Episode AABFO2
Written by Donick Carey
Directed by Mark Kirkland and Matthew Nastuk
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell
Special guest voices: George Calm (as Munchie), Martin Mull (as Seth)

Premise: Homer meets up with two old friends of his mother, and decides to join them in their hippie lifestyle. They, however, have moved on a bit, and all Homer does is destroy their business and reputation.

Features: Mr Burns, Smithers, Carl, Lenny, Grandma, Grampa, Jasper, Kent Brockman, Chief Wiggum, Lou, Eddie, Skinner, Groundskeeper Willie, Milhouse, Lewis, Ned Flanders, Maude Flanders, Dr Hibbert, Krusty.

Couch: A bar comes down over the couch, locking the family in like a fairground-ride seat.

Trivia:

• Chief Wiggum's night-sticks have two settings, twirl and whap.
• There are a number of sixties references in this episode.
• Musically, there is stuff from the musical Hair, Incense and Peppermints, a 1967 song by Strawberry Alarm Clock, Time of the Season, a 1968 single by the Zombies, and Jefferson Airplane's 1967 tune White Rabbit.
• At Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix plays his version of The Star Spangled Banner, and there is a dog named after Moray Ginsberg.
• Other guests around include Jill St John, Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller.
• There is also some imagery borrowed from Pink Floyd's promo video for their 1979 single Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two), as well as items that tend to be dotted around the psychedelic posters of the Grateful Dead.
• Bringing us up to date, Billy Joel's 1983 hit Uptown Girl gets an airing as well.
And we finally find out what the J. in Homer J. Simpson stands for: it's Jay.

Notes for Brits: Dean Rush was the US Secretary for State during the sixties. The famous US brand of ice cream, Ben & Jerry's, was made by a couple of ex-hippies, similar to Munchie and Seth, whose company is called Groovy Groove Juice, the ice cream division being Seth & Munchie's Garden Blast. Mr Burns' film is an Allan Smithee Production: Allan Smithee is a well-used pseudonym in America by writers or directors who want their names taken off a film if they feel the studio has damaged their artistic integrity.

Look out for: The two Homers talking and Yo La Tengo's closing sitar-driven rendition of the theme.

Notes: A dreadful episode that, apart from proving that Grandma Simpson married Abe when she was much younger than him, is notable only for the revelation about Homer's name. Yeah, there are lots of good excuses for sixties psychedelia, and a chance to take pot-shots at the hypocrisy of former hippies being corporate magnates now, but it's all done humourlessly.