Mother Simpson

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The Simpsons episode
"Mother Simpson"
Homer reunites with his mother.
Episode no.	136
Prod. code	3F06
Orig. airdate	November 19, 1995
Show runner(s)	Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein
Written by	Richard Appel
Directed by	David Silverman
Couch gag	Snowball II is scared off by a bowling alley pinsetter. The Simpsons are set onto the couch like bowling pins.[1]
Guest star(s)	Glenn Close as Mona Simpson Harry Morgan as Bill Gannon
DVD commentary	Matt Groening Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein David Silverman Richard Appel
Season 7 September 17, 1995 – May 19, 1996
"Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)" "Radioactive Man" "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" "Bart Sells His Soul" "Lisa the Vegetarian" "Treehouse of Horror VI" "King-Size Homer" "Mother Simpson" "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" "Marge Be Not Proud" "Team Homer" "Two Bad Neighbors" "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" "Bart the Fink" "Lisa the Iconoclast" "Homer the Smithers" "The Day the Violence Died" "A Fish Called Selma" "Bart on the Road" "22 Short Films About Springfield" "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'" "Much Apu About Nothing" "Homerpalooza" "Summer of 4 Ft. 2"
List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20

"Mother Simpson" is the eighth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season and first aired on November 19, 1995.^[2] After faking his own death to get a day off of work, Homer reunites with his mother Mona, whom he thought had died 27 years ago. It was directed by David Silverman and was the first episode to be written by Richard Appel.^[1] Glenn Close makes her first of three guest spots as Homer's mother.^[2] All broadcast versions include a dedication to Jackie Banks, a former animation director for the show who died sometime previous to the airing of this episode. However, this dedication is not on the Season 7 DVD boxset.^[3]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Cultural references 4 Reception 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

On a beautiful Saturday morning, Mr. Burns has all of his employees clean up a highway maintained by his company and Homer fakes his death so that he does not have to work. The next day, news of Homer's "death" spreads, and soon Marge orders Homer to go to the Springfield Hall of Records to get the whole "misunderstanding" sorted out. While sorting out the problem, Homer gets into an argument with a clerk who claims that Homer's mom is still alive, in spite of Homer's belief that she died while he was young. Homer decides to visit what he believes is his mom's grave, only to discover that it belongs to Walt Whitman. Nearby, he sees his own grave and falls into it. A woman approaches and chastises Homer for falling into her son's grave. Homer begins to retort, but suddenly realizes that the woman is his mom, Mona Simpson and the two have a rather emotional reunion after 27 years apart.

Homer takes his mom home to meet the family, which causes quite a stir. She bonds with Lisa, being on the same intellectual level. While the two are sitting on the front steps, a police car drives by and Mona runs inside the house, making Lisa a little suspicious. She shares her suspicions with Bart, who had raided Mona’s purse and found several driver’s licenses with different names, causing Lisa to wonder whether Mona is a con artist. Meanwhile, Homer and Marge are wondering why his mother left him for 27 years and the two decide to confront Mona. The whole family questions Mona and she finally decides to explain why she left Homer.

In a flashback to the 1960s, Mona is a housewife who still lives with Grampa. One night after putting Homer to bed, she becomes radicalized by Joe Namath's hair during the telecast of Super Bowl III and joins a group of hippies who protest Mr. Burns's germ warfare laboratory. They detonate an "antibiotic bomb" inside the lab, killing all the germs and subsequently also curing lab security guard Clancy Wiggum's asthma. Angry about the destruction of his "precious germs", Burns runs to the lab, but is trampled by the fleeing hippies. When Mona goes back to help him, Burns manages to identify her as one of the perpetrators of the deed, forcing Mona to go into hiding. Upon hearing about these events, Homer wonders why Mona never sent any care packages. Mona, insisting that she did send such packages, heads to the post office to claim the undelivered packages. At the post office, Burns recognizes her and calls the FBI, who send Bill Gannon and Joe Friday of Dragnet fame.

The FBI and Burns manage to track Mona down through a cab driver, a gravedigger and Patty and Selma. They invade the Simpson home, but Homer and Mona manage to escape thanks to a tip from Wiggum, who is grateful to Mona for curing his asthma.

