Who Shot Mr. Burns?

"**Who Shot Mr. Burns?**" is an episode of ***The Simpsons*** in two parts. The first part is the 25th and last episode of the 6th season. The second part is the first episode of the 7th season. Both parts were first broadcast on the Fox network. The first part was broadcast on May 21, 1995 and the second part was broadcast on September 17, 1995. In the first part, oil is found at the Springfield Elementary School. Mr. Burns takes all of the oil and tries to make everyone in Springfield angry. Mr. Burns later gets shot by someone. In the second part, the police in Springfield try to find the person who shot Mr. Burns. They believe the suspects are Mr. Smithers and Homer Simpson. 

Both of the parts were written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. The first part was  by Jeffrey Lynch and the second part was directed by Wes Archer. Tito Puente guest starrs in both parts. The idea of the story came from Matt Groening (creator of *The Simpsons*). The writers made his idea become an episode with two parts. The first part has many  for who shot Mr. Burns becaues the writers wanted people to be able to figure it out. The episode's story came from the *Dallas* episode "A House Divided", where J. R. Ewing gets shot. 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 , had hidden images, and that it would be easy to understand who shot 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. Parts of the animation had to be made again so that it got the clues to the mystery.
*Mr. Burns falls on the sundial and his arms point to "W" and "S". Burns sees the W upside down, so it looks to be an "M" to him.
*Before Homer goes in Mr. Burns' office with spray paint, he appears to be in front of the words "ONLY IN" on the road. The words are upside down for the people watching. For a short second, Homer is in front of most of the letters, where the only ones still seen are "NO" with an arrow pointing to him.
*A television screen in Moe's Tavern shows that "Pardon My Zinger" (the fake Comedy Central show that Smithers watches) is shown at 3 p.m. on weekdays.

### Theories 
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.

## Contest 
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  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.

## Reception 
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  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.

## References 
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