Dog of Death
Encyclopedia
"Dog of Death" is the nineteenth episode of The Simpsons
' third season
. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 12, 1992. In the episode, Santa's Little Helper
falls ill and the Simpson family
must make budget cuts in order to pay for his operation. Although the dog's life is saved, the family begins to feel the strain of their sacrifices and starts treating him badly, causing him to run away. Santa's Little Helper ends up in the possession of Mr. Burns, who trains him to become a vicious attack dog. Several days later, Bart
stumbles upon the trained Santa's Little Helper and is attacked, but the dog eventually recognizes his old friend and stops.
The episode was written by John Swartzwelder
and directed by Jim Reardon
. The writers enjoyed the previous episodes centered on Santa's Little Helper and decided to create another one, which resulted in "Dog of Death". The episode features numerous references to popular culture, including the films The Incredible Journey
and A Clockwork Orange
, and the book The Lottery
. Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
of 14.2 and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
is "in the grip of lottery fever" with a $130 million jackpot and, as a result, no one in the Simpson family
notices that their pet dog, Santa's Little Helper
, has become seriously ill. Once the dog is discovered to be sick, the family rushes him to the hospital where they learn that he needs a US$750 emergency operation of bloat
. Homer
is saddened to tell his children, Bart
and Lisa
, that the family simply cannot afford the operation. However, after seeing how much everyone loves the dog, especially Bart, he decides to find a way to pay for it.
In order to afford the operation, everyone in the family has to make sacrifices in their every day life, such as Homer having to give up on buying beer and Marge
having to cook with lower-quality food and forgo her weekly lottery ticket. Bart must get his haircuts at a local barber school and Lisa can no longer get her volumes of "Encyclopedia Generica" at the grocery store. They eventually save up enough money for the operation, which becomes a success. The family is joyous that their dog is well again, but soon begins to feel the strain of their sacrifices. As a result, the family members take out their resentment on the dog. Feeling unloved, Santa's Little Helper runs away from home and goes off on an adventure, only to be captured, taken to the pound, and adopted by Mr. Burns, who trains him to become one of his vicious attack hounds. After a long brainwashing process, consisting of the Ludovico technique
, Santa's Little Helper is turned into a bloodthirsty killer.
The family begins to regret all the nasty things they said about their dog, and Bart decides to get him back. Bart goes from home to home asking if anyone has seen his dog. When he arrives at Burns' mansion, Santa's Little Helper, along with other vicious dogs, tries to attack him. However, when remembering all the good times they had, Santa's Little Helper snaps out of his brainwashed state. After that, the other vicious dogs try to attack Bart, but Santa's Little Helper growls at them and they run away. The dog then returns to the Simpson family, who shower him with love.
and directed by Jim Reardon
. The producers decided to create another episode centered on Santa's Little Helper as they enjoyed the previous ones, particularly season one's "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
", in which the Simpson family receives him. Reardon commented that one of the hardest feats with the episode was to make Santa's Little Helper not express any human expressions, as the staff preferred animals on the show to behave exactly the way they do in real life. The plot of "Dog of Death" was based on an experience Swartzwelder had with his own dog that also suffered from bloat. However, unlike the events in the episode, Swartzwelder's dog did not receive treatment as the operation was too expensive and the dog was too old. The Gold Coast Bulletin
s Ryan Ellem commented that the Simpson family's dilemma with the cost of the veterinary procedure is a "very real" dilemma that many families "who normally don't budget for a pooch's bung knee" face.
. The scene in which Mr. Burns brainwashes Santa's Little Helper with the Ludovico technique
is a parody of Stanley Kubrick
's film A Clockwork Orange
, including the way Santa's Little Helper's eyes are held open while he is forced to watch a film featuring dog abuse, such as dogs being physically assaulted and getting their heads slammed by falling toilet lids. Ludwig van Beethoven
's ninth symphony
is heard during the sequence. In another scene, the dog Lassie
is referenced when Santa's Little Helper rescues a child from a burning building. Homer claims that Santa's Little Helper will be going to Doggie Heaven, while Richard Nixon
's dog Checkers
and Adolf Hitler
's dog Blondi
will be going to Doggie Hell. The doctor that performs the surgery on Santa's Little Helper is based on the main character in the Ben Casey
television series.
