Fear of Flying (The Simpsons)

At Moe's Tavern, the patrons pull a series of hazardous pranks on Moe that he laughs off. After pulling a harmless one, Homer is disproportionately banned for life and must find another bar. He is asked to leave a refined cocktail bar, and rejects both Cheers and a lesbian one (owing to their karaoke nights and lack of fire exits, respectively). Homer eventually settles for an airline pilots' bar, where he is mistaken for a pilot and despite his vehement protests is put in the cockpit of an airplane, which he promptly wrecks. In exchange for his silence about their mistake, the airline gives the Simpson family free tickets to any of the lower forty-eight states.

The idea of plane travel fills Marge with anxiety because she has a fear of flying. After several failed attempts to avoid the trip, she has a panic attack on the plane and the trip is postponed, whilst Grampa is left behind on the plane. To conquer Marge's phobia, Homer rents fiction films with airplane themes. This backfires when one film shows the survivors of a plane crash surviving by eating the dead crew and passengers.

When Marge shows signs of lingering flight-related trauma, manifesting as compulsions to perform household chores either at night or to an excessive degree, Lisa convinces her to undergo psychotherapy with Dr. Zweig. Homer is highly paranoid of this, believing that Dr. Zweig will identify him as a problem and convince Marge to leave him. She uncovers the roots of Marge's fear: the moment she discovered her father was not a pilot, but a flight attendant. Her shame is eased when Zweig assures her that male flight attendants are now very common, and that her father could be considered a pioneer. Marge also remembers other flying-related accidents that caused her fear, which include getting accidentally hit in the eye with an "airplane" spoon by her grandmother as an infant, riding an airplane scooter that caught fire, and being taken to a cornfield where she and her mother were attacked by a plane.

Thinking she has finally conquered her fear of flying, Marge boards a plane with Homer. The plane skids off the runway and lands in a body of water.

Anne Bancroft guest starred as Zweig.

"Fear of Flying" was directed by Mark Kirkland, and written by David Sacks.[3] The story of the episode came about when Sacks came into the writers' room with an idea for an episode where Marge goes to a therapist "for one reason or another". Sacks and the other writers then structured the rest of the plot around that storyline.[3] Anne Bancroft was called in to voice Zweig. Before Bancroft recorded her part, the animators based Zweig's design on a temp track from cast member Tress MacNeille as the therapist.[4] After Bancroft had recorded her part, Zweig was redesigned to fit with Bancroft's voice.[4] They added split glasses and a streak of silver in her hair to give her a more mature look.[4] Bancroft's husband Mel Brooks followed her to the studio, with Bancroft telling show runner David Mirkin "I can't get rid of him."[5] Brooks, who also sat next to Mirkin when Bancroft played her role and also sought to advise Mirkin,[5] would go on to guest star the same season in "Homer vs. Patty and Selma."

The staff were able to get the central cast of the American sitcom Cheers, with the exception of Kelsey Grammer, to reunite and guest star in the episode.[3] The staff could not arrange the script to allow time in the episode for Grammer, who already had a recurring role on The Simpsons as Sideshow Bob, to voice Frasier Crane (although the character does have a non speaking cameo in the episode).[3] Ted Danson guest starred as Sam, Woody Harrelson as Woody, Rhea Perlman as Carla, John Ratzenberger as Cliff, and George Wendt as Norm.[1][6]

Due to the episode running short in length, it features the long title sequence that ends with various characters performing a dance routine for the couch gag.[3]

Homer enters the Cheers bar in a scene, which is a parody of a typical episode of the comedy series Cheers.[7] All of the speaking characters are voiced by the actors who played them in Cheers. Ironically, Frasier Crane remains silent despite being played by The Simpsons veteran Kelsey Grammer, the voice of Sideshow Bob.[1] Marge's dream sees her in the role of Maureen Robinson from Lost in Space, while Homer plays Dr. Zachary Smith and Lisa plays the Robot.[7] The scene where Marge and Jacqueline Bouvier run away when a biplane shoots at them in a cornfield is a parody of Alfred Hitchcock's film North by Northwest.[3]

Homer's Mount Lushmore caricature resembles Eustace Tilley, the mascot of The New Yorker.[1] Homer's line about getting out of Springfield is lifted from It's a Wonderful Life, while Homer's all-time favorite song is revealed to be "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls.[7] Marge referring to Dr. Zweig as "Lowenstein" is a reference to the 1991 film The Prince of Tides.

The episode was selected for release in a 1999 video collection of selected episodes titled: The Simpsons Go To Hollywood.[13] Other episodes included in the collection set were "Flaming Moe's", "Krusty Gets Kancelled", and "Homer to the Max".[13] "Fear of Flying" was again included in the 2003 DVD release of the same set.[14] It was included in The Simpsons season 6 DVD set, which was released on August 16, 2005, as The Simpsons – The Complete Sixth Season.[15]

Wikiquote has quotations related to "Fear of Flying".

• "Fear of Flying episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Fear of Flying" at IMDb