Weekend at Burnsie's
Executive producer and current showrunner Al Jean found the idea "very funny" and gave former staff writer Jon Vitti the duty to write the episode's first draft.
Fox was initially very uneasy to pass the episode for broadcast, since they were concerned that it might encourage younger viewers to smoke marijuana.
Even though The Simpsons' staff slightly altered the episode by not actually showing Homer smoke his medicinal marijuana, the network was still worried that it might cause a controversy.
The episode also criticizes the use of genetically modified foods, and references Citizen Kane, Dragnet, The Birds, and Judy Garland, among other things.
After a bad experience with genetically modified food, Marge decides to grow her own vegetables in a newly created garden.
Homer begins to enjoy smoking marijuana, and gets an unexpected bonus when his giddy-stoned happy reactions to Mr. Burns's awful jokes earn him a promotion to Executive Vice President.
However, a petition circulated by Ned Flanders to ban medical use of marijuana, which Homer actually signs while in an altered state, is placed onto a ballot.
Burns asks Homer to help him with a speech for an emergency meeting at which the power plant's investors will vote to either give it a $60 million bailout or close it down for good.
For the meeting, Smithers and Homer attach wires to Burns' body and control him like a marionette; the awkward, jerky movements cause his heart to start beating again.
Executive producer and current showrunner Al Jean thought that the premise sounded "very funny" and assigned Vitti to write the episode's first draft.
Despite their concerns, Jean opined that the network gave the staff a "pretty good amount" of creative freedom with the episode.
"One thing I learned a long time ago is, you gotta be careful how you change [the characters'] basic model pack[s]", Jean said in the episode's DVD commentary.
[5] "Weekend at Burnsie's" features the members of the jam band Phish – Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman – as themselves.
[8] During their scene, Anastasio is shown playing a few bars of The Simpsons theme song on his guitar, which he often did during the band's concerts in the mid 1990s as part of a series of "secret language" signals they had taught their fans.
"[4] On May 17, 2002, Robert S. Stephens and Roger A. Roffman of The Seattle Times wrote an analysis of "Weekend at Burnsie's" in a guest column for the newspaper.
The two argued that drugs are almost always shown as having only negative effects, even though 10 million people in the United States use marijuana for recreational purposes.
[10] For example, when under the influence of marijuana, Homer is relieved from the pain in his eye, and he also finds himself having a variety of sensory experiences and an enhanced appreciation of music and food.
"These are real effects reported by many marijuana users, and we would be hard pressed to call them anything other than benefits", Stephens and Roffman wrote.
Eventually, Homer is shown having problems with memory and attention, losing track of the date on which a pro-marijuana rally takes place.
Stephens and Roffman wrote that the side effects shown in the episode are "Perhaps a bit exaggerated, but clearly there are costs of marijuana use similar to these that are experienced by real-life users.
[12] When asked about what stance the episode holds regarding the legislation of medicinal marijuana, Jean said that series' staff wanted to explore both sides of the issue, rather than making an absolute statement.
At the beginning of the episode, Marge announces that the family's dinner includes genetically modified vegetables, to which Lisa replies "American corporations should stop playing god with nature.
[3] The name of the episode is a reference to the 1989 comedy film Weekend at Bernie's, in which two young insurance executives try to convince people that their deceased boss is alive.
To Homer, the blood looks like psychedelic rainbows, and the song that plays during the scene is "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan.
The scene is a reference to "The Big High", an episode of the television crime drama Dragnet in which a married couple accidentally drown their baby while they are smoking marijuana.
[14] In its original American broadcast on April 7, 2002, "Weekend at Burnsie's" received a 6.8 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 7.2 million viewers.
[15] On August 24, 2010, "Weekend at Burnsie's" was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray set.
Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict praised the episode's premise, writing that it "brim[s] with potential" even though it is "fairly simple".
[21] Nate Boss of Project-Blu disliked the episode, calling it "terrible", "utterly preachy" and "too damn political for its own good."
"Congrats, Simpsons, you just pissed off those who choose to live sober, by pandering to stupid college kids and idiot high schoolers who may be your only remaining fans", Boss wrote.