"Dog of Death" also parodies lottery advertisements. In one commercial featured in the episode, an announcement states: "The state lottery, where everybody wins," while a tiny disclaimer at the bottom of the screen can be seen saying: "Actual odds of winning, one in 380,000,000." During the peak of the lottery fever in Springfield, news anchor Kent Brockman announces on television that people hoping to get tips on how to win the jackpot have borrowed every available copy of Shirley Jackson
's book The Lottery
at the local library. One of them is Homer, who throws the book into the fireplace after Kent reveals that "Of course, the book does not contain any hints on how to win the lottery. It is, rather, a chilling tale of conformity gone mad." In her book Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy, Bernice Murphy comments that this scene displays some of the most contradictory things about Jackson: "It says a lot about the visibility of Jackson's most notorious tale that more than 50 years after its initial creation it is still famous enough to warrant a mention in the world's most famous sitcom. The fact that Springfield's citizenry also miss the point of Jackson's story completely [...] can perhaps be seen as an indication of a more general misrepresentation of Jackson and her work."
The episode contains several references to previous episodes of The Simpsons. For instance, Santa's Little Helper gets picked up by a car on a street called "Michael Jackson Expressway", a reference to the season three premiere episode "Stark Raving Dad
" that Michael Jackson
guest-starred in. In another scene, Ned Flanders
is seen wearing his "Assassin" running shoes from the season two episode "Bart's Dog Gets an F
". The flyer Homer replaces with the "lost pet" notice is Principal Skinner's "Have you seen my body?" flyer from "Bart the Murderer
".
(NBC
), which finished 28th. "Dog of Death" acquired a Nielsen rating
of 14.2, equivalent to approximately 13.1 million viewing households, which made The Simpsons the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week the episode aired. Since airing, "Dog of Death" has received positive reviews from television critics. Tom Adair of The Scotsman
considers it to be a classic episode of the show, and Mark Zlotnick of UGO's DVDFanatic named it one of his personal favorites from season three.
The episode's reference to A Clockwork Orange was named the tenth greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film
s Nathan Ditum. Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed gave "Dog of Death" a 3/5 rating and commented that people who like dogs will enjoy the episode, in part because of Mr. Burns' attack dog training program, which Meyers called a "brilliant reference to A Clockwork Orange." He added that the episode is unlikely to satisfy devoted fans, and the relationship between the family and Santa's Little Helper will not "register" to casual viewers; "Still, there are enough laughs (especially in the animal hospital) to keep the audience entertained." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson also praised the parody of A Clockwork Orange, describing it as "possibly the funniest Clockwork Orange parody I've ever seen." Jacobson added that the episode as a whole offers "a terrific program. [...] From the cracks about the lottery and public hysteria that open the program to the calamities that befall the family when Santa's Little Helper gets sick to the bizarre escapades that greet the pooch when he splits, 'Dog of Death' provides a hilarious piece."
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, praised several scenes from the episode, including Homer's dream of winning the lottery, Mr. Burns' brainwashing of Santa's Little Helper, and the closing line of the episode that "No dogs were harmed in the filming of this episode. A cat got sick, and someone shot a duck. But that's it." Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict commented that Santa's Little Helper's "twisted stomach means the family must budget themselves to pay for the surgery, and the results are some of the best lines in the history of the show. From 'lousy chub night' to 'mmmm, snouts,' the hard knock life seems to enliven Homer into one sarcastic bastard." Mikey Cahill of the Herald Sun
named this episode's chalkboard gag, "I saw nothing unusual in the teacher's lounge", the third best chalkboard gag in the show's history.
While reviewing the episode in 2011, Nathan Rabin
of The A.V. Club
noted that "perhaps because he’s a fucking dog, Santa’s Little Helper is never developed as fully as the other characters, so the requisite episode-ending orgy of sentimentality when Santa's Little Help is joyously reunited with Bart feels a little cheap and unearned."
