The Simpsons had its own whodunnit episode in season 6’s “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”, and the writers originally had a different culprit in mind: Barney Gumble, Homer’s best friend and town drunk. In over 30 seasons of stories that have even taken them beyond the limits of Springfield, The Simpsons have gone through different styles of episodes: dramas, horror specials, Lego versions, and more. Of course, they had to have their own murder mystery, which happened fairly early in the series.
The Simpsons follows the ups and downs of the title family as well as those of their friends and other notable citizens of Springfield, among those Mr. Burns, the town’s oldest and richest man. Mr. Burns is not a nice person, and has a lot more enemies than allies in town, so it’s not surprising that he was the target in the two-part episode “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”, proving that many citizens had valid reasons to go after him.
“Who Shot Mr Burns? (Part Two)” revealed that the person who shot him was none other than Maggie Simpson, though it was by mere accident, even if Mr. Burns did try to steal her candy. However, the original plan was for Barney to be the one to shoot Mr. Burns, and the writers had a good reason for that.
In season 7’s “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular”, Troy McClure introduces the audiences to a series of alternate endings to “Who Shot Mr Burns?”, among those one where Barney shoots him. In the story, Barney is one of the main suspects as Mr. Burns’ greed unleashed a chain of events that prompted Moe’s Tavern to close – and he was the only one without an alibi. As mentioned above, the culprit ended up being Maggie, though a full-length alternate ending was made in which Smithers was the one who shot his boss, and his initials are the same as Maggie’s but upside down, so it worked to an extent.
The writer’s original idea was for Barney to shoot Mr. Burns due to his strong addiction to alcohol and the only place he could get his fix – Moe’s Tavern – being forced to close. The writers said that Barney was a character that could go to jail and change the dynamic of the show, and they couldn’t think of anything else to do with him at the time. Barney shooting Mr. Burns probably wouldn’t have affected him much, unlike Maggie, who has a history of violent behavior (mostly against her father) even though she can barely walk, and shooting Springfield’s richest man only added to her reputation – and, in the end, it was funnier that the youngest Simpson member was the culprit.
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