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$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)", also known as "$pringfield", is the tenth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season.
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The economy of Springfield is in decline, and Mayor Quimby listens to suggestions from citizens on how to improve the economy. Principal Skinner suggests that legalized gambling has helped rejuvenate run-down economies, and that it can work for Springfield as well. Everybody likes the idea; even Marge agrees to it. Mr. Burns and Mayor Quimby work together to build a casino, but Burns objects to several prototypes until he develops his own design: "Mr. Burns's Casino", with "sex appeal and a catchy name".
The casino opens, and Homer gets a job as a blackjack dealer. Also visiting the casino are Marge and Bart. Bart wins a jackpot, but is kicked out, as minors are not allowed in American casinos, unless accompanied by a responsible adult. He starts his own casino for his friends to play in his treehouse, featuring Milhouse and Jimbo as entertainers. While Marge waits for Homer's shift to end at Mr. Burns's casino, she finds a quarter on the floor and uses it to play a slot machine. She wins and almost immediately becomes addicted to gambling. Meanwhile, while Burns's casino is a success, he becomes even more reclusive and eccentric, developing a profound fear of microscopic germs. He grows a long beard, long fingernails and toenails and wears pyjamas all the time.
Due to her addiction, Marge spends every waking moment at the casino and neglects the family. When Lisa wakes from a bad dream of the boogeyman, a gun-toting Homer hides himself and the children behind a mattress in terror, shooting from his cover at anything he thinks might be the boogeyman. When Marge finally returns home and sees what has happened, she promises to spend more time with her family instead of gambling. The next day, Bart intercepts Robert Goulet to perform at his casino, when he was hired to perform at Mr. Burns's casino; Goulet is a hit (singing the children's favorite "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells"), despite accidentally smacking Milhouse with his microphone. Marge forgets to keep her promise, and does not help Lisa make a costume for her geography pageant, so Homer makes a primitive costume of "Floreda" for her (which is not just misspelled, it is also shaped like California). Lisa, along with Ralph Wiggum, who dressed up as Idaho using nothing but a sheet of looseleaf paper that says "Idaho" taped to his shirt, both receive special awards for being "children who obviously had no help from their parents".
Back at Burns's casino, Mr. Burns has mentally degenerated into Howard Hughes' later years, wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet and designing a plane called the "Spruce Moose" (a pun on Hughes' "Spruce Goose" aircraft). Smithers admires what appears to be a scale model of the plane, but Burns insists that it is the full-sized version. Homer bursts into the casino, and barges around searching for Marge. The security cameras capture Homer's rampage, and when Burns sees him he orders him fired. Smithers promises to send Homer back to the power plant. Realizing how much he misses the plant, Burns decides to return and orders Smithers to prepare a shave and get rid of the Kleenex boxes, although he decides to hang on to the jars of urine he has been preserving. Deciding to fly back to the plant, he orders Smithers to board the model plane...at gunpoint.
With abject begging and earnest attempts at support and understanding, Homer persuades Marge to admit that she has a gambling problem. She finally realizes the neglect the family has been suffering and returns home, ashamed of herself. She considers therapy but Homer objects: "No, that's too expensive, just don't do it anymore."
This episode features the first appearance of the Rich Texan.
- A deleted scene shows Homer Simpson dealing cards to James Bond (this deleted scene can be seen on the season seven episode The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular).
- Mr. Burns's paranoid obsession with germs and cleanliness, and his refusal to leave his bedroom once the casino opens, is a parody on the 20th century American magnate Howard Hughes. The latter had obsessive-compulsive disorder, and was involved in the casino business in his later years. The wooden plane he makes is a parody of Hughes' plane the Hughes Hercules (also known as the Spruce Goose - Burns replaces Goose with moose)
- As a blackjack dealer Homer is impressed by the card-counting abilities of a man who resembles the autistic Raymond Babbitt from Rain Man and pressures him to do it again, but "Raymond" refuses. After Homer grabs him, he starts screaming and hitting his head, much like in the movie, which Homer also does.
- The title is a spoof of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, while the replacement of the "s" in Springfield with a dollar sign references the 1970s TV show Vega$.
- Homer tripping over the ottoman is a reference to the opening sequence of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
- Homer, wearing Henry Kissinger's spectacles, parodies the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Scarecrow demonstrates his newly acquired intelligence by reciting the law that governs the lengths of the sides of an isosceles triangle. Unlike in the film, somebody correctly points out that the Pythagorean theorem recited applies to right angle trianges, not isosceles triangles.
- The clip featuring Henry Kissinger was used in the documentary The Trials of Henry Kissinger.
