lands in Hans Moleman's gruel pot and explodes. The police rush to the scene and arrest the chef, who easily manages to escape. As Homer and Lisa leave, he is relieved over an apparent lack of comeuppance, but the angry restaurateurs along with other townsfolk aggrieved with Homer follow them and beat him up. Production "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner" was written by Al Jean and directed by Nancy Kruse as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000). American actor Ed Asner guest starred in the episode as the newspaper editor that hires Homer. The character is based on Lou Grant, the character Asner played in the series The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant. Both shows were created by Simpsons co-producer James L. Brooks. The song Homer sings upon being given the food critic job is set to the tune of "I Feel Pretty" from the musical West Side Story. The restaurant Planet Springfield is a parody of Planet Hollywood, containing items such as the film script for The Cable Guy (1996), Herbie from The Love Bug (1968), a model of the RMS Titanic from Titanic (1997), an alien similar to those from Mars Attacks! (1996), models of a TIE fighter, an X-wing fighter and C-3PO from the Star Wars saga, as well as "the coffee mug" from the film Heartbeeps (1981) and "the cane" from Citizen Kane (1941), which is not a real prop. Reception "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 24, 1999. On October 7, 2008, the episode was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, Al Jean, George Meyer, Dan Greaney, Matt Selman and Nancy Kruse participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set. Since airing, the episode has received generally mixed reviews from critics. In 2003, Ryan Lane of The Daily Orange listed it as the ninth best episode of the series, noting that the "most recent episode on the list is also perhaps the show's last classic." Nancy Basile of About.com listed the episode as one of the episodes she felt "shined in season eleven". In 2011, Keith Plocek of LA Weeklys Squid Ink blog named "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner"