Missionary: Impossible
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"Missionary: Impossible"
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Episode Information
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"Missionary: Impossible" is the fifteenth episode of season 11 of The Simpsons and the two-hundred and forty-first episode overall. It originally aired on February 20, 2000. The episode was written by Ron Hauge and directed by Steven Dean Moore. It guest stars Betty White as herself.
Contents
Synopsis
- "Homer becomes a missionary on a remote, tropical island as part of his effort to evade the local PBS affiliate's pledge drive collection officials."
Plot
Homer is watching PBS where they show the British sitcom Do Shut Up. Homer and Bart are enjoying it until the show is interrupted by a pledge drive by PBS, hosted by Betty White. In order to get the interruption to stop, Homer pledges $10,000 anonymously to them. However, PBS manages to work out that Homer was the one who pledged the money and a large group of people from PBS turn up at his house to get the money from him. Homer is taken to the bank where he eventually reveals to Betty White that he doesn't have the money. Betty then sets a mob of PBS characters and personalities after Homer as he tries to escape. Homer goes to the First Church of Springfield where he asks Reverend Lovejoy for help. Lovejoy hides Homer in his car then takes him to the airport where he puts Homer on a Christian Relief plane to Microatia so he can be a missionary, against Homer's wishes.
Reverend Lovejoy goes to see the rest of the Simpson family and tells them where Homer is, and gives them a HAM radio to contact him. When Homer arrives at Microatia, he meets Craig and Amy, the two missionaries who were there already. Craig and Amy then leave on the plane, leaving Homer alone to deal with the natives. Homer tries to hand out Bibles to the natives, but they tell him that they can't read. Homer then tries to settle into his new life and meets Qtoktok, Ak, and a girl who he calls Lisa, Jr. When Homer realizes that the island doesn't have television, or even couches, he starts to panic.
When Homer is in his hut, getting high off licking toads, he hears his radio go off, with Marge trying to contact him. Homer talks to his family and tells Bart that he has to be the man of the house now. Homer then goes about trying to do missionary work, but quickly realizes that he has no idea what he is doing. He then decides that instead, he will build a casino, with the help of the natives. Back at home, Bart takes being man of the house seriously and goes to the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant to work Homer's job. Whilst there, Mr. Burns rips into him for Homer's appalling record and causing seventeen meltdowns.
Back on Microatia, Homer unveils The Lucky Savage casino to the islanders. He teaches them how to gamble and reveals that he has made a form of beer for them to drink too. However, the next time Homer enters the casino, he finds that everything has gone wrong, the casino is on fire and people are fighting. Back at the Simpson house, Bart comes home from work and has an argument with Marge. Marge tells Bart that he's taking being man of the house too seriously, and Bart offers to take her out for a steak meal. Back on Microatia, Homer is working on building the chapel that Craig and Amy were building before they left. When the islanders see this, they question what Homer's doing, and he tells them that they've all become sinners since he arrived. The islanders help Homer finish the chapel and he and Lisa, Jr. go up to the bell and start ringing it, with Homer getting very aggressive ringing it. This causes a landslide and an earthquake, which splits the ground around the chapel and it sinks into the lava with Homer and Lisa, Jr. holding each other, not knowing how they'll escape.
The scene then cuts to the Fox pledge drive, presented by Betty White and the PBS host again. Betty asks the viewers to show their support by pledging money to Fox. Rupert Murdoch then gets a call from Bart, who pledges $10,000. Murdoch tells Bart that he saved the Fox network, and Bart responds saying that it wouldn't be the first time.
Production
Episode writer Ron Hauge originally pitched an idea for the whole family to become missionaries, but the idea went nowhere. About a month later, Mike Scully and George Meyer worked on an episode where Homer becomes a Peace Corps worker, which became the first draft of "Missionary: Impossible". Homer being in the Peace Corps was changed to becoming a missionary because they needed something more emotional. The original choice for Betty White's guest spot was British actress Emma Thompson. However, they couldn't get her for the role as Thompson was pregnant at the time and couldn't fly.[1]
A joke was cut from the PBS segment where the host asked "Do you ever wonder where your pledge money goes?" and Homer responds with "I don't wonder anything, just put my show back on." However, the scene was cut for time as the PBS segment was overly long.[2] The original ending of the episode had Homer destroy the entire island and he ended up floating away in the debris. Ian Maxtone-Graham came up with the Fox telethon ending for the episode.[1]
Reception
As of August 2023, the episode has a 7.3 rating on IMDb.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hauge, Ron (2008). Commentary for "Missionary: Impossible", in The Simpsons: The Complete Eleventh Season.
- ↑ Scully, Mike (2008). Commentary for "Missionary: Impossible", in The Simpsons: The Complete Eleventh Season.
- ↑ IMDb - "Missionary: Impossible"
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