Original air date: 3/28/1991
Production code: 7F17
Grandpa falls in love with an old woman named Beatrice, but when his family forces him to miss her birthday (and returns to find that Bea died of a burst heart vesselnote ), he angrily blames Homer and disowns him, but Grampa's attitude changes when he inherits Bea's money and must come up with a way to use the money for the benefit of his fellow man.
Tropes in this episode:
- The Alleged House: The Springfield Retirement Castle is run-down, leaky and decrepit. The furnishings aren't much better. Abe finally decides to use his inheritance, which he's further increased with his gambling trip, to fix the place up. The residents also get comfortable chairs, big-screen TVs, pool tables with pocket nets (the old table let the balls fall on the floor) and the Beatrice Simmons Memorial Dining Hall. The episode ends with Grampa inviting the other residents into the hall, and sums up his efforts with the final line:Grampa: Come on in, friends. Dignity's on me!
- Bait-and-Switch: When Abe is looking at Bea's picture sadly, drops are falling on it, making it appear as if he's crying a lot. It turns out to be rain water from a leaky roof.
- Bittersweet Ending: Beatrice is dead, but Abe has reconciled with his son, and uses her money to improve the conditions of the retirement home, even dedicating the dining hall in her memory.
- Calling the Young Man Out: Abe calls out his son for not believing that Bea existed and making him miss the final moments of her life.
- The Cameo: Among the people in line to tell Abe what to do with his inheritance are several characters from previous episodes, such as Princess Kashmir from "Homer's Night Out" or the sushi chef from "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" (who however has been rendered as brown-skinned instead of Asian by mistake).
- Cassandra Truth: Homer doesn't believe Abe when he says he's celebrating Bea's birthday; he thinks Abe's gone senile and is talking to imaginary people.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: Implied when Bea's ghost says they have her haunting a family in Texas.
- Couch Gag: Grampa is asleep on the couch until he's startled awake when the family comes in.
- Creative Closing Credits: This is the only episode to have the closing credits actually list all the characters each voice actor portrays, even the ones that don't appear in this episode. (This was mainly done so that people would stop asking who plays which character.)
- A Day in the Limelight: For Grampa. Among other things, this is notably when we learn his real name to be Abe.
- Death by Despair: Jasper and the others try to reassure Grampa that Bea's death was natural (she died when a ventricle in her heart burst and staff were unable to save her), but Grampa is convinced — and makes sure Homer knows it — that Bea died of "a broken heart" (because he wasn't there to celebrate her birthday).
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Grampa never expected to inherit Bea's money, and he has a hard time deciding what to actually do with it. He spoils himself a bit by buying Napoleon's (alleged) hat, but he doesn't really enjoy parasailing or going to Diz-Nee-Land. He eventually finds his solution by using his fortune to fix up the decrepit, run-down Springfield Retirement Castle.
- Died on Their Birthday: Grandpa Simpson falls in love with a lady named Beatrice Simmons and promises to attend her birthday. However, he is dragged into a discount lion safari by Homer and his family. When he returns to the Retirement Castle later that night, he finds out that Bea died of a burst ventricle (Literally, a broken heart). Because he was unable to attend her last birthday, Grandpa then says that she died of a broken heart in the metaphorical sense.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When it's Bart's turn to make a pitch for what he'll do with the money, he simply sits in Abe's lap and reels off a list of toys he wants like he's visiting a Mall Santa.
- The Drag-Along: Homer and the others take Abe on a safari against his will. Not only does the trip suck, but thanks to Homer, at least as far as Abe thinks, Bea dies from thinking Abe broke his promise.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: When Homer tries to apologize for not believing Bea was real, Abe ignores him by pretending that he can't hear Homer, who thought he's gone deaf.
- Haunted House: Lionel Hutz informs Abe that in order to get Bea's inheritance, he must spend one night in a haunted house.Hutz: (laughs) Just kidding.
- Honest John's Dealership: Herman blatantly lies about his merchandise. First he claims that a Turkish-style fez is Napoleon's hat, and then he takes Grampa's abandoned fedora and sells it as the hat William McKinley was shot in.
