Mr. Plow

After crashing into Marge's car on a snowy night (which he had spent drinking at Moe's), Homer is forced to purchase a replacement car. After he is initially unsuccessful after test driving a tiny foreign vehicle which is unsuitable for him, a car show salesman convinces Homer to get a pickup truck mounted with a snowplow. Homer agrees on the basis that he can make the payments by plowing people's driveways. Homer starts his plowing business, titled Mr. Plow, but he has trouble finding customers until Lisa suggests recording an advertisement on late night local television. The resulting commercial and jingle attracts many customers and the business is a booming success. Homer is given the key to the city in recognition of his service to the community.

Barney starts a rival company called the Plow King, and creates his own commercial, with Linda Ronstadt singing the jingle, which badmouths Homer. Homer pays an agency to make him a new commercial, but it turns out to be completely baffling. As a result, Homer loses his success to Barney, and Mayor Quimby revokes his key to the city and hands it over to Barney.

To get revenge and regain his customers, Homer tricks Barney into plowing a non-existent driveway on Widow's Peak, a large, treacherous mountain outside of town. Homer begins to plow driveways again, but sees a news report showing that Barney has been trapped in an avalanche. Homer immediately drives to the mountain and rescues him. The friends resolve their differences and agree to work together in the plow business. God, angered by Homer saying that not even he can stop them, promptly retaliates by causing a heatwave, melting all the snow and effectively putting them both out of business. As Homer can no longer make the snowplow payments, his plow is repossessed, but he keeps the Mr. Plow jacket to wear to bed for Marge, turning her on.

On the telephone, Homer pretends to be actor Tony Dow, and calls people gay. This joke was originally going to be censored for legal reasons.

When the episode was being written, many writers' contracts had expired, so there weren't some writers at the annual story retreat. Al Jean was very nervous about how they could write a whole new season with such a small crew. In addition, there were several scenes added after the animatic, making the schedule even tighter.[4] However, Jon Vitti was very committed to this episode and pitched almost the entire plot by himself.[5]

Vitti's idea was to have Adam West be at the car show, so then they could hire him for the voice acting and Vitti could finally meet him.[6] The other writers agreed because they were all big fans of Batman when they were children and also wanted to meet Adam West. Matt Groening said that West was one of the most popular people to ever come to the studio.[7] Linda Ronstadt was recorded in San Francisco. Jon Vitti was tasked with recording Ronstadt, and he enjoyed it immensely. He remarked the most beautiful thing he has ever heard is Ronstadt singing the Spanish Plow King jingle.[6][8]

Two more script changes that put extra pressure on the episode were a post-animatic rewrite and a complete character change. In the original script for the episode, Lenny was going to be Homer's rival as the Plow King. The idea was quickly dropped because it did not seem to fit in. The post-animatic rewrite was to include the joke in which Homer uses the radio dial to tip the precariously balanced plow back onto the road. This joke was created by Conan O'Brien, and the writers liked it so much that they included it in the episode.[9]

The Simpsons team encountered trouble with the network censors in the scene where Homer answers the phone and pretends to be Tony Dow from Leave it to Beaver. After a brief pause, Homer replies to an inquiry by the person on the phone with "Yeah, they were gay." The censors refused to allow the line to be aired, fearing legal recourse for libel. The Simpsons crew protested, arguing that no one in particular was being implied, and that the "they" could be anybody. After numerous phone calls and arguments, the censors allowed the joke to air.[10]

The episode parodies Walter Cronkite's reporting of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

This episode contains several references that Al Jean referred to as "very obscure". Examples include the scene where Homer drives over a rickety bridge in the mountains, parodies a climactic action scene from William Friedkin's 1977 film Sorcerer, including a soundtrack similar to Tangerine Dream's work from the film.[5] The scene in which Kent Brockman reports Barney's accident, in which his attire (including glasses), camera angles and facial expressions are in reference to the manner of Walter Cronkite's reporting of the Kennedy shooting.[5]

The revamped "Mr. Plow commercial" is a parody of a similar perfume commercial that aired at the time of the episode's production. The fast-moving clouds were taken from Koyaanisqatsi, a documentary film.[5] The music that was used in the commercial was from "Casta Diva" from Vincenzo Bellini's Norma because the Simpsons crew would not have to pay for it. At the time the episode was made, Russia did not abide by American copyright laws. In return, America did not respect Russia's copyright laws.[6] Homer's original jingle, "Call Mr. Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Plow!", is based on a radio jingle for the Roto-Rooter, which had a similar tune, "Call Roto-Rooter, that's the name, and away go troubles down the drain."[6]

Adam West reprises as himself and is first seen signing autographs at a car show. When Adam West says he is Batman and worked with Robin, Bart does not know who Robin is, causing West to go into a tangent about how he was disappointed by the newer Batman movies where the actor suited up with prosthetic chests.[11]

Other references to include the Carnival of the Stars television show seen at the start of the episode. This is a parody of Circus of the Stars, an annual special that aired on CBS from 1976 to 1994, featuring celebrities performing circus acts.[5] The scene where Barney gradually degrades into a drunk is a parody of the transformation sequence in the 1941 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.[5] The scene where Bart is pelted with snowballs is a reference to the Sonny Corleone tollbooth shooting scene in the film The Godfather.[4] When Moe offers free beer to Homer, Barney mentions that he hadn't done that before even for the Iranian hostages. The snowmen melting during the heatwave is a reference to the melting Nazi soldiers in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark.[4]

Linda Ronstadt's desire to record a Spanish version of the Plow King jingle, along with her mariachi costume in Barney's commercial, both refer to her notoriety at the time for recording several popular Spanish-language albums celebrating the music of Mexico, beginning with Canciones de Mi Padre.

On December 17, 2015, Google and YouTube modernized the episode and its "Mr. Plow" jingle for use in a commercial in which Lisa uses the website on her computer to place Homer's advertisement onto its YouTube campaign.[22][23]

Wikiquote has quotations related to "Mr. Plow".

• "Mr. Plow episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Mr. Plow" at IMDb