text: two dozen and one greyhounds " two dozen and one greyhounds " is the 20th episode of the simpsons ' sixth season . it originally aired on the fox network in the united states on april 9 , 1995 . the episode was written by mike scully and directed by bob anderson . frank welker guest stars as santa 's little helper and various other dogs . in the episode , santa 's little helper has puppies with a dog that he met at the greyhound racetrack . when the simpsons cannot take care of the puppies any longer , they decide to sell them ; however , the puppies do not want to be separated . montgomery burns steals the puppies from the simpsons , and decides to make a tuxedo out of them . before he can do so , however , bart and lisa simpson save the puppies from mr. burns , and ultimately convince him never to wear fur again . the episode is inspired by dodie smith 's 1956 novel the hundred and one dalmatians and walt disney pictures ' 1961 animated film adaptation one hundred and one dalmatians . the producers decided to have mr. burns communicate his horrific plan of making a tuxedo from the puppies through a song after determining that it would be a " fun and light " way to convey his plan of killing the greyhounds . " two dozen and one greyhounds " received a generally positive reception from television critics . during the week of its original american broadcast , the episode finished 55th in ratings , with a nielsen rating of 7 . 3 . several reviews considered the episode to be one of their favorites of the series , and especially praised mr. burns ' appearances . plot the simpsons ' dog , santa 's little helper becomes very excited and runs away from home to the dog racing track , where he falls in love with a female greyhound named she 's the fastest . she is given to the simpsons after her owner notes that she will no longer race after falling in love . one day , she 's the fastest gives birth to 25 puppies . eventually , the puppies become difficult to manage , and homer and marge simpson attempt to sell them to people more capable of giving them adequate care . after seeing the puppies unwilling to separate , however , people begin to leave . suddenly , montgomery burns arrives and offers to let them live in his mansion . after the simpsons choose not to sell the puppies to him , he steals them when they are not looking . bart and lisa simpson track the puppies to mr. burns ' mansion , where they spy on him through a window . they see him treating the puppies well by giving them a bath . when one of the puppies stands on his hind legs , mr. burns picks him as his favorite of the bunch . burns inexplicably claims that the puppy reminds him of actor rory calhoun , and names him " little monty " . after the bath , mr. burns walks into the next room , loads a gun , and sings a musical number called " see my vest " ( a parody of " be our guest " from the 1991 film beauty and the beast ) while demonstrating his wardrobe of fur clothing to his personal assistant , waylon smithers . after his performance , burns prepares to kill all of the puppies , except for little monty , to make a new tuxedo for his wardrobe . after learning about mr. burns ' plan , bart and lisa sneak through the window and attempt to escape with the puppies down a laundry chute using bart 's socks . however , mr. burns is waiting for them at the bottom . as mr. burns is about to kill the dogs , bart grabs little monty from mr. burns ' hands and places him with the other puppies , hoping that mr. burns will not kill the dogs if he can not determine which is little monty . when mr. burns tells little monty to stand up , though , he does . as mr. burns bends down to pick up little monty , bart reels a clothesline with some socks hanging from it , causing all of the puppies to stand up . mr. burns can not tell which is little monty , so he prepares to shoot them all . however , the standing dogs are too cute for him to kill and , emotionally touched , he promises to never wear fur or kill any animals that can do an amusing trick . mr. burns buys all of the puppies from the simpsons and successfully raises all of them into world - class championship racing dogs , winning him millions , to homer 's dismay over the simpson 's missed fortune - making opportunity . production inspiration , writing , and music " two dozen and one greyhounds " was written by mike scully and directed by bob anderson . the simpsons writers al jean and mike reiss came up with the original idea for the episode . the idea came to them after watching the 1961 disney film one hundred and one dalmatians . david mirkin , the episode 's show runner , later jokingly said that jean and reiss liked to steal ideas from disney , and pointed to an episode in season eight that they wrote as proof , titled " simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala ( annoyed grunt ) cious " , which was based on the 1964 disney film mary poppins . mirkin thought that it was great that they could take stuff from disney and do darker versions on the simpsons " in a completely legal way " . groening was happy with the episode because it felt like a callback to the first episode of the simpsons , " simpsons roasting on an open fire " , and because it features references to one hundred and one dalmatians . the disney film thrilled groening as a kid , and was one of the reasons for why he was first interested in animation and cartooning . in one hundred and one dalmatians , the puppies watch cartoons on television several times ; the idea of a cartoon within a cartoon thrilled groening , and said that this idea inspired him to create the itchy & scratchy show , a fictional television show within the simpsons universe . mr. burns says in the episode that the puppy that stands up only on its hind legs reminds him of rory calhoun , an american actor who lived from 1922 to 1999 . the simpsons writer george meyer came up with the joke , but groening argued against it because he did not think the audience would know who calhoun was . the writers decided to keep it in anyway , because it was later expanded into a key part of the episode 's ending . several years later , groening stated that he was proven correct after pointing to discussions on the internet about the episode asking who calhoun was . as bart and lisa sneak away