- Ignored Epiphany:Grampa: Has it ever occurred to you that old folks deserve to be treated like human beings, whether they have money or not!?Retirement Home Director: Yes, but it passes.
- I Have No Son!: Abe disowns Homer after the latter robs him of Bea's final moments. He makes up with him out of encouragement from her ghost.
- Irony: Interestingly, in most other episodes, Homer doesn't like spending time with Grandpa if he can avoid it. In this one, when Grandpa angrily disowns him, Homer becomes panicked and then depressed.
- It Always Rains at Funerals: It rains at Bea's funeral.
- Jerkass: Homer behaves like a pig towards Grampa until he disowns him halfway through the episode, after which he realizes how much of a heel he had been, becoming more depressed after finding out he would not get a cent out of Bea's inheritance. He redeems himself, however when he stops Grampa from losing all the money at the casino.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Homer is despondent after Abe disowns him. When he gets a call from Abe, he thinks that Abe has forgiven him...only for Abe to tell him about inheriting Bea's $106,000, and that Homer isn't getting a dime of it.Homer: Oh, Dad, I knew you'd forgive me.Abe: I haven't forgiven you! I just inherited $106,000note and I just had to tell you that you're not getting one thin dime! Ha, ha!Homer: D'oh!
- Literal Metaphor:
- Bea's death due to a broken heart is made literal with a ventricle in her heart bursting.
- When Abe returns to the retirement home after the safari, he says he has a date with an angel. Jasper remarks that he didn't know how right he was.
- Meet Cute: Abe meets Bea when their pills get mixed up because of their similar names (Simpson and Simmons).
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: In hindsight, as Grampa tells Homer that he could have been with her when she suddenly fell ill and died, instead of trapped in their car overnight on the range of Discount Lion Safari and surrounded by hungry lions. Homer shows up with his father just in time to see the ambulance being loaded with what Abe will learn is a deceased Bea.
- Nice Girl: Bea, very much so. Her ghost tells Abe that he should forgive Homer.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Inverted: Abe chews out Homer for interrupting his roulette wheel bet, but as it happens, Homer managed to prevent Abe from losing all his money.
- "Nighthawks" Shot: Abe sitting in a diner while trying to work out what to do with Bea's money.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: When Abe first told the Simpsons about Beatrice, Homer thought she was imaginary.
- On One Condition: Hutz reading Beatrice's will told Grandpa he'd have to spend a night in a haunted house to inherit her money. He was kidding.
- Say My Name: While still stuck in the car for the night, Abe looks at his watch:Abe: OH BEEEAAAAAAAAAAA!!
- Shout-Out:
- Among the people in line to tell Abe what to do with his money are Darth Vader, The Joker and a woman in a Star Trek uniform.
- Grandpa and Bea eating their pills seductively is a reference to a scene from Tom Jones.
- Souvenir Land: Grampa goes to a theme park called DIZ-NEE-LAND complete with a sign saying that it isn't affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.
- Spanner in the Works: While Homer was a Jerkass when he dragged Grampa on the Simpsons' trip to the Discount Lion Safari, Grampa probably would have returned home in time for his date if the Simpsons hadn't gone off the safari trail. They become stuck in the mud and surrounded by lions, and are stuck overnight until the safari manager finds them.
- Special Guest: Phil Hartman as Lionel Hutz and Plato; Audrey Meadows as Beatrice "Bea" Simmons.
- Teen Hater: Parodied when Grampa stereotypes teenagers as punks: When Grampa first meets Beatrice Simmons, he remarks that they're staring at each other like a "bunch of stupid punk teenagers", due to Beatrice's lazy eye.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: The people lined up with suggestions for what to do with Grampa's inheritance, one of which is The Joker from the Batman franchise. Professor Frink (the Jerry Lewis-esque Bungling Inventor) made his first appearance in this sequence.
- They Really Do Love Each Other: Homer is clearly broken up about Abe disowning him. When Bea's ghost urges Abe to reconcile with Homer, Abe admits that for all he's exasperated by his son's stupidity at times, he does love Homer.
- Unexpected Inheritance: Abe didn't expect to inherit anything from Beatrice.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Bea dies not long after we first see her. It's quite sad.
