The Canine Mutiny

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For the 1951 novel of a similar name, see The Caine Mutiny.

"The Canine Mutiny"
Couch gag
The couch is folded out into a bed with Grampa asleep on it. Grampa can only utter a cry of “Huh?” before The Simpsons fold him into the couch as they sit down as normal.[2]
CommentaryJosh Weinstein
Dominic Polcino
George Meyer
Episode chronology
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The Simpsons season 8
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"The Canine Mutiny" is the twentieth episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 13, 1997. It was written by Ron Hauge and directed by Dominic Polcino.[1] Bart fraudulently applies for a credit card and uses it to buy an expensive trained dog called Laddie. It guest stars voice actor Frank Welker as Laddie,[2] a parody of Lassie. The episode's title references the novel The Caine Mutiny.

Plot

When

purebred collie
. When the dog arrives, Bart learns his name is Laddie and he is trained to perform several tasks. The Simpsons fall in love with the new dog and neglect Santa's Little Helper.

When he fails to pay his credit card bill, Bart gets a call from a debt

collection agency demanding payment. When the calls and collection letters persist, he enlists Laddie's help to bury the ill-gotten card. Soon, repo men arrive to confiscate his purchases. When a repossessor asks for the $1,200 dog to be returned, Bart identifies Santa's Little Helper as the dog. The greyhound
is herded into the truck, and he watches sadly as it drives away.

Realizing Santa's Little Helper is gone, the family bonds with Laddie, except for Bart, who fears for Santa's Little Helper's fate. When an exhausted Bart takes Laddie on one of his frequent walks, the collie saves the life of

Reverend Lovejoy
that the dog was given to a parishioner, Mr. Mitchell.

Bart visits Mitchell to beg for his dog back, but he sees that the man is

marijuana
in Mitchell's pocket. As Bart and Santa's Little Helper head home, more police officers arrive to enjoy the confiscated cannabis.

Production

The episode uses the full opening sequence because the story ran short. A long sequence was cut from the middle of the episode,

pep pills. Originally, instead of going to the dog park, the family took Laddie to a waterfall, where he performed a series of dives.[4] This idea was scrapped since the script already proved that Laddie was a form of "superdog".[5] Likewise, the scene where Laddie rescues Baby Gerald was originally more complicated, but it was cut; the finished episode shows only the aftermath of Laddie's rescue.[3]

Laddie was designed to resemble a real dog. The catalog Bart uses is a combination of the

The Sharper Image store. The opening stemmed from the fact that the show had not had a sequence where the family received mail, and the writers wanted to create a joke about the different types of mail addressed to each family member. After Bart's "dog burning" fantasy, when he hears a ship's horn in the distance, there was originally going to be a faint cry of "more dogs", but it was deemed taking the joke too far. Hank Azaria ad-libbed the entire sequence during the closing credits in which Chief Wiggum and Lou sing along to "Jammin'".[3]

Cultural references

The title is a reference to the

Repo Man. The address of Mr. Mitchell's house, 57 Mt. Auburn Street, is one of the addresses of The Harvard Lampoon.[3] Mr. Mitchell's belief that his dead parrot is still alive is a reference to the "Dead Parrot" Monty Python sketch.[5]

Reception

In its original broadcast, "The Canine Mutiny" finished 43rd in ratings for the week of April 7–13, 1997, with a

Nielsen rating of 8.1, equivalent to approximately 7.9 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files, King of the Hill, and Beverly Hills, 90210.[6]

The episode's ending with Chief Wiggum and Lou singing along to "Jamming'" by Bob Marley is often cited as one of the best endings in the history of the show.[3] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "A sweet episode".[2] Homer's line "There, there, shut up boy" is one of Josh Weinstein's favorites.[3]

References

  1. ^
    OL 433519M
    ..
  2. ^ a b c d e Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "The Canine Mutiny". BBC. Archived from the original on February 13, 2008. Retrieved March 30, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Weinstein, Josh (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Canine Mutiny" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ a b Polcino, Dominic (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Canine Mutiny" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b Meyer, George (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Canine Mutiny" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ "ABC ratings take a record nose dive". Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. April 17, 1997. p. 4E.

External links

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