Mr. Plow – Reputation in the Public Eye from www.decipheringthesimpsons.com “It’s a pornography store. I was buying pornography.” – Homer Homer is not a man who cares about his reputation in the community. This is precisely why he is doomed to fail in his attempt to run a small business, one highly dependent on reputation. When one is in the public eye, their image is of utmost importance. This holds especially true in politics. “Mr. Plow” first aired on Dec, just one month after the presidential election when President Bush lost to Bill Clinton. It makes sense that in Homer’s dream, he would align himself with the loser of the election, President Bush, who is trying to sneak priceless works of art out of the white house. Homer’s help is needed to plow through the protestors who hold signs such as “Pay me not to work” and “Stop everything now.” Homer plows through the protesters and comes to the aid of the unpopular president. JFK, on the other hand, was one of the most popular presidents of his time, and he is associated in this episode with Barney, as the Plow King. When Kent Brockman reports that the Plow King is trapped on widow’s peak, he issues the newscast exactly as Walter Cronkite did when he reported JFK’s assassination. The newsroom behind Kent Brockman is in disarray, which is very unlike the Kent Brockman broadcasts, yet very much like when Cronkite had to report the news of JFK’s assassination. Brockman removes his glasses, just like Cronkite did, and looks away to hide his emotions. This subtle comparison between JFK and Barney shows how popular Barney had become by the end of the episode. This is especially remarkable considering that Barney is the last person one would expect to gain this status – earlier in the episode, Barney is seen handing out flyers on the street while wearing a diaper. Both Homer and Barney understand the need to be popular in the public eye, but only Barney accomplishes this. Similarly, all presidents want to be popular, but only few manage to do so. According to Homer, all of the presidents appear on the ten thousand dollar bill, and Jimmy Carter is passed out on the couch. This makes sense, considering that Jimmy Carter was one of the least popular presidents of Homer’s time. This third presidential reference is yet another example of the importance of popularity in the political arena. Another political reference in this episode is to the Iranian hostage situation. After their release, Moe wouldn’t give them a free beer because he felt that “they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” Moe must have confused his views of the Iranian hostages with his views on the Viet Nam War veterans, many of whom were shunned after their return because of the opinion that they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. The Iranian hostages were actually American diplomats who were taken hostage in the embassy building in Iran by radical terrorists. One of the most notorious political parties is the Third Reich, which of course was led by Adolph Hitler. At the car show, one of the car companies is Forth Reich motors, which apparently tests its vehicles by using real people rather than crash test dummies. This devaluing of human life is exactly what made the Third Reich so detestable. Also at the car show is Kumatsu motors, which is not only a reference to the growing reputation of Japanese automobiles, but also a reference to the episode, “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?” in which Homer discovers his long lost brother, Hank Powell. Powell Motors goes out of business after creating the worst car of all time (with Homer’s help), and its factory is bought by Kumatsu motors. Ironically enough, Homer ends up buying a Kumatsu plow. When Homer first goes into the plowing business, he knows that marketing is important in building a reputation in the public sphere. Homer gets his name out there with flyers, a jacket, and advertising on channel 92. For this ad, Homer creates a catchy jingle, “Call Mr. Plow, that’s the name, that name again is Mr. Plow.” However, it’s worth noting that he plagiarized the jingle from Roto-rooter: “call Roto-rooter, that’s the name, and away goes trouble down the drain.” Homer points out, “It may be on a lousy channel, but the Simpsons are on television,” which refers not only to the Mr. Plow commercial appearing on channel 92, but also to the show The Simpsons appearing on the Fox network, which had a sleazy reputation in 1992. The Fox network is criticized again in this episode when the Plow King is discovered trapped on Widow’s peak by a crew producing a Bigfoot show for Fox. In the footage, a man in a Bigfoot costume is walking through the forest, but the producers of the show stop him because his wristwatch is visible in the shot. Fox was known for its airing of such shows, and its poor reputation hasn’t improved much over the years, but it has gained more of audience through shows such as “Married with Children,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “The X-Files,” and, of course, The Simpsons. Despite Homer’s poor sense of marketing, he still finds work after it snows. He clears the Kwik-E-Mark, the retirement home, and the school, but in each of these cases, he does more harm than he does good. Still, Mayor Quimby awards Homer with the key to Springfield. Homer becomes a celebrity, one whose image Marge finds attractive. But Mr. Plow’s success is short-lived. One of the problems with having a successful small business is that competitors inevitably crop up in an attempt to garner a share of the market, and Barney turns out to be an admirable foe as the Plow King. Not only does Barney shoot out the tires of Homer’s plow, but also he is able to market the persona of the Plow King to make it more loved than the persona of Mr. Plow. Why does Barney turn against one of his closest friends? This issue of motivation most likely came up as the episode was being written by Jon Vitti, one of the most prolific of the Simpsons writers. The solution to this problem of motivation is given in the form of a flashback – on the night before Barney has to take the SAT’s, Barney is doing some last-minute studying. The question he reads is: lachrymose: dyspeptic:: And the answer is: ebullient: effervescent Barney answers this extremely