10th episode of the 5th season of The Simpsons
"
$pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)
", simply known as "
$pringfield
", is the tenth episode of the
fifth season
of the American animated television series
The Simpsons
, and the 91st episode overall. It originally aired on the
Fox network
in the United States on December 16, 1993. In the episode,
Springfield
legalizes
gambling
to revitalize its economy.
Mr. Burns
opens a
casino
where
Homer
is hired as a
blackjack
dealer.
Marge
develops a
gambling addiction
,
Bart
opens a casino in his tree house, and Burns' appearance and mental state deteriorate a la
Howard Hughes
.
The episode was written by
Bill Oakley
and
Josh Weinstein
, and directed by
Wes Archer
.
Gerry Cooney
and
Robert Goulet
guest starred as themselves. The episode features cultural references to the films
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
,
The Wizard of Oz
,
Rain Man
and
2001: A Space Odyssey
. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a
Nielsen rating
of 11.7, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired. The
Rich Texan
makes his debut in this episode, referred to as "Senator" by Homer.
[1]
Plot
[
edit
]
At a town hall,
Mayor Quimby
fields suggestions on ways to improve Springfield's faltering economy.
Principal Skinner
suggests the town legalize gambling to rejuvenate its economy. Everyone likes the idea, even
Marge
, who has become known for disapproving of the townspeople's ideas.
Mr. Burns
and Quimby work together to build a casino, and
Homer
is hired as a
blackjack
dealer.
While waiting for Homer's shift to end, Marge finds a quarter on the casino floor and uses it to play a
slot machine
. She wins and quickly develops a
gambling addiction
.
Bart
attempts to patronize the casino, but he is refused service because he is younger than the legal
gambling age
. This prompts Bart to transform his
tree house
into a casino for children. Burns grows even richer from his casino, but his appearance and mental state deteriorate. He develops a
fear of germs
and builds a handheld
model plane
called "The Spruce Moose", which he believes is big enough to hold human passengers.
Marge's gambling addiction causes her to neglect her family. She stays in the casino for multiple days in a row, forcing Homer, Bart, and Lisa to make their own meals and do their own laundry, which they do poorly. Marge forgets to help
Lisa
make a costume for
Springfield Elementary School
's geography pageant. Homer makes a costume of
Florida
for Lisa, but it is misshapen and shabby, displaying the state's name as "Floreda". Lisa begins crying, which motivates Homer to cure Marge of her gambling addiction.
Homer frantically runs throughout the casino, searching for Marge. Security cameras capture his rampage, causing Burns to demote him to his old job at the
power plant
. After realizing how much he misses the plant, Burns decides to return to it. When Homer confronts Marge for her behavior, she finally realizes she has a gambling problem and agrees to stop.
Lisa wins a prize in the geography pageant for children who "clearly had no help from their parents".
Ralph
receives the same prize for his costume, a note taped to his shirt that reads "Idaho".
Production
[
edit
]
Bill Oakley
was one of the writers of the episode.
The episode was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, and directed by Wes Archer.
[1]
The story of the episode originated from a newspaper article that Oakley and Weinstein found about a town in
Mississippi
that was introducing
riverboat gambling
.
[2]
Oakley said another inspiration for it was that there had not been many episodes about Springfield as a whole and how "crummy" the town was, so they filled the whole first act with scenes showing how "dismal" it was.
[3]
Oakley particularly liked the animation of the lights on the slot machines and the lamps in the ceiling of the casino; the "way they radiate out" had always amazed him.
[3]
Archer, who directed the animation of the episode, also thought they turned out well. The lights were especially hard for them to animate back then because the show was animated traditionally on cels.
[4]
A deleted scene from the episode shows Homer dealing cards to
James Bond
. The staff liked the scene, so they decided to put it in the
clip show
episode "
The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular
".
[5]
There was a brief period when the episode had a different subplot that revolved around the restaurant chain
Planet Hollywood
. Groening had been told by a spokesperson that if he put Planet Hollywood in
The Simpsons
, the creators of the restaurant,
Arnold Schwarzenegger
,
Bruce Willis
and
Sylvester Stallone
, would agree to make guest appearances on the show. The writers of
The Simpsons
were excited about this so they wrote a new subplot for the episode that featured Planet Hollywood and the three actors. However, for unknown reasons, they were unable to appear in the episode.
[6]
Instead,
Gerry Cooney
and
Robert Goulet
guest starred as themselves. Executive producer
David Mirkin
enjoyed directing Goulet because he was "such a good sport" and had "a great sense of humor".
[5]
Oakley thought it was nice that Goulet was willing to make fun of himself in the episode, which at the time was rare for guest stars on
The Simpsons
.
[3]
This episode features the first appearances of Gunter and Ernst, the
Siegfried and Roy
-esque casino magicians who are attacked by their
white tiger
, Anastasia. Ten years after this episode first aired, on October 3, 2003, Roy Horn was attacked by one of the duo's white tigers.
The Simpsons
production team dismissed the novelty of the prediction by saying that it was "bound to happen" sooner or later.
[5]
Cultural references
[
edit
]
Mr. Burns's paranoid obsession with germs and cleanliness, and his refusal to leave his bedroom once the casino opens, is a parody of American magnate
Howard Hughes
.
