| Fred Kranepool
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| Character Information
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Fred Kranepool is an undercover persona used by Mr. Burns to spy on his employees.
History
When Mr. Burns found graffiti in the men's room which implied his employees hated him, Burns decided to go undercover to find out what his employees really thought about him. He got an advanced suit with voice modulator and became Fred Kranepool, an employee at the Power Plant. Fred Kranepool then befriended Homer, Lenny and Carl. When Burns was trying to find out what they thought about him, the three employees were nice to Fred and accepted him immediately. After the hounds chased everyone out of the lunch room, Fred realized that being on the other side of the hounds being released, it was actually cruel, and felt sorry for his employees. Homer, Lenny, and Carl then offered to take Fred to Moe's Tavern with them.
Homer began spending more time with Fred than with his own family. One day at the power plant, Smithers asked Fred if Homer, Lenny, and Carl were bothering him. Fred told Smithers to back off and not speak to him with insolence, which got him respect from his employees. Homer, Lenny, and Carl then convinced Fred to talk to Mr. Burns to get positive changes made to the power plant, which Burns then began to implement.
Mr. Burns' changes to the power plant made Homer excited to go to work, as they were treated great there. Smithers, who was jealous because he wanted the old Burns back, decided to tell Homer who Fred really was. This shocked Homer, but Homer also thought it was a good thing as Burns was nice to them now. Smithers then told Homer that all the benefits Burns was giving to his employees were bankrupting the power plant. Smithers then told Homer that he had to end his friendship with Fred to save his job at the power plant. The next day, Homer told Fred that they couldn't hang out any more as he had to focus on work. Lenny and Carl then spoke to Fred and called Burns old, then told Fred that they hated Burns. Burns got angry and tried to hurt Lenny and Carl, but Homer stopped him and accidentally ripped Fred's arm off. Mr. Burns then ran off and started fighting with his Fred suit. Fred told Burns that he was the last spark of goodness in Burns and couldn't be extinguished. Mr. Burns defeated Fred, but the suit fell onto him. Homer took the suit off Burns and helped him up and Burns threw Fred into a vat. Burns then realized that he left his car fob in the suit and told Smithers to dive into the vat to get it back.
Appearances
