Taking a look at the upcoming episodes for The Simpsons in syndication this week, I could see that Los Angeles would be revisiting Season Four. For the return of these Flashback Reviews, I was going to have a lot of hard choices to make. This is, after all, the season that brought us "Kamp Krusty," "Lisa's First Word," "Marge vs. the Monorail" and "Whacking Day." A couple of these you may see reviewed in the coming weeks, but for the first retro review of the summer, I picked "Mr. Plow."
This was a fantastic episode that told an engaging story and was laugh-out-loud funny from start to finish. And this episode ranks high on the list of all-time great episodes, and not just because of name recognition. "Call Mr. Plow, that's my name/That name again is Mr. Plow." You're singing it in your head right now, aren't you? It's by far one of the catchiest ditties produced by a series loaded with catchy ditties. But the jingle was not what made the episode great. "Mr. Plow" had all the perfect Simpsons ingredients just as the writers were perfecting their recipe. There was a fun, engaging story, great guest stars poking fun at themselves, flashbacks, songs, cutaways and opportunities to highlight characters outside the series' namesake family.
The episode began with the great standalone bit "Carnival of the Stars" hosted by Troy McClure: "You may remember me from such films as The Erotic Adventures of Hercules, and Dial M for Murderousness." In this opening we also got to see Krusty mauled by white tigers. Later in the episode, we got quick and funny bits with Apu, Skinner, Snake, Kent Brockman and Arnie Pie. As this was still an early season, each moment with these peripheral characters continued to expand the Simpsons universe and bring us closer to the many characters we know and love today.
The story itself is what's most memorable, and gave us laughs at every juncture along the way. After Homer crashed both of the family cars, he had to buy a new one. First he tried to go cheap, visiting Crazy Vlaclav's: "She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene." When that didn't work out, it was off to the car show. After running into Adam West in a hilarious, camera-angle-shifting cameo ("The only true Catwoman is Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether or Eartha Kitt."), Homer excitedly bought a plow truck. Marge was furious he made such a purchase without discussing it, but after she saw the success it brought Homer, she changed her tune.
These days, Homer taking on a new, short-term career is old news for The Simpsons and has become a bit of a cliché. We've seen so many: Homer the astronaut, Homer the tow-truck driver, Homer the bodyguard, Homer the border patrolman. But with Homer the snowplow driver, the idea was still young and fresh and that heavily worked in the episode's favor. Would "Mr. Plow" be as well loved had it come in Season 14, after a multitude of "Homer the…" episodes? Please discuss.
The episode found its conflict when Barney, inspired by Homer's success, bought his own, bigger snowplow and ran Homer out of business. This turn of events gave us two more memorable moments from the episode. First was the flashback where we saw a studious, sober Barney, prepping for his SATs, receive his first beer from Homer. And now we had the creation story for Barney. Next was another great guest appearance, as Linda Ronstadt joined Barney to sing their own jingle. The real payoff came when Miss Ronstadt contemplated adding a Spanish version of the jingle to her next album.
The episode culminated with Homer putting Barney in harm's way on Widow's Peak, and then coming to his friend's rescue. Again, it was a perfectly told story making the most of all the things that made The Simpsons great in these early seasons. "Mr. Plow" even has one of my favorite episode ending lines. As things returned to normal, Marge still got a kick out of Homer in the "Mr. Plow" jacket, leading Homer to close out this memorable half-hour with, "The forecast calls for flurries of passion, followed by extended periods of gettin' it on."