Rosebud (The Simpsons episode)

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The Simpsons episode
"Rosebud"

Episode no.	85
Prod. code	1F01
Orig. Airdate	October 21, 1993
Show Runner(s)	David Mirkin
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Directed by	Wesley Archer
Couch gag	The family runs in and sees identical copies of themselves sitting on the couch.
Guest star	The Ramones as themselves
DVD commentary by	Matt Groening David Mirkin Wes Archer David Silverman
SNPP capsule
Season 5 September 30, 1993 – May 19, 1994
Homer's Barbershop Quartet Cape Feare Homer Goes to College Rosebud Treehouse of Horror IV Marge on the Lam Bart's Inner Child Boy-Scoutz N the Hood The Last Temptation of Homer $pringfield Homer the Vigilante Bart Gets Famous Homer and Apu Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy Deep Space Homer Homer Loves Flanders Bart Gets an Elephant Burns' Heir Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song The Boy Who Knew Too Much Lady Bouvier's Lover Secrets of a Successful Marriage
List of all Simpsons episodes...

"Rosebud" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season.

1 Synopsis
2 Production
3 Trivia
4 Censorship
5 Cultural references
6 Reception
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

As a child, Burns lived with his family and cherished his teddy bear Bobo, but abandoned Bobo when he left to live with a "twisted, loveless billionaire". Bobo lies in the snow until the spring, when a thaw washes him downriver to New York. There, he is picked up by Charles Lindbergh and flown across the Atlantic Ocean.

Upon arrival in Paris, Lindbergh tosses the bear out the window, where it is caught by a young Adolf Hitler. Fast forward to 1945, in his Führerbunker in Berlin, Germany, Hitler blames Bobo for losing World War II and tosses him away. In the next scene, Bobo lies onboard the submarine Nautilus headed for the North Pole. He becomes encased in a block of ice until packed up by an ice-gathering expedition. The bag of ice with him in it is sent to Apu's Kwik-E-Mart in Springfield. Bart Simpson buys the bag of ice, finds Bobo, and gives it to Maggie to play with.

Burns discovers that Maggie has the bear and goes to incredible lengths to get it back, including interrupting all TV shows, and cutting off the beer supply to Springfield, in order to get Homer to give it up. Maggie, however, loves the bear, and Homer's conscience prevents him from taking Bobo away from her. Burns becomes deeply depressed and asks Maggie to look after his teddy. Maggie, in an act of pity, lets the desperate Burns have the bear. Burns is overjoyed, but his loving mood does not last.

The episode ends with a Planet of the Apes scenario in one million AD, where a robotic Burns and robotic dog Smithers once again discover Bobo.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Production

According to a DVD commentary, there was a scene where Bobo was in the car during the JFK assassination. This was left out because the writers felt it was in bad taste.

[edit] Trivia

Bobo was also the name of a police dog that briefly appears in "There's No Disgrace Like Home".
A repaired Bobo makes a brief cameo in the end of "Homer the Smithers".
When this episode first aired on CanWest Global System stations in Canada, a disclaimer preceded it: "The following program contains language that may be offensive, viewer discretion is advised." While this was presumably because of some of the Ramones' dialogue, this disclaimer is absent from the Global weekend afternoon runs even though their scene remains in its entirety. Also, the afternoon runs have the first commercial break after "Happy Birthday, Mr. Smithers", there is no commercial between acts 2/3, and the last commercial break is after the Executive Producer credits.
In this episode, it is revealed that Mr. Burns's Birthday is September 15.
On a coincidental note, on September 15, 2004 (Mr. Burns' birthday), Johnny Ramone (who starred in this episode with The Ramones) died.
The syndicated version cuts a scene in the Burns's birthday party sequence where George Bush, Sr. is stopped at the door and denied entry because he only served one term as U.S. President. Jimmy Carter (who also served one term as U.S. President) is also behind Bush, Sr. and tries to cheer him up, but Bush, Sr. rejects the offer.
The opening sequence of this episode (where The Simpsons family come in and find a doppelganger version of themselves on the couch) is also used in 34 other episodes from Seasons 1 through 6 in syndication, and as a result, there are seven couch gags that cannot be seen in syndication.
It is revealed that the ice bag containing Bobo was harvested in 1993. This may be a clue to the exact year this episode took place, though it may be that the arctic team returned in a later year, as many real teams do.

[edit] Censorship

Because Network Ten in Australia classifies The Simpsons as a children's program, two violent scenes have been cut out (however, the scenes remain in the FOX8 broadcast): 1) The scene where the guards beat up the audience members after Burns cancels his party because of Homer's tasteless comedy act, and 2) the scene where Barney threatens Homer with a gun (in an attempt to get Homer to return Bobo so Barney can have the beer supply back) and Homer slams the door in his face, causing the gun to go off, a woman to scream (presumably from being shot), and a police siren to be heard.
In the period following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (widely believed to have been the result of a high-speed paparazzi chase), Burns' line "Damn you paparazzo!" was edited to remove the last word in United Kingdom broadcasts.

[edit] Cultural references

The episode title is a reference to Charles Foster Kane's dying word in the 1941 Orson Welles film Citizen Kane. Rosebud itself is a sled that Kane had as a child; the teddy bear Bobo ("the symbol of your lost youth and innocence!") is a substitute for Rosebud in this episode, even down to the fact that Burns discards it in the snow when offered a new life of riches and power. The scene where he drops a snow globe, while whispering the name of his lost toy, also parodies Kane's death scene at the start of the film. This is one of several Simpsons episodes which portray Burns as a cartoon version of Kane, others including "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish".
At the start of the episode, the guards outside Mr. Burns's house parody the Wicked Witch of the West's guards from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.
In Burns' dream, his younger brother is apparently future comedian George Burns, already trying out his comic material ("Trust me, it'll be funny when I'm an old man!").
The caricature of Burns on the theater curtain is drawn in the style of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, complete with Nina.
Mr. Burns and Homer make references to The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.
Photos at Burns' party include him riding a penny-farthing bicycle, a photo of his face poorly taped onto that of boxer Muhammad Ali after he famously floored Sonny Liston in their second fight, and a parody of Marilyn Monroe's skirt being blown up during the movie The Seven Year Itch.
Mr. Burns confuses 1970s American punk rock group The Ramones with the 1960s British rock music group The Rolling Stones.
The jackboots that break up Burns' birthday bash are similar to Nazi Sturmabteilung who busted up groups who were antagonistic to the Party's political platform.
The last scene where Mr. Burns' robotic body runs off with Bobo is a spoof of Planet of the Apes in which herds of humans are enslaved by humanoid apes.
The scene with Bobo and the fishtank is a reference to The Graduate.

[edit] Reception

The episode was placed second on Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episode list.^[1] IGN.com ranked The Ramones's performance as the fifteenth best guest appearance in the show's history.^[2]