There's No Disgrace Like Home
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "There's No Disgrace Like Home" | |
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|---|---|
| Promotional artwork for "There's No Disgrace Like Home". | |
| Episode no. | 4 |
| Prod. code | 7G04 |
| Orig. Airdate | January 28, 1990 |
| Show Runner(s) | James L. Brooks Matt Groening Sam Simon |
| Writer(s) | Al Jean & Mike Reiss |
| Director(s) | Gregg Vanzo Kent Buttersworth |
| Chalkboard | "I will not burp in class" |
| Couch gag | The family hurries on to the couch and Homer is squeezed off it. |
| DVD commentary by | Matt Groening Al Jean Mike Reiss |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 1 December 17, 1989 – May 13, 1990 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"There's No Disgrace Like Home" is the fourth full length episode of The Simpsons. The episode deals with Simpsons family relations, anger, and comparisons to other families.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Homer takes his family to the company picnic given by his boss Mr. Burns. A cruel and tyrannical employer, Burns fires any employee whose family members are not enjoying themselves. Homer sees that Burns is drawn towards a family that treats one another with love and respect and he wonders why he is cursed with his unloving and disrespectful family.
The Simpsons observe other families on their street. Peeking through living room windows, they see happy families sharing quality time together. Convinced that both he and his family are losers, Homer stops by Moe's Tavern, where he sees a TV commercial for Dr. Marvin Monroe's Family Therapy Center. When he hears that Dr. Monroe guarantees family bliss or "double your money back," Homer pawns the TV set and enrolls the family in the clinic.
When standard methods prove useless in civilizing the family, Dr. Monroe resorts to shock therapy and wires the Simpsons to electrodes. Soon the whole family is sending shocks to one another. This causes brownouts throughout the city, and Mr. Burns is happy. Resigned to the fact that the Simpsons are incurable, the doctor reluctantly gives them double their money back. With $500 in his pocket, Homer takes his blissful family to buy a new television.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode marks the first appearance of:
- Dr. Marvin Monroe
- Itchy and Scratchy
- Eddie and Lou
- Burns' "release the hounds" comment
- First Time Homer Mentions His Mother
- Lou is not African-American in this episode, though he is later.
- This episode was the first to be broadcast by the BBC, on BBC One on 23 November 1996, making it the first episode to be seen by UK terrestrial viewers (the satellite channel Sky One had shown the program since 1990). Moving to BBC Two from 10 March 1997, it continued on the BBC until terrestrial rights moved to Channel 4 in 2004.
- This was the first episode seen in Australia on Channel Ten on February 3, 1991 .[citation needed]
- This episode is usually shown as the first episode of Season 1 on German television as "Eine ganz normale Familie" (An ordinary family) and was the first to be aired on Premiere in 1991 and later that year on ZDF. The German DVD release of season 1 puts it into the US order of episodes. It was most likely chosen as episode 1 because it introduces a lot of characters and explains how the Simpsons work as a family. The Tracy Ullman sketches had not been seen in Germany.
- Red, purple, green, blue: The colors of Jell-o molds Marge makes for the picnic.
- A sign outside Burns manor reads, "Poachers will be shot."
- The hypnotic show The Happy Little Elves supervises the children in the nursery at the company picnic.
- Smithers wears his plant I.D. even at the picnic.
- Marge gets drunk on punch that has "a little al-key-hol in it."
- This is the first episode that Bart says his catch phrase "Don't have a cow."
- This is the first episode that the Simpsons have been shot at.
- The police dog's name is Bobo, which would later be used of the name for Mr. Burns' teddy bear in "Rosebud". When Homer is saying that they have to get $250 for the therapy, a teddybear that looks exactly like Bobo can be seen on a lower shelf near the stereo.
- The phone number for Dr. Monroe's center is 1-800-555-HUGS.
- Bart and Lisa's college fund amounts to $88.50, and Homer gets $150 for pawning his television, which means he had to find $11.50 in his wallet to afford the family therapy.
- Their TV is a Motorola (note that Motorola hadn't made televisions since 1974), and the pawn clerk knows Homer's name when he enters.
- Dr. Monroe keeps his aggression therapy mallets in a gun cabinet.
- This episode appears in both Die Hard 2 and the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Glen Campbell". In the latter, Space Ghost and Zorak are watching the episode at the very beginning, and Space Ghost comments, "Er, which one's Homer again? The baby?"
- At Marvin Monroe's therapy center, the family that Homer idolized at the picnic sits in the reception area.
- The family that Marvin Monroe cures are a younger version of The Simpsons.
- Marge's drawing of Homer is quite crude, in later seasons it would be established she is actually an accomplished artist.
- The exact title of this episode can be found to vary slightly in different sources. One of the most common variations is There's No Place Like Homer.
- This episode very much sums up the differences in character in the first season, with Marge being the one showing the family up, and Homer being ashamed by his family and striving to do better. Most surprising of all is Homer selling the television set - something the more recognised Homer of later seasons would never do.
- While watching the boxing-match at Moe's, Homer says that his mother said to him: "Homer, you're a big disappointment". Given what we know from later episodes, it is more likely that Homer's father would say something like that.
- This is the first time we see Marge drunk at the picnic.
[edit] Cultural references
- Freaks, the Tod Browning cult horror film about sideshow "freaks," in its repetition of the line "one of us".
- Citizen Kane in its low angle hillside shot of Burns' mansion.
- Batman in its reference to the "stately Burns Manor".
- The episode title is a play on the saying "There's no place like home" (a quote from The Wizard of Oz).
- Itchy & Scratchy, who made their first appearances together in this episode, are parodies of Tom and Jerry.
[edit] External links
