Page "David Mirkin" Paragraph 16

The season five episode " Deep Space Homer ", in which the characters Homer and Barney are recruited by NASA, is Mirkin's sole writing credit on The Simpsons.

Mirkin worked on the concept for a long time, basing the story on NASA's Teacher in Space Project scheme to send ordinary civilians into space in order to spark interest amongst the general public.

The idea proved controversial to some the show's writing staff, who felt that having Homer go into space was too " large " an idea.

Series creator Matt Groening felt that the idea gave the writers " nowhere to go.

" Based on these attitudes, several jokes were toned down to make the episode feel more realistic, including the impression that everyone at NASA was as stupid as Homer.

During re-writes, Mirkin and the other writers placed greater emphasis on the relationship between Homer and his family and on Homer's attempts to be a hero, but most of Mirkin's original script was retained.

The episode is considered one of the show's best.

Colin Kennedy of Empire magazine named it a " contender for greatest ever episode ", and in Chris Turner's book, Planet Simpson, he says the episode is " second to none ".

Regarding the long sequence that begins with Homer eating potato chips in the space shuttle and ends with Kent Brockman's dramatic speech, Turner claimed that it was " simply among the finest comedic moments in the history of television ".

A copy of the episode was later sent to the International Space Station for astronauts to view.

Mirkin considers the episode to be " very very special.

" Ortved says the episode, in its plot and surreal humor, epitomizes Mirkin's era.