Simpsons Mysteries - The Mr. Burns Timeline 

When putting together the Grampa Timeline video last year, I felt like there was some unfinished business with the Mr. Burns angle. But, since his history intersects with Grampa's, I decided to put him on the backburner for a few months. Luckily, most of Mr. Burns' weird timeline stuff happens at the very beginning and the very end, so that ended up being the larger focus for this video. Enjoy! (Also Season 10 is finally up next.)

I think we have a different problem with Mr Burns Timeline, Abe Simpson is not reliable because he's senile, but Mr Burns is not reliable because he will lie to get what he wants, and that includes sympathy.

One day everyone is laughing at you because your pants fell down on-stage, the next you're blocking out the sun. It all makes sense to me.

I'm sad that Homer is a child of the 80s and 90s now. Homer and Marge at prom in the 70s was iconic

Crippled Irishmen, Death by Potato, and this video came out on March 17th. I'm starting to sense a pattern.

Simpsons mysteries idea: you should make a video about Springfield elementary school The school sometimes has a tower, sometimes not, has a ton of different rooms despite being a relatively small building, has secret corridors, a boiler room, unused class rooms, etc I think there's enough content to make a short video

It's not unreasonable for there to be a decade between the start of construction on a nuclear power plant and it being fully operational and licensed.

My favourite Mr Burns quote. “...yes”.

I never interpreted Simpsons Christmas Stories as canon. It seemed clear to me that it was a Christmas version of Treehouse of Horror. Don't let that Grampa/Burns/Santa flashback cause you too much trouble, Jims.

It could be possible that Burns' Grandpa passed away like you mentioned and upon returning to his family they became stricter and colder due to Monty's choice in leaving them. The death of the Grandpa would also explain how the family seemingly became rich through inheritance, compared to their previous financial situation.

Burns after watching this Burns: “Have The Real Slim Shady Killed” Smithers: But Sir?

Burns at the mayo clinic "Cause of parents death; got in my way"

Babe, wake up, new TheRealJims video

In regards to the opening of Rosebud it could be that he was asked to live with his grandfather, lived with him for a couple of years then his grandfather died and his parents inherited all the money.

Maybe the ''four digit age'' could have zero as the first number, since it was a bank pin. Also, I think the reason Mr. Burns isn't as senile or more senile than Abe is because he can afford better health care. I think what may have happened with his parent's financial situation was that Monty's grandpa passed away, and his parents inherited his fortune, making them rich and forcing Monty to move back in with them.

In my head cannon, Burns actually has a soft spot for Homer that he doesn’t want to admit. Which is why he pretends not to remember him all the time. It explains a lot when you think about it.

Heres what im thinking. So Young Burns went off with the Millionaire (Possibly his grandfather) and when the Millionaire died he inherited the cash but his parents became he legal guardians again and took the money off of him and could have it when he was old enough or just took it off him. By having money his parents might of fell out of love with their son and with his brothers and sisters dying they switched off mentally and sent him to boarding school just cause they couldnt deal with him or care about him. Him also failing on the stage could just make them check out more and more His mother being alive later on in the earlier seasons really does throw a spanner in the works. Its possible that she could of faked her death before coming back later owing a reason to why Mr.Burns hates her and wishes she was dead even saying he should of pulled the plug. Its unlikely and outlandish but possible. Just what i was thinking

Y'all ever wonder who those two barflies who hang out at Moe's are? The one whose bald and the one with the hat.

"smithers, i'm beginning to think that therealjims was not the brilliant tactician i thought he was"

Given how one of Burn's middle names is Schicklgruber and that was the surname of Hitler's maternal grandmother Maria Schicklgruber and Burns was one of the first *SS* officers I think Burns was Adolf's american cousin

This is how I rationalize Burn's childhood. Let's say Burn's parents are trying to get out from under the Old Man. But they are poor with lots of kids, and Grandpa offers to raise one of the kids (who shows promise) in return for some kind of financial assistance. The Parents leave it up to Burns, and he ditches them. He lives well with Grandpa for a few years, until the old man croaks. Burn's parents inherit, coming back in to the picture, along with Burn's siblings, who now threaten his inheritance. Burn's once put his parent's cause of death as "Got in my way." He gradually bumps off his siblings, and his parents get more distant as they realize the evil spawn they are dealing with. Eventually they send him off to boarding school, and he has them killed in order to inherit his fortune and destiny. His mother may have faked her death in order to escape his malice, returning only later when Burn's didn't fear her anymore, and he could let some kind of sentiment keep him from killing her. But she still loathes and resents him for what he did, so he hates dealing with her. I think Burns did want affection from his parents, but he was also like a lizard, making unsentimental choices to maximize his power and fortune. As he said, "Family, Religion, Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business." I think it makes sense that Burn is inherently evil, even if he does still have human emotions. It makes him tragic in a way, the same as a person who never bathes, stinks to high heaven, and drives off everyone around them. Destined to live in a desert of their own making.

