{{For|the 1951 novel of a similar name|The Caine Mutiny{{!}}''The Caine Mutiny''}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox Simpsons episode | image = Thecaninemutiny.png | image_size = 235 | caption = Bart and Laddie dispose of the credit card. | season = 8 | episode = 20 | director = [[Dominic Polcino]] | writer = [[Ron Hauge]] | production = 4F16 | airdate = {{Start date|1997|04|13}} | guests = *[[Frank Welker]] as Laddie | blackboard = "A fire drill does not demand a fire"<ref name="book">{{cite book |last=Groening |first=Matt |authorlink=Matt Groening |editor1-first=Ray |editor1-last=Richmond |editor1-link=Ray Richmond |editor2-first=Antonia |editor2-last=Coffman |title=[[The Simpsons episode guides#The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family|The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family]] |edition=1st |year=1997 |location=New York |publisher=[[HarperPerennial]] |lccn=98141857 |ol=433519M |oclc=37796735 |isbn=978-0-06-095252-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/simpsonscomplete00groe/page/233 233] |ref={{harvid|Richmond & Coffman|1997}} }}.</ref> | couch_gag = The couch is folded out into a bed with [[Grampa Simpson|Grampa]] asleep on it. Grampa can only utter a cry of “Huh?” before The Simpsons fold him into the couch as they sit down as normal.<ref name="BBC">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season8/page20.shtml |title=The Canine Mutiny |access-date=2007-03-30 |last1=Martyn |first1=Warren |author-link1=Gary Russell |last2 = Wood |first2=Adrian |author-link2=Gareth Roberts (writer) |year=2000 |publisher=BBC |archive-date=February 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213035325/http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season8/page20.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> | commentary = [[Josh Weinstein]]<br>[[Dominic Polcino]]<br>[[George Meyer]] | prev = [[Grade School Confidential]] | next = [[The Old Man and the Lisa]] }} "'''The Canine Mutiny'''" is the twentieth episode of the [[The Simpsons season 8|eighth season]] of the American animated television series ''[[The Simpsons]]''. It originally aired on the [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox network]] in the United States on April 13, 1997. It was written by [[Ron Hauge]] and directed by [[Dominic Polcino]].<ref name="book"/> [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] fraudulently applies for a [[credit card]] and uses it to buy an expensive trained dog called Laddie. It guest stars voice actor [[Frank Welker]] as Laddie,<ref name="BBC"/> a [[parody]] of [[Lassie]]. The episode's title references the novel ''[[The Caine Mutiny]]''.
==Plot== When [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] complains he never gets any mail, [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] gives him the family's [[Advertising mail|junk mail]]. He completes a credit card application under the name of the family dog, [[Santa's Little Helper]]. Bart receives a credit card issued to "Santos L. Halper" after the company misreads his application. He goes on a spending spree, buying the family expensive gifts from a mail-order catalog: smoked salmon and a radio-frying pan for Marge, a golf shirt for [[Homer Simpson|Homer]], [[Caffeine|pep pills]] for [[Lisa Simpson|Lisa]] and several things for himself. Undeterred by its [[United States dollar|US$]]1,200 price, Bart orders a [[Purebred dog|purebred]] [[Rough Collie|rough collie]]. When the dog arrives, Bart learns his name is Laddie and he is trained to perform several tasks. The Simpsons fall in love with the new dog and neglect Santa's Little Helper.
When he fails to pay his credit card bill, Bart gets a call from a debt [[collection agency]] demanding payment. When the calls and collection letters persist, he enlists Laddie's help to bury the ill-gotten card. Soon, [[repossession|repo men]] arrive to confiscate his purchases. When a repossessor asks for the $1,200 dog to be returned, Bart identifies Santa's Little Helper as the dog. The [[greyhound]] is herded into the truck, and he watches sadly as it drives away.
Realizing Santa's Little Helper is gone, the family bonds with Laddie, except for Bart, who fears for Santa's Little Helper's fate. When an exhausted Bart takes Laddie on one of his frequent walks, the collie saves the life of [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Baby Gerald|Baby Gerald]]. At the ceremony honoring Laddie's heroism, [[Chief Wiggum]] decides that he would make the perfect [[police dog]]. Bart gives him to the Springfield police force and breaks down crying while explaining to his family why they no longer have any dog at all. Homer instructs him to find Santa's Little Helper. Bart eventually learns from [[Reverend Timothy Lovejoy|Reverend Lovejoy]] that the dog was given to a parishioner, Mr. Mitchell.
Bart visits Mitchell to beg for his dog back, but he sees that the man is [[blindness|blind]] because he fails to notice his parrot has died. When Bart hears how the man and Santa's Little Helper have bonded, he grows heartsick and leaves. Later, Bart makes a late-night visit to the man's home and retrieves Santa's Little Helper. While trying to escape, he traps himself in a closet after mistaking it for an outside door. Thinking Bart is a [[Burglary|burglar]], Mitchell gloats that he has called the police. Bart explains that he is just a child and the dog was originally his. Bart and Mitchell call to Santa's Little Helper, so he can decide which owner he prefers. After briefly getting distracted by chasing his own tail, Santa's Little Helper chooses Bart. Chief Wiggum arrives with Laddie, who immediately sniffs out a bag of [[marijuana]] in Mitchell's pocket. As Bart and Santa's Little Helper head home, more police officers arrive to enjoy the confiscated cannabis.
