Brother from Another Series

Plot

Krusty the Clown is doing a live show from Springfield Prison when Sideshow Bob appears. Bob talks about his criminal history, which includes framing Krusty for armed robbery, trying to kill Selma Bouvier, and attempting to murder Bart Simpson because Bart exposed Bob's frame-up of Krusty and stopped Bob from killing Selma. Reverend Lovejoy then declares that Bob has changed, and Bob gets out of prison through a work-release program. Bart insists Bob is still a homicidal maniac, but nobody listens. Bob is placed in the care of his brother Cecil, who he has not seen for ten years. Cecil works as Springfield's chief hydrological and hydrodynamical engineer, and he hires Bob to oversee the building of a hydroelectric dam on a river near town. Bart, convinced Bob still wants to kill him, follows Bob everywhere. Bob gets frustrated with Bart's constant spying and the dam's useless workers, including Cletus, and says he wishes the dam would burst and wipe out Springfield.

While looking through Bob's trailer at the dam site, Bart and Lisa find a briefcase stuffed with cash. Bob claims he does not know about the money and says the funds were supposed to go toward putting concrete in the dam's walls. But the walls turn out to be hollow and badly built. Cecil shows up, points a gun at Bart, Lisa, and Bob, and admits he plans to steal the money and set Bob up to take the blame when the dam collapses from poor construction. Cecil's motive is that ten years earlier, he auditioned to be Krusty's sidekick but was upstaged by Bob, who got the job even though Bob did not want it. Cecil locks the three inside the dam and gets ready to blow it up, intending to take the cash and run. Bart, Lisa, and Bob work together to escape. Lisa and Bob disarm Cecil's dynamite while Bart jumps at Cecil before he can hit the plunger. Cecil swings the briefcase at Bart, it flies open, and the money scatters into the river and washes away. Cecil throws Bart off a cliff, but Bob grabs the dynamite cord and swoops down to catch him. As they hang over the side of the dam, Bob cuts the cord so Cecil cannot destroy the town. Bart and Bob fall down the dam wall but are stopped by a pipe sticking out.

Production

The episode was written by Ken Keeler, who had been watching many Frasier episodes and was assigned to write a Sideshow Bob episode, leading him to combine the two. David Hyde Pierce was cast as Sideshow Bob's brother, joking that he would not normally do such a role but welcomed the chance to work with Kelsey Grammer and play his brother. Pierce also voiced a man in the crowd who says "Probably!" when Bob addresses the crowd. An early draft featured an opera house explosion, but the writers changed it to a dam for greater excitement. An early rule of Sideshow Bob episodes was to recap previous events for viewers. Keeler consulted with Frasier producers, who approved the script but demanded removal of a brief scene where Cecil refers to an unseen character as "Maris." The writers spent considerable time choosing a civilization that considered chief hydrological engineering their true calling, ultimately selecting the Cappadocians, known for underground cities. Cecil was drawn to resemble Pierce while also looking similar to Bob. Director Pete Michels noted difficulty drawing Bob and Cecil together due to their large feet. A deleted scene featuring Hans Moleman being showered with embezzled money was cut to make room for explaining why Bob was sent back to prison; Keeler called it his favorite deleted scene.

Cultural references

The "Krusty the Clown Prison Special" is based on Johnny Cash's 1968 appearance at Folsom State Prison, with Krusty's song parodying Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." The mention of Arthur Fiedler's wake references Frasier Crane's upper class Seattle lifestyle. A title card before the second act reads "'FRASIER' IS A HIT SHOW ON THE NBC TELEVISION NETWORK" in a style similar to Frasier's intertitles, with jazz music. When Bart jumps on Cecil and asks "guess who?", Cecil responds "Maris?", referencing the unseen character from Frasier.

Reception

In its original broadcast, the episode finished 39th in ratings for the week of February 17–23, 1997, with a Nielsen rating of 9.1, equivalent to approximately 8.8 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on Fox that week. The media described the episode as "look[ing] promising" beforehand, and journalist Ben Rayner later called it one of director Peter Michels' "classics." The episode was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or Special. Entertainment Weekly named David Hyde Pierce's role as Cecil one of the sixteen best guest appearances on The Simpsons, and Grammer and Pierce ranked second on AOL's list of favorite Simpsons guest stars.