There are a lot of mysteries and inconsistencies in The Simpsons, and one of the biggest ones is all about Mr. Burns’ backstory, which has been in constant change. Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons made its official debut on Fox in 1989 after starting as a series of animated shorts for The Tracy Ullman Show. The Simpsons has been around long enough for viewers to get to know its main and recurrent characters quite well, but many of the notable citizens of Springfield continue to be an enigma.
The Simpsons follows the daily lives of the title family along with their friends and enemies, and the backstories of many of them have been explored a couple of times – problem is, they are very inconsistent. As seasons pass, many of these backstories keep changing and there are details that don’t add up, which only make the mystery grow. Such is the case of Homer’s boss and Springfield’s wealthiest man, Mr. Burns, who has a complicated backstory.
Mr. Burns’ past has been explored a couple of times, but it keeps changing as the series progresses, becoming more and more confusing for those who have followed it from the beginning.
Charles Montgomery Burns is the owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and the town’s richest, oldest (though his exact age is unknown), and most powerful citizen. Burns is the second-youngest of 12 children and lived in a northern state with his parents, Clifford and Daphne. Burns was an amiable child, so much that his parents called him “Happy”, and had a teddy bear named Bobo. At a young age, he left his family to live with a billionaire (who was actually his grandfather), and as all his siblings died under “suspicious circumstances”, he was the heir to the family fortune – though it was later revealed that one sibling survived: George Burns. He attended Yale University and studied science and business, played on the varsity football team, and was inducted into the Skull and Bones secret society. He graduated in 1914 and a few years later wrote a book titled “The Rungs of Ruthlessness”.
In the 1920s, he used his fortune to hold excessive parties which continued until 1929 when the Great Depression hit, of which he wasn’t aware until many years later. In 1939, he joined the SS, but defected and fled Germany, and returned to the U.S. two years later. He served in the Flying Hellfish during World War II, where he fought alongside Abraham Simpson II (a.k.a. Grampa Simpson). Burns, along with the Flying Hellfish, went on to serve in the Korean War. In the 1960s, he spent time as a biochemist and bioterrorist, became a professor at Springfield University, and was the owner of a biological weapons lab until it was destroyed by peace activists (among those Homer’s mother, Mona).
Burns opened the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in 1968, and in the summer of that year, the plant suffered a meltdown and almost exploded, but Smithers Sr. sacrificed himself to save it, along with his son and pretty much to whole town. In 1974, the plant was reopened, and it has since gone through many ups and downs. The problem with Burns’ backstory is the same as his age, as he has been shown as a full-grown man, the same age he’s now, when he was supposed to be younger – such as in 19th century images – and he has pretty much lived 10 lives in just one. Besides, the series keeps adding more and more to it, such as the reveal of the surviving brother. Mr. Burns’ backstory will surely continue evolving and getting more complicated, as it’s one of The Simpsons' many running jokes.
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