Mother Simpson
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"Mother Simpson"
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Episode Information
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"Mother Simpson" is the eighth episode of Season 7, which aired on November 19, 1995. The episode was written by Richard Appel and directed by David Silverman. Glenn Close and Harry Morgan guest star.
To get out of cleaning a part as community service, Homer fakes his own death. When this results in the family's utilities being cut off, Marge puts pressure on him to reveal that he is alive. However, the spurious news of his "death" brings his long-lost mother - a hippie who is on the run from the law because of her activism against Mr. Burns - back to Springfield.
Plot
On a beautiful Saturday, Mr. Burns has got all his workers to clean up a highway maintained by his company. His workers are understandably ticked off about this, especially since Mr. Burns grabs a photo opportunity by posing as a cleanup volunteer then immediately leaving, showing his failure to lead by example. Homer seems to be missing, but he shows up on top of a nearby cliff. On his way down (to work), he slips and falls to his death, much to the shock of his co-workers. In reality, Homer pushed a dummy in his likeness off the cliff so that he could spend the Saturday having fun with his family.
The next day, news of Homer’s “death” spreads and soon Marge starts getting condolences from prominent Springfieldians. Patty & Selma offer their condolences in the form of a tombstone with Homer's name on it, which they have been saving since Marge's wedding day; she yells at them "Get out of here, you ghouls!" and slams the door. Marge finally puts her foot down when the house loses power, since the residence is in Homer's name. The next day, Homer goes to the Springfield Hall of Records to get the whole “misunderstanding” sorted out. There, after his problem is taken care of, he sees in the record that his mother is still alive. Incredulous, he goes to his mother’s grave (or so he thinks it is) and discovers that it is Walt Whitman’s. Nearby, he sees his own grave (possibly also prepared by Patty and Selma), and falls into it. His mother (Mona Simpson) arrives suddenly at the gravesite, and they have a rather emotional reunion after 27 years apart.
He takes her home to meet the family, which causes quite a stir. She bonds with Lisa, being on the same intellectual level. Suddenly, a police car drives by and Mona runs inside the house, making Lisa a little suspicious. She shares her suspicions with Bart, who had raided Mona’s purse and found several driver’s licenses with different names and Mona’s photo. Lisa wonders whether Grandma is a con artist. Meanwhile, Homer and Marge are wondering why his mom left him for 27 years (Homer thinking he must've been a lousy son who no mother could love), and decide to find out. In the next scene, they go downstairs to Mona, and at the same time, Bart and Lisa come up from the basement to her. The whole family then decides to interrogate Mona about her shady past. She decides to tell them the truth after the family threaten to tell Grampa Simpson that she's returned.
The story switches to the 1960s, when she was still with Homer and Grampa. Obviously, she and Grampa do not share the same interests. After being radicalized by Joe Namath's hair during the telecast of Super Bowl III, she joins a group of hippies who protest Mr. Burns’ germ warfare lab. They detonate an “antibiotic bomb” inside the lab, killing all the germs and curing lab security guard Clancy Wiggum's asthma. Burns, angry about the destruction of his “precious germs,” manages to identify Mona as one of the perpetrators of the deed after she stopped to help Burns up after being trampled by the group. Mona then went into hiding. Upon hearing about these events, Homer wonders why Mona never sent any care packages. Mona, insisting that she did send such packages, heads to the post office to claim the undelivered packages. ("That's what happens when you don't tip your letter carrier at Christmas," the postal worker explains.)
At the post office, Burns recognizes her and calls the FBI and gets sent Bill Gannon (voiced by Harry Morgan) and Joe Friday (of Dragnet fame). At the Simpson home, Grampa gets the shock of his life when he visits and meets Mona. After a tense exchange, Abe begs for sex. Meanwhile, the FBI and Burns track her down, through a cab driver, a gravedigger and Patty and Selma.
Homer and Mona escape, thanks to Wiggum, who is grateful to Mona for curing his ailment. She has to go underground again. One final tidbit proves that Mona is indeed Homer’s mother: as she bumps her head while getting into the hippies' van, she cries out “D'oh!”
The episode ends with Mona driving away while Homer waves into the distance until she is out of sight. He is seen at night still there, sitting on his car and gazing at the stars.
Production
The idea for "Mother Simpson" 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. Many of the writers could not believe that an episode about Homer's mother had not previously been produced. Part of the fun of an episode about Homer's mother for the writers was that they were able to solve several little puzzles, such as where Lisa's intelligence came from. The ending shot with Homer gazing at the sky was decided at the table read, but the drawing at the end was inserted by David Silverman because it was felt that the end was so touching that no other lines were needed. As a result, no promos were aired over the credits during the original airing of the episode. Bill Oakley has admitted that he always gets teary-eyed when he watches the ending.
Glenn Close, who was directed by Josh Weinstein, was convinced to do the episode partially because of James L. Brooks. 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. There were several design changes because the directors were trying to make her an attractive older and younger woman, but still be Simpson-esque. The inspiration for the character comes from Bernardine Dohrn of the Weather Underground, although the writers acknowledge that several people fit her description. Mona Simpson's 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. The character is named after Richard Appel's wife, who is the novelist Mona Simpson. When Mona gets in the van, her voice is done by Pamela Hayden because Glenn Close could not say "d'oh!" properly and thus they used the original temp track recorded by Hayden.
The design of Joe Friday is based on his design in "Dragged Net!", a parody of Dragnet that was done in Mad Magazine in the 1950s. Mona becoming a radical after seeing Joe Namath's sideburns is a parody of how many 60's movies have a sudden transformational moment and play music such as "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and there was much discussion among the writers as to what that moment should be. The song originally intended to be taped over Mr. Burns’s cassette of "Ride of the Valkyries" was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", but it was too expensive to clear, so ABBA’s "Waterloo" was selected instead.
Reception
"Mother Simpson" is one of Oakley and Weinstein's favorite episodes and alongside "Bart Sells His Soul", they feel it is a perfect combination of real emotion, good jokes and an interesting story. In 1996, "Treehouse of Horror VI" was submitted for the Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour)" category because it had a 3D animation sequence, which they felt would have given it the edge. Pinky & The Brain eventually went on to win. Bill Oakley feels that had this episode been submitted, it would have easily won. The joke about Homer apparently being familiar with Walt Whitman is one of David Silverman's favorite jokes.
Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide praised the episode, calling it "Gag-packed, and very touching". The Quindecim, a college newspaper, published a top 25 The Simpsons episodes list and placed "Mother Simpson" in 19th place. IGN.com ranked the Glenn Close's performance as the 25th best guest appearance in the show's history. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named Close one of the 16 best Simpsons guest stars.