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 3)
The Simpsons third season originally aired on the Fox network between September 19, 1991 and May 7, 1992. The show runners for the third production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss who executive produced 22 episodes the season, while two other episodes were produced by James L. Brooks, Matt...
. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 12, 1992. In the episode, Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper is a recurring character in the American animated television series The Simpsons. He is the pet greyhound of the Simpson family. The dog was introduced in the first episode of the show, the 1989 Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which his owner abandons...
falls ill and the Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
must make budget cuts in order to pay for his operation. Although the dog's life is saved, the family begins to feel the strain of their sacrifices and starts treating him badly, causing him to run away. Santa's Little Helper ends up in the possession of Mr. Burns, who trains him to become a vicious attack dog. Several days later, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
stumbles upon the trained Santa's Little Helper and is attacked, but the dog eventually recognizes his old friend and stops.
The episode was written by John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
and directed by Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an animation director and storyboard consultant, best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series, and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15...
. The writers enjoyed the previous episodes centered on Santa's Little Helper and decided to create another one, which resulted in "Dog of Death". The episode features numerous references to popular culture, including the films The Incredible Journey
The Incredible Journey (film)
The Incredible Journey is a 1963 live-action Walt Disney film based on the novel, The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford. Narrated by Rex Allen, the film follows the adventure of three pets, Luath the Labrador Retriever, Bodger the Bull Terrier, and Tao the Siamese cat, as they journey 250...
and A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It was written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick...
, and the book The Lottery
The Lottery
"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published in the June 26, 1948, issue of The New Yorker. Written the same month it was published, it is ranked today as "one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature"....
. Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 14.2 and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
Plot
SpringfieldSpringfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
is "in the grip of lottery fever" with a $130 million jackpot and, as a result, no one in the Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
notices that their pet dog, Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper is a recurring character in the American animated television series The Simpsons. He is the pet greyhound of the Simpson family. The dog was introduced in the first episode of the show, the 1989 Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which his owner abandons...
, has become seriously ill. Once the dog is discovered to be sick, the family rushes him to the hospital where they learn that he needs a US$750 emergency operation of bloat
Bloat
Bloat is a medical condition in which the stomach becomes overstretched by excessive gas content. It is also commonly referred to as torsion, gastric torsion, and gastric dilatation-volvulus when the stomach is also twisted. The word bloat is often used as a general term to cover gas distension...
. Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
is saddened to tell his children, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
, that the family simply cannot afford the operation. However, after seeing how much everyone loves the dog, especially Bart, he decides to find a way to pay for it.
In order to afford the operation, everyone in the family has to make sacrifices in their every day life, such as Homer having to give up on buying beer and Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
having to cook with lower-quality food and forgo her weekly lottery ticket. Bart must get his haircuts at a local barber school and Lisa can no longer get her volumes of "Encyclopedia Generica" at the grocery store. They eventually save up enough money for the operation, which becomes a success. The family is joyous that their dog is well again, but soon begins to feel the strain of their sacrifices. As a result, the family members take out their resentment on the dog. Feeling unloved, Santa's Little Helper runs away from home and goes off on an adventure, only to be captured, taken to the pound, and adopted by Mr. Burns, who trains him to become one of his vicious attack hounds. After a long brainwashing process, consisting of the Ludovico technique
Ludovico technique
The Ludovico technique is a fictional aversion therapy from the novel A Clockwork Orange administered by Dr. Brodsky with the approval of the UK Minister of the Interior. It involved forcing a patient to watch, through the use of specula to hold the eyes open, violent images for long periods of...
, Santa's Little Helper is turned into a bloodthirsty killer.
The family begins to regret all the nasty things they said about their dog, and Bart decides to get him back. Bart goes from home to home asking if anyone has seen his dog. When he arrives at Burns' mansion, Santa's Little Helper, along with other vicious dogs, tries to attack him. However, when remembering all the good times they had, Santa's Little Helper snaps out of his brainwashed state. After that, the other vicious dogs try to attack Bart, but Santa's Little Helper growls at them and they run away. The dog then returns to the Simpson family, who shower him with love.
