Senator Paine is an antagonist in the 1939 movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and also has the same role in the movie's remake by Mel Gibson.
History[]
Homer and Marge are in the audience at the Aztec Theater for a testing screen of a prestige picture remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington written, directed and starring Mel Gibson in the title role originally played by Jimmy Stewart. The famous "filibuster scene" toward the movie's end is very faithful to the 1939 version with Mel Gibson's character imploring Senator Paine for help as he is the senior senator from the same state as Smith (similar to Springfield, the 1939 movie never revealed which state Senators Paine and Smith represented). The test audience raved in their comment cards on how great the movie was with Homer being the only exception causing Mel Gibson to focus solely on fixing what Homer hated about the movie. Gibson brings Homer to Hollywood on a private jet to help him reshoot the movie so it becomes an ultraviolent crowd-pleaser.
In the reshot ending Mel Gibson's Smith collapses onto the Senator floor and Senator Paine snidely remarks, "I believe the Senator has yielded the floor" when at that moment Gibson's Smith opens his eyes and quips to himself, "Yield this, Senator Paine" grabbing a nearby flagpole and throwing it straight through Senator Paine's chest.
Behind the Laughter[]
Senator Paine's character design in the episode is taken almost directly from the original 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as played by actor Claude Rains.
