Oh Brother Where Art Thou Arguing About the Rain

15th episode of the second flavor of The Simpsons

"Oh Brother, Where Art K?"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Flavour 2 Episode fifteen
Directed by	W.M. "Bud" Archer
Written by	Jeff Martin
Production code	7F16
Original air date	Feb 21, 1991 (1991-02-21)
Guest appearance
Danny DeVito equally Herb Powell
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"I volition non sell land in Florida"
Couch gag	The family sits on the couch and Maggie, hidden in Marge'south alpine pilus, peeks out her caput.
Commentary	Matt Groening Jeff Martin Al Jean Mike Reiss
Episode chronology
←Previous "Principal Charming" Next → "Bart's Dog Gets an 'F'"
The Simpsons (season 2)
Listing of episodes

"Oh Brother, Where Art G?" is the fifteenth episode in the second season of the American animated idiot box serial The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Play tricks network in the U.s.a. on February 21, 1991. In the episode, Grampa confesses that Homer has a half-blood brother named Herbert Powell, a car manufacturer. Herb permits Homer to design his company's new motorcar, which is an overpriced monstrosity that bankrupts him.

The episode was written past Jeff Martin and directed by Wes Archer. American role player Danny DeVito provided the voice of Herb. The episode features cultural references to cars such equally the Edsel, the Tucker Torpedo, the Ford Mustang, and the Lamborghini Cheetah.

Since airing, the episode has received more often than not positive reviews from idiot box critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 15.4, and was the highest-rated testify on Trick the week it aired. Some fans were upset with the sad ending of the episode, then the producers decided to write a sequel, "Brother, Tin can You Spare Two Dimes?", in which Herb regains his fortune and forgives Homer.

Plot [edit]

After watching the latest McBain picture, Grampa suffers a balmy heart attack while arguing with a cinema clerk. Thinking he might die, he confesses a long-hidden hush-hush: Homer has a one-half-brother. Before Grampa married Homer'southward mother, he and a carnival prostitute had a son whom they left at the Shelbyville Orphanage. Determined to observe his brother, Homer visits the orphanage and learns that Grampa's love kid, named Herbert, was adopted by a Mr. and Mrs. Powell.

Herbert "Herb" Powell — who looks similar Homer except he is taller, slimmer and has more pilus — owns Powell Motors, a Detroit automobile manufacturer. Herb is charmed to learn Homer is his half-brother and invites the Simpsons to stay at his mansion. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are enthralled by Herb's wealthy lifestyle and kind personality, but Marge worries wealth will spoil her children. Later on Herb decides that Homer, an average American, is the perfect person to design his company'due south new car, he gives him costless rein to design it. When Herb's design team ignores Homer's outlandish suggestions, Herb encourages Homer to take command of the project and incorporate his own ideas in the last pattern.

When the new auto is unveiled with great fanfare, Herb is horrified to observe information technology is a badly designed monstrosity that costs US$82,000 (approximately US$171,000 in 2022), forcing Powell Motors into bankruptcy. The bank forecloses on Herb's mansion and he loses everything he worked for. As Herb leaves Detroit on a bus, he angrily disowns Homer as a blood brother. Grampa arrives and scolds Homer for ruining Herb's life. While Homer drives the family home, Bart tells him his car is keen. Homer is relieved to larn at least one person likes it.

Production [edit]

"Oh Blood brother, Where Art Yard?" was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Wes Archer. Both Homer'due south mother and Herb Powell make their commencement appearances on The Simpsons in the episode. Some fans were upset with the deplorable catastrophe of the episode, and every bit a result the producers decided to write a sequel in which Herb would be given a kinder fate. The resulting episode, "Blood brother, Can You Spare Ii Dimes?", aired at the finish of the third season.^[ane] In that episode, Herb briefly settled in the Simpson household, despite his intense continuing contempt toward Homer. Homer loaned Herb United states$2000, which Herb used to build an invention that translated infantile spoken language into comprehensible English, based on observations he made of Maggie. He proceeded to mass-produce his new production and regained his fortune. He and then bought each member of the family gifts and paid Homer back with a vibrating chair, forth with his forgiveness.^[2]

The episode was recorded on August 13, 1990. The voice of Herb was provided past guest star Danny DeVito, an American actor who was suggested for the role by Simpsons executive producer Sam Simon.^[three] Bart's vox actor, Nancy Cartwright, writes in her autobiography My Life as a 10-Twelvemonth-Old Boy that DeVito had to record his lines quickly considering he had another appointment, so the staff focused on recording only his scenes instead of the whole episode at in one case. Cartwright was a fan of DeVito's and recalls: "This morning, at the table read, I had simply filled my plate with assorted fruits when Bonnie said to my backside, 'Nancy, I want to introduce you lot to...' and I turned and practically knocked over Danny DeVito, all four feet, xi inches of him. How embarrassing!"^[4] While recording the scenes, Cartwright stood straight across the room from DeVito, which she appreciated since she got to see him in activity. She idea DeVito "threw his torso and soul" into his functioning. While the recording took part, blitheness director Archer scribbled down some of DeVito'south attitudes, gestures, and facial expressions on a piece of paper as he performed.^[4] In one scene of the episode, Herb tells Homer and the residuum of the Simpson family unit to "[make] yourselves at home. Nosotros have a tennis court, a pond puddle, a screening room..." Cartwright said of it:

This was obviously written with Danny in mind as I have no doubt that he actually has the aforementioned amenities in real life. He has earned his right to stand tall, and it wouldn't have shocked me to see him spew mental attitude all over u.s. if he wanted to. But he's a hard worker and he full-bodied on the job [...] Every bit the episode came to its climax, we discovered that all the material things in the world don't hateful as much to Herb equally being with family. Somehow I just get the feeling that this part was tailor-made with Danny, the family man, in listen.

