Weekend at Burnsie's

Plot

After a bad experience with genetically modified food, Marge decides to plant her own garden. Crows arrive on the new garden, so Marge makes a scarecrow, which scares Homer. Homer destroys the scarecrow, and the crows see Homer as their leader, following him everywhere and doing his bidding. But when the crows try to carry Maggie, Homer turns on them and they attack his eyes. He is prescribed medicinal marijuana.

Homer begins to enjoy smoking marijuana. However, a ban on medical marijuana in implemented, but by this point, Homer is cured of his medical condition and promises he will not smoke marijuana again.

Mr. Burns asks Homer to help him with a speech for a crisis shareholders meeting. Homer gives Smithers his last joint, and while Smithers is smoking it, Burns apparently drowns in his bathtub. For the meeting, Smithers and Homer make Mr. Burns into a marionette, and the movement of the marionette inadvertently gets Mr. Burns' heart working again. The meeting is a success, and another financial crisis at the power plant is avoided.

Production

"Weekend at Burnsie's" was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Michael Marcantel. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on April 7, 2002. The idea for the episode was pitched by former staff writer George Meyer, who wanted to make an episode in which Homer becomes addicted to medicinal marijuana. Executive producer and current showrunner Al Jean thought that the premise sounded "very funny" and assigned Vitti to write the episode's first draft. Vitti wrote the script at his home and did not participate in any rewriting sessions with the other staff writers. "[...] it's a funny bunch of people", he said in the episode's DVD commentary. "You definitely lose touch with what the movies you're supposed to see, what's good on TV..." "Weekend at Burnsie's" is the second episode Vitti wrote in which a character forgets to vote at an election, and the second episode he wrote in which Homer takes a chemical that causes him to be promoted by Burns and run into conflict with Smithers. "You can't do anything for the first time at this point", Vitti quipped. Producer and former showrunner Mike Reiss has stated that he thoroughly enjoyed working on "Weekend at Burnsie's". "I gotta say, this was the most fun I ever had working on an episode", he said in the episode's DVD commentary. "Everyone but me had stories to tell [about various things]. There would be about four hours of recollection before any rewriting happened."

Because the use of medicinal marijuana is prominently featured in the episode, Fox had "incredible fears" about it and were very hesitant to have it broadcast. They especially disapproved of a scene in which Homer smokes marijuana for the first time, since they did not want to instruct children how to smoke. The staff discussed the scene for a long time with the network until they came up with a compromise. Just before the joint touches Homer's lips, the scene cuts to a psychedelic sequence that transpires from the joint's tip. Despite their concerns, Jean opined that the network gave the staff a "pretty good amount" of creative freedom with the episode. "[...] obviously, the network didn't want us glorifying casual marijuana use", he said in an interview with the music magazine Relix. "[...] like we usually do, we look at everything from two sides and it's supposed to be a thoughtful look at a serious thing". Despite the modification of the scene, the network and the series' staff members were still worried about how the episode would be received. "Weeks before it aired, we were going 'This is really going to kill everything...'", Jean said in the episode's DVD commentary.

After being attacked by the crows, Homer is seen being treated by Dr. Hibbert at the Springfield General Hospital. While there are no visible scars on him, the character instead has a slightly curled hair. During a color screening of the scene, Homer's body looked "a little too bloody" and damaged, prompting the staff to change it. "One thing I learned a long time ago is, you gotta be careful how you change [the characters'] basic model pack[s]", Jean said in the episode's DVD commentary. He also said that he was happy that many viewers identify with the characters and don't want to see them get hurt or injured in any way. "They don't mind if [Homer] falls down a cliff but [...] he should recover." While working on the episode, the series' staff debated what size to make Homer's pupils when he is under the influence of marijuana. Because a common effect of smoking marijuana is to get dilated pupils, the animators initially suggested to widen them, but settled on only dilating Homer's pupils slightly.

