Difference between revisions of "Papa Don't Leech"

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"Wait a minute -- he's a deadbeat dad, and yet he's getting as much love as me, a Dad too lazy to run away! [moans] And he has hair! Bart, get me my suicide axe."

―Homer Simpson

"Papa Don't Leech" is the sixteenth episode of season 19 of The Simpsons and the four-hundred and sixteenth episode overall. It originally aired on April 13, 2008. The episode was written by Reid Harrison and directed by Chris Clements. It guest stars Beverly D'Angelo as Lurleen Lumpkin and The Chicks as themselves.

Synopsis

"Country music star Lurleen Lumpkin reappears in Springfield, destitute and a fugitive from justice due to owing a fortune in back taxes. Homer and Marge take Lurleen in, reunite her with her long-lost father Royce, and help her re-launch her musical career."

Plot

Grampa is driving Homer at night and they argue about whether Grampa is able to drive at night. As Grampa is messing around with the music, they swerve onto the other side of the road and are almost hit by Patty and Selma. Homer ans Grampa then tumble over the edge of the cliff and crash down. As Homer gets out of the car, Grampa tells Homer to call an ambulance, and tells Homer that he'd have to look after him. Homer then decides to suffocate Grampa instead. Homer then wakes up in the car as he's driving Lisa, revealing that he was just dreaming. Homer then drops Lisa off at the Town Hall so that she can sell Girl Scout Cookies to Mayor Quimby. However, Mayor Quimby can't give Lisa the money for the cookies as the town is broke. After a scuffle, Lisa leaves with the cookies.

Mayor Quimby holds an emergency town meeting and the town decides to scam the government out of emergency relief money. An official from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrives and tells Springfield that they will get money to help with their faked hurricane destruction. However, the FEMA official turned out to be a scammer and scammed more money out of the town. During this time, Lisa found out that many people of Springfield owed millions in taxes. Everyone's unpaid taxes were collected, with only one person left to pay; Lurleen Lumpkin.

The people of Springfield start to search for Lurleen so they could get the satisfaction of ruining her life. As Homer is driving back home, Lurleen reveals herself to Homer, having managed to get into the back of his car. Homer takes Lurleen home, thinking that Marge would be fine with Lurleen staying with the Simpsons. However, Marge decides to take Lurleen back to her home. After finding out that Lurleen lived under a bridge with several homeless people, Marge decided to bring Lurleen to live with them temporarily. Chief Wiggum then found Lurleen and she ended up going to court over her unpaid taxes and is ordered to pay back $100 a week until country music comes back into popularity.

Lurleen takes up a job at Moe's Tavern, where Lenny and Carl both flirt with her, but Lurleen rejects them both. Back at the Simpson house, Homer and Marge discuss why Lurleen might hate men now. Lurleen then sings "Cryin' in My Cradle", which moves the whole family. Marge then decides to find Lurleen's father, Royce Lumpkin. After spending a while searching, Marge finally finds Royce and brings him home to see Lurleen. The two of them make up and spend time together, and Lurleen writes a song about Royce being back in her life, "Daddy's Back". However, after the song, Royce leaves the house and her daughter once more.

After Royce leaves, Lurleen becomes depressed. She then sees the Dixie Chicks on television performing a song, "America's Back", which sounds very similar to "Daddy's Back". Lurleen then sees her father on television too, as the new manager of the Dixie Chicks. Lurleen becomes upset and angry over her father's betrayal so Homer and Marge dress up as "Colonel Homer" and "Major Marge" to cheer her up and tell her to take control of her own destiny. Lurleen then goes to confront Royce at White Trash Records about him stealing her song. After the Dixie Chicks find out that he stole the song, they attack Royce with their instruments.

Back at the Simpson house, Lurleen shows off her new boyfriend, who looks similar to Homer, then leaves to go on tour with the Dixie Chicks. As Marge and Lurleen hug, Marge tells Lurleen that if she ever comes near Homer again she would strangle Lurleen with her hair extensions.

Production

The opening scene is an almost shot-for-shot parody of The Sopranos.^[1] The animators watched a lot of videos of people doing hamboning to get the scenes of Royce hamboning down properly.^[2]

Reception

Robert Canning of IGN said "there were too few laugh-out-loud moments in this lackluster episode. Overall, it was nice to see Lurleen again, but she'd probably get more laughs in future cameos than in carrying an entire episode." He gave the episode a 6/10. Canning also said that the opening sequence where Homer murders Grampa in a dream was "the least funny thing I've ever seen on the show".^[3]

Richard Keller of TV Squad questioned why a character like Lurleen was given an episode focused on her, especially after nearly two decades since her initial appearance.^[4]

As of May 2023, the episode has a 6.1 rating on IMDb.^[5]

References

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Papa Don't Leech".