to mr. burns ' mansion , they see him loading a gun and singing a musical number called " see my vest " , in which he proclaims his intention to kill the puppies to make a tuxedo out of them . when the staff discussed how they could gloss over the horrifying things mr. burns would do to the dogs , one of the writers suggested that if they communicated his plan through a song , it would stay " fun and light " . scully , who agreed that the idea was good , came in the following day with complete lyrics that he wrote for " see my vest " , which was a parody of the song " be our guest " , sung by jerry orbach in the 1991 film beauty and the beast . mirkin loved scully 's work on the parody song , commenting , " the rhymes are really clever . it 's one of our very best songs [ on the simpsons ] . " he also liked the fact that songs could be used in episodes of the simpsons without the episodes turning into musicals , saying , " we 'll just do one song and that 's plenty . we have fun with that and then we 're out . " animation and voice acting even though animals in cartoons often behave with " semi - human awareness " , groening said he preferred animals in cartoons to behave exactly the way they do in real life , claiming that this was how animals were depicted in " two dozen and one greyhounds " . mirkin said there were some exceptions for gags , but most of the time they tried to keep the animals acting realistically . the animal noises for the episode were performed by frank welker , who was praised by mirkin on the dvd audio commentary for the episode , saying , " he can do anything , and it fits perfectly . you forget you 're listening to a guy , and he 's a pleasure to work with . " welker was also praised by groening , who said welker was unbelievably good at doing animal noises . the staff had a " big fight " with the fox network censors over the scene in which santa 's little helper mates with a female greyhound named she 's the fastest . the writers were originally worried about the idea , but mirkin knew that they could shoot it in a certain way to show the dogs having sex without being explicit . in the scene 's final version , the dogs are only seen from the shoulders up ; the crew 's animatic showing the scene in full was later released on dvd . anderson noted that during the episode 's censor screening , there was a giant laugh at the depiction . cultural references the overarching plot of the episode , as well as its title , was inspired by the disney film one hundred and one dalmatians , which deals with a large number of puppies similar to " two dozen and one greyhounds " . besides the film , less obvious references to disney - animated films are made throughout the episode . the song " see my vest " sung by mr. burns is a parody of " be our guest " , which is sung by lumiere ( voiced by jerry orbach ) in the film beauty and the beast . the scene in which santa 's little helper and she 's the fastest are presented with a plate of spaghetti at luigi 's italian restaurant parodies lady and the tramp . the scene in which the greyhounds watch television is similar to the of one hundred and one dalmatians . instead of watching what 's my crime ? like the do in the film , the greyhounds watch the television series models , inc . the clerk that performs a mind - meld on santa 's little helper is a reference to the vulcan mind - meld ability in star trek ; the same music from the mind - meld scenes in star trek are played during the scene . at one point , santa 's little helper looks wistfully out the window of the simpson family 's car , and then morphs out of the car window in reference to a similar scene in terminator 2 : judgment day ; music from that film plays in the background . four of the puppies are named jay , david , paul and branford , a reference to late - night talkshow hosts david letterman and jay leno and their respective bandleaders paul shaffer and , at the time , branford marsalis . reception in its original american broadcast , " two dozen and one greyhounds " finished 55th in ratings for the week of april 3 – 9 , 1995 , with a nielsen rating of 7 . 3 . the song " see my vest " from the episode , sung by mr. burns , was later released on the album songs in the key of springfield in 1997 . the daily bruin complimented the song 's lyrics as witty , and claimed that by listening to the song , memories of the episode came to mind . they noted how the musical piece revealed mr. burns ' essence of character , and that it also commented on some disturbing elements of humankind . msnbc compiled a list of " tv ’ s top 10 scariest characters " , placing mr. burns at number one . in the list , they noted , " burns is terrifying because he will do absolutely anything , and since it 's a cartoon , he just might , " pointing to " two dozen and one greyhounds " and his plans to make the puppies into a tuxedo as proof . the episode was generally well received by television critics . in a review by the toronto star , ben rayner commented that " two dozen and one greyhounds " was one of his favorite episodes of the series , and concluded that mr. burns ' " tour de force " performance was particularly captivating . the toronto star later produced a list of the best and worst the simpsons episodes , in which they considered " two dozen and one greyhounds " one of the best episodes of the series and concluded that the musical number was one of the best scenes involving mr. burns . in a review for the sixth season dvd of the simpsons , ign 's todd gilchrist found burns ' performance to be memorable , commenting that he " flirts with copyright infringement with his rendition of ' see my vest ' " . michael price of ign also considered burns ' performance to have reached a level of excellence comparable to " the monorail song " in " marge vs. the monorail " . in a review for the simpsons season six dvd , review website dvd verdict gave the episode a grade of b − . dvd movie guide 's colin jacobson appreciated the spoofs of disney films , and also complimented " the most bizarre references to rory calhoun imaginable " , concluding that the combination of these elements formed a " fine show " . in a review for the toronto star , ben rayner enjoyed " two dozen and one greyhounds " , calling it one of the classic episodes of the series .