From August 13 to September 10, 1995, Fox offered a contest to tie in with the mystery where callers who dialed 1-800-COLLECT were eligible and they then guessed who the culprit was. The winner would be animated on an episode of the show.
A winner had to be selected out of a random sample of entries. The sample did not contain any correct answers, and so a winner was chosen at random. The winner, Fayla Gibson of Washington D.C., did not watch the show and opted to accept a cash prize in lieu of being animated.
Here is the @TVGuide ad for "Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part Two)". "Springfield's Most Wanted" was a TV special hosted by John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted. The special aired right before the season premiere.
@TVGuide The "Springfield's Most Wanted" special - which also features celebrities giving their theories on who shot Mr. Burns - is available to watch on YouTube
@TVGuide Tito Puente and his band performs "Señor Burns" in the episode. Writers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were unfamiliar with him and wrote him in because Groening was a fan. They figured he would sing the song, but later discovered that Puente was a drummer, not a singer.
@TVGuide "Then we found out it was the baby." Oakley and Weinstein were initially unsure about having Maggie as the culprit, and it was decided that the episode would end with Maggie shifting her eyes and making it look like it was not a complete accident.
@TVGuide Due to the amount of interest in the ending, showrunner Dave Mirkin wrote several "terrible endings" and, recorded them with just @theharryshearer. Several of the alternate endings aired during the clip show "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular".
While recording Lisa's lines for the Twin Peaks parody segment, @YeardleySmith recorded the part backwards; the recording was in turn reversed, a technique known as phonetic reversal, the same technique used on Twin Peaks.
@YeardleySmith If you haven't seen the original Twin Peaks segment of Special Agent Dale Cooper's interaction with the Man from Another Place, you need to watch it. It's insane.
@YeardleySmith Groundskeeper Willie's interrogation, and particularly his crossing and uncrossing his legs, is a parody of Sharon Stone's famous interrogation scene in Basic Instinct. Homer's escape from the overturned paddy wagon is a homage to the 1993 film The Fugitive. (video: Onikorp)
"Stark Raving Dad" was written specifically for Michael Jackson, a fan of the show, who had called Simpsons creator Matt Groening one night and offered to do a guest spot. Jean and Reiss wrote the script based on an idea pitched by @canyonjim.
@canyonjim Groening and co-executive producer @simonsam also contributed significantly to the writing. Jackson pitched several story ideas. He also requested a scene in which he and Bart write a song together and asked that a joke about Prince be changed to one about Elvis.
This shot in of Krusty in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One" is definitely more Homer-looking. So it makes me think they used the Homer Krusty design (except the hair) from "Homie the Clown" which had just aired earlier in Season 6, perhaps as another red herring. Just compare.
The idea for the episode came from Matt Groening, who had wanted to do an episode in which Mr. Burns was shot, which could be used as a publicity stunt. The writers decided to write the episode in two parts with a mystery that could be used in a contest.
While deciding who the culprit was, Oakley and Weinstein pitched Barney Gumble because he was a character that could go to jail and it could change the dynamic of the show. Mirkin suggested Maggie; he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a Simpsons family member.
#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.
It was Dan Greaney's second episode on The Simpsons. The staff of the show wanted to do a summer episode because there was "so much stuff" about summer vacations that they felt had to be covered in an episode.
THURSDAY at 8pm ET/7pm CT, we will stream the ORIGINAL May 19, 1996 premiere broadcast of "Homerpalooza" AND "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" COMPLETE with commercials at twitch.tv/dailysimpsons. It'll be a classic Thursday night! Join us, won't we?