Mr. Burns

For other people named Mr. Burns, see Burns (surname).

The Simpsons character
Mr. Burns
Gender	Male
Job	Owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant
Relatives	Father: Colonel Clifford Burns Mother: Daphne Charles Burns Son: Larry
Voice actor	Harry Shearer
First appearance
The Simpsons	"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"

Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, who is voiced by Harry Shearer and previously Christopher Collins. Burns is the evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is Homer Simpson's boss. He is attended at almost all times by Waylon Smithers, his loyal and sycophantic aide, advisor, confidant and secret admirer.

Although originally conceived as a one-dimensional, recurring villain who might occasionally enter the Simpsons' lives and wreak some sort of havoc, Burns' popularity has led to his repeated inclusion in episodes. He is a stereotype of Corporate America in his unquenchable desire to increase his own wealth and power, inability to remember his employees' names (including Homer's, despite frequent interactions - which has become something of a recurrent joke) and lack of concern for their safety and well-being. Reflecting his advanced age, Burns is given to expressing dated humor, making references to pre-1950 popular culture, and aspiring to apply obsolete technology to everyday life.

Burns' trademark expression is the word "Excellent", muttered slowly in a low, sinister voice while tenting his fingertips. He frequently orders Smithers to "release the hounds", so as to let his vicious guard dogs attack any intruders, enemies or even invited guests. Mr. Burns is Springfield's richest and most powerful citizen (and also the richest person in Springfield's state; his current net worth has been given as $1.3 billion^[1] by Forbes, though it fluctuates wildly depending on the episode). He uses his power and wealth to do whatever he wants, usually without regard for consequences and without interference from the authorities. These qualities led Wizard Magazine to rate him the 45th greatest villain of all time.

Role in The Simpsons

Mr. Burns spends his time in his office, at the nuclear plant, monitoring his workers via closed circuit cameras. At a young age, Burns left his family to live with his grandfather, a twisted and heartless billionaire who owned an atom mill in Shelbyville.^[2] He lived a life of privilege and would amuse himself by injuring immigrant laborers.^[3] Burns later attended Yale University, where he studied both science and business, and graduated. At his 25-year college reunion, he became romantically involved with the daughter of an old flame. She would later bear his child, Larry Burns, who was given up for adoption and would later enter Mr. Burns' life briefly.^[4] Burns has been engaged at least three times: to a woman named Gertrude who died of loneliness and rabies,^[5] to Marge Simpson's mother Jacqueline Bouvier,^[6] and to a meter maid named Gloria.^[7] Burns enlisted in the United States Army during World War II, and served as a member of Springfield's Flying Hellfish squad under Master Sergeant Abraham Simpson and saw action in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge.^[8] Later on he was shipped to the Pacific Theater and was a co-pilot along with Abe Simpson and his brother, Cyrus. Burns and Abe were shot down by a kamikaze and stuck on an island. At the end of World War II he was personally hired by President Harry S. Truman to transport a specially printed trillion-dollar bill to Europe as the United States' contribution to the reconstruction of Europe. As the United States' richest citizen, Burns was thought to be the most trustworthy. Burns absconded with the bill and kept it in his possession for many years until it was lost to Fidel Castro in "The Trouble with Trillions". Burns was once indicated to have been a homosexual, and has in his office a "Corpse Hatch", which he refers to smoothly as an "Innocence Tube".^[9] In "Homer the Smithers", it is revealed that Burns' mother is still alive at 122 years old, although Burns dislikes speaking to her, because she had an affair with President William Howard Taft and she in turn refers to him as an "improvident lackwit".

Burns resides in a vast, ornate mansion on an immense estate called Burns Manor. It is protected by a high wall, an electrified fence, and a pack of vicious attack dogs known as "The Hounds". Burns routinely subjects Springfield and its residents to his abuse and, as a result, there is a general dislike of him throughout the town. Burns has blackmailed and bribed various officials in Springfield, including Mayor Quimby and its nuclear safety inspectors. He employed his wealth to make an ultimately unsuccessful run for state governor, to be denied his chance to be Governor by Marge Simpson. He once blocked out the sun to force Springfield residents to increase their use of electricity produced by his nuclear plant and was subsequently shot by Maggie.

