Release
The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 6, 2001. On August 18, 2009, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season. Staff members Mike Scully, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Carolyn Omine, Don Payne, Matt Selman, Tom Gammill, and Chuck Sheetz participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode, including an alternate ending, were featured on the box set as well.
Critics have given "I'm Goin' to Praiseland" generally mixed reviews. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "Given its theme, 'Praiseland' comes with a large risk of turning sappy. And it does! From its thin plot to its uninspired gags, the show never manages to get any legs under it. This is forgettable Simpsons." Nancy Basile of About.com wrote in her review that episode "was part touching, part creepy and part hysterical. Homer was his old self: His heart was in the right place, but he screwed up everything. I felt for Ned, but at the same time grimaced when he touched Maude's imprint on the bed. My only real complaint is the very end. The last few episodes have had typical sitcom wrap-up lines."
Read more about this topic: I'm Goin' To Praiseland
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“The steel decks rock with the lightning shock, and shake with the
great recoil,
And the sea grows red with the blood of the dead and reaches for his spoil—
But not till the foe has gone below or turns his prow and runs,
Shall the voice of peace bring sweet release to the men behind the
guns!”
—John Jerome Rooney (1866–1934)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)