Rosebud (The Simpsons)

Smithers finds Mr. Burns having a nightmare in which he constantly murmurs the name "Bobo". Although Burns initially brushes him off, he later begins to tell a story concerning his beloved, lost teddy bear.

As a child, Burns lived with his family and cherished his teddy bear Bobo. But he drops Bobo in the snow when he leaves to live with a "twisted, loveless billionaire". His father shouts after him "Wait, you've forgot your bear! A symbol of your lost youth and innocence!" but he goes unnoticed - all his parents have left after that is his little brother George. 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. In 1945, in his Führerbunker in Berlin, Germany, Hitler blames Bobo for losing (and possibly causing) World War II and tosses him away. Bobo is seen again in 1957 onboard the submarine Nautilus headed for the North Pole. He becomes encased in a block of ice until picked 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, after remarking "It's a teddy bear! Ugh gross, its probably diseased or something!" 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 back. However, Maggie 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 bear. 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 (showing apes ruling over man and several Homer Simpson clones as slaves), where a robotic Burns and robotic dog Smithers once again discover Bobo and run off into the sunset.

[edit] Deleted Scenes

On the season set DVD, there is a scene where Burns shows Smithers two switches labeled Beer and TV. He turns them off, but Smithers tells him that those levers are not connected. Burns does a double take and claims he knew that.

Also, 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] Cultural references

The episode is largely a parody of the 1941 Orson Welles film Citizen Kane. The title is a reference to Charles Foster Kane's dying word "Rosebud", itself is a sled that Kane had as a child; the teddy bear Bobo 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.^[1] 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.^[2] The guards outside Mr. Burns's manor chant and march similarly to the Wicked Witch of the West's guards from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.^[2] The last scene where Mr. Burns's robotic body runs off with Bobo is a reference to the film Planet of the Apes in which herds of humans are enslaved by humanoid apes.^[1] Burns and Smithers' attempt to stealing Bobo from the Simpsons mirrors Mission: Impossible, and their sitcom is similar to The Honeymooners.^[1] Both Mr. Burns and Homer make references to the cancellation of the TV series The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.^[2] Mr Burns' brother is revealed to be comedian George Burns,^[1] and both Charles Lindbergh and Adolf Hitler were once in possession of Bobo.^[2]

[edit] Reception

The episode was placed second on Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episode list.^[3] IGN.com ranked The Ramones's performance as the fifteenth best guest appearance in the show's history.^[4] Vanity Fair named it the best episode of the show in 2007, calling it, "A perfect episode. Mr. Burns's lamentations for his childhood bear, Bobo, lead to a show-long parody of Citizen Kane. At once a satire and a tribute, the episode manages to both humanize Mr. Burns and delve deep into Homer's love for his oft-forgotten second daughter, Maggie."^[5]