The Old Man and the Lisa

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Not to be confused with The Old Man and the "C" Student or The Old Man and the Key.

"The Old Man and the Lisa"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 8
Episode 21
Directed byMark Kirkland[1]
Written byJohn Swartzwelder[1]
Production code4F17
Original air dateApril 20, 1997 (1997-04-20)
Guest appearance
Episode features
Couch gag
The Simpsons' couch becomes a giant Whac-A-Mole game, with Homer getting hit.[1]
CommentaryMatt Groening
Josh Weinstein
Dan Castellaneta
Yeardley Smith
Mark Kirkland
David X. Cohen
George Meyer
Episode chronology
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"The Canine Mutiny" 		Next →
"In Marge We Trust"
The Simpsons season 8
List of episodes

"The Old Man and the Lisa" is the twenty-first episode of the

Mr. Burns goes bankrupt and asks Lisa
to help him get rich again. She agrees on the condition that he change his evil ways. They earn money by recycling cans and soon Burns has enough money to start his own recycling plant. Lisa is aghast when she learns the plant makes a slurry from liquefied sea creatures. When Burns sells the plant to a company that makes fish sticks, he offers Lisa 10 percent of his profits, but she declines for ethical reasons.

The episode was directed by

Environmental Media Award
for "TV Episodic Comedy".

Plot

Springfield Elementary School, scoffing when Lisa suggests his nuclear power plant start a recycling program. When Burns boasts that he would not be filthy rich if he listened to nature lovers
like her, Lisa counters that his net worth is only half what he claims. When pressed, Smithers reluctantly tells Burns he has considerably less money even than that.

Burns soon realizes he is nearly broke because his sycophantic advisers tell him only what he wants to hear. He is oblivious to the

Principal Skinner
ends the Junior Achievers Club's recyclables collection after they are rewarded seventy-five cents for collecting half a ton of newspaper and knocking over the tree they saved with the recycled paper, but Lisa decides to continue regardless.

Burns moves in with

catsup, so the grocer commits him to the Springfield Retirement Castle, finding his brief time there monotonous. He sees Lisa again at the nursing home and begs her to help rebuild his empire. After incessant pleading, she agrees to help him earn money by recycling
after he promises to change his evil ways.

Burns grabs every can he finds, eventually earning enough money to open his own recycling plant. He gives Lisa a tour of the plant, showing her the Burns Omni-Net — millions of

Slurry. Lisa, a vegetarian and animal rights supporter, realizes he has not changed; when he tries to be good, he is even more evil, although he insists that he is providing a needed commodity. Lisa runs through the streets, unsuccessfully trying to stop seemingly brainwashed
citizens from recycling.

Later, Burns tells Lisa that he has sold the recycling plant to a

public address system announces a code blue, indicating Homer has suffered cardiac arrest.[3][4][5]

Production

Guest voice Bret Hart insisted that his animated version in the episode would wear his pink wrestling outfit.

The episode was based on a story idea pitched by David X. Cohen,[6] although it was written by John Swartzwelder, who had written many of the Simpsons episodes that have environmental themes.[2] This habit led to him being called the "conscience of the staff"[7] despite being a "self declared anti-environmentalist."[8] It was because of this that he was given such episodes, because the staff felt that he would give them just the right amount of sarcasm.[6] In the original script for the episode, he described the recycling center as "a couple of hippies surrounded by garbage".[7] Two alternate original titles for the episode were Cohen's "Lisa and Burns" and Swartzwelder's "Burns Goes Broke".[6]

The writers had wanted an episode where Burns becomes bankrupt and shows what Burns would be like as a person in the real world.[2] The idea with the recycling plant was that Burns did not have any sort of evil plan and he just could not help being himself.[2] Burns really was trying to change and this was reflected in the end when he tried to give Lisa her share of the profits, with Lisa refusing.[9] Burns was drawn without his trademark scowl for this episode.[9] The staff joked about this being a suitable series finale, due to the episode ending with Homer suffering from another heart attack after learning what 10% of Burns' $120,000,000 check really is.[8]

Professional wrestler Bret Hart guest starred in the episode as himself, and he was very insistent that he be shown wearing his pink wrestling outfit.[9] He explained that "It's so cool to be part of a show that makes people laugh really, really hard."[10] In a 2009 interview with The A.V. Club's Dave Hofer, Hart explained that the reason why his animated counterpart sounds nothing like him was that initially, he was brought in to voice a generic wrestler. When Mark Kirkland realised how famous Hart actually was, he told Hart that if the artwork had not been started yet, he would be drawn in as himself.[11]

Cultural references

Mr. Burns's walk through the supermarket was based on a false rumor that

Invasion of the Body Snatchers.[5]

Reception

In its original broadcast, "The Old Man and the Lisa" finished 38th in ratings for the week of April 14–20, 1997, with a

Nielsen rating of 8.3, equivalent to approximately 8.1 million viewing households. It was tied along with King of the Hill as the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files and Melrose Place.[13]

"The Old Man and the Lisa" received the 1997

Environmental Media Award in the "TV Episodic Comedy" category.[14][15]

Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, called it "An odd episode with a not-too-unexpected outcome. The best bits are undoubtedly Burns learning his way around a supermarket and Lisa's realisation of what Burns has been up to."[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "The Old Man and the Lisa". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Weinstein, Josh (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  3. ^ Haig, Scott (June 8, 2006). "The Mystery of the Double Cardiac Arrest". Time. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
  4. ISBN 0-7535-0495-2
    .
  5. ^
    OL 433519M
    ..
  6. ^ a b c Cohen, David X. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ a b Meyer, George (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ a b Groening, Matt (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  9. ^ a b c Kirkland, Mark (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  10. ^ Cam Hutchinson, "Doran Johnson given brushoff again," Star-Phoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: April 19, 1997, p. B.4.
  11. ^ Hofer, Dave (September 19, 2009). "Bret "The Hitman" Hart sounds off on wrestling's bad rap". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
  12. ^ Castellaneta, Dan (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  13. ^ "NBC lands on top of a hill of reruns". Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. April 24, 1997. p. 4E.
  14. ^ Harris, Dana (November 4, 1997). "EMA honors for Home, Travolta". The Hollywood Reporter.
  15. ^ Martinez, Judy (September 30, 1997). "Environmental Media Award Nominations In; Home Improvement Singled Out". City News Service.

External links

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