"Simpson and Delilah" is the second episode of the second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 18, 1990. In the episode, Homer uses the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's medical insurance plan to buy Dimoxinil (a parody of Minoxidil), a miracle hair growth formula. When Homer's bald head sprouts a full mane of hair, he is promoted at work and hires a secretary named Karl. The episode was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Rich Moore, and guest starred Harvey Fierstein as Karl.
Plot
Homer uses Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's medical insurance plan to pay for a hair restoring drug worth $1,000. After applying the drug, he wakes up the next day with a full head of hair. Mr. Burns scans the security monitors to find someone to promote to the "token" position of junior executive. Mistaking Homer for a young, unspoiled go-getter, Mr. Burns promotes him.
When Homer has trouble finding a secretary who is not a seductive young woman, a man named Karl persuades Homer to hire him. Karl soon proves indispensable to Homer. When he forgets his own wedding anniversary, Karl hires a singing telegram service to serenade Marge with "You Are So Beautiful".
At an executive board meeting, Homer comes up with a way to increase worker productivity. After this, workplace safety improves and accidents decrease, which Smithers observes is because of Homer being the cause of prior accidents. Homer spends his paycheck on home improvements and plans to give the kids what they always wanted, and when Marge is concerned he should save for a rainy day, Homer dismisses it that the good times are here to stay.
After Homer receives the key to the executive washroom, Smithers is angry that he is now in Burns's good graces while Smithers's loyal service is forgotten. Smithers attempts to get Homer fired for committing insurance fraud, but Karl takes the blame and is fired instead. Homer is nervous about giving a speech at the plant, and discovers Bart has lost the contents of the miracle hair drug.
The next day, Homer loses all his hair, as he had to keep putting the drug on his head. Before the meeting, Karl appears with a prepared speech for Homer and reassures him that all his accomplishments were due to his will and effort, not the hair. Homer gives his speech, but the audience refuses to take him seriously because he has no hair and walks out on him. Burns gives Homer his old job back, sympathizing with him having male pattern baldness like Burns does.
At home that night, Marge insists that Homer's old "dead end" job as a safety inspector has always provided for the family and the kids will get over having less than their friends. When Homer is worried about his baldness making him ugly to Marge, she sings to him "You Are So Beautiful".
Production
Homer's hair product Dimoxinil is a spoof on a similar product, Minoxidil, which fascinated the writers. The production staff tried to give Homer a new hairstyle in each scene after he grows hair, which started with his long hair, then changed into a 1970s small afro, then a close-cropped 1950s haircut, and finally a moussed 1980s hairdo with a small ponytail. Homer's final look was inspired by Miami Vice. The character Karl was played by openly gay actor Harvey Fierstein. Groening had originally intended to design Karl to look like Fierstein, who objected to the idea because he felt he did not "look like gay people, how they're supposed to look." Fierstein suggested that the character be made "blond, and tall, and gorgeous, and skinny, and [given] a beautiful place to live."
In contrast to Albert Brooks, Dustin Hoffman, and Michael Jackson, who did not allow their real names to be used (Brooks later did), Fierstein was one of the very few early guest stars who was not embarrassed or reluctant to be associated with the show and welcomed his name in the credits.
The episode features a kiss between Homer and Karl, which occurred a decade prior to US television's first real man-on-man kiss on Dawson's Creek. In the episode, Karl is implied to be homosexual; creator Matt Groening says that when people began asking "was he gay?" the day after the episode aired, his response was "he's whatever you want him to be." However, Groening points out, "he does kiss Homer: He does give him a nice pat on the butt" which is "beyond [what] any other cartoon" had done at the time.