Dude, Where's My Ranch

"Dude, Where's My Ranch?" is the eighteenth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States on April 27, 2003. It was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and was the first episode directed by Chris Clements.

In this episode, the Simpson family visit a dude ranch to escape from an annoying popular song created by Homer and David Byrne. Andy Serkis and Jonathan Taylor Thomas guest starred. Musician David Byrne appeared as himself. The episode received mixed reviews and won an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music.

Plot

At Christmas time, the Simpsons go caroling around Springfield before the Blue-Haired Lawyer wrongly orders them to stop, citing copyright infringement. In response, Homer tries to write his own carol but when Ned Flanders tries to help, he soon creates an anti-Flanders song titled "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders", produced by and featuring vocals from David Byrne of Talking Heads. The song becomes so popular (which even Ned enjoys listening and singing to) that the family, annoyed by its constant presence, leave for a dude ranch. As the family drives to the ranch, Byrne tell them he's made a new salsa mix of the song. As he is dancing to it on the hood of his car, Byrne slips and falls into Moe's (who was driving directly behind Byrne). When Byrne asks Moe to take him to the hospital, he instead drives past it and ask Byrne if he's ever seen the movie '' Misery''. When Byrne replies that he hasn't, Moe says this will all be new to him.

At the ranch, Lisa meets a cowhand named Luke Stetson, with whom she begins to bond. Meanwhile, Homer and Bart meet a tribe of Native Americans who want a beaver dam removed so they can reclaim their land. They are confronted by the beavers while attempting to dismantle the dam and eventually destroy it after luring the beavers away.

Lisa overhears Luke expressing his love to a girl named Clara over the phone. When a jealous Lisa encounters her, she tricks her into going the wrong way on the path to a dance. Lisa finds out that Clara is Luke's sister and runs to the beaver dam with Bart. They find Clara standing on a rock in the middle of a torrential river. Bart taunts some beavers and scales a tree; the beavers chew through the tree, causing it to fall and create a bridge that Clara can cross. When Lisa comes clean about what happened to Clara, Luke is offended and leaves her. As the Simpsons return to Springfield, they hear a song entitled "The Moe Szyslak Connection" on the radio, sung by Moe Szyslak and produced by Byrne, and turn around to spend another week at the ranch.

Production

Musician David Byrne appeared as himself. Producers sent Byrne the song "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders" to Byrne to ask if he was interested in performing. When he agreed, music editor Chris Ledesma went to New York to record him. In 2013, executive producer Al Jean wrote that the song was one of the writers' ten favorite songs from the series.

Cultural references

Maggie dances to the song " Oops!... I Did It Again" by Britney Spears.

Reception

Viewing figures

The episode was watched by 11.71 million viewers, which was the 34th most-watched show that week.

Critical response

On November 2, 2004, the episode was released in the United States on a DVD collection titled ''The Simpsons Christmas 2'', along with the season twelve episodes "Homer vs. Dignity" and " Skinner's Sense of Snow" and the season fifteen episode 'Tis the Fifteenth Season", despite Christmas only playing a minor role in the first act and not being brought up again afterward.

Reviewing the DVD, Brian James of ''PopMatters'' wrote that "Dude, Where's My Ranch?" displays "the series' nefarious habit of using the first third of the episode as a clearinghouse for disconnected jokes before actually beginning the plot, a blight made that much more glaring here since the only connection to Christmas comes early with the rest not even taking place in winter."

Colin Jacobson of ''DVD Movie Guide'' liked Homer's song and the scenes at the ranch but felt the episode is not as good as the series’ best episodes.

On ''Four Finger Discount'', Guy Davis and Brendan Dando thought that while the episode was good, the quality compared to earlier seasons was starting to drop. They highlighted the performance by David Byrne but did not recognize that Jonathan Taylor Thomas had guest starred.

Josh Spiegel of ''The State Press'' liked the performance by David Byrne and the scene of Maggie dancing. He thought the plot was not original and that " ere were laughs to spare, but nothing so gut-busting that would last in my mind for awhile."

Awards and nominations

At the 31st Annie Awards, composer Alf Clausen, writer Ian Maxtone-Graham, and Ken Keeler won the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production for this episode. They were also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for their song "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders" at the 55th Primetime Emmy Awards.

References

External links

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{{The Simpsons episodes, 14

2003 American television episodes
American Christmas television episodes
David Byrne
The Simpsons season 14 episodes
Television episodes written by Ian Maxtone-Graham
Television episodes directed by Chris Clements (animation director)