My guess was his memories of Bobo were mixed up with Citizen Kane, like he literally watched that movie years ago and associated its plot with his own past because he related to the themes, with Bobo being his rosebud. I mean, that's what the writers wanted us to do, so why not just roll with that?

Fun fact: Mr Burns has the middle name of Plantagenet, a royal house in England during the Middle Ages. The Wiki says it’s implied that Burns is a relative of King Richard III of England

Smithers, there's a new TheRealJims video up What, already? Yes

Mr burns owned a teddy bear before they were first created! Amazing continuity

I like how in all these episodes from his younger years his hair color and style just keeps changing randomly

given Burns mentioning he was a survivor of the Titanic and the mentioning of a boating accident I believe all of Burns siblings perished in the sinking of the Titanic

Brown, red, grey, blue... we need a history of Mr. Burns' hair colors

Something to bare in mind: Just about anyone in the 81-104 age bracket in real life would have very inconsistent memories of their childhood-early adult years. Perhaps the writers purposely incorporate inconsistent memories/flashbacks into the writing using the unreliable narrator technique to show that Burns' own memory and ability to recall his own timeline is so spotty.

Interesting to note how when the show started they wanted to make Burns as evil as possible, so they made him the head of a nuclear power point. Over time its become more apparent that nuclear energy is actually some of the cleanest sources of energy, and the writers regret making that a thing, but they can't really change something that fundamental. And I know Simpsons did give a lot of people bad vibes about nuclear too

"Have Phantomstrider killed." "But Sir that's..." "Do as I say!" Seriously fab video as usual!

5:39 In Season 11 Episode 12 when burns visits the hospital he writes down on the 'cause of parents death' section that they "Got in my way" Now while it probably is a joke, especially with the other pieces of lore, it does show that burns is at the very least willing to joke about that about his parents, so it's not too far-fetched he feels the same way with his siblings.

6:28 I wouldn't call burns mom alive considering Mr burns doesn't even have a pulse

Love how Burns Childhood involved a love of comic books, which didn't begin till the 1930s, while he was supposed to have graduated from Yale, in 1914

My 1974 theory for re-opening....They could have finished a second reactor. Three Mile Island did that. They built one reactor...and then finished the second while that one came online

I picture Burns childhood being a test. His parents raise him in a poor life, and when time come, does he choose a peaceful kind childhood or the cold buisness world? He choose buisness, which is the right answer. Gets taken by his grandfather to get properly prepaired while his parents return to their cold selves.

Having seen nothing past Season 13 or so, these Histories are so damn depressing...

Ireland Simpsons Fans and TheRealJims return on the same day!? It's... beautiful

That's some nice reckless timelining Mr. J.

I'm going with the more dubious reason behind the Plant's sudden reopening because; 1:It's typical of Burns 2:It makes up for poor writing and continuity 3:I like the idea of Burns hiding out in Mexico as Senor Snrubs whilst he waits for the Feds to stop investigating Smithers Snr.'s death

My no-prize to solve the situation with his parents: The mysterious rich person who adopted him was his uncle, and he was also married, but childless. Burns would grow up to consider them his real mother and father, and they were the ones that died. His bio-dad eventually passed away, but his bio-mom is still alive in the present.

Theory: Mr Burns's parents were wealthy, but they chose to live a modest life.

He has one of the best villain songs I've ever heard, It's great to be loathed. You've know you've stolen the show, you know you'll live forever when everybody else wants you dead.

The Simpsons writers, like the Simpsons voice actors, gave up decades ago.

Just ignore everything past Season 9. There we go! Most major plot holes fixed!

These timeline videos always serve to remind how terrible this show eventually became

Mr Burns would describe this video as "Excellent"

HYPOTHESIS 1: Mr. Burns murdered his siblings in order to obtain the fortune and absorbed their life force to gain immortality, doing this, he also absorbed their memories, resulting in several different childhood memories. HYPOTHESIS 2: Mr. Burns has access to cloning technology (which we see evidence for) and every time a Mr. Burns dies a new one is born and lives out a slightly different childhood.

