The Simpsons episode
"Viva Ned Flanders"
Ned with his new wife, Ginger, and Homer with his new wife, Amber
Episode no.	213
Prod. code	AABF06
Orig. airdate	January 10, 1999
Show runner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	David M. Stern
Directed by	Neil Affleck
Chalkboard	"My mother is not dating Jerry Seinfeld"
Couch gag	The Simpsons sit on the couch as normal. A human hand (belonging to Simpsons creator Matt Groening) takes the picture and spins it, turning the paint work into a messy radial blur.
Guest star(s)	The Moody Blues as themselves
DVD commentary	Matt Groening Mike Scully George Meyer Ron Hauge Julie Thacker Neil Affleck
Season 10 August 23, 1998 – May 16, 1999 "Lard of the Dance" "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" "Bart the Mother" "Treehouse of Horror IX" "When You Dish Upon a Star" "D'oh-in in the Wind" "Lisa Gets an "A"" "Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"" "Mayored to the Mob" "Viva Ned Flanders" "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" "Homer to the Max" "I'm with Cupid" "Marge Simpson in: "Screaming Yellow Honkers"" "Make Room for Lisa" "Maximum Homerdrive" "Simpsons Bible Stories" "Mom and Pop Art" "The Old Man and the "C" Student" "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" "They Saved Lisa's Brain" "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo" List of all The Simpsons episodes
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"Viva Ned Flanders" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons' tenth season, which originally aired on January 10, 1999.^[1] Homer takes Ned to Las Vegas to show him "the right way to live," but the pair become intoxicated and marry two cocktail waitresses, eventually being kicked out of the state after trying to run away from their new relationships.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Censorship 3 Cultural references 4 Reception 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

Springfield is without a casino when Mr. Burns' Casino is demolished. However, a confusion over whether demolitions are supposed to involve implosions or explosions results in the Casino being blasted into a huge dust cloud, with Don Rickles flying through the air with the dust. The family goes to the car wash to get rid of the dust, and when Homer is there, he sees that Ned Flanders gets a senior discount. At church, Flanders admits to Homer that he is sixty years old. He says that he follows the three "c"s of success: clean living, chewing thoroughly, and "a daily dose of vitamin Church!" However, he also has never lived impulsively, and never really had any fun in life. The rest of the town stops admiring Ned for living so well, and begins to pity him for having never truly lived at all.

Ned reluctantly agrees with this and asks Homer to teach him the secret to his lust for life, leading Homer to take him on a gambling trip to Las Vegas. Homer is confident about going there, but Flanders is nervous. They see Captain Lance Murdoch (from "Bart the Daredevil") doing one of his stunts, and Homer chooses to volunteer, and survives. They wander into a casino "Nero's Palace" and begin to play roulette. Ned protests based on Deuteronomy 7 but Homer ignores the protest and takes the reference as a lucky number and they win, but immediately lose it all during a blackout. They then go to the casino's bar and get drunk, waking up the next morning in their hotel room and married to two cocktail waitresses: Homer's new wife is named Amber, and Ned's new wife is Ginger (who have video evidence of the two men marrying them while drunk).

Homer and Ned try to escape from the waitresses, and go on a wild rampage through the casino to the song Viva Las Vegas, until they are confronted by casino security, Gunter and Ernst (also from "$pringfield"), Drederick Tatum, and the Moody Blues. They fail to escape the casino, and are literally forced out of the state before being told that they are not welcome in Las Vegas again. Homer and Ned head back to their real wives in Springfield by hitchhiking. Meanwhile, two vultures fly by to attack Homer and Ned.

[edit] Censorship

• When Homer and Flanders are at the roulette wheel, Homer mutters that Barney Gumble's birthday is April 20th "same day as Hitler's" (which is accurate). In the reruns and on the season 10 DVD set, the line is changed to "July 15th, same day as Lassie's". Recently, syndicated reruns restored the "Hitler" line but the closed captioning still says "Lassie".
• In some syndicated versions of this episode that aired after the September 11th attacks, the scene where the townspeople run from the smoke wave after the demolition of Burns's Casino was removed as it bore a likeness to the events after the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

[edit] Cultural references

• The title of the episode is a parody of the title of the Elvis Presley song "Viva Las Vegas" and its associated 1964 film of the same name. That song plays when Homer and Ned are being chased and over the end credits.
• The episode begins with Mr. Burns' Casino (from the episode "$pringfield") being demolished. This is a reference to the many Las Vegas casino implosions that had occurred before the production of the episode.
• Ned Flanders says to Homer on the rooftop "this may seem a little insane in the ol' membrane", a reference to the Cypress Hill song Insane in the Brain.
• The song played in the background while Abe and Jasper are being car-jacked by the young women in the convertible is "Any Way You Want It" by Journey.
• There are two references to the film Casino:
  • Don Rickles (who played a casino manager in Casino) is seen when Mr. Burns's casino explodes.
  • Ned's Vegas wife is named Ginger (which is the name of Sharon Stone's character in Casino)
• The two guys in the car driving away from Vegas are parodies of Hunter S. Thompson's alter ego, sports reporter Raoul Duke, and his American Samoan lawyer Dr Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.
• When Ned panics in the casino he screeches "And then there's Maude!" This is a reference to the theme song And Then There's Maude from the 1972-1978 CBS sitcom Maude.
• A montage of casino signs is shown when Homer and Ned first enter Las Vegas. Several signs parody classic casinos in Las Vegas (e.g., 'Dupes' [Dunes], 'Quicksands' [Sands Hotel and Casino], 'Nero's Palace' [Caesars Palace], 'Newark, Newark' [New York-New York Hotel & Casino]). A sign identical to the sign of the Stardust Resort & Casino is also seen that reads: "Golddiggers Casino", the names have no connection.
• The song that Homer sings while riding in the car with Flanders to Vegas ("Nobody's gonna take my Ned, gonna teach him to have fun - ooh, he's a Flanders machine...") is a parody of the song "Highway Star" by Deep Purple.
• The poem recited by the The Moody Blues during their cameo appearance is based on "Late Lament", from their song "Nights in White Satin". Ray Thomas separates his flute into a knife in a fashion similar to a swordstick.
• Lisa wonders why they bothered to move the casino when they moved the town, which happened in Trash of the Titans.
• One of the many items littering the hotel room after Homer and Ned's drinking binge is The Stanley Cup.

[edit] Reception

The episode was nominated for an Emmy award in the category of animated programming less than one hour,^[2] but lost to King of the Hill episode "And They Call It Bobby Love."^[3] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood commented that the episode is "one of the fastest paced episodes ever, this moves at breathless speed and is enormous fun with more bizarre moments than you can shake a stick at (a hysterical Joan Rivers is our favourite)."^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: "Viva Ned Flanders"

• "Viva Ned Flanders" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Viva Ned Flanders" at the Internet Movie Database