Last Exit to Springfield

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"Last Exit to Springfield"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 4
Episode 17
Directed byMark Kirkland
Written byJay Kogen
Wallace Wolodarsky
Production code9F15
Original air dateMarch 11, 1993 (1993-03-11)
Guest appearance
Episode features
Couch gag
The couch turns into a monster with tentacles, eating the Simpsons sitting on it.[2]
CommentaryMatt Groening
Al Jean
Wallace Wolodarsky
Jay Kogen
Mark Kirkland
Episode chronology
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"So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
The Simpsons season 4
List of episodes

"Last Exit to Springfield" is the seventeenth episode of the

dental plan to avoid the family having to pay out-of-pocket for Lisa's new braces
.

The episode was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky (their final writing credit for The Simpsons), and directed by Mark Kirkland.[1] The episode contains several cultural references and Dr. Joyce Brothers guest stars as herself.[1] "Last Exit to Springfield" received widespread acclaim from both fans and critics and has frequently been cited as one of the best episodes of the entire series.[3][4]

Plot

While awaiting the arrival of his employees' union president (who hasn't been seen since promising to clean up corruption in the organization) to discuss the latest contract,

dental plan
.

Carl
announces that the newest contract requires them to give up their dental plan in exchange for a free keg of beer at union meetings. Homer gradually realizes that giving up their dental plan would require him to pay for Lisa's braces and jumps into action, reminding everyone how their dental plan has helped them. After encouragement from Carl, Homer is promptly elected the new union president.

Burns invites Homer to his office with the intent of bribing him, but Homer misconstrues Burns's sly innuendos as sexual advances. Homer declares that he is not interested in "backdoor shenanigans" and promptly leaves, leading Burns to wrongly infer that Homer is honest and incorruptible. Meanwhile, after learning the family has no dental insurance, Dr. Wolfe fits Lisa with the cheapest (and ugliest) braces available, causing her to develop low self-esteem.

Homer is kidnapped from his house by "hired goons" and taken to Burns's mansion. Burns gives Homer a tour of the mansion to get him in a good mood, but when the tour ends and the two men sit down to negotiate the contract, Homer suddenly needs to use the bathroom. Homer's delayed attempts to find the restroom leads Burns to wrongly assume that Homer is a tough negotiator ("He wouldn't even hear me out.") At a later union meeting, Homer tries to resign, tired of meeting with Burns. The union misinterprets his frustration, and the members decide to strike. Burns is undeterred by the strike and tries several methods of breaking it, including Burns and Smithers working on the plant singlehandedly, but it fails.

As a last resort after weeks of failed attempts, Burns deliberately causes a power outage throughout Springfield to break the union's spirit. However, the strikers do not lose hope and begin to sing a protest song written by Lisa. Burns finally calls a meeting with Homer to concede their demands on one condition: that Homer resign as union president. Homer loudly celebrates both of Burns's decisions, leading Burns to finally realize that Homer is not the "brilliant tactician" he thought he was. With the Simpson family insured again, Lisa gets invisible, painless new braces.

Production

The idea for this episode came from Mike Reiss, who thought it would be funny if the plant went on strike. The writers of the episode, Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, would later add the dental plan aspect of the plot.[5] During the production of this episode, an ABC camera crew was allowed into the rewrite room, which Al Jean says he regrets because they were working on stage direction, and they came off as not being very funny.[5]

The producers originally asked

Dr. Joyce Brothers
.

Cultural references

Lisa's dream sequence, based on Yellow Submarine.[2] Everything in the sequence had to be slightly changed for copyright reasons.[5]

The title of the episode is an homage to Hubert Selby Jr.'s novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, one subplot of which involves the corruption and downfall of a union leader during a strike.[6] The body of the union president, Chuckie Fitzhugh, is seen buried under a football field, an homage to the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa and his alleged burial at New Jersey's Giants Stadium.[5] Mr. Burns' outfit in the flashback to his childhood is based on Buster Brown.[7] Homer's fantasy of a life of organized crime is based on Don Fanucci's first appearance in The Godfather Part II, accepting donuts rather than a necklace and an orange.[8]

Lisa's nitrous oxide-induced hallucination echoes

the Joker.[2]

When Homer is escorted by the hired goons into Burns' conservatory, a Burns-headed bird is sitting in the foreground. This is a reference to the shrieking cockatoo in

Captain Ahab's curse in Moby-Dick, one of Wolodarsky's favorite books.[9] The workers' resistance to the power outage, and Mr. Burns's response, is a parody of Chuck Jones's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.[7] When Homer succeeds in getting the dental plan reinstated, he celebrates by spinning around on the floor and yelling “woo-woo-woo” à la Curly Howard of The Three Stooges
.

The episode features a running gag, Mr. Burns's inability to remember Homer. He asks Smithers, "Who is that young firebrand?" Smithers says, "Ah, that's Homer Simpson, sir." Burns replies, "Simpson, eh? New man?" Smithers says "He

his wife painted you in the nude
..." Burns says, "Eh... doesn't ring a bell."

