4th episode of the 8th season of The Simpsons
"
Burns, Baby Burns
" is the fourth episode of the
eighth season
of the American animated television series
The Simpsons
. It originally aired on the
Fox network
in the United States on November 17, 1996. In the episode,
Mr. Burns
reunites with his long-lost son Larry. At first, they get along well, but Mr. Burns soon realizes that his son is an oaf. The episode was directed by
Jim Reardon
and is the first one written by
Ian Maxtone-Graham
.
[1]
The episode guest starred
Rodney Dangerfield
as Larry Burns.
[2]
[3]
Plot
[
edit
]
After attending the annual
Harvard?Yale football game
,
Mr. Burns
and
Waylon Smithers
take a train back to
Springfield
. When the train makes an unexpected stop, a man named Larry approaches them selling souvenirs. Seeing Burns, he compares his face with an old photo and notes the resemblance. Suddenly, the train pulls away, leaving Larry behind. While on their way home from visiting a cider mill, the
Simpsons
see Larry hitchhiking and give him a ride. They take him to Burns' mansion where Larry reveals that he is the old man's son.
After finding the birthmark that confirms that Larry is his son, Burns admits that Larry was the result of a one-night stand with the daughter of a former flame named Lily Bancroft at a college reunion. At first, he is overjoyed to have a son and treats him as his
protege
. He takes him to fancy parties and tries to enroll him at Yale, but Larry's oafish behavior embarrasses him. Larry starts working alongside
Homer
in Sector 7G at the
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant
, and they become friends. Larry invites Homer to dinner at the mansion. No longer able to contain his displeasure at Larry's boorishness, Burns says that he wishes he had no son.
After Homer convinces Larry to fake a kidnapping so that Burns will admit that he loves his son, he moves into the Simpsons' basement. Homer tells Burns that he can have Larry back if he admits that he loves him.
Marge
discovers the plan and convinces Homer and Larry to abandon it, but they are spotted by
Kent Brockman
's news helicopter as they leave the house.
Homer and Larry run around town avoiding the police, being unsuccessful in looking for a place to hide. Finally, they flee into a cinema, with the police, Kent Brockman, and the rest of the family arriving. Homer and Larry climb atop the movie theater and have a brief standoff with the police.
Homer gives a heartfelt speech to justify Larry's actions and Burns forgives them for the hoax, but explains he cannot be the family whom Larry needs. Larry understands and reveals he has a wife and children back home who are probably worried about him. After Burns and Larry say their goodbyes, Burns says he's in need of a kidney. Larry said he'll gladly give Burns one of his but not before he runs a few pints through it first. A party spontaneously breaks out in front of the cinema at Larry's incitement as off screen hands hand people drinks and the song "
Any Way You Want It
" by
Journey
plays in the background.
Production
[
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]
Ian Maxtone-Graham
wrote the episode, and it was his first writing credit for
The Simpsons
, although he had served as a consultant on the show for several months.
[4]
Maxtone-Graham had previously worked with showrunners
Bill Oakley
and
Josh Weinstein
on a game show and the two had wanted to hire him as a writer on
The Simpsons
.
[5]
The episode started out as a story about Mr. Burns and
Grampa
both being stationed in Paris during
World War II
and falling in love with the same woman, who had a love child. Maxtone-Graham had wanted this episode to be about Burns having a child, which is where it went. The other episode idea became "
Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'
"
, which aired in the
previous season
.
[5]
The episode opens with the family visiting Mt. Swartzwelder Historic Cider Mill (a reference to fellow writer
John Swartzwelder
) because the writers had wanted to do something involving autumn and a cider mill seemed like a good setting for that.
[5]
Rodney Dangerfield
guest stars in this episode and was a huge favorite of many of the show's writers.
[5]
Many of the jokes in the episode were specifically written to be "Dangerfield jokes", which were much tougher to write than the staff had originally thought.
[4]
[5]
Dangerfield made a few key changes to his script during the recording of his part; Weinstein kept the annotated script and pen and considers them among his three most prized
The Simpsons
possessions.
[5]
Designing Larry Burns was a challenge because the director had wanted him to look like Dangerfield but still have Burns' characteristics such as the pointed nose.
[6]
Cultural references
[
edit
]
The title of the episode references a line in
the Trammps
song "
Disco Inferno
" ("Burn, baby, burn.") After discovering that Larry Burns is also working in Sector 7G, Homer frantically cleans up and puts away an almost entirely assembled
jigsaw puzzle
which has an image of
Snoopy
the dog lying on his doghouse. The puzzle is missing several pieces over where Snoopy's nose should be, which was intentionally drawn that way to avoid infringing copyright laws.
[5]
The character from Yale that Mr. Burns briefly talks to is based on the fictional character Dink Stover from the book
Dink Stover at Yale
by
Owen Johnson
.
[5]
The episode contains several references to the film
Caddyshack
in which Dangerfield stars, such as the scene where Larry tries to fit in with Mr. Burns' associates. The final street party, which features the song "
Any Way You Want It
" by
Journey
(also featured in
Caddyshack
), also parodies the way that several films, including
Caddyshack
, end.
[5]
[7]
The episode ends at a movie theater, which is a reference to several famous criminals who were involved with theatres, such as
John Dillinger
,
Lee Harvey Oswald
, and
John Wilkes Booth
.
[5]
Reception
[
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]
In its original broadcast, "Burns, Baby Burns" finished 64th in ratings for the week of November 11?17, 1996, with a
Nielsen rating
of 7.7, equivalent to approximately 7.5 million viewing households. It was the fourth-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following
The X-Files
,
Melrose Place
, and
Beverly Hills, 90210
.
[8]
The authors of the book
I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide
, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "[a] fun episode, with Rodney Dangerfield putting a lot of pathos into Larry ? and Homer's impassioned speech atop the cinema at the climax is one of his funniest moments."
[1]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Burns, Baby Burns"
. BBC.co.uk. Archived from
the original
on February 23, 2009
. Retrieved
April 10,
2007
.
- ^
Martyn, Warren; Adrian Wood (2000).
I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide
. Virgin Books.
ISBN
0-7535-0495-2
.
- ^
Groening, Matt
(1997).
Richmond, Ray
; Coffman, Antonia (eds.).
The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
(1st ed.). New York:
HarperPerennial
. p.
236
.
ISBN
978-0-06-095252-5
.
LCCN
98141857
.
OCLC
37796735
.
OL
433519M
.
- ^
a
b
Maxtone-Graham, Ian (2006).
The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Burns, Baby Burns"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Weinstein, Josh (2006).
The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Burns, Baby Burns"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
Reardon, Jim (2006).
The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Burns, Baby Burns"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
Meyer, George (2006).
The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Burns, Baby Burns"
(DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^
Bauder, David (November 24, 1996). "
'Dallas' gives CBS a boost NBC wins again with 8 of top 10 in sweeps period".
The Sun Herald
. p. F8.
External links
[
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]