"The Lastest Gun in the West" is the twelfth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 24, 2002. In the episode, Bart meets a retired Western star named Buck McCoy who soon becomes his idol. After McCoy shows the Simpsons some of his films, they help him revive his acting career.
The episode was directed by Bob Anderson and written by John Swartzwelder, who based the script on a story idea pitched by fellow Simpsons writer Ron Hauge. The episode features Dennis Weaver as the retired Western actor Buck McCoy, Frank Welker as the vicious dog, and Karl Wiedergott as an alcoholic resembling Walter Brennan.
When it was first broadcast, "The Lastest Gun in the West" was seen by 5.9% of the American population between ages 18 and 49. It has garnered mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
When a vicious dog chases Bart, he takes refuge in the garden of a house belonging to former Western actor Buck McCoy. After Buck shows Bart a trick to calm the dog, Bart starts to hero-worship him. Naturally, Homer learns about Bart's new idol and demands he worship him instead.
To help revive Buck's career, Bart lands him a job on Krusty the Clown's show. However, Buck gets drunk before the show and makes a fool of himself, culminating in him shooting Krusty live on air. Seeing how crushed Bart is, Marge and Homer help Buck overcome his alcoholism by cleaning his house and enrolling him in an Alcoholics Anonymous program. Despite making progress, Buck fails to restore Bart's hero-worship.
When Homer sees a news report about a robbery at the Bank of Springfield, he convinces Buck to foil the robbery and become a hero. Buck subdues the bank robbers and again becomes a hero in Bart's eyes. After acknowledging everything Homer has done, Bart declares him a hero too. As the episode ends, Bart is again chased by the vicious dog.
Production
”The Lastest Gun in the West” was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Bob Anderson. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on February 24, 2002.
Writing
The idea for the episode was pitched by Simpsons writer Ron Hauge, who thought it would be interesting to see an episode in which Bart would run into a retired Western film star in the neighborhood and "think he was the coolest guy in the world", although the actor had seen better days. Hauge suggested that Swartzwelder, who is an avid Western fan, would be the appropriate writer for the episode. Swartzwelder also pitched the plot idea about the angry dog who chases Bart in the episode.
Animation
The design for Buck McCoy was primarily based on Dennis Weaver, who portrayed him in the episode, as well as aspects of other western actors such as Roy Rogers and John Wayne. McCoy's costume in the fictional television show McTrigger was based on the attire worn by the main character in real-life television series McCloud. The design for the dog went through several different model changes until the Simpsons staff settled on the "very angry bull-terrier design" seen in the episode. A scene in the episode shows McCoy showcasing an array of films he starred in to the Simpson family through a movie projector. In order to achieve the strobe light effect done by the projector, the animators painted every other frame white and then blank.
Casting
The episode features American actor Dennis Weaver, famous for his role in the television show Gunsmoke, in a guest role as the Western actor Buck McCoy. Al Jean, the show runner for the episode, stated in the DVD commentary that Weaver was very funny, a ”terrific guy”, and that it was an honor to meet him. Karl Wiedergott, an actor who usually fills in for unavailable male cast members during table reads for The Simpsons episodes, portrayed an alcoholic resembling Walter Brennan. The dog was played by voice artist Frank Welker.