Mother Simpson

"Mother Simpson" is the eighth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season and first aired on November 19, 1995. After faking his own death to get a day off of work, Homer reunites with his mother Mona, whom he thought had died 27 years ago. It was directed by David Silverman and was the first episode to be written by Richard Appel.Glenn Close makes her first of four guest spots as Homer's mother.

Plot

Mr. Burns has all of his employees clean up a highway maintained by his company. Not wishing to waste his Saturday, Homer fakes his death so that he does not have to take part. He uses a replica of himself and throws it into a waterfall which gets severely broken and eventually goes into the turbines to which everyone thinks Homer killed himself. The next day, news of Homer's "death" spreads, and after getting many flowers and sympathy cards, as well as a tombstone, Marge finds out and orders Homer to go to the Springfield Hall of Records to get the "misunderstanding" sorted out. While sorting out the problem, Homer gets into an argument with a clerk who claims that Homer's mother is still alive, in spite of Homer's belief that she died while he was young. Homer visits what he believes is her grave, only to discover that it belongs to Walt Whitman. Nearby, he sees his own grave and falls into it. A woman approaches and chastises Homer for falling into her son's grave. Homer realizes that the woman is his mother, Mona, and the two have an emotional reunion after 27 years apart.