Flaming Moe's
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Flaming Moe's" is the 10th episode of the The Simpsons' third season. The episode aired on November 21, 1991.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Moe and his tavern are in serious financial trouble. After he runs out of beer, Homer decides to tell him about a drink recipe that he accidentally invented one night, called the "Flaming Homer".
Homer explains that after Patty and Selma made the Simpson family watch slides from their latest vacation, he was unable to find a beer. He decided to mix together drops of liquor from near-empty bottles and accidentally included a bottle of cough syrup. When Patty dropped cigarette ash in the drink and set it on fire, Homer discovered that fire greatly enhanced the flavor of the drink.
Moe steals Homer's recipe and begins serving the "Flaming Moe" as his own concoction. Moe sees his business boom, and his tavern soon becomes one of the trendiest nightspots in Springfield and Aerosmith's official hangout. Homer becomes angry with Moe and vows never to return to the tavern. He subsequently becomes obsessed with Moe and how he betrayed him.
After the waitress Moe has hired discovers that Moe stole the recipe from Homer, she convinces him to sell the drink and give half of the money to Homer. Restaurant chain owners become interested in purchasing the secret ingredient for the drink, offering Moe $1,000,000 for it. Moe is about to accept the deal when Homer arrives at the tavern and climbs on top of Aerosmith's set. He gets his revenge on Moe by revealing to everyone in the bar that the secret ingredient is ordinary cough syrup.
Within days, nearly all restaurants in Springfield are serving Flaming Moes (under slightly altered names), and Moe's business has greatly decreased. Homer stops in and finds that Moe is not angry at him. Moe even gives Homer a "Flaming Homer" on the house.
[edit] Trivia
- In the MIB Alien Attack ride, in Universal Studios Florida, one of the bars the aliens hide in is called "Flaming Moe's."
- The song, "Flaming Moe's" is sung by Kipp Lennon, lead singer of Venice.
[edit] Cultural references
- When Lisa's friends try to catch Bart at the beginning to the episode the scene is similar to one of the chasings in a lot of Alfred Hitchcock's movies, especially "North by Northwest". Also the music is very similar to that in "North by Northwest" (by Bernard Hermann).
- The intellectual waitress who sleeps with Moe and later leaves for Hollywood is a parody of the Diane Chambers character from Cheers: The way she calls Moe by his apparent full given name, "Morris", is similar to the way Diane Chambers referred to the other Cheers characters by their full given names rather than by their usual nicknames. According to the DVD commentary, Sam Simon wrote much of the waitress' dialogue, as he had previously written for Cheers and was skilled at writing dialogue for Diane Chambers.
- Cheers was also parodied in the "theme sequence" for Moe's that's shown in the middle of the episode, which is a direct parody of the famous Cheers theme, as well as the Norm-like Barney entering the bar, and a Woody-like character behind the bar.
- Aerosmith took considerable effort in the production of the episode. They sing their hit Walk This Way in Moe's Tavern, inviting Moe to join in. The Aerosmith video release Big Ones You Can Look At features behind-the-scenes footage of the band recording their segments for the episode. Aerosmith's Steven Tyler recorded a special live version of the song "Young Lust" which played during the closing credits.
- When a seemingly crazy Homer reveals the secret of the Flaming Moe, the scene has many parallels to The Phantom of the Opera including Homer standing high up in the roof, (similar to the way The Phantom character often haunts the flies of the Paris Opera House), and having half his face covered by his bath robe (as The Phantom character covers his deformed face with a mask).
- After sleeping with Moe, the waitress says: "I was just thinking about Homer Simpson." And Moe replies: "That's OK, I was just thinking about Sybil Danning".
- Lionel Hutz refers to a ficticious "Frank Wallbanger" case, suggesting that the well-known cocktail called a Harvey Wallbanger was stolen by a guy named Harvey from a man named Frank.
- At the end, after the Flaming Moe recipe is revealed, many establishments are seen with variations of the name "Flaming Moe's" (i.e. "Flaming Meaux's) This is similar to how many pizzerias have tried to find success using names similar to Famous Ray's.
[edit] Casting
Catherine O'Hara agreed to provide the voice of the waitress, and actually went into the studio and recorded her part for the character. However, according to the DVD commentary on this episode, the producers felt that her voice did not fit the role and instead had one of the regular voice actors (Pamela Hayden) do the part.
[edit] See also
- Purple drank - a mixed drink created by combining codeine cough syrup with other liquids.
[edit] External links
| The Simpsons Portal |
- Episode Capsule on "Simpsons Archive"
- Wikibartender.org - Flaming Moe Drink Recipe
- Swedish band "The Flaming Moes"
- Twin Cities Co-ed Ultimate Team "Flaming Moe"
- "Official" site of the "Forget me shot" !
fr:Un cocktail d'enfer ru:Flaming Moe's sv:Flaming Moe's