difficult question correctly with amazing speed, showing that he knows that lachrymose and dyspeptic mean morose, and ebullient and effervescent mean enthusiastic. Barney declares, “Harvard, here I come,” and Homer offers him a beer. Barney finally accepts this beer from Homer “if it’ll get you off my back,” and Barney is hooked. This flashback is almost identical to a flashback in the “Taxi” episode, “Taxi episode here,” in which we discover that Reverend Jim (played by Andrew Lloyd Webber) dropped out of Harvard after his girlfriend convinces him to try a marijuana brownie. In the flashback, Jim gives in to his girlfriend just to get her off of his back, and after that, we know the rest of the story. Is this just a coincidence? It’s doubtful, if one considers that the executive producer of “Taxi” was James L. Brooks, one of the executive producers of the Simpsons, and this episode of “Taxi” was written by Sam Simon, another one of the executive producers of the Simpsons. It’s very likely that the Barney flashback is used not only to provide motivation for his actions, but also to pay homage to James L. Brooks and Sam Simon in another subtle example of how reputation can impact others. Barney, like Homer, uses commercials to make a name for himself in the community. However, the Plow King’s commercials appear not at 3:17 A.M., but while Homer is at Moe’s, and in this commercial, Linda Ronstadt makes an appearance to help Barney destroy a cardboard likeness of Mr. Plow. She sings, “Senor Plow no es macho, es solamente un barracho,” which, loosely translated, means “Mr. Plow isn’t a man, he’s just a drunk.” Homer starts to lose business, and so he seeks the help of an advertising agency, McMahon and Tate, to improve his image. This is the same advertising agency that Darren Stephens works at in the show “Bewitched,” except that in “Bewitched,” the agency is spelled, “McMann and Tate.” In the McMahon and Tate office, there are advertisement posters on the walls, one for Laramie cigarettes that features Menthol Moose and another that shows an enormous waterfall and says “Time For Another Duff.” This agency must have a sleazy reputation, but they come up with an artsy, black and white commercial for Mr. Plow. It features a snow globe, which Mr. Plow comes in and smashes. The camera angles of this scene are reminiscent of Citizen Kane (along with the black and white film), but the artsy feel of the ad doesn’t help Homer, and his celebrity status does not return as a result. It’s common for a celebrity to lose their reputation. Take Adam West, the original Batman from the television series, who was typecast into the role and faded from public view after the series ended. He makes a guest appearance as himself at the car show in this episode, and Bart and Lisa don’t know who he is. West reminisces over the old days, and the camera angle tilts to the side – this perspective was very common in the old Batman series. The once well-known star has fallen, but he still holds on to the past. When Mr. Plow shows up to West’s house to plow his driveway, we see that West still drives the original Batmobile, despite its poor condition. And then there is the reference to Tony Dow, from Leave it to Beaver. Homer claims to be this one-time celebrity (though Homer confuses Dow with Plow) in an attempt to trick the bill collector who calls. The bill collector falls for the ruse, and apparently wants to know if one of the characters from the show was gay. This is another problem with being a celebrity: the public cares primarily about the gossip that surrounds them, which is a yet another example of how important reputation in the public eye is. Another has-been celebrity, though a fictional one, is Troy McClure. You may have seen him in “The Erotic Adventures of Hercules” (which appears in the later episode, “Selma’s Choice”), and “Dial M For Murderessness” (which is a reference to the already poorly-titled movie, “Dial M For Murder”). Troy hosts the “Carnival of the Stars,” a parody of the “Circus of the Stars” television specials. One of the stars is Angela Lansbury, who walks on hot coals. Apparently, this is the only job that she can manage to land on television because she was typecast into her role on the long-running, Murder She Wrote. This collection of has-been stars begins the episode, starting the celebrity motif strong. “The Carnival of the Stars” also begins the episode with another motif: beating the cold weather. The carnival takes place in Hawaii, or at least it says it’s in Hawaii – the photo of Hawaii shows a hair, which indicates that it’s stock footage. The carnival is ostensibly set in Hawaii because it is the winter season, and people like to beat the elements of winter, even if only vicariously through the settings of their television shows. In Mr. Plow’s first commercial, he defeats old man winter, played by Grampa Simpson. After Barney becomes successful as the Plow King, he celebrates in the hot tub. And in Mr. Plow’s second commercial, the snow globe is destroyed. These are classic examples of man versus nature, but in the end man’s battle against nature can only be a superficial one. The biggest problem with owning a small business is that one act of God can wipe it out entirely. Humans can to try to battle the forces of nature, but nature will always win the war. After Homer and Barney put aside their differences in order to work together in ridding the town of Springfield of snow, Homer makes the mistake of saying, “not even God can stop us now,” and God responds by melting all of the snow. Two snowmen are dressed up like the two villains at the end of “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc,” and the snowmen’s faces melt away in an identical manner. This is what happens if you go against God. So Homer’s reputation as Mr. Plow is lost, and his plow is repossessed, but he is able to keep the jacket. And in the very end, this is all that matters because Mr. Plow’s reputation is still strong with Marge, who is the only person whose opinion matters in Homer’s world. Homer doesn’t care about his reputation in the community, only his reputation in his home. And, yet, the ultimate irony is that Dan Castellena, the voice of Homer, won an Emmy for this episode, thus gaining the respect of the entertainment industry.