Reception
In 2006, Wizard magazine rated Burns the 45th greatest villain of all time. In a 2007 article, Entertainment Weekly named Smithers the 16th greatest sidekick of all time. They also described Smithers and Burns as being "TV's most functional dysfunctional couple". In a 2003 article, EW also named "Last Exit to Springfield" the greatest episode of The Simpsons. Other episodes which feature Burns placed on the list, including "Rosebud", at number two, and the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" two-part episode, at number 25. Vanity Fair placed "Rosebud" first on their list of the top 25 The Simpsons episodes.
Forbes estimates Burns's net worth at $1.3 billion, placing 12th on the 2008 Forbes Fictional 15 list. Burns has been on the list since 1989 and has previously placed fifth in 2005, second in 2006 and sixth in 2007 when he was estimated to be worth $16.8 billion. Burns's evil has made him a popular example of terrible television bosses. In 2006, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas released a report saying that Burns was one of the eight worst bosses on television. The News & Observer named Burns the third worst boss, calling him "heartless, greedy and exceptionally ugly, Mr. Burns makes Ebenezer Scrooge seem downright lovely."
In the run-up to the New York City's 2009 mayoral election, several posters appeared throughout the city, showing Burns and accompanied by the words "No Third Terms, Vote for Burns" – a reference to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's unprecedented run for a third term that year—in the style of Shepard Fairey's Obama poster. The city's Board of Elections announced that December that Burns had received 27 write in votes out of 299 write in votes cast. As the chief of "Springfield Republican Party" Burns endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012 US Presidential Election.
Read more about this topic: Mr. Burns
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)