Two Dozen and One Greyhounds

"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" is the twentieth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 9, 1995. The episode was written by Mike Scully and directed by Bob Anderson. Frank Welker guest stars as Santa's Little Helper and various other dogs. In the episode, Santa's Little Helper has puppies with a dog that he met at the greyhound racetrack. The episode is a parody of Walt Disney Pictures' 1961 animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The producers decided to have Mr. Burns communicate his horrific plan of making a tuxedo from the puppies through a musical number, "See My Vest" (a parody of "Be Our Guest" from the 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast), after determining that it would be a "fun and light" way to convey his plan of killing the greyhounds. "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" received a generally positive reception from television critics. During the week of its original broadcast, the episode finished 55th in ratings, with a Nielsen rating of 7.3. Several reviews considered the episode to be among the best in the series, with Mr. Burns' role and the "See My Vest" sequence being singled out for praise.

The Simpson family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, runs away from home to the dog racing track, where he mates with a female greyhound named She's The Fastest. She gives birth to a litter of 25 puppies after her owner, the Rich Texan, gives her to the Simpsons. They quickly become too difficult to manage, so Homer and Marge try giving them away. Though several of the citizens are willing to adopt the puppies, they are unable to do so as the puppies do not like being separated, so Mr. Burns offers to take them all. Fearing he will mistreat them, Lisa persuades her parents to refuse Burns' offer, but he and Smithers secretly steal the puppies. After Chief Wiggum casually remarks that Burns has the puppies, Bart and Lisa sneak into Burns Manor. They are surprised to see him bathing and doting on the dogs. One of them stands up on its hind legs, reminding Burns of actor Rory Calhoun; he names this one "Little Monty." Bart and Lisa learn that he plans to kill the other 24 puppies and make a tuxedo from their pelts when he performs a song, using his wardrobe of macabre clothing fashioned from animal hides to make several costume changes. Bart and Lisa slip inside the mansion to retrieve the litter. The children and puppies slide down a laundry chute to the basement, where Burns and Smithers are waiting for them. To trick Burns into freeing the puppies, Bart mixes them up so that he cannot tell which one is Little Monty. After Little Monty stands on Burns' command, Bart reels a clothesline so that socks dangle overhead to get all the puppies to stand. Burns briefly considers killing all the puppies and the children, but cannot bring himself to do it since they all remind him of Calhoun. The Simpsons then let Burns keep the puppies, who grow to become world champion racing dogs and earn him millions of dollars in prize money. Marge visits the basement to find a depressed Homer having apparently hanged himself, only for it to be revealed that Homer is clinging to a roof beam, batting the lightbulb in an effort to cheer himself up.

"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" was written by Mike Scully and directed by Bob Anderson. The Simpsons writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss came up with the original idea for the episode. The idea came to them after watching the 1961 Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Mirkin thought that it was great that they could take stuff from Disney and do darker versions on The Simpsons "in a completely legal way". Mirkin said there were some exceptions for gags, but most of the time they tried to keep the animals acting realistically.

The overarching plot of the episode and its title The puppies "Prince" and "The Puppy Formerly Known as Prince" are references to "Prince" and his name change in 1993.

The song "See My Vest" from the episode, sung by Mr. Burns, was later released on the album Songs in the Key of Springfield in 1997. The Daily Bruin complimented the song's lyrics as witty, and claimed that by listening to the song, memories of the episode came to mind. They noted how the musical piece revealed Mr. Burns' essence of character, and that it also commented on some disturbing elements of humankind. MSNBC compiled a list of "TV’s top 10 scariest characters", placing Mr. Burns at number one. In the list, they noted, "Burns is terrifying because he will do absolutely anything, and since it's a cartoon, he just might", pointing to "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" and his plans to make the puppies into a tuxedo as proof. In a review by the Toronto Star, Ben Rayner commented that "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" was one of his favorite episodes of the series, and concluded that Mr. Burns' "tour de force" performance was particularly captivating. The Toronto Star later produced a list of the best and worst The Simpsons episodes, in which they considered "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" one of the best episodes of the series and concluded that the musical number was one of the best scenes involving Mr. Burns. In a review for the sixth season DVD of The Simpsons, IGN's Todd Gilchrist found Mr. Burns' performance to be memorable, commenting that he "flirts with copyright infringement with his rendition of 'See My Vest'". IGN also considered Burns' performance to have reached a level of excellence comparable to "The Monorail Song" in "Marge vs. the Monorail". In a review for The Simpsons season six DVD, review website DVD Verdict gave the episode a grade of B−. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson appreciated the spoofs of Disney films, and also complimented "the most bizarre references to Rory Calhoun imaginable", concluding that the combination of these elements formed a "fine show".

In its original broadcast, "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" finished 55th in ratings for the week of April 3–9, 1995, with a Nielsen rating of 7.3.