Rosebud (The Simpsons Episode)

Rosebud (The Simpsons Episode)

"Rosebud" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 21, 1993. The episode begins by showing how on the eve of his birthday, Mr. Burns starts to miss his childhood teddy bear Bobo. The bear ends up in the hands of Maggie Simpson and Burns does everything in his power to get Bobo returned to him.

"Rosebud" was written by John Swartzwelder and was the first episode to be executive produced by David Mirkin, who was the show runner for the fifth and sixth seasons of the show. Directed by Wes Archer, supervising director David Silverman describes the episode as "one of the more challenging ones" to direct. Ramones (Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, C. J. Ramone and Marky Ramone) guest star in the episode as themselves. The episode is largely a parody of the 1941 Orson Welles film Citizen Kane and the title references Charles Foster Kane's dying word "Rosebud." The episode also contains references to The Wizard of Oz, Planet of the Apes, actor George Burns, Charles Lindbergh and Adolf Hitler.

Critical reaction to "Rosebud" was largely positive and in 2003 Entertainment Weekly placed the episode in second place on their list of the 25 best episodes of The Simpsons.

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