After a trip to a vineyard Homer and Marge plan to go on a drinking binge together. When Homer crashes the car while driving drunk, he frames a passed out Marge as the driver to avoid being arrested (this would have had been his third strike). Marge takes the supposed crime seriously and makes a considerable effort to rehabilitate herself.
Full Story
Homer, Bart, and Lisa see the newest Cosmic Wars film, The Gathering Shadow, and the movie turns out to be less than what they expected, filled with boring senate meetings and racial stereotyping. At home, Marge suggests that Bart and Lisa write a letter to Cosmic Wars creator Randall Curtis. Two weeks later, they get a reply from Curtis, which completely ignores their criticism, having sent them Jim-Jam merchandise. This forces the Simpsons to go on a trip to California, where Homer and Marge go to wineries, and Bart and Lisa go to the Cosmic Wars Ranch, which was previously called Fresno. Bart and Lisa visit Randall Curtis and tell him that his Cosmic Wars movies have lost their way. He does not like what they are saying especially when Lisa points out that better technology is no way to make the story better, the two encourage him to return to what inspired him for the first Cosmic wars movie. Curtis agrees, and he decides to go back to his storytelling roots. (For inspiration he plans to go to the video store, and rides there on a tauntaun.)
Bart and Lisa rejoin Homer and Marge, who are both drunk from free samples of the wine (and are tossing Randall Curtis around like a football). Back in Springfield, Homer and Marge go to Moe's Tavern and drink more wine. Moe opens a priceless bottle of Chateau Latour 1886 vintage wine, clearly unaware of its value, when he checks a wine guide like he should have done beforehand he breaks down crying and dry's his eyes with a lost shakespeare play.
Homer and Marge then continue to drink heavily for several days, until Marge suffers a particularly painful hangover. She tells Homer that they should not be drinking, and he agrees. Unfortunately, when they go to an Oktoberfest featuring Grammy-winning nuclear polka band Brave Combo, Marge, who tries to go through the night without drinking, gives in and ends up drunk along with Homer. He tries to drive them home, but in a drunken stupor overturns the car.
In order to avoid an arrest, Homer makes things look like Marge (who is more drunk than him) was the driver. She is arrested, but he bails her out. Later, Barney suggests that Marge go to a rehab clinic for a month, and when Marge is gone, Homer lets Flanders take care of the kids. When he sees her at the clinic, he confesses, but Marge is relatively furious with Homer for getting her arrested and drinks again. Later on, the other rehab patients help her discover that she likes being with Homer more than drinking, and forgives him and returns home.
Behind the Laughter
Production
The scene where Homer sings at Moe's Tavern while Marge plays the piano was a deleted scene of this episode, however, it was later used in Mommie Beerest as a postscript scene during the end credits.