Or is the real villain Simpsons' continuity? It's that. That one. We all know it.

I was wondering, have you ever thought of making a mysteries on the Simpsons' cars? Homer's is so proeminent in some episodes, yet afaik we know next to nothing about it, and even less of Marge's. I think it's be cool a video on them. Also excellent video, as always.

I expected you to cover the history of the most beloved Simpsons character, the unnamed Irish policeman (who was in like 4 episodes total). Instead, you cover this man that crippled an Irishman and thought it was the funniest thing ever. Worst St. Patrick's Day ever.

Funny that one of Burns' names is "Schicklgruber" as seen at 2:43 - Hitler's father was actually named "Schicklgruber" but later changed his name to "Hitler" because of an inheritance that demanded this.

20:55 “Smithers, have EmpLemon killed”

I really like the idea that it was in-fighting between Burns' siblings that caused their demise versus him being the sole perpetrator. Maybe he's slightly more sympathetic in the sense he was defending himself, or refused to participate. With The Flying Hellfish, wouldn't he have killed all his squad members sooner rather than later if that was the case? Yes he does try to kill Abe but by that point with what we know that the rivalry had been building between the two for decades and decades. My head canon is after Asa Phelps died, things got personal, and he was especially paranoid after what happened with his siblings.

According to the book: The Simpson Family album Burns is a distant cousin of Homer and Abe.

I personally like the “Burns was born on Pangea” theory, he’s just doing some time altering shenanigans to make his life better, the young burnses we see are just his many failed attempts at redoing his life, and the present and future burnses are the successful ones where he lives for centuries and is incredibly wealthy. This is OBVIOUSLY what he’s doing and totally not just inconsistent writers. Just a funny idea I had lmao

The fact he fought in WW2 really throws off all the late 1800's stuff.

He really is the best secondary character...the writers really loved writing burns episodes.

I would assume that burn's grandfather cut off his parents and financially kept them afloat after agreeing to give them his grandson as his heir

Burns' birth year over the floating timeline is a pretty good illustration of the massive changes between the late 19th to the third decade of the 20th century. The earlier depictions of Burns, his father could have plausibly been a former slave owner and Confederate veteran, and his grandfather even more easily. The last gasps of the Indian Wars happened when he was a child, and American Indians weren't considered citizens. The Wild West still existed, even though it was rapidly shrinking. Burn would have grown up probably without power, possibly without running water. The telephone wouldn't have been around much until he was a teenager or even older. No cars, all transport on foot, rail or horse. Photography uncommon. Schooling would be drastically different. We hadn't learned to fly yet, it wouldn't have happened til he was nearly an adult. The only major mass media was the newspaper and books. Women didn't have the right to vote in most of the country. But a 104 year old now (or one in 2023, which the Simpsons is guaranteed to reach now)? He'd have grown up watching films, even talkies would have come out before he got into high school. As someone well-to-do he'd have listened to serialized radio programs. He'd have grown up with a car, possibly a phone as a rich person, music on phonographs, electrical lighting, home movies were around for the wealthy, all kinds of stuff. They'd all look old to us now, but you can tell it's a foot or two into the ballpark of the modern world. Just interesting to me.

I've always taken That Christmas episode to be non-canon since it plays out like a Halloween episode. Great break down of Burns!

Ok, now i really want a season finale where you explain how Herbert Powell shot mister Burns

I don’t think his early years, part one, is all that messy. I think he had two sets of parents. His real parents, and the wealthy parents he was given to. If you pay attention, you will notice that the rich parents look different from his original parents. They look somewhat similar, but obviously different. As if they are related. When his parents died and left him their fortune, it was his “adoptive” parents that died. His surviving mother was his real mother.

Gotta say the fact you brought up Crippler, my favorite hound, is just icing on this cake

It's the Mr. Burns of the world that made the 20th century the roller coaster ride that it was

Mr. Burns: Graduated from Yale in 1914. Was still a pre-teen in the 1930s.

Days turned to weeks, weeks into months, months turned back into days. Even burns was starting to look good to me...

Any chance youll ever do one for Apu :)?

there's a particular Burns quote that always sticks in my head when the Burns Family comes to mind where he's answering questions for a medical form. "Cause of Parents Death: Got in my way."

