Burns' Heir

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Burns' Heir
episode_no = 99
prod_code = 1F16
airdate = April 14, 1994
show runner = David Mirkin
writer = Jace Richdale
director = Mark Kirkland
blackboard = "The Pledge of Allegiance does not end with 'Hail Satan'"
couch_gag = The Simpsons are balls that bounce onto the couch. Bart almost bounces away, but Homer reigns him in and hurls him in place.
guest_star =
commentary = Matt Groening
David Mirkin
Jace Richdale
Mark Kirkland
David Silverman
season = 5"Burns' Heir" is the eighteenth episode of "The Simpsons"' fifth season, first aired on April 14, 1994.

Plot

While Homer is bored at work at the power plant, he suddenly wins the employee raffle. He is forced to be an industrial chimney sweep, where he is strung from a crane with batting wrapped around him and dipped into the industrial smokestacks. Even with all his misfortune, Homer is happy, saying that guys at the top work much harder than him. Meanwhile Mr. Burns is watching Homer while taking a bath and wearing a top hat, smoking a cigar and eating a bag of extra-fancy potato chips, with Smithers scrubbing him with a sponge.

Smithers leaves Burns for a second to find a spherical sponge and places the one he had on Burns's top hat, causing him to sink and almost drown which triggers Burns's life to flash before his eyes (where he's shown firing a nanny in his infancy, forcing a homeless man to dance by shooting at him in his adolescence, and sabotaging a Greenpeace ship in the 1960s). After Smithers rescues him, Burns realizes that no one would carry on his legacy when he dies (Smithers could not do this, because he has been arranged to be buried alive with Burns when he dies). Because of this, he holds an audition to find an heir; all the boys in Springfield try out. Lisa attempts to reason with Burns to consider using girls as heirs, but Burns insists on boys, much to the dismay of Milhouse (who failed the audition earlier on the basis of being a geek and was about to try again disguised as a girl). Bart tries out but fails miserably after reading Homer's badly-worded proposal ("Hello, Mr. Kurns. I bad want money now. Me sick. So pick please me, Mr. Burns". Homer comments "Ooh, he card read good"). Angry after the audition ends, Bart vandalizes Burns's house. Burns's watches Bart destroy his house and decides he wants him as his heir (as Burns approves of malevolence).

However, once Bart becomes Burns's heir, he abandons his family after Burns promises to give Bart whatever he wants out of life (including a pizza delivered by Krusty the Clown [who had to air a dated rerun of his show instead of perform a new one live in order to deliver the pizza] ). The family becomes angry and wants Bart back, so they hire a lawyer, Lionel Hutz, to help them win Bart back. The case does not turn out in their favor. His family also tries to get a deprogrammer to kidnap Bart, but the deprogrammer takes Hans Moleman instead and brainwashes him into thinking he's a part of the Simpson family.

Meanwhile, Bart becomes lonely and wants to go back to his family. Burns does not want him to leave and tries to trick him into thinking that his family hates him, using a falsified video with actors playing the Simpson family. Back at the Simpson house, as Marge remembers Bart as a baby, Lisa tries to fill the void left by Bart by ripping up the wallpaper and tripping Homer. Meanwhile, Bart and Burns are celebrating by firing employees at the nuclear plant, and Bart coincidentally picks up Homer. Burns then tries to break Bart's ties with his family by forcing him to fire Homer, but Bart "fires" Burns instead and drops him through a trap door (with Smithers jumping in afterwards). Back home, the family tells Bart about the fake family he saw on the video, saying that they were following the real family and trying to get their characters down (with Lisa's actor teaching her a lot about his native Estonia), and reveal that the real family really does love him. Homer then introduces the still-deprogrammed Hans to Bart as his new brother ("Cowabunga, dudes") and starts to kiss him ("It's like kissing a peanut!"), but Marge wants him out of the house.

Cultural references

*Hans being deprogrammed in Room 101 is similar to 1984.
*The beginning of the "Siskel and Ebert" movie parodies the THX sound Deep Note. In fact, this scene was made into an actual THX movie trailer, with the scene being redone for the widescreen aspect ratio. That trailer can be seen on Season 5 of The Simpsons DVD box set.
*The trailer advertising Mr. Burns' heir search is a loose parody of the trailer for Toys, a 1992 surrealist black comedy starring Robin Williams.
*The young boy saying, "Today, sir? Why, it's Christmas Day!" makes a reference to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".
*The scene where Burns appears dead in the bathtub and then attacks Smithers is a reference to the climatic "Fatal Attraction" scene where Alex appears dead in the bathtub before springing up to kill Dan.
*Marge's fantasy with Lee Majors is accompanied by the bionic sound effect from his series "The Six Million Dollar Man".
*Martin's song at the audition is a reference to the song in "Meet Me in St. Louis" except with different lyrics.
*Milhouse's audition is similar to that from "The Little Drummer Boy".
*The Krusty the Klown rerun mentions the Falkland Islands' invasion by Argentina on April 2, 1982.
*Burns dancing in a lineup of concession stand treats is a parody of "Let's All Go to the Lobby".
*Moe using a home-made sliding action holster with a pistol is a reference to Travis Bickle from the "Taxi Driver".
*When Bart hesitates to fire Homer, Burns threatens him by saying that he'll lose the gift certificate from Blockbuster Video.

Deleted Scenes

yndication cuts

The following scenes or lines have been cut in domestic syndication: [cite web | title=The Simpsons Archive's Simpsons Syndication Cuts Guide: Season Five (1993-1994) | url=http://www.snpp.com/episodes/scg-5.txt | accessdate=July 21 | accessyear=2008]
*As Bart concludes his badly-worded proposal to Mr. Burns, Homer exclaims, "It's 'Kurns', stupid!" Marge tells Homer that it's not, and Homer in turn tells Bart, "Disregard."
*Burns showing Bart hidden camera footage from throughout Springfield, among them Moe impersonating Robert De Niro and Homer eating flowers (the latter Bart comments on, "So "that" explains his mysterious trip to Holland").
*After Bart tells his family that Mr. Burns nurtures his destructive side, he throws some flowers at Homer before leaving the living room, telling him to "go eat some flowers". Homer reacts by exclaiming "Ahh! My secret shame!"

Robotic Richard Simmons

The Robotic Richard Simmons (Lorenzo Lamas in the Spanish dub) was a clip which included a humorous reference to the hit film "", and was cut in production and later shown in the Simpsons clip show episode, "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular".

The episode had one part where Homer Simpson went to Mr Burns' house to retrieve his son and is snubbed by Burns and Bart. In the deleted scene, Mr. Burns commands Smithers to release one of the many things at his disposal to be rid of Homer, a Robotic Richard Simmons. A panel opens, the robot emerges and begins dancing to a recording of Shake Your Booty , which indeed does scare Homer away from Burns' Mansion. It continues to dance though without stopping, out of control. After Smithers shoots the robot with a shotgun, its face turns to liquid metal and molds back into place (a la Terminator 2). The robot continues to sing and dance (gradually slowing) until it explodes on Burns' doorstep. In the aired episode, when told to do his worst, Burns instead slammed the door and locked it, with Homer subsequently trying to pull a doorbell prank on him.

According to the DVD commentary, the real Richard Simmons was going to lend his voice to the episode, until he read the script and declined to appear because he was playing a robot.

The DVD commentary track also explains that the scene was removed as the show's writers did not find it to be funny after it was animated, and test audiences never really liked the scene either. However, to their surprise, upon screening it at conventions or college presentations it would make the audience erupt with laughter. This scene is shown on the clip show episode, "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular".

References

External links

*snpp capsule|1F16