#OnThisDay #OTD May 19, 1994, "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" (S05E22) first aired on the Fox network. Dir: Carlos Baeza. Wr: Greg Daniels. EP: @DaveMirkin. Guest-starring Phil Hartman as Lionel Hutz. (Check out this original TV promo with deleted dialogue!) #TheSimpsons
It was the second script Greg Daniels wrote for the show. He thought the staff had previously done many episodes where Homer "wasn't good at anything", so he tried to figure out something Homer was really good at, and he came up with the idea of Homer being a good husband.
Showrunner Dave Mirkin was very fond of the fact that Homer and Marge have the biggest fight they have ever had on the show in the episode, and he thought it was a "really great" exploration of their marriage.
Just found this old tweet of mine from nine years ago. Spoiler alert: Turns out it did not bode well.
The sign gags were on-point with this episode.
It is revealed in a flashback that Smithers was briefly married to a woman, but the two split up when he devoted too much time to his boss Mr. Burns. It is a parody of scenes from two Tennessee Williams plays: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Author Matthew Henry: "To fully appreciate [the joke], one must know something of not only the two plays cited but also of Williams himself, of his own struggles with both heterosexual and homosexual desires and the way in which these struggles were incorporated into his art."
The first instance of Moe's declaring his crush on Marge (aka Midge aka Blanche).
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