Burns' extreme old age is a frequent source of humor on the show. He is occasionally referred to as "Springfield's oldest resident"; in Season 2's Simpson and Delilah, he told Homer that he is 81, although in several other episodes, he is shown to be 104.^[10] When Smithers informs him that Burns' credit card PIN is his age, he types four digits in his answer. His Social Security number is 000-00-0002, second only to President Roosevelt.^[10] When Lisa Simpson is researching her ancestors from the American Civil War, she comes across a Mr. Burns in the journal, presumably one of Mr. Burns' ancestors. However, when Lisa mentions him, Burns replies by saying he hasn't heard his father's name in years. In other episodes, his birth place is apparently Pangea, his national anthem implies he originates from Austria-Hungary, and he mentions the possibility of an update on the Siege of Khartoum, implying that he was aware of current events as early as 1884. In other episodes, he has instructed a postal clerk to send a telegram to the Prussian consulate in Siam, and believes a nickel will buy "a steak and kidney pie, a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake and a newsreel, with enough change left over to ride the trolley from Battery Park to the Polo Grounds.”^[11]

Burns' state of mind is the subject of frequent jokes on the show. At times, he appears to be completely removed from reality and modern conventions. He continually fails to recognize Homer Simpson or remember his name, even though many of the recent major events in Burns' life have involved Homer in some way. Burns is, for the most part, unaware of the townspeople's general dislike of him. He also displays mannerisms which are considered outdated, such as practicing phrenology, writing with a quill pen, and using an antique view camera to take photographs. Burns refers to many celebrities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in present tense, assuming they are still alive. In "Homer at the Bat", Burns instructs Smithers to recruit dead ball era players, such as Honus Wagner and Cap Anson for the plant's softball team, and has to be told that all of them died long ago. However, despite his obvious senility and social ineptitude, Mr. Burns is an extraordinarily clever bussinessman, as he has lost his fortune several times, only to regain it a very brief time later. In the episode The Old Man and Lisa, Burns loses his fortune, and regains it by opening a recycling plant, which allows him to regain his Nuclear Power Plant.

Burns is physically weak, and often shown to have little more strength than an infant. In "Rosebud" and "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", he needed a great deal of effort to wrench items from Maggie. He has difficulty performing such simple actions as giving a thumbs-up, and crushing an insect by stepping on it. He pitched the opening baseball at a game in "Dancin' Homer", but was only able to throw it a tiny distance, which drew mocking laughter from the crowd. Similarly, when Burns joined Homer's ten pin bowling team in Team Homer, he was barely able to roll the ball down the lane.

He also had a teddy bear named "Bobo" that he loved as a child, revealed in the episode "Rosebud". The stuffed animal was lost and eventually the stuffed bear became a toy for Maggie. In "American History X-cellent", Burns gets sent to jail because he is in possession of stolen paintings. In the same episode, it is implied that he was once in the Schutzstaffel.

Character

Creation

Burns's character, appearance, and mannerisms are based on several different people. The show's creator Matt Groening principally based Burns on his high school teacher Mr. Bailey.^[12] Drawing further inspiration from oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, David Rockefeller and fictional character Henry Potter from It's a Wonderful Life, Groening made Burns the "embodiment of corporate greed".^[13] Animator David Silverman parodied Burns's appearance on Fox founder Barry Diller, and modeled his body on a praying mantis.^[13] The idea of Burns reading employee names off cards in "There's No Disgrace Like Home" came from an article about Ronald Reagan that writer Al Jean had read.^[14] In some episodes, parallels have been drawn between Burns and moguls such as Howard Hughes and, more frequently, fictional character Charles Foster Kane from Citizen Kane.^[15] Writer George Meyer lifted Burns's "Excellent!" hand gesture from his former Saturday Night Live colleague Jim Downey.^[16] While perhaps not intentional, Mr Burns' physical characteristics and mannerisms are cited as a modern example of the Commedia dell'arte character Pantalone.^[17][18]

Matt Groening got Burns' middle name from a Montgomery Ward department store in Portland, Oregon's Northwest Industrial district^[19] and his surname from Burnside Street, a main thoroughfare in Portland.^[13] Burns' first name being Charles is a reference to Charles Foster Kane.^[13] In the script for "There's No Disgrace Like Home", Al Jean and Mike Reiss referred to him as "Mr. Meanie".^[14]

Coincidentally, the 19th century businessman and founder of Barnes & Noble was called Charles Montgomery Barnes (1833–1907).