Production
"Dog of Death" was written by long-time writer John SwartzwelderJohn Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
and directed by Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an animation director and storyboard consultant, best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series, and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15...
. The producers decided to create another episode centered on Santa's Little Helper as they enjoyed the previous ones, particularly season one's "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is the first full-length episode of The Simpsons to air despite originally being the eighth episode produced for season one. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 17, 1989...
", in which the Simpson family receives him. Reardon commented that one of the hardest feats with the episode was to make Santa's Little Helper not express any human expressions, as the staff preferred animals on the show to behave exactly the way they do in real life. The plot of "Dog of Death" was based on an experience Swartzwelder had with his own dog that also suffered from bloat. However, unlike the events in the episode, Swartzwelder's dog did not receive treatment as the operation was too expensive and the dog was too old. The Gold Coast Bulletin
The Gold Coast Bulletin
The Gold Coast Bulletin is a daily newspaper serving Australia's Gold Coast region.It is published as The Gold Coast Bulletin on weekdays and the Weekend Bulletin at weekends....
s Ryan Ellem commented that the Simpson family's dilemma with the cost of the veterinary procedure is a "very real" dilemma that many families "who normally don't budget for a pooch's bung knee" face.
Cultural references
"Dog of Death" features a number of references to popular culture and famous dogs. Santa's Little Helper's adventure resembles the plot of the 1963 film The Incredible JourneyThe Incredible Journey (film)
The Incredible Journey is a 1963 live-action Walt Disney film based on the novel, The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford. Narrated by Rex Allen, the film follows the adventure of three pets, Luath the Labrador Retriever, Bodger the Bull Terrier, and Tao the Siamese cat, as they journey 250...
. The scene in which Mr. Burns brainwashes Santa's Little Helper with the Ludovico technique
Ludovico technique
The Ludovico technique is a fictional aversion therapy from the novel A Clockwork Orange administered by Dr. Brodsky with the approval of the UK Minister of the Interior. It involved forcing a patient to watch, through the use of specula to hold the eyes open, violent images for long periods of...
is a parody of Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's film A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It was written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick...
, including the way Santa's Little Helper's eyes are held open while he is forced to watch a film featuring dog abuse, such as dogs being physically assaulted and getting their heads slammed by falling toilet lids. Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's ninth symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
is heard during the sequence. In another scene, the dog Lassie
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
is referenced when Santa's Little Helper rescues a child from a burning building. Homer claims that Santa's Little Helper will be going to Doggie Heaven, while Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's dog Checkers
Checkers speech
The Checkers speech or Fund speech was an address made by Richard Nixon, the Republican vice presidential candidate and junior United States Senator from California, on television and radio on September 23, 1952. Senator Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his...
and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's dog Blondi
Blondi
Blondi was Adolf Hitler's German Shepherd dog, given to him as a gift in 1941 by Martin Bormann. Blondi stayed with Hitler even after his move into the Führerbunker located underneath the garden of the Reich Chancellery on January 16, 1945...
will be going to Doggie Hell. The doctor that performs the surgery on Santa's Little Helper is based on the main character in the Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
television series.
"Dog of Death" also parodies lottery advertisements. In one commercial featured in the episode, an announcement states: "The state lottery, where everybody wins," while a tiny disclaimer at the bottom of the screen can be seen saying: "Actual odds of winning, one in 380,000,000." During the peak of the lottery fever in Springfield, news anchor Kent Brockman announces on television that people hoping to get tips on how to win the jackpot have borrowed every available copy of Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson was an American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years...