Reception

In its original broadcast, "Last Exit to Springfield" finished 19th in ratings for the week of March 8–14, 1993, with a

Nielsen rating of 13.7, equivalent to approximately 12.8 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.[10]

The episode is generally ranked as being one of the best of all time and is on a number of Top 10 lists;[5] the BBC stated it is "frequently cited as the show's best-ever episode".[11] An Entertainment Weekly article from January 2003 looking back at the top 25 episodes of the series named the episode as the show's greatest, calling it "virtually flawless, the product of a series at the height of its creative powers -- when the satire was savage and relevant" with "the stuff of syndication legend: Burns facing down 'brilliant' labor kingpin Homer Simpson; Homer Simpson facing down his own brain (DENTAL PLAN!/Lisa needs braces!); Grampa rattling on about wearing onions on his belt. Last Exit is a glorious symphony of the high and the low, of satirical shots at unions and sweet ruminations on the humiliations of adolescence (as evidenced by Lisa, who copes with a medieval mouth contraption)."[4] In 2020, Al Jean acknowledged "Last Exit to Springfield" as an episode many consider a favorite.[12]

In his book Planet Simpson Chris Turner names it the best episode of the series, saying "Episode 9F15 of The Simpsons should be taught in schools, in history, economics, social studies, literature and art class. It's flawless".[13] He also called it "the funniest half-hour in TV history", and provided a full analysis of the episode, only criticizing the chalkboard and couch gags.[13] He maintains that he chose the episode as best ever before Entertainment Weekly's list was published.[13]

In 2003, to celebrate the show's 300th episode, USA Today published a top 10 chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive, which had this episode in first place.[14] The BBC website says, "This fine episode contains several of our favourite sequences ... A classic, and the series' most marked expedition into the surreal - up to this point."[2] Today, who listed the episode as their favorite, stated, "This is the episode that every self-respecting Simpsons geek must be able to recite verbatim."[15]

Michael Moran of The Times ranked the episode as the sixth-best in the show's history.[16] Screen Rant called it the best episode of the fourth season and the second greatest episode of The Simpsons (behind "Homer's Enemy").[17]

Director

Godfather Part II-inspired meditation on organized crime.[7] Al Jean has also called it one of the "craziest" episodes.[5] Homer's line "Uh...yeah." (with the animation and line delivery implying Homer is lying) after being asked if he found the bathroom is one of Jay Kogen's favorite Simpsons jokes.[8]

In The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin writes that "'Last Exit To Springfield' is a popular candidate for the single greatest episode of The Simpsons, the greatest television show of all time... What makes this episode so special? What makes it the very best of the best? The answer, I think, comes down to joy. For an episode centering on emotionally charged, high-stakes labor negotiations and the horror of cut-rate dental care, 'Last Exit To Springfield' positively radiates an unlikely but pervasive sense of joy...Much of this joy is musical in nature. 'Last Exit To Springfield' is filled with both music and sequences blessed with a real sense of musicality", citing Lisa's Yellow Submarine-esque hallucination and Burns's dream of running the plant without workers. He also notes the episode's social commentary: "Underneath the richly merited jabs at labor’s propensity for corruption lies a real respect for labor’s capacity for good. In its own exquisitely cynical way, 'Last Exit To Springfield' offers a surprisingly nuanced depiction of the strengths and weaknesses of organized labor."[18]

Legacy

The episode has become study material for sociology courses at

University of California Berkeley, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies."[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Richmond & Coffman 1997, p. 110.
  2. ^ a b c d Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Last Exit to Springfield". BBC. Archived from the original on March 1, 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2007.
  3. ^ Groening, Matt (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ a b "The best Simpsons episodes, Nos. 1-5". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. January 31, 2003. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Jean, Al (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. ISBN 978-0-307-36609-2
    . Note first that the title of this episode—"Last Exit to Springfield"— is a play on Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby's scathing literary portrait of twentieth-century labour relations
  7. ^ a b c Kirkland, Mark (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ a b Kogen, Jay (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  9. ^ Wolodarsky, Wallace (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  10. ^ Elber, Lynn (March 18, 1993). "'Home Improvement' nails down top spot". Sun-Sentinel. p. 3E.
  11. ^ "The Simpsons: 10 classic episodes". BBC News. January 14, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  12. ^ Chavez, Danette (April 15, 2020). "Interview: Al Jean knows which Simpsons episodes you think are the best—and worst". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  13. ^ a b c Turner 2004.
  14. ^ Paakkinen, Jouni (February 6, 2003). "10 fan favorites". USA Today. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  15. Today.com
    . Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  16. ^ Moran, Michael (January 14, 2010). "The 10 best Simpsons episodes ever". The Times. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  17. ^ Sim, Bernardo (September 22, 2019). "The Simpsons: The Best Episode In Every Season, Ranked". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
  18. ^ Rabin, Nathan. "The Simpsons (Classic): Last Exit to Springfield". The A.V. Club.
  19. ^ Thomas B. Gold (2008). "The Simpsons Global Mirror" (PDF). University of California Berkeley. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 7, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
Bibliography

External links

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