traveling with the party guests to the forest, Max, Marge, and the rest of the guests chain themselves to the trees in order to prevent the bulldozers from knocking them down. Chief Wiggum arrives and decides to get rough with the protesters, picking Max first due to him giggling at Quimby calling the protesters "tree huggers". Eddie and Lou start chasing Max around his tree, trying to "swab" him with mace. However, as Max runs round and round the tree, the chain begins cutting into the tree. The huge redwood falls, knocking down all the other redwoods in a large domino-like chain reaction, angering their newfound friends.

That night at home, Marge is happy that Max has changed his name back to "Homer Simpson". Homer, however, informs Marge that while he was at the courthouse, he took the opportunity to change her name to "Chesty La Rue", along with the alternative names "Busty St. Clair" and "Hootie McBoob".