In the second season, the writers started to enjoy writing about Smithers and Burns's relationship, and they often pitched episodes with them as the focus, but many never came to fruition.^[20]

Voice

Harry Shearer modeled his voice for Burns on Lionel Barrymore and Ronald Reagan.^[21]

Burns was originally voiced by actor Christopher Collins in the episode "Homer's Odyssey".^[22] He was soon replaced by Harry Shearer, who has voiced the character ever since. He modeled the voice on Lionel Barrymore and Ronald Reagan.^[21] Shearer is also the voice of Smithers and is able to perform dialogue between the two characters in one take.^[23] Shearer said that Burns is the most difficult character for him to voice because it is rough on his vocal cords and he often needs to drink tea and honey to soothe his voice.^[24] He describes Burns as his favorite character, saying he "like[s] Mr. Burns because he is pure evil. A lot of evil people make the mistake of diluting it. Never adulterate your evil."^[25]

Reception

In 2006, Wizard magazine rated Burns the 45th greatest villain of all time.^[26] In a 2007 article, Entertainment Weekly named Smithers the 16th greatest sidekick of all time.^[27] They also described Smithers and Burns as being "TV's most functional dysfunctional couple".^[28] In a 2003 article, EW also named "Last Exit to Springfield" the greatest episode of The Simpsons. Other episodes which feature Burns placed on the list, including "Rosebud", at number two, and the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" two-part episode, at number 25.^[28] Vanity Fair placed "Rosebud" first on their list of the top 25 The Simpsons episodes.^[29]

Forbes estimates Burns's net worth at $1.3 billion, placing 12th on the 2008 Forbes Fictional 15 list.^[30] Burns has been on the list since 1989 and has previously placed fifth in 2005,^[31] second in 2006^[32] and sixth in 2007 when he was estimated to be worth $16.8 billion.^[33]

Burns's evil has made him a popular example of terrible television bosses. In 2006, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas released a report saying that Burns was one of the eight worst bosses on television.^[34] The News & Observer named Burns the third worst boss, calling him "heartless, greedy and exceptionally ugly, Mr. Burns makes Ebenezer Scrooge seem downright lovely."^[35]

In the run-up to the New York City's 2009 mayoral election, several posters appeared throughout the city, showing Burns and accompanied by the words "No Third Terms, Vote for Burns" – a reference to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's unprecedented run for a third term that year—in the style of Shepard Fairey's Obama poster. The city's Board of Elections announced that December that Burns had received 27 write in votes out of 299 write in votes cast.^[36]

In the first episode of the sixth season of American Dad TV Show, in the opening scene, Roger is disguised as the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt, and is talking about The Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?".