==Production== The episode uses the full opening sequence because the story ran short. A long sequence was cut from the middle of the episode,<ref name=Weinstein>{{cite video |people=Weinstein, Josh |date=2006 |title=The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Canine Mutiny" |medium=DVD |publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> with half of the episode being re-written after the [[Storyboard#Animatics|animatic]] had been finished.<ref name=Polcino>{{cite video |people=Polcino, Dominic |date=2006 |title=The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Canine Mutiny" |medium=DVD |publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> The main plot of the episode came from an original idea that the family would be issued a credit card in the name "Hobart Simpson" which Bart would use.<ref name=Weinstein/> An original subplot was that Lisa would become addicted to "Trucker's Choice" [[pep pills]]. Originally, instead of going to the dog park, the family took Laddie to a waterfall, where he performed a series of dives.<ref name=Polcino/> This idea was scrapped since the script already proved that Laddie was a form of "superdog".<ref name=Meyer>{{cite video |people=Meyer, George |date=2006 |title=The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "The Canine Mutiny" |medium=DVD |publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> Likewise, the scene where Laddie rescues Baby Gerald was originally more complicated, but it was cut; the finished episode shows only the aftermath of Laddie's rescue.<ref name=Weinstein/>
Laddie was designed to resemble a real dog. The catalog Bart uses is a combination of the ''[[Lillian Vernon]]'' catalog and ''[[The Sharper Image]]'' store. The opening stemmed from the fact that the show had not had a sequence where the family received mail, and the writers wanted to create a joke about the different types of mail addressed to each family member. After Bart's "dog burning" fantasy, when he hears a ship's horn in the distance, there was originally going to be a faint cry of "more dogs", but it was deemed taking the joke too far. [[Hank Azaria]] ad-libbed the entire sequence during the closing credits in which Chief Wiggum and Lou sing along to "Jamming".<ref name=Weinstein/>
==Cultural references== The title is a reference to the [[The Caine Mutiny|novel]] and [[The Caine Mutiny (1954 film)|film]] ''The Caine Mutiny''. The dog Laddie is a riff on [[Lassie]]'s name, appearance and uncanny intelligence.<ref name="BBC"/><ref name=Weinstein/> Marge listens to the song "[[You Really Got Me]]" by [[The Kinks]] on her frying pan radio. At the end of the episode, the song "[[Jamming (song)|Jamming]]" by [[Bob Marley]] is played.<ref name="BBC"/> The design of the Repo Depot is based very loosely on the repossession agency from ''[[Repo Man (1984 film)|Repo Man]]''. The address of Mr. Mitchell's house, 57 Mt. Auburn Street, is one of the addresses of ''[[The Harvard Lampoon]]''.<ref name=Weinstein/> Mr. Mitchell's belief that his dead parrot is still alive is a reference to the "[[Dead Parrot sketch|Dead Parrot]]" [[Monty Python]] sketch.<ref name=Meyer/>
==Reception== In its original broadcast, "The Canine Mutiny" finished 43rd in ratings for the week of April 7–13, 1997, with a [[Nielsen ratings|Nielsen rating]] of 8.1, equivalent to approximately 7.9 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following ''[[The X-Files]]'', ''[[King of the Hill]]'', and ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title=ABC ratings take a record nose dive |work=Sun-Sentinel |agency=Associated Press |page=4E |date=April 17, 1997}}</ref>
The episode's ending with Chief Wiggum and Lou singing along to "Jamming" by Bob Marley is often cited as one of the best endings in the history of the show.<ref name=Weinstein/> The authors of the book ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'', [[Gary Russell]] and [[Gareth Roberts (writer)|Gareth Roberts]],<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv51/garyrussell.html|title=Gary Russell: From Peladon to Placebos|author=Preddle, Jon|date=June 1997|magazine=Time Space Visualiser|issue=51|access-date=20 August 2020|publisher=The New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club|quote=I've just done my first non-fiction book, Oh No It's A Completely Unofficial Simpsons Guide for Virgin, co-authored with Gareth Roberts which has, to be frank, been more of a nightmare than it needed to be [the book was published as I Can't Believe It's An Unofficial Simpsons Guide, with Gary and Gareth writing under the pseudonyms Warren Martyn & Adrian Wood].}}</ref> called it "A sweet episode".<ref name="BBC"/> Homer's line "There, there, shut up boy" is one of [[Josh Weinstein]]'s favorites.<ref name=Weinstein/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote|The_Simpsons/Season_8#The_Canine_Mutiny|"The Canine Mutiny"}} {{Portal|The Simpsons}} *{{Snpp capsule|4F16}} *{{IMDb episode|0701229}}
{{The Simpsons episodes|8}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canine Mutiny, The}} [[Category:1997 American television episodes]] [[Category:The Simpsons season 8 episodes]] [[Category:Television episodes directed by Dominic Polcino]]