There's No Disgrace Like Home
"There's No Disgrace Like Home"
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Episode Information
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Plot
Homer takes his family to the company picnic given by his boss Mr. Burns. A cruel and tyrannical employer, Burns fires any employee whose family members are not enjoying themselves. Homer sees that Burns is drawn towards a family that treats one another with love and respect and he wonders why he is cursed with his unloving and disrespectful family. This is the first time we see Marge drunk at the picnic.
The Simpsons observe other families on their street. Peeking through living room windows, they see happy families sharing quality time together. Convinced that both he and his family are losers, Homer stops by Moe's Tavern, where he sees a TV commercial for Dr. Marvin Monroe's Family Therapy Center. When he hears that Dr. Monroe guarantees family bliss or "double your money back," Homer pawns the TV set and enrolls the family in the clinic.
When standard methods prove useless in civilizing the family, Dr. Monroe resorts to shock therapy and wires the Simpsons to electrodes. Soon the whole family is sending shocks to one another. Resigned to the fact that the Simpsons are incurable, the doctor gives them double their money back. With $500 in his pocket, Homer takes his blissful family to buy a new television.
This episode marks the introduction of Dr. Marvin Monroe, Itchy and Scratchy, and Eddie and Lou (two of Springfield's policemen). But Lou is not African-American in this episode, though he is later, and Smithers, who was drawn as an African-American in the previous episode, is drawn a yellow lighter than Burns in this one. This episode also marks the first use of Burns' "release the hounds" comment.
Trivia
- This episode was the first to be broadcast by the BBC, on BBC One on 23 November 1996, making it the first episode to be seen by UK terrestrial viewers (the satellite channel Sky One had shown the programme since 1990). Moving to BBC Two from 10 March 1997, it continued on the BBC until terrestrial rights moved to Channel 4 in 2004.
- This was the first episode seen in Australia on Channel 10 in 1991.
- Red, purple, green, blue: The colors of Jell-o molds Marge makes for the picnic.
- A sign outside Burns manor reads, "Poachers will be shot."
- The hypnotic show the Happy little Elves supervises the children in the nursury at the comapny picnic.
- Smithers wears his plant I.D. even at the picnic.
- The first episode that Bart says his catch phrase " Don't have a Cow"
- The first episode that the Simpsons have been shot at.
- The police dog's name is Bobo
- The phone number for Dr. Monroe's center is 1-800-555-hugs.
- This episode is the first time the audience sees the cartoon Itchy and Scratchy.
- When Homer is saying that they have to get 250 dollars for the therapy in the background you can see a teddybear on the lower shelf near the stero that looks exactly like Mr Burns' bear Bobo.
- Bart and Lisa's college fund amounts to $88.50
- Their TV is a Motorola, and the pawn clerk knows Homer's name when he enters.
- Dr. Monroe keeps his aggression therapy mallets in a gun cabinet.
- The family acts wildly out of character in this episode: Homer is much more caring and actually suggests to eat at the dinner table instead of watching TV. Marge is a drunkard who behaves a lot like Homer. While Bart and Maggie have the same personalities, Lisa seems to act much more bratty, which is reminiscent of her actions on the Tracy Ullman Show.
Parodies
- Freaks, the Tod Browning cult horror film about sideshow "freaks," in its repetition of the line "one of us"
- Citizen Kane in its low angle hillside shot of Burns' mansion
- Batman in its reference to the "stately Burns Manor"
- The episode title is a play on the saying "There's no place like home" (a quote from The Wizard of Oz).
- In a scene reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange (1971), the Simpson family members are seated in a stark white laboratory, wired with electrodes, fronted by a bank of buttons. Each has the ability to shock everyone else.
- Itchy & Scratchy, who made their first appearances together in this episode, are the parodies of Tom and Jerry.
