4 There's No Disgrace Like Home

Homer takes his family to a company picnic given by his boss, Mr. Burns, and hopes they will not embarrass him. After Bart, Lisa and Marge all misbehave, Homer is embarrassed by their behavior. Later on, he notices that Burns is drawn to a "normal" family that treats one another with respect and shows his blatant disgust for his own family. Homer wonders why he is cursed with a troubled family who misbehave and disrespects anyone, especially after the man from the normal perfect family admits he pities Homer.

Determined to improve his family's behavior, Homer attempts to get them to sit at the table properly, which goes awry as the family prefers to eat while watching TV. When Marge, Bart and Lisa claim there's nothing wrong with them, he decides to prove to them that there is something wrong. He takes them on a tour of the neighborhood, peeking through living room windows to observe how happy families spend time together. The rest of the Simpsons are unnerved by Homer's sudden rash behavior along with unnecessarily spying on their neighbors and retreat quickly back to the safety of their own home. Depressed by the outing, he stops by Moe's Tavern for a drink. After getting into a fight with Barney, Homer later sees a commercial for Dr. Marvin Monroe's Family Therapy Center. Dr. Monroe guarantees "family bliss or double your money back." This gives Homer an idea to improve his family's behavior.

Homer makes an appointment at the clinic and pays for it by pawning their television. This only frustrates the rest of the Simpsons as he takes them to the scheduled appointment. In the waiting room, they claim the family doesn't have a problem and are silenced by Homer. Dr. Monroe encourages them to express their unhappiness with a series of exercises. The first is a drawing exercise, which he encourages them to draw out the source of their problems. Most the Simpsons vent out their anger by drawing Homer as they see him. When Dr. Monroe observes it, he realizes that Homer is likely the source of their issues in the family. This is evident when he proves his own inattentive nature in being lost in the exercise and having the family view him as such, including being too strict as a disciplinarian.

The other methods in getting the family to talk to each other in a normal matter fails. Dr. Monroe finally takes matters into his own hands and sends them all to a generator room, allowing them to deliver electric shocks to each other. The family shocks one another to the point of causing a power drain on the city and driving the doctor's other patients away. Unable to help them, Dr. Monroe gives the Simpsons double their money back. With a fresh sense of family unity, they use the money to buy a new television set.