Release
The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 30, 2000. It was viewed in approximately 7.46 million households that night. With a Nielsen rating of 7.4, the episode finished 46th in the ratings for the week of April 23–30, 2000. It was the third highest-rated broadcast on Fox that week, following an episode of Malcolm in the Middle (which received an 8.2 rating) and an episode of The X-Files (which received a 7.7 rating). On October 7, 2008, "Kill the Alligator and Run" was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, Matt Selman, Julie Thacker, and Steven Dean Moore, as well as cast member Dan Castellaneta and guest star Diedrich Bader, participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included in the box set.
According to Scully, "Kill the Alligator and Run" is often cited by fans of The Simpsons as one of the worst episodes of the show because of its structure and outlandish nature. Scully has said that the episode is "kind of three stories in one." Meyer, a writer and producer on the show, said in the DVD audio commentary that the fans thought it was "kind of a frenetic and crazy, chaotic episode," adding: "I can't disagree. But we had a lot of fun writing it, and we stand by it." While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented on the episode, writing: "Wow – this may be the most jumbled Simpsons to date! The episode seems to suffer from ADD as it can’t focus on any topic for very long. It flits from one gag to another with abandon and rarely makes much sense – or produces many laughs. Yeah, it has a few amusing moments, but it’s too scattershot to succeed." Annie Alleman of The Herald News, on the other hand, named "Kill the Alligator and Run" her eighth favorite Simpsons episode. Nancy Basile of About.com thought the best scene of the episode is the one where the Simpsons have become hillbillies and are sitting on their porch, and Bart says "I'm getting used to this country life. Teacher says I'm whittling at a tenth-grade level."
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