Secrets of a Successful Marriage

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The Simpsons episode
"Secrets of a Successful Marriage"

Episode no.	103
Prod. code	1F20
Orig. Airdate	May 19, 1994
Show Runner(s)	David Mirkin
Written by	Greg Daniels
Directed by	Carlos Baeza
Chalkboard	"Five days is not too long to wait for a gun"
Couch gag	The members of the family run in, collide, and explode. Maggie's pacifier falls to the floor of the blackened living room.
DVD commentary by	David Mirkin Greg Daniels David Silverman
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...

"Secrets of a Successful Marriage" is the 22nd and final episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. Homer teaches an adult education class on how to have a successful marriage. But to keep his students interested he has to tell personal secrets about Marge.

1 Synopsis
2 Trivia
3 Cultural references
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Homer plays poker with the guys and as usual, he wins without realizing it, prompting Carl to call Homer "slow." Hours later his brain registers, by which time the game had already ended. The next morning Homer talks to the family about it, and he realizes that he indeed might be a little on the slow side. Marge recommends that he take an adult education course.

He marches down to the adult education annex, where he talks to the head guy and learns that there is an opening for a class on having a successful marriage. Homer thinks he can get away with anything as a teacher. When he stands before his class, he has absolutely no lesson plan. Class members tell him about their problems, hoping for advice, but Homer has none to offer.

The class collectively gets up to leave, but when Homer mentions his conversation with Marge in bed, the class decides to stay, eager to hear gossip. Marge soon discovers that everyone in town knows her personal secrets. She confronts Homer about it and he promises to stop, but he continues telling her secrets anyway. One night, he has his class come to watch the family during dinner.

The kids and Marge are horrified and Marge kicks the class out ... including Homer. Homeless, he camps out in Bart's tree house, where Bart and Milhouse find Homer scrubbing his underwear the next day. Marge doesn't want to divorce him, but she is incredibly angry.

Homer creates a replacement for Marge - a plant with a paper plate for a face that he accidentally destroys. He soon longs for his real wife again. Moe comes by to declare his interest in Marge. She turns him down, but invites him in for a glass of water.

Homer comes into the house with flowers he picked. When Moe sees him, he jumps out the window. Standing before her in rags, Homer professes his total and utter dependency on Marge. She is flattered, if pitying, and decides to take Homer back. The family is glad that he has returned, although Moe is less than thrilled.

[edit] Trivia

Some of the classes at the adult education center include Patty and Selma's "Turn a Man Into Putty In Your Hands," Moe's "Funk Dancing for Self-Defense," Lenny's "How to Chew Tobacco," and Hans Moleman's "How to Eat an Orange."
Homer's marriage class consists of Apu, Smithers, Sideshow Mel, Otto, Lionel Hutz, Edna, Bernice Hibbert, Princess Kashmir, Barney, Skinner, Carl, Moe, and Willie, among others
Homer reveals that Marge has been "as gray as a mule since she was 17." Later, Apu claims that she uses blue dye #52, while Moe says it is #56. It should be noted that both of Marge's sisters are prematurely grey as well.
The chalkboard gag states "5 days is not too long to wait for a gun" and in the season 9 episode The Cartridge Family Homer has to wait 5 days before he can get his gun.
At the end of the episode when Homer is pulling the coffee table along with his "tattered rags", the vase of posies are seen in the first shot, but when the table is seen again they are gone.

[edit] Cultural references

Homer's bedroom rant to Marge is a parody mishmash of four popular movies: A Few Good Men ("...You want the truth?..."), the 1970 film Patton ("...When you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face..."), ...And Justice for All ("I'm not out of order. You're out of order.") and Chinatown ("Forget it, Marge, it's Chinatown.")
Homer sings the end of the theme song to Family Ties.
Smithers' recollection of his marriage parodies "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." Both were written by Tennessee Williams.