"Weekend at Burnsie's" features the American rock band Phish as themselves. The idea to include the band in the episode was pitched during the episode's production. "Phish plays at the rally. We thought they'd be the perfect group to use for the plot.", Jean said. Meyer, who pitched the episode's premise, was a fan of the band, but Jean did not know much of them before they appeared in the episode; "I've never seen one of their concerts, so I'm not the most familiar", he said. He first became aware of the band after reading an article about them in Entertainment Weekly. As they worked on the episode however, Jean became more acquainted with the band members. "They were nice", he said. "Jon Fishman said to me that the band had talked from time to time about if they were to ever be on The Simpsons, what it would be like. I said, 'Well, how close was it?' He said, 'Pretty close to what we expected.' (laughs) That was gratifying."

According to Peter Shapiro of Relix, some fans of Phish debated whether or not there had been any references to the band before "Weekend at Burnsie's". While the band was mentioned by name in the season 12 episode "Lisa the Tree Hugger", there had not been any conscious attempts to reference the band before "Weekend at Burnsie's". This includes a scene in the season 11 episode "Saddlesore Galactica", which shows Duncan the diving horse hanging from a hoist; some Phish fans argued that the scene was a "blatant" reference to the cover of the band's seventh studio album, Hoist. "That was a total coincidence", Jean said. "It reminds me of the whole Wizard of Oz/Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon) hook-up. I haven't done it and I'm sure it works, but I just keep thinking that it must be a coincidence. Before there was the invention of video, I don't know how Pink Floyd would have done a whole album to a movie."

Release

In its original American broadcast on April 7, 2002, "Weekend at Burnsie's" received a 6.8 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 7.2 million viewers. The episode finished in 34th place in the ratings for the week of April 1-7, 2002, tying with a new episode of the comedy television series Malcolm in the Middle. On August 24, 2010, "Weekend at Burnsie's" was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray set. Matt Groening, Al Jean, Matt Selman, Don Payne, Jon Vitti, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Mike Reiss and David Silverman participated in the audio commentary of the episode.

Following its home video release, "Weekend at Burnsie's" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict praised the episode's premise, writing that it "brim[s] with potential" even though it is "fairly simple". She also praised the episode's setpiece, which she described as "particularly good", even though she found it to be "super-random". She gave the episode an A- rating and added that it has "lots of great gags". Writing for WhatCulture!, Adam Rayner described "Weekend at Burnsie's" as "utterly hilarious" and "superbly executed". He wrote, "Apart from being very funny, the episode also manages to make statements about Marijuana, but never becomes preachy." He continued that it can be compared to the series' best episodes, writing that it "resemble[s] The Simpsons in its glory years". Casey Broadwater of Blu-ray.com considers it to be one of the season's best episodes, and so did High-Def Digest's Aaron Peck, who described it as one of his personal favorites. James Plath, a reviewer for DVD Town, wrote that the episode is a "classic". On the other hand, giving the episode a mixed review, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide wrote that "Weekend at Burnsie's" "falls into the abyss as a distinctly ordinary episode." He continued, "Like many other S13 shows, this one feels recycled, as it lacks much to make it stand out as creative or memorable." He summarized the episode as being "decidedly mediocre". Nate Boss of Project-Blu disliked the episode, calling it "terrible", "utterly preachy" and "too damn political for its own good." He criticized the Simpsons staff for making an episode about marijuana, as he believed that children might imitate Homer. "Congrats, Simpsons, you just pissed off those who choose to live sober, by pandering to stupid college kids and idiot high schoolers who may be your only remaining fans", Boss wrote.

Since its broadcast, "Weekend at Burnsie's" garnered little to no scrutiny from viewers. Vitti has never gotten any questions about the episode, except from his sister-in-law who wanted him to explain the episode for his nephews. "[...] My sister-in-law called me up saying that I needed to talk to my nephews about how this was wrong that Homer did", Vitti said. "They watched it and had lots of questions for her. And she referred them all to me. So there are some people who are still bothered by it." The little amount of scrutiny that the episode attracted took The Simpsons' staff by surprise, as they anticipated that the episode would generate a lot of controversy. Instead, "Blame It on Lisa", an episode which aired the previous week, caused an uproar in Brazil because of its depiction of the country. It became one of the biggest controversies the series has ever faced. "It just goes to show that you never know what's going to be a problem", Jean said in the DVD commentary for "Weekend at Burnsie's".