's book The Lottery
The Lottery
"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published in the June 26, 1948, issue of The New Yorker. Written the same month it was published, it is ranked today as "one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature"....
at the local library. One of them is Homer, who throws the book into the fireplace after Kent reveals that "Of course, the book does not contain any hints on how to win the lottery. It is, rather, a chilling tale of conformity gone mad." In her book Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy, Bernice Murphy comments that this scene displays some of the most contradictory things about Jackson: "It says a lot about the visibility of Jackson's most notorious tale that more than 50 years after its initial creation it is still famous enough to warrant a mention in the world's most famous sitcom. The fact that Springfield's citizenry also miss the point of Jackson's story completely [...] can perhaps be seen as an indication of a more general misrepresentation of Jackson and her work."
The episode contains several references to previous episodes of The Simpsons. For instance, Santa's Little Helper gets picked up by a car on a street called "Michael Jackson Expressway", a reference to the season three premiere episode "Stark Raving Dad
Stark Raving Dad
"Stark Raving Dad" is the first episode of the third season of American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 19, 1991...
" that Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
guest-starred in. In another scene, Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
is seen wearing his "Assassin" running shoes from the season two episode "Bart's Dog Gets an F
Bart's Dog Gets an F
"Bart's Dog Gets an F" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 7, 1991. In this episode, the Simpson family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, manages to infuriate the entire family by destroying Homer's new shoes,...
". The flyer Homer replaces with the "lost pet" notice is Principal Skinner's "Have you seen my body?" flyer from "Bart the Murderer
Bart the Murderer
"Bart the Murderer" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 10, 1991. In the episode, Bart stumbles upon the Mafia bar, Legitimate Businessman's Social Club, after having a terrible day at school. The owner of the...
".
Reception
"Dog of Death" first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 12, 1992. The episode finished 19th in the ratings that week, and beat its main competitor, The Cosby ShowThe Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
(NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
), which finished 28th. "Dog of Death" acquired a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 14.2, equivalent to approximately 13.1 million viewing households, which made The Simpsons the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week the episode aired. Since airing, "Dog of Death" has received positive reviews from television critics. Tom Adair of The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
considers it to be a classic episode of the show, and Mark Zlotnick of UGO's DVDFanatic named it one of his personal favorites from season three.
The episode's reference to A Clockwork Orange was named the tenth greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
s Nathan Ditum. Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed gave "Dog of Death" a 3/5 rating and commented that people who like dogs will enjoy the episode, in part because of Mr. Burns' attack dog training program, which Meyers called a "brilliant reference to A Clockwork Orange." He added that the episode is unlikely to satisfy devoted fans, and the relationship between the family and Santa's Little Helper will not "register" to casual viewers; "Still, there are enough laughs (especially in the animal hospital) to keep the audience entertained." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson also praised the parody of A Clockwork Orange, describing it as "possibly the funniest Clockwork Orange parody I've ever seen." Jacobson added that the episode as a whole offers "a terrific program. [...] From the cracks about the lottery and public hysteria that open the program to the calamities that befall the family when Santa's Little Helper gets sick to the bizarre escapades that greet the pooch when he splits, 'Dog of Death' provides a hilarious piece."
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, praised several scenes from the episode, including Homer's dream of winning the lottery, Mr. Burns' brainwashing of Santa's Little Helper, and the closing line of the episode that "No dogs were harmed in the filming of this episode. A cat got sick, and someone shot a duck. But that's it." Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict commented that Santa's Little Helper's "twisted stomach means the family must budget themselves to pay for the surgery, and the results are some of the best lines in the history of the show. From 'lousy chub night' to 'mmmm, snouts,' the hard knock life seems to enliven Homer into one sarcastic bastard." Mikey Cahill of the Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
named this episode's chalkboard gag, "I saw nothing unusual in the teacher's lounge", the third best chalkboard gag in the show's history.
While reviewing the episode in 2011, Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin is an American film and music critic. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Rabin was the first head writer for The A.V. Club, a position he continues to hold today....
of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
noted that "perhaps because he’s a fucking dog, Santa’s Little Helper is never developed as fully as the other characters, so the requisite episode-ending orgy of sentimentality when Santa's Little Help is joyously reunited with Bart feels a little cheap and unearned."
External links
- "Dog of Death" at The Simpsons.com