Homer the Smithers

Plot

After a company night out to the Springfield drag races, Smithers fails to protect Mr. Burns from being harassed by a drunken Lenny. Though he tries to make amends the next day, Smithers again bungles his duties and attempts to drown himself in the water cooler out of guilt, so Burns suggests he take a vacation. Seeking a replacement who will not outshine him, Smithers purposely selects Homer for the job. Burns soon proves to be ridiculously demanding for someone who has not devoted his life to him like Smithers. After putting up with Mr. Burns' constant abuse for several days, Homer finally snaps and punches Burns. Fearing he has killed the old man, Homer runs away in panic, and hides at home.

Homer returns to apologize but is turned away by a fearful Burns. With no one around, Burns learns to do things himself and soon becomes completely self-reliant. After thanking Homer for making him learn that he can fend for himself, Burns fires Smithers when he returns from his vacation. Smithers and Homer engage in a fight within Burns' office which ends when Burns accidentally falls out the window. Burns is seriously injured and becomes reliant on Smithers once again. In gratitude, Smithers sends Homer a fruit basket.

Production

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, who got the story from another member of the writing staff, Mike Scully. When the show runners of this season, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, took over the job from David Mirkin, they wanted to "take the show back" to the Simpson family. Their goal was to have at least 15 episodes per season that revolved around the family or a member of the family, but they still wanted to do the annual Halloween episode, a Sideshow Bob episode, an Itchy and Scratchy episode, and a "format bending" episode, which in this season was "22 Short Films About Springfield". They wanted the family episodes to be realistic, and Oakley thought "Homer the Smithers" was a good example. When Scully pitched the idea to the writers, Oakley was surprised that it had not been done earlier on the show. He thought the story sounded like something that would have been done by the third season because it was "simple" and "organic".

Weinstein said that this episode was an opportunity for him, Oakley, and Swartzwelder to "go nuts" with the "Burns-ism". He said that they enjoy writing for characters such as Burns and Abe Simpson because of their "out-datedness", and because they get to use thesauruses for looking up "old time slang". For example, Burns answers the phone by saying "Ahoy, hoy!", which was suggested by Alexander Graham Bell to be used as the proper telephone answer when the telephone was first invented. Burns' kitchen is full of "crazy old-time" devices and contraptions. For inspiration, Weinstein brought in "a bunch" of old books with designs of old kitchen devices. Oakley commented that the stuffed polar bear had always been in Burns' office, and they were excited to "finally" have a use for it.

Matt Groening has noted the challenges of sound mixing with this episode, the results of which influenced future episodes of the show and Groening's other series Futurama. When the animation for the episode returned, the production staff found the scene of Homer fighting Smithers "horrifying", as the sounds of character exertion made it seem too violent. After experimenting with the sound, they were eventually able to make the scene humorous by only leaving in sounds of the characters' agony.

Reception

In its original broadcast, "Homer the Smithers" finished 60th in the ratings for the week of February 19 to February 25, 1996, with a Nielsen rating of 8.8. The episode was the fifth-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, and Married... with Children.

Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. Dave Foster of DVD Times said that "Homer the Smithers" shows "just how dependent upon Smithers Mr. Burns is". He added that the staging and animation of the scene in which Homer tries to apologize to Burns "will remain engraved in your memory in the same way as some of the series finest dialogue can". DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson enjoyed the episode and commented that "any doubts about Smithers' sexuality will not last long when we see his vacation". Jacobson would have liked to see more scenes from Smithers' vacation, but he still thought the episode offered "nice exposition" for the character. He added: "It’s fun to see more about his pampering of Burns, and it’s amusing to watch Homer take over for him." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict considered the best part of the episode to be the scenes of Smithers on vacation. She concluded her review by giving the episode a grade of A−. 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 "very good episode, and an unusually straightforward one for this surreal season".