Mona is once again forced to go into hiding and she and Homer say goodbye to each other. The episode ends with Mona driving away while Homer sits on his car and stares at the stars.^[1][2][4]

[edit] Production

The idea for "Mother Simpson" was pitched by Richard Appel, who was desperately trying to think of a story idea and decided that he had to really reach for an idea and decided to do something about Homer's mother, who previously had only been mentioned once.^[5] Many of the writers could not believe that an episode about Homer's mother had not previously been produced.^[6] Part of the fun of an episode about Homer's mother for the writers was that they were able to solve several little puzzles, such as where Lisa's intelligence came from.^[5] The ending shot with Homer sitting on his car was decided at the table read, but the drawing at the end was inserted by David Silverman because it was felt that the end was so touching that no other lines were needed. As a result, no promos were aired over the credits during the original airing of the episode.^[7] Bill Oakley has admitted that he always gets teary-eyed when he watches the ending.^[6]

Glenn Close, who was directed by Josh Weinstein,^[6] was convinced to do the episode partially because of James L. Brooks.^[8] Mona Simpson was designed in a way so that she has little bit of Homer in her face, such as the shape of her upper lip and her nose.^[7] There were several design changes because the directors were trying to make her an attractive older and younger woman, but still be Simpson-esque.^[7] The inspiration for the character comes from Bernardine Dohrn of the Weather Underground, although the writers acknowledge that several people fit her description.^[6] Mona Simpson's crime was intentionally the least violent crime the writers could think of, as she didn't harm anyone and was only caught because she came back to help Mr. Burns.^[6] The character is named after Richard Appel's wife, whose maiden name is Mona Simpson.^[5] When Mona gets in the van, her voice is done by Pamela Hayden because Glenn Close could not say "d'oh!" properly^[6] and thus they used the original temp track recorded by Hayden.^[5]

The design of Joe Friday is based on his design in "Dragged Net!", a parody of Dragnet that was done in Mad Magazine in the 1950s.^[6] Mona becoming a radical after seeing Joe Namath's sideburns is a parody of how many 60's movies have a sudden transformational moment and play music such as "Turn! Turn! Turn!"^[6] and there was much discussion among the writers as to what that moment should be.^[5] The song originally intended to be taped over Mr. Burns’s cassette of "Ride of the Valkyries" was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", but it was too expensive to clear, so ABBA’s "Waterloo" was selected instead.^[6]

[edit] Cultural references

"Mother Simpson" draws upon a number of references to 1960s popular culture. Three songs from the 1960s appear in this episode: "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan and "All Along the Watchtower", by Jimi Hendrix.^[4] Mona Simpson is seen reading Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman.^[6] Mona mentions that she worked a number of jobs while on the run, including "marketing Jerry Rubin’s line of diet shakes, proofreading Bobby Seale’s cookbook, and running credit checks at Tom Hayden’s Porsche dealership." Rubin, Seale and Hayden were three liberal radicals from the 1960s and Rubin did indeed have a line of diet shakes, and Bobby Seale did write some cookbooks. However, Tom Hayden never owned a Porsche dealership.^[9]

The radicals use a Spiro Agnew alarm clock, which is based on a real item.^[9] When Mr. Burns drives a tank towards the Simpson house, he is wearing oversized headgear. This is a reference to a public relations stunt by Michael Dukakis in 1988.^[9] When Mr. Burns plays a tape of "Ride of the Valkyries", it has been recorded over by Smithers with "Waterloo" by ABBA, a reference to Smithers' suspected homosexuality (ABBA have a large gay following) and to the helicopter beach attack scene in Apocalypse Now, in which "Ride of the Valkyries" is famously played. Maggie is shown dancing in her diaper and covered in slogans and it is a parody of the filler scenes of Laugh-In in which Goldie Hawn and other female castmembers like Ruth Buzzi and Jo Anne Worley danced in a bikini with slogans and drawings painted on their bodies.^[6] The two FBI agents are Joe Friday and Bill Gannon from Dragnet. Bill Gannon is voiced by Harry Morgan, the man who played Gannon in the original series.^[6]

[edit] Reception

"Mother Simpson" is one of Oakley & Weinstein's favorite episodes and alongside "Bart Sells His Soul", they feel it is a perfect combination of real emotion, good jokes and an interesting story.^[9] In 1996, "Treehouse of Horror VI" was submitted for the Emmy award in the "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour)" category because it had a 3D animation sequence, which they felt would have given it the edge. Pinky & The Brain eventually went on to win. Bill Oakley feels that had this episode been submitted, it would have easily won.^[6] The joke about Homer apparently being familiar with Walt Whitman is one of David Silverman's favorite jokes.^[7]

Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide praised the episode, calling it "Gag-packed, and very touching".^[1] The Quindecim, a college newspaper, published a top 25 The Simpsons episodes list and placed "Mother Simpson" in 19th place.^[10] IGN.com ranked the Glenn Close's performance as the 25th best guest appearance in the show's history.^[11] In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named Close one of the 16 best Simpsons guest stars.^[12]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "Mother Simpson" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Mother Simpson" at The Simpsons.com
• "Mother Simpson" at TV.com
• "Mother Simpson" at the Internet Movie Database