High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "Bart the Mother" is the third episode of the 10th season of The Simpsons, originally airing on September 27, 1998. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Steven Dean Moore. It was the last full-length episode Cohen wrote for The Simpsons before leaving to work on Futurama. The original idea for the episode was intended to be a B story, but because it was too difficult to work into other episodes, it eventually became a primary plot. "Bart the Mother" contains the final appearance of the character Troy McClure, and it is dedicated to his voice actor Phil Hartman, who was killed by his wife on May 28, 1998, four months before the episode aired. In the episode, Bart Simpson accidentally kills a mother bird with a BB gun, and decides to hatch and take care of the two eggs he found in the bird's nest.