Notes

1. ^ "In Pictures: The Forbes Fictional 15". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/13/richest-fictional-characters-opinions-wealth_slide_13.html. 
2. ^ "Rosebud". Swartzwelder, John; Archer, Wes. The Simpsons. Fox. 1993-10-21. No. 04, season 05.
3. ^ "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)". Oakley, Bill; Weinstein, Josh; Archer, Wes. The Simpsons. Fox. 1993-12-16. No. 10, season 05.
4. ^ "Burns, Baby Burns". Maxtone-Graham, Ian; Reardon, Jim. The Simpsons. Fox. 1996-11-17. No. 04, season 08.
5. ^ "C.E. D'oh". Gould, Dana; Anderson, Mike B.. The Simpsons. Fox. 2003-03-16. No. 15, season 14.
6. ^ "Lady Bouvier's Lover". Oakley, Bill; Weinstein, Josh; Archer, Wes. The Simpsons. Fox. 1994-05-12. No. 21, season 05.
7. ^ "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love". Swartzwelder, John; Kramer, Lance. The Simpsons. Fox. 2001-12-02. No. 08, season 09.
8. ^ "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"". Collier, Jonathan; Lynch, Jeffrey. The Simpsons. Fox. 1996-04-28. No. 22, season 07.
9. ^ "The Trouble with Trillions". Maxtone-Graham, Ian; Scott III, Swinton O.. The Simpsons. Fox. 1998-04-05. No. 20, season 09.
10. ^ ^{a b} "The Mansion Family". Swartzwelder, John; Polcino, Michael. The Simpsons. Fox. 2000-01-23. No. 12, season 11.
11. ^ "The Old Man and the Lisa". Swartzwelder, John; Kirkland, Mark. The Simpsons. Fox. 1997-04-20. No. 21, season 08.
12. ^ Billy Paterson (2006-08-20). "Exclusive: I Was Monty's Double". The Sunday Mail. http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17591670&method=full&siteid=64736&headline=i-was-monty-s-double--name_page.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
13. ^ ^{a b c d} Joe Rhodes (2000-10-21). "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves". TV Guide. 
14. ^ ^{a b} Reiss, Mike (2001). Commentary for "There's No Disgrace Like Home", in The Simpsons: The Complete First Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
15. ^ Turner, pp. 160–164
16. ^ Meyer, George (2001). Commentary for "The Crepes of Wrath", in The Simpsons: The Complete First Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
17. ^ http://masks.transienttheatre.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=53
18. ^ http://www.doublemirror.com/CompanionCommedia.htm
19. ^ "Places of character". The Portland Tribune. 2002-07-19. http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=12625. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
20. ^ Vitti, Jon (2002). Commentary for "Simpson and Delilah", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
21. ^ ^{a b} Keith Marder (1994-04-28). "Real People are Models for 'Simpsons' Voices". Times Union. p. C4. 
22. ^ "Chris Latta". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0490383/. Retrieved 2007-11-19. 
23. ^ Jean, Al (2002). Commentary for "Blood Feud", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
24. ^ Earl Dittman (July, 2007). "Burns, Baby, Burns". Cineplex.com. http://www.cineplex.com/Movies/FamousNews/FamousMagazine/July%202007.aspx?FamousArticles=4395. Retrieved 2008-05-05. 
25. ^ Round, Simon (2008-10-10). "Interview: Harry Shearer". The Jewish Chronicle. http://www.thejc.com/node/6832. Retrieved 2008-11-04. 
26. ^ McCallum, Pat (July 2006). "100 Greatest Villains Ever". Wizard (177). 
27. ^ Gunatilaka, Timothy (2004-07-28). "We're No. 2!". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20041669_20041686_20041659_9,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
28. ^ ^{a b} "The Family Dynamic". Entertainment Weekly. 2003-01-29. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,417748~3~0~25bestand1,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
29. ^ John Orvted (2007-07-05). "Springfield's Best". Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/08/top10simpsons200708?currentPage=2. Retrieved 2008-11-03. 
30. ^ Noer, Michael; Ewalt, David M (2008-12-18). "No. 13 Burns, C. Montgomery". Forbes Fictional 15 (Forbes). http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/18/fictional-characters-wealth-oped-fictional1508-cx_de_mn_1218fictionalintro_slide_14.html?thisSpeed=15000. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
31. ^ Ewalt, David M. (2005). "The Forbes Fictional 15". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/fictional/05.html. Retrieved 2008-04-28. 
32. ^ Ewalt, David M. (2006-11-20). "The Forbes Fictional 15". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/20/forbes-fictional-richest-tech-media_cx_mn_de_06fict15_intro.html. Retrieved 2008-04-28. 
33. ^ Ewalt, David M.; Michael Noer (2007-11-12). "The Forbes Fictional 15". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/11/richest-fictional-characters-oped-books-fict1507-cx_mn_de_1211fictional15_land.html. Retrieved 2008-04-28. 
34. ^ "Worst bosses ever ... on TV". CNN Money. 2006-08-21. http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/21/news/newsmakers/bad_bosses/index.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-04. 
35. ^ "Worst bosses ever ... on TV". The News & Observer. McClatchy Newspapers. 2008-10-12. http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1252098.html. Retrieved 2008-11-04. ^{[dead link]}
36. ^ de Sola, David (2009-12-05). "Simpsons billionaire gets most write-in votes in NYC mayor race". CNN. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/05/simpsons-billionaire-gets-most-write-in-votes-in-nyc-mayor-race/. Retrieved 2009-12-06. 

References

• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 0-679-31318-4. 

External links

	The Simpsons portal
	Fictional characters portal

• Mr. Burns at the Internet Movie Database