The title is a reference to the 1964 film
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
, the music of which was composed by
Laurie Johnson
. Two of his songs, "Happy-go-lively" and "Rue de la park" can be heard in the
News on Parade
segment at the beginning of the episode.
[7]
Burns' bed looks similar to the one occupied by
Keir Dullea
's character
Dave Bowman
in the end of the
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968).
[8]
Homer is impressed by the card-counting abilities of a man who resembles Raymond Babbitt,
Dustin Hoffman
's character in
Rain Man
(1988).
[1]
Krusty
's midnight show is similar to
Bill Cosby
's 1971 album
For Adults Only
, recorded at a casino at midnight.
[8]
Marge reminds Homer that his lifelong dream was to be a contestant on
The Gong Show
.
[8]
Henry Kissinger
visits the plant and drops his glasses in the toilet. He thinks that no one can know how he lost them, "Not I, the man who drafted the
Paris Peace Accords
!" Burns's paranoid obsession with germs and cleanliness, and his refusal to leave his bedroom once the casino opens, parodies American magnate
Howard Hughes
, who had
obsessive?compulsive disorder
and was involved in the casino business in his later years. The "Spruce Moose", an absurdly tiny wooden plane Burns makes, is a parody of Hughes' impractically enormous wooden plane, derisively nicknamed the
Spruce Goose
.
[8]
Homer parodies the scene in
The Wizard of Oz
(1939) when the
Scarecrow
demonstrates his newfound intelligence by (incorrectly) reciting the law that governs the lengths of the sides of an
isosceles triangle
. Unlike in the film, somebody correctly points out that the
Pythagorean theorem
recited applies only to
right triangles
, not isosceles triangles.
[6]
Reception
[
edit
]
In its original American broadcast, "$pringfield" finished 35th in the ratings for the week of December 13 to December 19, 1993, with a Nielsen Rating of 11.7, translating to 11 million households. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
[9]
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "this excellent episode includes a surprising number of concurrent plots. Homer also works in the casino and tries to care for the family without Marge. It balances them deftly and provides great laughs along the way."
[10]
Adam Suraf of Dunkirkma.net named it the third best episode of the season. He also praised the episode's cultural references.
[11]
The authors of the book
I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide
, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote: "There's a lovely nod to the earlier episodes in which Marge protests the citizenry's hare-brained ideas at council meetings. A series of bizarre moments rather than a story?we're especially fond of Homer's
photographic memory
and Mr Burns' descent into insanity?but great fun."
[8]
Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict gave the episode a grade of A,
[12]
and Bill Gibron of
DVD Talk
gave it a score of 4 out of 5.
[13]
The episode is Sarah Culp of
The Quindecim
's eleventh-favorite episode of the show,
[14]
and one of Les Winan of Box Office Prophets's favorite episodes.
[15]
A scene from the episode where former
United States Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger
meets Burns was included in the 2002 documentary film
The Trials of Henry Kissinger
.
[16]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Groening, Matt
(1997).
Richmond, Ray
; Coffman, Antonia (eds.).
The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
. Created by Matt Groening; edited by Ray Richmond and Antonia Coffman. (1st ed.). New York:
HarperPerennial
. p.
131
.
ISBN
978-0-06-095252-5
.
LCCN
98141857
.
OCLC
37796735
.
OL
433519M
.
.
- ^
Weinstein, Josh (2004).
The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield"
(DVD).
20th Century Fox
.
- ^
a
b
c
Oakley, Bill (2004).
The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
Archer, Wes (2004).
The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
a
b
c
Mirkin, David (2004).
The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
a
b
Groening, Matt (2004).
The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
"Stanley and Bart... another Kubrick legend"
.
The Guardian
. London. July 16, 1999
. Retrieved
March 1,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000).
"$pringfield"
. BBC. Archived from
the original
on April 19, 2008
. Retrieved
April 12,
2008
.
- ^
"Nielsen Ratings/December 13?19".
Long Beach Press-Telegram
. December 22, 1993. p. C6.
- ^
Jacobson, Colin (December 21, 2004).
"The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season (1993)"
. DVD Movie Guide. Archived from
the original
on January 16, 2009
. Retrieved
January 24,
2009
.
- ^
Suraf, Adam (December 18, 2004).
"The Simpsons: Season 5"
. Dunkirkma.net. Archived from
the original
on February 18, 2009
. Retrieved
February 10,
2009
.
- ^
Bromley, Patrick (February 23, 2005).
"The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season"
. DVD Verdict. Archived from
the original
on January 16, 2009
. Retrieved
January 24,
2009
.
- ^
Gibron, Bill (December 23, 2004).
"The Simpsons ? The Complete Fifth Season"
.
DVD Talk
. Archived from
the original
on January 22, 2009
. Retrieved
January 9,
2009
.
- ^
Culp, Sarah (February 19, 2003).
"The Simpsons' Top 25 Episodes"
.
The Quindecim
. Archived from
the original
on February 19, 2009
. Retrieved
March 1,
2009
.
- ^
Winan, Les (December 28, 2004).
"How to Spend $20"
. Box Office Prophets. Archived from
the original
on March 14, 2016
. Retrieved
March 1,
2009
.
- ^
MITCHELL, ELVIS (September 26, 2002).
"FILM REVIEW; Taking Kissinger to Task, Perhaps Even a Bit More"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
January 16,
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]