Homer's Triple Bypass

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The Simpsons episode
"Homer's Triple Bypass"
Homer praying before the operation
Episode no. 70
Prod. code 9F09
Orig. airdate December 17, 1992
Show runner(s) Al Jean & Mike Reiss
Written by Gary Apple
Michael Carrington
Directed by David Silverman
Chalkboard "Coffee is not for kids."
Couch gag A very small Simpsons family sits on a giant couch.
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Michael Carrington
David Silverman
Season 4
September 24, 1992 – May 13, 1993
  1. "Kamp Krusty"
  2. "A Streetcar Named Marge"
  3. "Homer the Heretic"
  4. "Lisa the Beauty Queen"
  5. "Treehouse of Horror III"
  6. "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"
  7. "Marge Gets a Job"
  8. "New Kid on the Block"
  9. "Mr. Plow"
  10. "Lisa's First Word"
  11. "Homer's Triple Bypass"
  12. "Marge vs. the Monorail"
  13. "Selma's Choice"
  14. "Brother from the Same Planet"
  15. "I Love Lisa"
  16. "Duffless"
  17. "Last Exit to Springfield"
  18. "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
  19. "The Front"
  20. "Whacking Day"
  21. "Marge in Chains"
  22. "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

"Homer's Triple Bypass" is episode eleven from The Simpsons' fourth season, and it originally aired on December 17, 1992.[1] The plot shows Homer Simpson as he suffers a heart attack while being shouted at by his boss at work. Dr. Hibbert tells Homer that he needs a triple bypass, but the family resorts to a discount surgeon after learning how expensive the operation would cost in a regular hospital. The episode was written by Gary Apple and Michael Carrington and directed by David Silverman.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

After being warned by Marge about his unhealthy eating, Homer feels chest pains, which return the next morning. Marge offers him an oatmeal breakfast but he opts for eggs and bacon instead, then drives to work. On the drive, his chest pain worsens, but he believes the irregular thumping to be the car transmission. He stops at a garage, where he is relieved when a mechanic tells him that it is probably his heart. At work, Mr. Burns reprimands Homer for his poor performance and threatens him with dismissal. Homer has a heart attack, but regains consciousness after Burns tells Smithers to send a ham to Marge.

Homer is sent to hospital, where Marge visits him after cutting coupons with Patty and Selma. Dr. Hibbert informs Homer that he needs a triple bypass, which will cost him $30,000 (the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant does not provide health insurance). Upon hearing this, Homer has another heart attack, which increases the price to $40,000. A third heart attack follows after Homer is denied health insurance because of his poor health. Unable to afford surgery at the hospital, Marge and Homer ask Dr. Nick if he can perform the operation, and he offers to do it for $129.95. Despite Dr. Nick's incompetence, Homer agrees to him performing the operation.

Just before surgery, Dr. Nick, unfamiliar with the procedure, rents an instructional video, but the important steps of the procedure have been taped over with "People Who Look Like Things". During the operation, Dr. Nick realizes that he does not know what to do. Lisa, who is watching the operation in the amphitheater, uses her knowledge of cardiology to guide Dr. Nick. The surgery is successful, and Homer makes a full recovery.

[edit] Production

Homer having a heart attack in Mr. Burns' office while an animated view of his heart is shown in an inset box.
Homer having a heart attack in Mr. Burns' office while an animated view of his heart is shown in an inset box.

"Homer's Triple Bypass" is the only Simpsons episode to be written by Gary Apple and Michael Carrington. They were brought in as free-lance writers because none of the regular writers wanted to do the episode. Neither Apple or Carrington would receive another Simpsons writing credit, although Carrington would do voice work for the episode "I Love Lisa".[3] The idea for the episode came from James L. Brooks, who wanted an episode in which Homer has a heart attack. The writers were nervous about this because they felt it could come across as too serious.[4] They decided to have a scene where Lisa and Bart visit Homer before his surgery and were unsure of how to do it, so they approached Brooks. Brooks made up the entire scene on the spot.[5] Originally, the surgery was supposed to be performed by Dr. Hibbert, but it was later changed to Dr. Nick.[3] In the original airing of the episode, Dr. Nick's phone number, 1-600-DOCTORB, was the number of a real legal clinic, whose lawyers made them change it for subsequent airings.[3]

The episode's production staff decided that David Silverman would be able to make the episode funny, so he was selected to direct it.[4] He went "all out" and did his best to make Homer's grimaces as humorous as possible, so that the episode wasn't entirely serious. Silverman added some special touches: for example, when Homer has an out of body experience, his foot was still touching his body to signify that he wasn't dead. Mike Reiss' father, who is a doctor, acted as a medical consultant for the episode.[6]

The episode was to have concluded with Homer eating a pizza in his hospital bed following the operation, and with Marge asking a nurse where the pizza had come from. This reflects the earlier flashback scene where Grampa Simpson watches Homer as an infant, chewing on a slice of pizza in the hospital. The scene was replaced with the family cheering Homer on while he is in intensive care.[5]

[edit] Cultural references

The opening sequence of the episode is a parody of American television show COPS; it was inserted to lengthen the episode and was not in the original animatic.[6] When Homer is performing a sock-puppet show to Lisa and Bart, he uses "Akbar" and "Jeff", both of whom are characters from Matt Groening's weekly comic strip Life in Hell.[2][4] Homer follows behind the house that was the birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe, which was placed in the episode by David Silverman.[6] The scene where Homer sings in a church as a boy is based on the film Empire of the Sun.[5]

[edit] Reception

Krusty's line "this ain't make-up" is one of Matt Groening's favorite lines from the show.[7] The episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 14.2.[8] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, authors of I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, called it "a cautionary tale that gives Dr Nick his biggest chance to shine." They also praised the "cloud goes up, cloud goes down" line.[2] IGN noted that "The Simpsons episode, "Homer's Triple Bipass" [sic], introduced fans to one of the show's more endearing background players, Dr. Nick."[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Homer's Triple Bypass". The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  2. ^ a b c Homer's Triple Bypass. BBC. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  3. ^ a b c Carrington, Michael. (2004). The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season Commentary for the Episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ a b c Jean, Al. (2004). The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season Commentary for the Episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b c Reiss, Mike. (2004). The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season Commentary for the Episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ a b c Silverman, David. (2004). The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season Commentary for the Episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ Groening, Matt. (2004). The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season Commentary for the Episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ "How They Rate", St. Petersburg Times, December 25, 1992. Retrieved on 2008-03-07. 
  9. ^ Pirrello, Phil (30 November 2007). OCD: The Simpsons' Mr. McGreg. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.

[edit] External links

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