 In its original American broadcast , " Bart the General " finished 31st place in the weekly ratings for the week of January 29 - February 4 , 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 14 @.@ 3 . It was the highest rated show on the Fox Network that week . Since airing , the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics . The authors of the book I Can 't Believe It 's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide , Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood , said : " Some good lines and setpieces aside - we love Bart 's fantasy of death at Nelson 's hands - this episode nevertheless feels a bit unsure of itself , particularly towards the end . " In a DVD review of the first season David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 3 / 5 and adds " Another episode that helped to propel Bart 's popularity into the stratosphere ... " . Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that the episode " remains a primitive example of The Simpsons , but it ’ s a reasonably amusing and entertaining experience . " and added that the episode " lacks the subtlety and cleverness found on later episodes , but it was onto something . " Matt Groening notes on the commentary track that he finds it strange how controversial this episode seemed at the time of its release . Today , they would go a lot further and to him this episode now seems harmless . The episode 's reference to Full Metal Jacket was named the eleventh greatest film reference in the history of the show by Nathan Ditum of Total Film . 