Poison Potatoes sounds like a great name for an Irish punk metal band.

The Burns and Simpson's family are connected like the Joestars and Brandos

Even though he's pure evil you can't help but love Mr Burns. Not me though, Mr Snrub is by far the better character.

Great job there are two things I think you missed when he was asked at the mayo clinic for the cause of his parents death he says got in my way and he also says his social security number is 000-00-0002 and he's still mad at roosevelt for it.

i never made the connection between rosebud and wealth until now, the sims money cheat makes sense now

"uploaded 29 minutes ago." I literally yelled with excitement.

I've been waiting for this one since you started doing Simpsons Histories! I love the idea that Burns' parents sold him to his own grandfather! I would love to have seen how that shaped his young adulthood... but I guess all that has gone down the continuity-toilet nowadays. Anyways, great video! I love these!

"Is the real villian of the piece, the simpsons continuity" Well I've just started watching, but I'm gonna say the answer to that question is, yes.

I didn’t think as much time had passed as this guy was old.

I love how baby Smithers wears glasses. And that Burns kinda watched over him thereafter losing Smithers Sr.

I saw from the one screen capture that you’ve already alluded to it, but last weekend showed Homer playing a parody of “Ice, Ice Baby” at his after school job while his boss, Gil, drank Crystal Pepsi. So the floating timeline has lapped itself. Homer was still a kid when _The Simpsons_ started.

Like what the Frink... the video hasn't been up a whole minute, and I'm still not first

ya know , i can accept the powerplant opening twice those things do get shutdown from time to time, usually for major upgrades which, from the 60's - 70's can beleive new safety regulations bring in. *shrugs*

If mr burns was born in the 1880s, he woulda been in his 20s by the time the teddy bear came out🤷‍♀️

Burns golfed with Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, that being the only time he had ever lost due to forfeit. This was mentioned in Se7Ep14 "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield"

Hell yes! New Simpsons mysteries to start off the day

20:55 Mr. Burns: Have LS Mark killed! Smithers: But sir, that isn't... Mr. Burns: Do as I say!

Do a timeline on Ned Flanders

I don’t really care about continuity I just think it’s funny how he keeps getting older. I don’t remember the context but I remember a joke where he is singing a national anthem and Smithers just keeps whispering every major thing that’s happened over the past 100 years he hasn’t heard about

Fantastic job on this discussion about Mr Burns. He is a fantastic amazing villain. He is definitely a great guy to call on for the more sinister and whacky plots of dark Simpsons stories. I’m not at all surprised that he never found true love. He always pushes people away, however he was sort of nice to Larry and he genuinely tried to rescue him when he thought he was kidnapped, I definitely respect that for sure!

Hey Jim, do a video about Marge's mental health and her personality shifts since Season 1 please

Woo, Something fun to watch on my birthday. Yay! Always love the videos.

uclear plants are notorious for going over budget and past timelines... The plant opening twice is not a contradiction :P

Some interesting details about his life and timeline are also he was one of the first people to get an ss number and was depicted in a wood carving terrorizing children as an old man pre invention of photography

I was so early the comment section wasnt even on

6:49 I think the rich man who adopted him died and Mr burns and his family inherited the money. Then Monty's parents treated him with no love because he had left them in a heartbeat

Congratulations u put more thought into this video than the entire writers of the Simpson

On the Burns's humanity and how it was handled during classic years, both in early seasons (grounded ones) and in late classic seasons, Burns occasionally was shown, while still more sound-minded and functional, not that much loony old man as in later seasons, also not a perpetual complete evil, but rather chaotic and without particular moral core, but able to sincere and generous actions. Among which, welcoming Homer into elite golf club by hand-made(!) cake, and arranging and leading exercises for workers in "King-Size Homer" and personally rewarding Homer for his heroics in the end of the same episode. Not an embodiment of devil at all, and either isn't that malevolent in his early appearances. Probably, he was decided to keep place of recurring villain when it got established that Homer needs some external negative forces to stay in miserable position outside of his incompetency (also irregular) as safety inspector, to keep stories coming and have at-hand antagonizing force))

Are u gonna finish up Simpsons Showdown with A Star is Burns vs Springfield Files?

I think his origin story was a good example or breaking continuity in pursuit to do a Citizen Kane homage

despite the inconsistencies handed to us by the crew, the way you laid out his history makes it feel all really well connected! well made vid