The Mansion Family
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"The Mansion Family" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons' eleventh season. The episode aired on January 23, 2000.
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Plot
At the annual Springfield Pride Awards, which are hosted by Kent Brockman and Britney Spears, awards are given to prominent Springfield citizens for their achievements. Later on, they present the award for the oldest man in Springfield to Cornelius Chapman, a venerable 108-year-old man who built the first log cabin in Springfield and introduced the toothbrush to its citizens (he also took a bullet for Huey Long, but was a little late as he prevented the fifth bullet from hitting Huey, the other four killed him). He comes up to accept his award, but when Britney Spears kisses him, he dies. Brockman tells Britney that they should have expected this and they ask for the next oldest man to stand up, its Mr. Burns. Afterwards, he realizes he is not a young man anymore, and he and Smithers go to the Mayo Clinic. They give the Simpsons an opportunity to live in Mr. Burns' private mansion. The family have fun at Mr. Burns' mansion while Mr. Burns is being tested to see what diseases he has.
Later, Homer wants some beers, so he heads to Moe's. However, Moe informs Homer that he can not sell him alcohol on account of it being Sunday before 2PM. But Moe also informs Homer that he could sail out to international waters (Homer thinks this is a theme park at first), where there are no laws which means it would be legal to sell alcohol. They set sail in Burns's private yacht, with Homer bringing Moe, Lenny, Carl and a posse of others (including Bart) to get to international waters where they can do whatever they want. Back at the Mayo Clinic, Mr. Burns discovers that he not only has all existing diseases (including juvenile diabetes, pnuemonia and a little bit of hysterical pregnancy), but also some new ones the doctors have appeared to have just discovered in him. Meanwhile, Homer's boat is confronted by a ship full of Chinese pirates who take Homer's ship hostage as they head for Hong Kong, which they call "hidden pirate island". They are almost killed until they are saved by a floating net. The family leaves after Marge and Lisa clean Burns' house, managing to scrub "that old man smell" out of 147 rooms. Back at home, Homer is sickened that he doesn't actually live the lifestyle of rich people, and proceeds to rant about how rich the people in the episode's end credits are.
Trivia
- One of the paintings seen as Bart runs down a hallway of Mr. Burns' mansion is the portrait Marge painted of Mr. Burns in the second season episode Brush with Greatness.
- The female doctor at the Mayo Clinic was seen previously as one of the Pharm Team researchers in Brother's Little Helper.
Cultural references
- This episode's name is a play on the Manson Family, the cult lead by Charles Manson who were responsible for the murder of Sharon Tate and others.
- Mr. Burns' disposable, self-replacing bed is a reference to the 1997 film The Fifth Element.
- The monkey named Furious George is an obvious parody of Curious George.
- Mr. Burns is revealed to own every book in the Nancy Drew series, including a "controversial" entry titled Clue in the Clock. (This title was invented by the Simpsons writers, though is probably an oblique reference to the first book of the long-running series, The Secret of the Old Clock.) Upon looking through the book, Lisa comments, "So many swears."
Censorship
- The part during the Gracie Films logo when Homer says "Don't shush me you rich bastard!" is edited to "Don't shush me." in repeats of this episode. In syndication, the "Don't shush me" line is completely cut out.