Cultural references [edit]

The failure of the Tucker 48 car is referenced in the episode.

The storyline of a controversially styled car causing the company to fail echoes that of the Edsel, the Tucker 48, and the afterward DeLorean. The Edsel was a controversially styled machine named after Henry Ford's son, Edsel, which is now considered ane of the biggest car flops in history, while production of the Tucker Torpedo, which introduced many new features, was shut downward amid scandal and accusations of stock fraud in 1949.^[iii] Homer wants the horns of the car he is designing to play the traditional Spanish folk corrido "La Cucaracha".^[5] The Pope is in the audition for the unveiling of Homer'south new automobile.^[5] Herb berates his staff for suggesting that the company name a new motorcar "Persephone" after the Greek goddess of fertility in Greek mythology, telling them "People don't want cars named after hungry old Greek broads! They want names like 'Mustang' and 'Cheetah', vicious animal names," referencing the Ford Mustang and Lamborghini Cheetah cars.^[6]

The title of the episode is a reference to the proper noun of the fictional book "O Blood brother, Where Art K?" in the 1941 film Sullivan'southward Travels.^[7] Herb lives in a firm that looks like American architect Frank Lloyd Wright'south firm in Oak Park, Illinois, works in a studio that looks like the Taliesin school of compages in Spring Dark-green, Wisconsin, and his factory resembles the Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, all 3 buildings designed by Wright.^[7]

Reception [edit]

In its original broadcast, "Oh Brother, Where Art One thousand?" finished xx-sixth in the ratings for the week of February 18–24, 1991. With a Nielsen rating of 15.4, equivalent to approximately 14.one 1000000 viewing households, it was the highest-rated show on Play a joke on that week.^[8]

Since ambulation, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from tv set critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It'south a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote that although it is "inevitable" that Homer's car volition be a disaster, the "joy of this episode is anticipating exactly what sort of disaster".^[9]

A member of the IGN staff wrote in a season ii review that "Oh Brother, Where Fine art Thousand?" is ane of the "real winners to be constitute in the second flavor".^[x] Dawn Taylor of The DVD Journal thought the nearly memorable line of the episode was Homer's idea of the perfect car, "You know that fiddling ball yous put on the aeriform so you tin find your car in a parking lot? That should be on every car! And some things are so snazzy they never exit of manner — like tail fins! And bubble domes! And shag carpeting!"^[11]

DVD Picture Guide's Colin Jacobson called the episode a solid episode and said that the introduction of Homer'southward brother "could take been gimmicky, particularly with a big-name invitee star similar DeVito, but the concept fared nicely".^[12] Jacobson added that he thought DeVito "brought spark to his part and made Herb fun and lively. The parts in which Homer developed his car were also hilarious and offered some of the testify's best $.25. The plan even showed some great little moments, like the hallmark Simpson v o'clock shadow on infant Herb."^[12]

Jeremy Kleinman of DVD Talk said the episode "features another cracking guest voice, this time by Danny DeVito as the voice of Homer'due south long lost brother Herb, who reenters Homer'southward life and solicits his 'mutual man' prospective in building a car. Over again, Homer'south sentimentality comes through."^[13] Total Flick'due south Nathan Ditum ranked DeVito's performance as the 10th all-time guest appearance in the prove'due south history.^[xiv]

On June 29, 2013, Porcubimmer Motors debuted a real-life version of "The Homer," the car that was designed by Homer in this episode, at the 24 Hours of LeMons race in Buttonwillow, California.^[15]

References [edit]

1. ^ Groening, Matt (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
2. ^ Swartzwelder, John; Moore, Rich (1992-08-27). "Brother, Can Yous Spare Two Dimes?". The Simpsons. Season three. Episode 59. Fox.
3. ^ ^{a b} Reiss, Mike (2002). The Simpsons season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Oh Blood brother, Where Art Thou?" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Cartwright, Nancy (2000). "Oh, Danny Male child...". My Life as a x-Year-Quondam Boy. New York City: Hyperion Books. pp. xc–93. ISBN0-7868-8600-five.
5. ^ ^{a b} Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. fifty. ISBN978-0-06-095252-five. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M. .
6. ^ Lienert, Dan (2004-07-12). "The All-time, Worst & Weirdest Automobile Names". Forbes . Retrieved 2022-01-fifteen .
7. ^ ^{a b} Jean, Al (2002). The Simpsons flavour 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Oh Brother, Where Art Thousand?" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
8. ^ "What we watch, what we don't...". Austin American-Statesman. March 3, 1991. p. xv.
9. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Oh Brother, Where Fine art Thou?". BBC. Retrieved 2009-04-12 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-condition (link)
10. ^ "The Simpsons - The Consummate Second Season Review". IGN. July 22, 2002. Retrieved 2009-04-07 .
11. ^ Taylor, Dawn (2002). "The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season". The DVD Journal. Retrieved 2009-03-23 .
12. ^ ^{a b} Jacobson, Colin. "The Simpsons: The Complete Second Flavour". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2009-03-23 .
13. ^ Kleinman, Jeremy (August 1, 2002). "The Simpsons - The Complete Second Flavour". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2009-03-23 .
14. ^ Ditum, Nathan (March 29, 2009). "The 20 Best Simpsons Picture show-Star Guest Spots". Total Flick . Retrieved 2009-08-02 .
15. ^ "The Homer - a 24 Hours of LeMons race machine". 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-29 .

External links [edit]

• "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? episode capsule". The Simpsons Annal.
• "Oh Brother, Where Art One thousand?" at IMDb

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F

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