"The Lastest Gun in the West" is the twelfth episode of season 13 from the television series The Simpsons, which aired on February 24, 2002. It guest stars Dennis Weaver.
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Plot
When a vicious dog chases Bart he takes refuge in the garden of a house belonging to former Western actor Buck McCoy. Buck shows Bart a trick to calm the dog down, making it friendly towards him, and Bart begins to hero-worship Buck. Naturally Homer learns about Bart's new idol and demands he worship him instead.
To help him out Bart gets Buck a job on Krusty the Clown's show, but Buck gets drunk and makes a fool of himself on air, crushing Bart. Seeing this Marge and Homer decide to help Buck overcome his addiction to alcohol, so they clean out Buck's house and enroll him in an Alcoholics Anonymous program. Despite making progress Buck is not restored to hero-status, but Homer has an idea.
Homer plans a bank robbery, but when he, Buck and Bart arrive at the bank a robbery, led by Snake, is already underway. Buck leaps into action, subdues the bank robbers, and becomes a hero in Bart's eyes once again. In a rare moment (for The Simpsons) Bart acknowledges everything Homer has done, and declares him to be a hero as well.
Censorship
A scene in the FOX promos for this episode showed Homer reaching under the bedsheets and giving Marge a little Homer doll, but this was not shown in the actual episode.
Cultural references
- The title is a reference to the phrase "The Fastest Gun in the West".
- The Western theme music is from the movie How the West Was Won.
- When the dog shreds up Bart's anthology of short stories, one of the pieces reads "It turned out to be one weird, weird lottery," referencing Shirley Jackson's 1948 short story, The Lottery.
- The weapons that Snake and his gang use in the bank robbery are the M41A pulse rifles from Aliens.
- At the end of the episode when Buck is going into his house, the theme music from the film The Magnificent Seven is played.
- McCoy says he was on the fictional show "McTrigger" before it was retooled into Room 222. In the Brazilian dub Room 222 was changed to Charlie's Angels.
- Homer creates a picture of himself in a bathing suit that mimics the famous Farrah Fawcett pinup poster from the 70's.
- The fictional show "McTrigger", done by Buck when Westerns were not selling anymore, is also a reference to the "McCoy"-movies made by John Wayne when the appeal of Western flagged in the seventies.
- "McTrigger", in which McCoy shoots hippies, is a reference to Dennis Weaver's former series, McCloud.
- When Buck introduces himself to Bart, the flute intro of the main theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly plays. The film score was composed by Ennio Morricone.
- The ending of the episode bears some resemblance to the ending of the 1974 western comedy Blazing Saddles in which the two main characters ride off on horses before dismounting and getting into a car and driving off, with heroic music playing.
- "Excuse me while I kill the sky" is a reference to a line in a Jimi Hendrix song, Purple Haze, the original lines being "Excuse me while I kiss the sky."
Movie Connection
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
(a title poster "Six Brides for Seven Brothers.")
External links
- "The Lastest Gun in the West" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
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