Mother Simpson

"Mother Simpson" is the eighth episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 19, 1995. After faking his own death to get a day off work, Homer reunites with his mother Mona, whom he thought had died over two decades prior. It was directed by David Silverman and was the first episode to be written by Richard Appel.^[1] Glenn Close makes her first of eleven guest appearances as Homer's mother. This episode is dedicated to the memory of staff member Jackie Banks, who died on November 4, 1995.

Plot

After learning that Mr. Burns wants his employees to clean litter from a highway maintained by his company on a Saturday, Homer fakes his own death using a dummy to avoid it. When Marge discovers his scheme the next day, she makes Homer go to the Springfield Hall of Records to explain he is not dead. There, Homer learns that his mother, whom he believed to have died 26 years prior, is still alive. Homer visits what he thinks is her grave, only to find that it belongs to Walt Whitman. After falling into a grave that had been dug for him, Homer is approached by a woman who chastises him for falling into her son's grave. Homer recognizes her as his mother Mona, and they share an emotional reunion.

While Homer and Mona go to the post office to claim care packages sent by Mona, Burns recognizes Mona and calls the FBI, who track her to the Simpsons home. Before she can be arrested, Homer receives an anonymous tip that his mother is about to be arrested, and he helps her escape. The tipster is later revealed to be Chief Wiggum, who was a security guard at Burns' lab until the antibiotic mist cured his asthma and allowed him to finally enroll in the police academy. Realizing she must again go into hiding, Mona says goodbye to Homer and promises that he will be a part of her life forever. As she leaves with a hippie, Homer sadly looks up to the stars from his car.^[1][2]

Production

The idea for "Mother Simpson" was pitched by Richard Appel, who decided to do something about Homer's mother, who previously had been mentioned only once in "There's No Disgrace Like Home".^[3] Many of the writers could not believe that an episode about Homer's mother had not previously been produced.^[4] Part of the fun of an episode about Homer's mother for the writers was that they were able to solve several little puzzles, such as where Lisa's intelligence came from.^[3] The ending shot with Homer gazing at the sky was decided at the table read, but the drawing at the end was inserted by David Silverman because it was felt that the scene was so touching that no other lines were needed. As a result, no promos were aired over the credits during the original airing of the episode.^[5] Bill Oakley has admitted that he always gets teary-eyed when he watches the ending.^[4]

Glenn Close, who was directed by Josh Weinstein,

"Mother Simpson" draws upon a number of references to 1960s popular culture. Three songs from the 1960s appear in this episode: "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan, and the Jimi Hendrix cover of "All Along the Watchtower".^[2] Mona Simpson is seen reading Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman.^[4] Mona mentions that she worked a number of jobs while on the run, including "marketing Jerry Rubin’s line of diet shakes, proofreading Bobby Seale's cookbook, and running credit checks at Tom Hayden’s Porsche dealership." Rubin, Seale and Hayden were three liberal radicals from the 1960s. Rubin did indeed have a line of diet shakes, and Seale did write some cookbooks. However, Hayden never owned a Porsche dealership.^[7] Homer claims to his mother that some people say he "looks like Dan Aykroyd". Mona tells Lisa about reading the book A Separate Peace being hardly ninth grade level. When he was a kid, Homer is shown as having a Pillsbury Doughboy doll and the game Operation. Lisa remarks that Mona's reappearance is "like something out of Dickens or Melrose Place." Two germs are parody of Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu.

The radicals use a

Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised the episode, calling it "Gag-packed, and very touching".[1]

IGN ranked Glenn Close's performance as the 25th best guest appearance in the show's history.^[10] In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named Close one of the 16 best The Simpsons guest stars.^[11]

In The A.V. Club, Erik Adams praises Close's performance: "Close is an actress who disappears into her roles, and she effortlessly slips into Mona's convictions and regrets in her first outing as Simpson family matriarch. It's a funny, touching performance, but it's not showy in any way. In fact, it was the showiest bit of dialogue she just couldn't nail down: When Mona bonks her head at the end of the episode, the Simpson family's signature exclamation had to come from Pamela Hayden's scratch vocals. Close is so nuanced in her performance, she just couldn't muster the bombast for a proper 'doh!'"^[12]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to "Mother Simpson".

• "Mother Simpson episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Mother Simpson" at
  IMDb