“Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk” is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons’ third season. The episode aired on December 5, 1991. In this episode, Mr. Burns, who is depressed because he wishes to pursue various interests, decides to sell the power plant to two German investors for 100 million dollars. Homer's incompetence immediately gets him fired by the Germans. Meanwhile, Mr. Burns has lost all his respectability because he can no longer control anyone. As a result, he decides to buy back the plant. Because the power plant has been so costly to maintain, the Germans decide to sell the power plant back to Burns for 50 million dollars. Determined to keep his enemies close at hand, Burns rehires Homer, and all is back to normal.

"Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" was written by Jon Vitti, while it was directed by Mark Kirkland. The title is an inaccurate German translation of "Burns sells the power plant", the correct version being Burns verkauft das Kraftwerk. The episode features several references to Kennedy's "ich bin ein Berliner" speech, The Godfather, Part II, and the photograph with Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley. The episode received praise for several scenes, especially a scene in which Homer dances in an imaginary "Land of Chocolate", which is later used for "The Simpsons Game" as a tutorial.

Plot

Homer learns he owns stock in the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and sells his 100 shares for 25 cents apiece to a shady stock broker, netting $25, which he spends on beer. Soon after the sale he learns that the value of the stock has shot up to $52 per share. While Homer misses out on the windfall—he could have made $5,200—other employees make small fortunes.

The reason for the stock’s inflated value is because a depressed Mr. Burns wants to sell the plant to pursue other interests. The sale is completed at a value of $100 million to two German businessmen, Hans and Fritz, who have been hanging out in Moe’s looking for just such an opportunity (provided the purchase leaves them with enough change to buy the Cleveland Browns). They immediately begin a thorough evaluation of the plant and its employees. When they interview Homer, he is unable to intelligently answer their questions and begins slipping into a now-infamous fantasy about cavorting through “The Land of Chocolate.” It isn’t long before Homer gets laid off.

A depressed Homer mopes around the house, insisting he is a competent safety-minded worker while the rest of the family makes budget cuts until Homer can find a new job. Meanwhile, Burns is having a good time in retirement and decides to go to Moe’s Tavern to have a drink. There, Homer and the other bar patrons, along with Bart (who Marge sent to pick up Homer) mock scornfully at Burns for being greedy and not caring about others. Moe, Homer, Bart, Barney Gumble, and other bar patrons sing Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye to try to mock Mr. Burns. Burns gets so discouraged that he walks out of Moe's with Smithers. Burns realizes that only his ownership of a nuclear plant gave him power over ordinary men and is resolved to buy back the plant.

The German investors, who will make several more silent appearances in Springfield in the future, are more than willing to sell the plant back to Burns because as they say, it will cost another $100 million to bring the plant up to code. Burns, noting their desperation to sell, offers them $50 million for the plant and says that, “you will find it [his offer] most unfair.” Homer is re-hired, and Burns plots his revenge on him at some unspecified point in the future.

Production

The show runners for the episode were Al Jean and Mike Reiss. The episode was written by Jon Vitti, while it was directed by Mark Kirkland. The title of the episode "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" was incorrectly named, as the writer simply used a German-English dictionary to translate. In this episode, the producers decided to start stressing the relationship between Smithers and Burns. Originally, there was a two minute scene, but the writers cut it down considerably. Originally, the writers decided to have Burns sell the plant to the Japanese, but they decided that it would have been too cliché; the plot, however, remained the same with the Germans. Phil Hartman, the voice actor for Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, acted as the stoke broker. The unnamed news reporter, who first stated that the stocks were up for the power plant, was created after the animation. The sequence with the Frosty Chocolate Milkshakes in which Bart dreams what he would do with the money from the stocks is a reference to the Tracey Ullman Show, where Homer used to take the family out for Frosty Chocolate Milkshakes. The producers also noted the constant flux of the Simpsons's economic state; one moment Homer appears to have his wallet full of cash, and the next, they don't even have a saving account. The animators also included a character other than Lenny and Homer with a beardline, something the producers didn't like.

Originally, when the Simpsons were shorts on the Tracy Ullman Show, all the characters had beardlines; however, after the Simpsons became their own show, they decided to drop the beardline for the majority of the characters to make Homer unique. By coincidence, Phil Hartman happened to know a little bit of German, so he helped out with the conversations in German. Though the writers thought that Homer's line "Woe is me" was a bit awkward, they kept it because they thought it was funny. The Land of Chocolate was originally intended to be parody of "The Sound of Music", but the writers decided to make it more original. Also, there was supposed to be a sign that read, "Hershey Highway", but the censors objected. As a result, the writers replaced it with "Fudgetown". After Homer gets fired, Bart feeds his cat a mixture of 88% ash and 12% carrots. The gag came from a real-life experience when Jon Vitti tried to feed his cat a mixture of carrots and ash; however, the cat simply ate and regurgitated it. The writers had a tough time coming out with Bart's prank call to Moe's Tavern and Moe's reply, in which they couldn't include any foul language. The writer also wanted to include a longer portion of Burn's sworn vengeance, but had to trim it in the end.

Cultural references

The music during Homer's daydreaming came from the movie "Tucker". In addition, the music that plays for The Itchy and Scratchy episode is Morning Mood from Peer Gynt. The photograph of Burns with Elvis Presley is a reference to a similar photograph with Elvis and Richard Nixon. In addition, when Burns calls Smithers to give him the photograph, he references Alexander Graham Bell's first words across the telephone, "Come here, I want you". In addition, Mr. Burns quotes John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, Barefoot Boy (With Cheek of Tan). The German supervisor, Horst, mentions he looks like Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes. The animators and writers based the German supervisors off Schultz, including the grey suit. Mr. Burns says “I keep my friends close, but my enemies even closer,” a reference to a quote in The Godfather, Part II. Also, Mayor Quimby quote "ich bin ein Springfielder" is a reference to Kennedy's "ich bin ein Berliner" speech. Unable to sleep, Homer sits up at the kitchen table to put together a Battlestar Galactica jigsaw puzzle that appears to depict Colonial Vipers engaging a number of Cylon Raiders.

Reception

The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood praised the episode, most notably "Homer in the land of chocolate and Smithers counselling Mr Burns with the aid of his sock-puppet friend, Mr Snappy the Alligator" Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict lauded the episode as "just plain funny", giving the episode a score of 95 out of a possible 100. He stated that the scenes "Homer wander[ing] around his imaginary world of chocolate" and "Lenny locked up in Mr. Burns' tomblike office" highlighted the episode, "strik[ing] all the proper chords of wackiness that The Simpsons is known for". However, he stated the best part of the episode, "the manner in which Homer gets Burns re-interested in buying back the plant", was "plain brilliant writing". Writing for the Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities, Neal Justin rated the episode as the top seventh, commenting that the bit where "Homer dreams about prancing across a literal 'land of chocolate' [was] perhaps the most outrageous moment in 'Simpsons' history."

The episode has become study material for sociology courses at University of California Berkeley, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies." Some questions asked in the courses include: "What aspects of American society are being addressed in the episode? What aspects of them are used to make the points? How is the satire conveyed: through language? Drawing? Music? Is the behavior of each character consistent with his/her character as developed over the years? Can we identify elements of the historical/political context that the writers are satirizing? What is the difference between satire and parody?"

References

External links

• Episode Capsule on “Simpsons Archive”