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 in the ratings, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the most watched television program on Fox that night. Despite being the most watched program of the network, the ratings were considered disappointing by the "Deseret News". On October 7, 2008, the episode was released as part of "The Simpsons - The Complete Eleventh Season" DVD box set. Mike Scully, George Meyer, Mark Kirkland, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Matt Selman and Tim Long participated in the DVD audio commentary of the episode. Following its broadcast, "Brother's Little Helper" received positive reviews from critics. About nine years after its original broadcast, Robert Canning