Release and Reception
In its original American broadcast on April 7, 2002, "Weekend at Burnsie's" received a 6.8 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 7.2 million viewers. The episode finished in 34th place in the ratings for the week of April 1-7, 2002, tying with a new episode of the comedy television series Malcolm in the Middle. On August 24, 2010, "Weekend at Burnsie's" was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray set. Matt Groening, Al Jean, Matt Selman, Don Payne, Jon Vitti, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Mike Reiss and David Silverman participated in the audio commentary of the episode.
Following its home video release, "Weekend at Burnsie's" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict praised the episode's premise, writing that it "brim with potential" even though it is "fairly simple". She also praised the episode's setpiece, which she described as "particularly good", even though she found it to be "super-random". She gave the episode an A- rating and added that it has "lots of great gags". Writing for WhatCulture!, Adam Rayner described "Weekend at Burnsie's" as "utterly hilarious" and "superbly executed". He wrote, "Apart from being very funny, the episode also manages to make statements about Marijuana, but never becomes preachy." He continued that it can be compared to the series' best episodes, writing that it "resemble The Simpsons in its glory years". Casey Broadwater of Blu-ray.com considers it to be one of the season's best episodes, and so did High-Def Digest's Aaron Peck, who described it as one of his personal favorites. James Plath, a reviewer for DVD Town, wrote that the episode is a "classic". On the other hand, giving the episode a mixed review, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide wrote that "Weekend at Burnsie's" "falls into the abyss as a distinctly ordinary episode." He continued, "Like many other S13 shows, this one feels recycled, as it lacks much to make it stand out as creative or memorable." He summarized the episode as being "decidedly mediocre". Nate Boss of Project-Blu disliked the episode, calling it "terrible", "utterly preachy" and "too damn political for its own good." He criticized the Simpsons staff for making an episode about marijuana, as he believed that children might imitate Homer. "Congrats, Simpsons, you just pissed off those who choose to live sober, by pandering to stupid college kids and idiot high schoolers who may be your only remaining fans", Boss wrote.
In a scene in the episode, Homer takes his crows to Moe's tavern. Annoyed, Moe tells Homer "This ain't no crow bar." He then reaches behind the counter, as if to take out a crowbar (seen in earlier episodes as a hidden emergency weapon), but instead holds up a picture of crows in a bar, and says "This is a crow bar." The joke was written by staff writer Matt Selman and has since become one of the most popular lines in the series, according to Jean. Since its broadcast, "Weekend at Burnsie's" garnered little to no scrutiny from viewers. Vitti has never gotten any questions about the episode, except from his sister-in-law who wanted him to explain the episode for his nephews. " My sister-in-law called me up saying that I needed to talk to my nephews about how this was wrong that Homer did", Vitti said. "They watched it and had lots of questions for her. And she referred them all to me. So there are some people who are still bothered by it." The little amount of scrutiny that the episode attracted took The Simpsons' staff by surprise, as they anticipated that the episode would generate a lot of controversy. Instead, "Blame It on Lisa", an episode which aired the previous week, caused an uproar in Brazil because of its depiction of the country. It became one of the biggest controversies the series has ever faced. "It just goes to show that you never know what's going to be a problem", Jean said in the DVD commentary for "Weekend at Burnsie's".
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