How Munched Is That Birdie in the Window? the fact that he still had not forgiven Milhouse for breaking his toy car, believing it to be a Transformer). When they take him to a therapy session with Dr. Thurmond (voiced by guest star Rachel Weisz), she tries to convince Bart that Santa's Little Helper is an innocent creature who never had the intention to hurt him and that Bart should forgive him. When this fails (thanks in no small part to Helper's taste for birds) she advises the Simpsons that the only cure for Bart’s blues is to give away the family dog, leaving Lisa mad at Bart
Brother's Little Helper by director Mark Kirkland and was the first episode staff writer George Meyer received a sole writing credit for since the season 5 episode "Bart's Inner Child". Meyer, who was facing some psychological difficulties while writing the episode, felt so dissatisfied with the episode's first draft that he turned it in with a pseudonym. The episode satirizes the perceived misdiagnosis of behavioral disorders in children, which was a controversial topic at the time the episode was written. The episode's title is a parody of The Rolling Stones song "Mother's Little Helper", which was also written on the topic of psychological