The Canine Mutiny

] Likewise, Laddie rescuing Baby Gerald was originally a complicated rescue scene, but was cut into showing the aftermath.

Laddie was designed to resemble a real dog. The catalog Bart uses is a combination of the "Lillian Vernon" catalog and "The Sharper Image". The opening stemmed from the fact that the show had not had a sequence where the family receive mail, and the writers wanted to create a joke about the different types of mail each of the family get. After Bart's "dog burning" fantasy, when he hears a ship's horn in the distance, there was originally going to be a faint cry of "more dogs", but it was deemed that it took the joke too far. Hank Azaria ad-libbed the entire sequence during the credits in which Chief Wiggum and Lou sing along to "Jammin'".

Cultural references

The title is a reference to the novel and film "The Caine Mutiny". The dog "Laddie" is a play on Lassie, in terms of name, appearance and uncanny intelligence. Marge listens to the song "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks played on the frying pan radio. At the end of the episode, the song "Jamming" by Bob Marley is played. The design of the "Repo Depot" is based very loosely on the repossession agency from "Repo Man". The address of Mr. Mitchell's house 57 Mt. Aubum Street is one of addresses of the Harvard Lampoon. Mr. Mitchell having a dead parrot that he believes to still be alive is a reference to the "Dead Parrot" Monty Python sketch.

Reception

The episode's ending with Chief Wiggum and Lou singing along to "Jammin'" by Bob Marley is often cited as one of the best endings in the history of the show. 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 sweet episode". Homer's line "There, there, shut up boy" is one of Josh Weinstein's favorites.

References

External links

* [http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/0820.htm "The Canine Mutiny"] at The Simpsons.com
*Snpp capsule|4F16
* [http://www.tv.com/episode/1458/summary.html "The Canine Mutiny"] at TV.com
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701229/ "The Canine Mutiny"] at the Internet Movie Database