"Last Exit to Springfield" is the seventeenth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on March 11, 1993. The plot revolves around Homer Simpson becoming president of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's trade union and leading the workers of the plant in a strike in order to restore their dental plan to avoid the family having to pay out-of-pocket for Lisa's new braces. "Last Exit to Springfield" has frequently been cited as the best episode of the series and one of the greatest television episodes of all time.
The episode was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky (their final writing credit for The Simpsons), and directed by Mark Kirkland. The episode contains several cultural references and Dr. Joyce Brothers guest stars as herself.
Plot
While awaiting the arrival of his employees' union president to discuss the latest contract (unaware that the union president has been killed and buried in a football stadium) Mr. Burns reminisces about simpler times when his grandfather, the owner of an atom-smashing plant, would deal with his workers' complaints by immuring them in abandoned coke ovens. Burns decides to challenge the nuclear power plant union's demands by revoking their dental plan.
Lisa has a dentist's appointment. Her dentist informs the Simpson family that Lisa needs braces. Marge is worried, but Homer tells her that the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's dental plan will cover the cost. At a union meeting, it is announced that the newest contract requires the workers to give up their dental plan in exchange for a free keg of beer at union meetings, which the workers delightedly accept. However, Homer, after an intense period of thought, realizes that giving up the dental plan would require him to pay for Lisa's braces, and reminds everyone how the dental plan has helped them. After encouragement from his co-workers, Homer is promptly elected the new union president.
Burns invites Homer to his office with the intent of bribing him, but Homer mistakes Burns' sly innuendos for sexual advances. Homer politely declines and leaves, leading Burns to erroneously believe that Homer is nothing short of an honest and incorruptible man. Meanwhile, because the Simpsons have no dental insurance, Lisa is fitted with the cheapest (and ugliest) braces available, causing her self-esteem to plummet.
Homer is kidnapped by Burns' "hired goons" and taken to Burns' mansion. Burns gives Homer a tour of the mansion to get him in a good mood, which includes a room filled with 1000 monkeys writing on 1000 typewriters (infinite monkey theorem) and "the largest TV in the free world." But when the two men sit down to negotiate the contract, Homer suddenly needs to use the bathroom. Homer's delayed attempts to find the restroom leads Burns to inaccurately assume that Homer is a tough negotiator. Homer is taken back to his house in a helicopter which Mr. Burns falls out of, apparently breaking his spinal cord. At the next union meeting, Homer declares he is tired of meeting with Burns and attempts to resign. The union misinterprets his frustration, and the members decide to strike. Burns attempts to break up the strike through several methods, the first of which involves Grampa Simpson in World War II attire telling a pointless story about onions. Mr. Burns and Smithers start to run the plant singlehandedly, but they eventually commission robot workers, which turn against them.
After weeks of failed attempts to break up the strike, Burns deliberately causes a power outage throughout Springfield to break the union's spirit. However, the strikers do not lose hope and begin to sing a protest song written by Lisa. Burns meets with Homer and agrees to meet with the union's demands if Homer resigns as union president. Homer loudly celebrates both of Burns's propositions. Burns remarks, "Smithers, I'm beginning to think that Homer Simpson is not the brilliant tactician I thought he was." With the Simpson family insured again, Lisa gets invisible, painless new braces. The dentist and the entire family laugh when it is revealed the room is being filled with nitrous oxide.
Production
The idea for this episode came from Mike Reiss, who thought it would be funny if the plant went on strike. The writers of the episode, Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, later added the dental plan aspect of the plot. During the production of this episode, an ABC camera crew was allowed into the rewrite room, which Al Jean says he regrets because they were working on stage direction, and they came off as not being very funny. The body of Chuckie Fitzhugh, Homer's predecessor as union president, is seen buried under a football field, an homage to the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa and his alleged burial at New Jersey's Giants Stadium.
Lisa's nitrous oxide-induced hallucination echoes the Beatles film Yellow Submarine, which Al Jean says had to be changed slightly for legal reasons. In the script, the name was changed to "purple submersible", and letters spelling "HATRED" are visible in the background; a contrast to the message of love popular in the 60s. Paul McCartney says "Look fellas, it's Lisa in the Sky!", and George Harrison notes "No diamonds though", a reference to the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Ringo Starr says "Look out for the campy drawing of Queen Victoria!" The workers' resistance to the power outage, and Mr. Burns's response, is a parody of Chuck Jones's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
The episode is generally ranked as being one of the best television episodes of all time; An Entertainment Weekly article from January 2003 looking back at the top 25 episodes of the series named the episode as the show's greatest, calling it "virtually flawless, the product of a series at the height of its creative powers -- when the satire was savage and relevant" with "the stuff of syndication legend: Burns facing down 'brilliant' labor kingpin Homer Simpson; Homer Simpson facing down his own brain (DENTAL PLAN!/Lisa needs braces!); Grampa rattling on about wearing onions on his belt. Last Exit is a glorious symphony of the high and the low, of satirical shots at unions and sweet ruminations on the humiliations of adolescence (as evidenced by Lisa, who copes with a medieval mouth contraption)."
In his book Planet Simpson Chris Turner names it the best episode of the series, saying "Episode 9F15 of The Simpsons should be taught in schools, in history, economics, social studies, literature and art class. It's flawless". He also called it "the funniest half-hour in TV history", and provided a full analysis of the episode, only criticizing the chalkboard and couch gags. He maintains that he chose the episode as best ever before Entertainment Weeklys list was published.
In 2003, to celebrate the show's 300th episode, USA Today published a top 10 chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive, which had this episode in first place. The BBC website says, "This fine episode contains several of our favourite sequences ... A classic, and the series' most marked expedition into the surreal - up to this point."
Michael Moran of The Times ranked the episode as the sixth-best in the show's history. Screen Rant called it the best episode of the fourth season and the second greatest episode of The Simpsons (behind "Homer's Enemy").
Director Mark Kirkland considers the episode to be one of the most surreal episodes that he has worked on because it has a lot of story crammed into it, many parodies and several fantasy sequences, such as Homer's Godfather Part II-inspired meditation on organized crime. Al Jean has also called it one of the "craziest" episodes.
In 2024, Rolling Stone ranked "Last Exit to Springfield" as the second greatest episode of television of all time.
Legacy
The episode has become study material for sociology courses at the University of California, Berkeley, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies."
References
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