"Stop or My Dog Will Shoot" is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season and first aired May 13, 2007. When Santa's Little Helper rescues a lost Homer, he becomes a local hero and the Simpsons decide to enroll him in Police Dog Academy, where he's teamed with Lou and they become a crime-busting duo. Bart's excitement quickly vanishes after an incident with a jaded Santa's Little Helper, so to appease Bart's depression after the loss of his dog, Marge agrees to buy him a huge pet snake, which causes a life-threatening situation at Bart and Lisa's school. It was written by John Frink and directed by Matthew Faughnan. Friend of the show Stephen Hawking makes his third guest appearance on the show as himself, while Maurice LaMarche does the voice of the Horn Stuffer. Rudy Giuliani makes a guest voice appearance as himself, although not in the original airing. The episode was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award.

Plot

Homer, excited about going to Oktoberfest, is disappointed when he discovers that Marge has tricked him and the kids into going to a Harvest Festival which allows no alcohol. While attempting to leave, Homer accidentally leads the family into a cornfield maze. Lisa crafts an escape plan with Tremaux's Algorithm, a real life maze-solving method, but Homer is left behind. Santa's Little Helper is called upon by Bart to find Homer. Santa's Little Helper manages to sniff out Homer and drag him out of the maze. Santa’s Little Helper becomes a hero and the Simpsons, persuaded by Chief Wiggum, enroll him in the Springfield Animal Police Academy, where he’s teamed with Lou. Santa's Little Helper catches Snake Jailbird who is taken to court, but freed on a technicality. This makes Santa's Little Helper jaded, and when he returns home, he bites Bart. The Simpsons send the dog away to live with Lou. As a replacement, Marge buys Bart a huge pet python, which he names Strangles, Bart takes Strangles to show and tell at school, where Strangles escapes into a school lab and unintentionally knocks over chemicals, creating a toxic cloud. Bart collapses from the smoke. Both Santa's Little Helper and Strangles arrive to save Bart, who chooses his faithful dog to save him. Santa's Little Helper goes back to living with the Simpsons. Strangles becomes adopted by Groundskeeper Willie, who places him in the fire hose coil.

Production

Casting

Rudy Giuliani was originally announced in the official press release as appearing in this episode. As a result, several images of him recording his part as well as a promotional image of him in Simpsonized form, were released. However, his appearance was not included in the final version of the episode. According to executive producer James L. Brooks in an interview with Charlie Rose, the show was not allowed to use Giuliani's appearance because he had become a presidential candidate. Giuliani's absence marks the second time during the eighteenth season that a guest was announced in the official press release but did not appear in the final episode. For the episode "Homerazzi", Harry Hamlin and Peter Wolf were announced as guest stars but neither appeared.

However, Giuliani's appearance is present in the syndicated version of the episode where he gives the commencement address at the police animal academy graduation ceremony. His speech to the trained animals includes a large amount of condescending "animal talk" such as talking about their fluffy tails and stomachs. He also said they should get a treat, prompting Homer to wish someone had said that on his graduation day.

Cultural references

The title is a reference to Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!. In Bart's vision, Santa's Little Helper becomes a dog version of RoboCop and shoots down a math book, Jason Voorhees (from Friday the 13th) and Pinhead (from Hellraiser). Clippy, the Microsoft Word icon appears on the computer at school. The song played when Santa's Little Helper looks for Homer in the maze is Korn's "Freak on a Leash". At the end, Groundskeeper Willie's last words "That'll do snake," parody the last words in the movie Babe. The themes for Police Academy and Miami Vice are heard. Chief Wiggum knits a picture of Big Bird putting Elmo on a circular saw.

Reception

Robert Canning of IGN describes the episode as "average", and was only a build up to next week's 400th episode. He does, however, say the episode had bright bits, including Stephen Hawking's appearance. Adam Finley of TV Squad quotes the episode "fell flat halfway through the middle act, and all of the third". This episode was nominated for a WGA Award in 2007, but lost to "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II", another episode this season.

References