Difference between revisions of "Mona Simpson"

Revision as of 07:41, October 27, 2007

Mona Simpson is Homer Simpson's mother and Abe Simpson's wife. While she was talked about many times in the series, she didn't actually appear until the episode "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" where she made a short appearance in a flash back from Homer's childhood in his farmhouse, where she was voiced by Maggie Roswell. Her first major appearance was in "Mother Simpson"

Profile

While Homer was still a small child in the 1960s, Mona became increasingly caught up in the hippie movement and participated in various acts of political activism, her beliefs being ignited by seeing Joe Namath's long hair during Super Bowl III. On one of these acts, Mona and a gang of other activists protesting germ research entered Burns's laboratory and destroyed all the biological warfare experiments. As the gang escaped, she stayed behind to help a fallen Burns - who repaid her kindness with a threat. Since that night, Mona was forced to leave her family. Seeking to comfort his son, Abe lied and said Mona had died while Homer was at the movies. He continued the lie by claiming Walt Whitman's gravestone was actually Mona's.

While Mona's whereabouts were unknown for most of her life, it was later revealed that for several years she resided at a hippie commune where she painted a mural dedicated to her son Homer. She continued to care for him from afar, sending him care packages every week. However because Homer never tipped his letter carrier, none of them have been delivered and have instead been stored at the post office for years. It was revealed that she was unfaithful to Abe during this period but Abe didn't realize this.

When Homer fakes his own death in "Mother Simpson", Mona hears the news and visits her son's open grave, into which Homer had just accidentally fallen. They are reunited, and Mona spends some quality time catching up with her family, but when Burns sees her at the post office and recognizes her face, she is forced to go on the run again. She is given secret information for escape from Chief Wiggum, because the chemicals she used to destroy Burns' biological samples inadvertently rid Wiggum of his asthma as well.

In "My Mother the Carjacker", Homer discovers a secret message left by her in a newspaper. After some time at a diner, she is found by the cops. She goes to trial for the crime she committed, but due to Homer's testimony she is acquitted. Mr. Burns later has her imprisoned for the minor charge of signing into a federal park under a false name (one pseudonym mentioned in this episode was "Anita Bonghit"). Homer attempts to break her free from the prison bus, but the chase ends in what appears to be her death when the bus drives off of a cliff and lands in the water, where it explodes, and sets off a rock avalanche which buries it. In truth, she narrowly escaped before the bus went off of the cliff, and is still on the run, last seen eating Rhode Island-style clam chowder.

Character

Creation

Prior to the seventh season, Mona Simpson had only made two brief flashback appearances, the first being season two's "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and the second being season six's "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" and in both cases she was voiced by Maggie Roswell.^[1] Mona's first major appearance was in the seventh season episode "Mother Simpson", which 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.^[2] The writers used the episode as an opportunity to solve several little puzzles, such as where Lisa's intelligence came from.^[2] The character is named after Richard Appel's wife, whose maiden name is Mona Simpson.^[2] 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.^[3] There were several design changes because the directors were trying to make her an attractive older and younger woman, but still be Simpson-esque.^[3] The inspiration for the character comes from Bernardine Dohrn of the Weather Underground, although the writers acknowledge that several people fit her description.^[4] Her 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.^[4]

Glenn Close, who was directed in her first performance by Josh Weinstein,^[4] was convinced to do the episode partially because of James L. Brooks.^[5] When Mona gets in the van, her voice is done by Pamela Hayden because Glenn Close could not say "d'oh!" properly^[4] and thus they used the original temp track recorded by Hayden.^[2]

Development

Glenn Close would record original material for another episode, season fifteen's "My Mother the Carjacker", and a deleted scene featuring Mona from "Mother Simpson" would appear in season seven's "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular". The character would also have a speaking appearance in season ten's "D'oh-in in the Wind", this time voiced by Tress MacNeille. Glenn Close will return as Mona for the third time in a yet to be specified episode in the nineteenth season.^[6]

Reception

"Mother Simpson" is one of Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein's favorite episodes as they feel it is a perfect combination of real emotion, good jokes and an interesting story^[7] and they have expressed regret about not submitting it for the Emmy award in the "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour)" category.^[4]

IGN.com ranked Glen Close's two performances as Mona as the 25th best guest star in the show's history.^[1] In 2007, Entertainment Weekly called Glenn Close one of "fourteen guest stars whose standout performances on TV make us wish they'd turn up in a Simpsons Movie 2".^[8]

Life on the Lam

When Homer was a child, she left her family. She went to a protest at Mr. Burns' germ research lab and she and some other protesters sent of a bomb(a tank of antibiotics with a clock on it) that ruined all the germs. She left the family and went into hiding. She reappeared in "My Mother the Carjacker", where she reunited with Homer again. Mona is thought by the Simpson family to be dead, although she lives in New England.