$pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)

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"$pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 5
Episode 10
Directed byWes Archer
Written byBill Oakley & Josh Weinstein
Production code1F08
Original air dateDecember 16, 1993 (1993-12-16)
Guest appearances
Episode features
Couch gag
The family runs to the couch, but when they get there, they break and shatter like glass. Santa's Little Helper enters the room confused.
CommentaryMatt Groening
David Mirkin
Bill Oakley
Josh Weinstein
Wes Archer
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Last Temptation of Homer"
Next →
"Homer the Vigilante"
The Simpsons (season 5)
List of episodes

"$pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)", simply known as "$pringfield", is the tenth episode of the

gambling addiction, Bart opens a casino in his tree house, and Burns' appearance and mental state deteriorate à la Howard Hughes
.

The episode was written by

Rich Texan makes his debut in this episode, referred to as "Senator" by Homer.[1]

Plot

At a town hall, Mayor Quimby fields suggestions on ways to improve Springfield's faltering economy. Principal Skinner suggests the town legalize gambling to rejuvenate its economy. Everyone likes the idea, even Marge, who has become known for disapproving of the townspeople's ideas. Mr. Burns and Quimby work together to build a casino, and Homer is hired as a blackjack dealer.

While waiting for Homer's shift to end, Marge finds a quarter on the casino floor and uses it to play a

model plane
called "The Spruce Moose", which he believes is big enough to hold human passengers.

Marge's gambling addiction causes her to neglect her family. She fails to notice when Maggie crawls away from the slots and is nearly mauled by a white tiger from Gunter and Ernst's circus act. Marge forgets to help Lisa make a costume for Lisa's geography pageant. Homer makes a costume of Florida for Lisa, but it is misshapen and shabby, displaying the state's name as "Floreda".

Homer frantically runs throughout the casino, searching for Marge. Security cameras capture his rampage, causing Burns to demote him to his old job at the power plant. After realizing how much he misses the plant, Burns decides to return to it. When Homer confronts Marge for her behavior, she finally realizes she has a gambling problem and agrees to stop.

Lisa wins a prize in the geography pageant for children who "clearly had no help from their parents". Ralph receives the same prize for his costume, a note taped to his shirt that reads "Idaho".

Production

A portrait of a man with black hair looking at the viewer
Bill Oakley was one of the writers of the episode.

The episode was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, and directed by Wes Archer.

riverboat gambling.[2] Oakley said another inspiration for it was that there had not been many episodes about Springfield as a whole and how "crummy" the town was, so they filled the whole first act with scenes showing how "dismal" it was.[3] Oakley particularly liked the animation of the lights on the slot machines and the lamps in the ceiling of the casino; the "way they radiate out" had always amazed him.[3] Archer, who directed the animation of the episode, also thought they turned out well. The lights were especially hard for them to animate back then because the show was animated traditionally on cels.[4] A deleted scene from the episode shows Homer dealing cards to James Bond. The staff liked the scene, so they decided to put it in the clip show episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular".[5]

There was a brief period when the episode had a different subplot that revolved around the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood. Groening had been told by a spokesperson that if he put Planet Hollywood in The Simpsons, the creators of the restaurant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, would agree to make guest appearances on the show. The writers of The Simpsons were excited about this so they wrote a new subplot for the episode that featured Planet Hollywood and the three actors. However, for unknown reasons, they were unable to appear in the episode.[6] Instead,

Siegfried and Roy-esque casino magicians who are attacked by their white tiger, Anastasia. Ten years after this episode first aired, on October 3, 2003, Roy Horn was attacked by one of the duo's white tigers. The Simpsons production team dismissed the novelty of the prediction by saying that it was "bound to happen" sooner or later.[5]

Cultural references

Mr. Burns's paranoid obsession with germs and cleanliness, and his refusal to leave his bedroom once the casino opens, is a parody of American magnate Howard Hughes.

The title is a reference to the 1964 film

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).[8] Homer is impressed by the card-counting abilities of a man who resembles Raymond Babbitt, Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man (1988).[1] Krusty's midnight show is similar to Bill Cosby's 1971 album For Adults Only, recorded at a casino at midnight.[8] Marge reminds Homer that his lifelong dream was to be a contestant on The Gong Show.[8]

The Wizard of Oz (1939) when the Scarecrow demonstrates his newfound intelligence by (incorrectly) reciting the law that governs the lengths of the sides of an isosceles triangle. Unlike in the film, somebody correctly points out that the Pythagorean theorem recited applies only to right triangles, not isosceles triangles.[6]

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "$pringfield" finished 35th in the ratings for the week of December 13 to December 19, 1993, with a Nielsen Rating of 11.7, translating to 11 million households. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.[9]

Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "this excellent episode includes a surprising number of concurrent plots. Homer also works in the casino and tries to care for the family without Marge. It balances them deftly and provides great laughs along the way."

photographic memory and Mr Burns' descent into insanity—but great fun."[8] Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict gave the episode a grade of A,[12] and Bill Gibron of DVD Talk gave it a score of 4 out of 5.[13] The episode is Sarah Culp of The Quindecim's eleventh-favorite episode of the show,[14] and one of Les Winan of Box Office Prophets's favorite episodes.[15] A scene from the episode where former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger meets Burns was included in the 2002 documentary film The Trials of Henry Kissinger.[16]

References

  1. ^ ..
  2. 20th Century Fox
    .
  3. ^ a b c Oakley, Bill (2004). The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ Archer, Wes (2004). The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b c Mirkin, David (2004). The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ a b Groening, Matt (2004). The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "$pringfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ "Stanley and Bart... another Kubrick legend". The Guardian. London. July 16, 1999. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  8. ^ a b c d e Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "$pringfield". BBC. Archived from the original on April 19, 2008. Retrieved April 12, 2008.
  9. ^ "Nielsen Ratings/December 13–19". Long Beach Press-Telegram. December 22, 1993. p. C6.
  10. ^ Jacobson, Colin (December 21, 2004). "The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season (1993)". DVD Movie Guide. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
  11. ^ Suraf, Adam (December 18, 2004). "The Simpsons: Season 5". Dunkirkma.net. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
  12. ^ Bromley, Patrick (February 23, 2005). "The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
  13. ^ Gibron, Bill (December 23, 2004). "The Simpsons – The Complete Fifth Season". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
  14. ^ Culp, Sarah (February 19, 2003). "The Simpsons' Top 25 Episodes". The Quindecim. Archived from the original on February 19, 2009. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  15. ^ Winan, Les (December 28, 2004). "How to Spend $20". Box Office Prophets. Archived from the original on March 14, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  16. ^ MITCHELL, ELVIS (September 26, 2002). "FILM REVIEW; Taking Kissinger to Task, Perhaps Even a Bit More". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2022.

External links