He tells the story of how Maggie shot him. After he left the town meeting, he finds Maggie with a lollipop in the Simpsons' car. He tries to take the lollipop, but Maggie will not let him. Burns takes it, but his gun falls out of his suit. The gun falls on Maggie's hands, who accidentally shoots him. Homer later leaves fingerprints on the gun while trying to find something he dropped under the seats. When Burns fell on the sundial, he moved his arms to the "S" (south) and "W" (west) sides of the sundial. Lisa believes that he saw the "W" as an "M" and put his arms there to show who shot him. Burns tells Lisa that he did not know he moved his arms in that way. He says that he wants Maggie to be arrested, but Chief Wiggum tells him that she is too young to be arrested.
Matt Groening got the idea to make an episode where Mr. Burns was shot. He thought this idea could be used to get more people's attention. The writers wanted the episode to be in two parts with a mystery that could be used for a contest. They made it so that the mystery had clues, had hidden images, and that it would be easy to understand who shot Burns. Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein (the writers of the episode) got the idea for Barney Gumble to be the one who shot Mr. Burns. David Mirkin wanted Maggie to do it because he thought it would be funnier if someone from the Simpson family did it.
Producers of "The Simpsons" wanted to make sure not many people knew who did it. David Silverman was the only animator who knew it while the episode was being made. Wes Archer (director of the second part) did not know that Maggie shot Mr. Burns. Silver and Archer did not work on the animation of the ending until summer in 1995. They made other animators do smaller work so that they did not know who did it. In the table-read (when the show's staff read the script) of the episode, they did not read the ending. Parts of the animation had to be made again so that it got the clues to the mystery. Oakley and Weinstein were not sure if Maggie should have done it, so they made the ending seem as if Maggie may not have shot Mr. Burns accidentally.
Tito Puente and his Latin jazz ensemble were in the episode. They sing the song "Señor Burns". Oakley and Weinstein did not know Puente well enough. They let him in the episode because Groening is a fan of Puente. They thought he would sing the song, but they later learned that Puente is a drummer and is not a singer. One person from his ensemble sung the song instead.
Many hidden clues were put in the first part for people who wanted to figure out who shot Mr. Burns.
David Mirkin wrote many "terrible endings" because the episode was very popular at the time. Harry Shearer voice acted for the different endings. Mirkin wanted to trick the people working on the episode and wanted to show it to the media. However, this was not able to happen. Many of the different endings were animated to show other characters shooting Mr. Burns. Some of these were shown in the episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular". That episode showed Barney, Tito, Moe, Apu, and Santa's Little Helper shooting him. Another ending was made with Mr. Burns in the hospital to show that Smithers had shot him. In that ending, Lisa says he falls on the "S" and "W" sides of the sundial because they are the first letters of Smithers' first and last names.
Many years after the episodes were first broadcast, fans have made theories that other characters may have shot Mr. Burns instead of Maggie. On April 2020, one fan said on Reddit that Homer Simpson made himself look like Krusty the Clown when the people in Springfield first find Burns to be shot. The fan used the episode "Homie the Clown" to prove the theory. In that episode, Homer makes himself look like Krusty and makes people think he actually is him. Krusty did not wear a bowtie at the town hall, but he is seen with one near the sundial. Bill Oakley later said that this was not suppose to happen. He also said that animators were told not to put Homer in the ending of the first part.
Before the second part was broadcast, many fans debated over who shot Mr. Burns. Fox started a contest where people who called the telephone number 1-800-COLLECT would be able to say who they think shot Mr. Burns. This contest lasted from August 13 to September 10. Fox started a website about the episodes. More than 500,000 people went on the website in the summer of 1995. The person who won the contest would get to be animated in an episode. The contest rules said that the winner had to be chosen from a random sample of people, even if none of the people in the sample got it right. The random sample that was chosen did not have any right answers. A winner was picked at random out of that sample, who was Fayla Gibson of Washington D.C. Gibson did not want to be in the show and instead got cash for winning.
A television special named Springfield's Most Wanted was broadcast before the second part on September 17, 1995. It was hosted by John Walsh, who is the host of "America's Most Wanted". The special was made to help people figure out who shot Mr. Burns. It shows clues from the first part and talks about suspects of the mystery. Daryl Gates, Dennis Franz, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Kevin Nealon, Chris Elliott, and Andrew Shue talk about who they think did it in the special. Jimmy Vaccaro from The Mirage talked about the odds of who shot Mr. Burns. He said that the odds for Homer are big, with odds of 2:1. Maggie did not have good odds with 70:1. Critics did not like the special. They thought it made the episodes look more popular than they really are.
In 2003, "Entertainmeny Weekly" made a list of 25 episodes of "The Simpsons" they thought were the best. They put both parts of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" as 25th on the list and called it ""The Simpsons" most pop moment ever". "The Daily Telegraph" and "Entertainment.ie" named the episodes one of the 10 greatest "Simpsons" episodes ever. When "The Simpsons" was put on Disney+, Oakley said that the first part is one of the best episodes to watch there.
Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood (authors of "I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide") thought that the first part was a great way to end the sixth season. They said "it's a genuine whodunnit. There's no cheating - all the clues are there." Jake Rossen from "Wizard" put the first part's ending on his list of the best cliffhangers. However, he felt disappointed when it was shown to be Maggie who shot Mr. Burns. He said "Sometimes it's better to make up your own ending, kids." "Entertainment Weekly" put the first part on their list of best season finales (last episode of a season).
The song "Señor Burns" got a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1996. Alf Clausen is the composer of the song and Oakley and Weinstein (the episode's writers) also wrote the lyrics.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is a shut down nuclear power plant near the city of Pripyat in the Kyiv region, which operated from 1977 to 2000.
Construction of the station began in 1970, the first unit was launched in 1977. The nuclear power plant is located at a distance of 2 km from the city of Prypyat, built primarily for its employees. The name is associated with the city of Chernobyl, then the district center of this area. As of the beginning of 1986, Chernobyl was the most powerful nuclear power plant in the European part of the USSR. On April 26, 1986, during a design test, an accident occurred that completely destroyed the station's fourth reactor and caused significant contamination of the surrounding area with radioactive substances. As a result of this catastrophe, the population of Prypyat, Chornobyl and all other settlements within a radius of 30 km around the station was completely evacuated. Today the accident itself is one of the largest man-made disasters in human history.
Kees de Jager