15.1 Treehouse of Horror XIV
The fourteenth edition of the Simpsons annual tradition is one of the better ones.
In the first segment, Homer takes on the role of Grim Reaper, but balks at killing Marge.
In the second, Professor Frink wins a Nobel Prize and, while dealing with his long gestating daddy issues, briefly reanimates the deceased Frink Sr. (Jerry Lewis).
The third segment is a personal favorite. Bart and Milhouse find a stopwatch that freezes time and use it to wreak havoc. I’ve fantasized about this device since I was a child and it delights me to have it play a featured role on one of my favorite shows.
Jerry Lewis as Frink’s dad is an inspired choice.
Easily one of the best episode of the season and in the top half overall.
15.2 My Mother the Carjacker
Glenn Close returns as Mona, Homer’s fugitive mother. After she’s acquitted of her original crime (sabotaging Burns’ lab), she’s arrested for signing into federal parks using a false name.
Homer and Mona is one of the more fun relationships of the show. It gives Homer a different shading and makes him a more sympathetic figure while positioning Grampa as the villain of the story.
This is solid continuation of the sage of Mona Simpson.
15.3 The President Wore Pearls
After a scandal forces Martin to resign as student body president, Lisa is elected to replace him, but is scapegoated by the teachers to implement draconian budget cuts.
The Michael Moore cameo is great and the decision to turn this into a parody of Evita is genius. It’s one the sharpest episodes of the show in awhile and deserves mention among the best it has to offer.
15.4 The Regina Monologues
The Simpsons go to the UK and meet several British celebrities (including J.K. Rowling, Tony Blair, and Ian McKellen). Eventually Homer crashes his car into the Queen’s carriage and is arrested, only allowed to leave if he promises to take Madonna back to America.
I’m a big Anglophile and thoroughly enjoyed the British jokes. It’s amazing Blair agreed to do the show and I love the idea of Homer meeting the Queen.
A solid effort which ticks a lot of my boxes.
15.5 The Fat and the Furriest
Homer is attacked by a bear. Viral video of him cowering in fear makes him a laughing stock and he develops PTSD from the encounter. He hires a hunter to help him track down the bear, only to discover the creature attacked because it was in pain. They bond and Homer helps the bear get to a wildlife refuge (the same one where the Simpson family elephant Stampy lives).
The bizarre references almost work, but the episode is tonally wrong for the show; it makes Homer too pathetic a figure. He works best when he’s a bit of an everyman, an unintentional buffoon, but when he’s a tentative figure, he loses his charm.
Easily my least favorite episode of the season and one of the lesser episodes during the show’s run.
15.6 Today I am a Clown
When Krusty realizes he doesn’t have a star on Springfield’s Jewish Walk of Fame because he never had a bar mitzvah, he decides to have one which means he must temporarily give up his Saturday show and Homer briefly takes over.
Any episode with Rabbi Krustofski (Jackie Mason) is welcome, I really like Homer’s brief stint as a talk show host, and Krusty’s Jewishness is one of the most interesting parts of his character.
One of the better episodes of the season.
15.7 Tis the Fifteenth Season
Homer is initially very selfish at Christmas, but when he realizes how his actions have affected everyone around him, he tries to make things right.
It’s a decent parody of Christmas stories like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol, but not enough to make it memorable. It’s a straight middle of the road episode for me.
15.8 Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays
The plot is a labyrinth. Bart and Lisa accidentally turn the TV channel to a children’s guitarist, Roofi. Maggie likes the show so Marge buys a CD of his music then takes Maggie to his concert on the Spuckler farm. There’s a disastrous incident during the Teletubbies portion of the show, which leads to protests from everyone in town who doesn’t have children. Marge then forms a counter protest group to protest the protestors.
It feels like the show was attempting to make a politically salient point, but I’m not sure what it was.
It fell apart and is one of the weaker episodes of the season.
15.9 I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot
To gain Bart’s respect, Homer enters a robot battle royale. Unable to actually build a robot, he enters as a human in a robot suit. This goes as poorly as you’d expect, but Bart appreciates the effort and they grow closer.
Meanwhile, Snowball II is run over by Dr. Hibbert and Lisa goes through a few replacements (Snowball III and IV), before finding one that looks like Snowball II. When Skinner comments on the ridiculousness of her naming this new cat the same as her previous one, she reminds him his real name is Armin Tamzarian.
I love the meta commentary on The Principal and the Pauper (season 9 episode 2). I love the gallows humor of the Snowball deaths. I really enoyed the robot battles. A solid episode;. one of the better ones of this season.
15.10 Diatribe of a Mad Housewife
When Marge’s brief career as a romance novelist fuels a rumor she’s having an affair with Ned, Homer gets jealous. Thomas Pynchon famously guest stars as himself (with a paper bag over his cartoon avatar). Plus an Olsen twins cameo.
Where else can you get Pynchon and the Olsens to share a credit?
It’s not top tier stuff, but it’s above average.
15.11 Margical History Tour
A trip to the library becomes a pretext for Marge to tell Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse stories about historical figures portrayed in scenes featuring various Simpsons characters. After hearing the story of Henry VII, Sacagawea, and Mozart vs. Amadeus, Lisa realizes these are fictional stories.
The Simpsons’ tendency to take the Treehouse of Horror format and use it in other settings results in some hits and misses. For me, this was a big miss. I couldn’t get into any of the three stories. The only thing I found funny was Homer’s remembrance of Tom Hulce in Amadeus leading to a brief Animal House parody.
15.12 Milhouse Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
When Milhouse moves to Capitol City with his mother, a lonely Bart spends more time with Lisa. Meanwhile, Homer takes up panhandling to get some quick cash for Marge’s anniversary present.
Luanne and Kirk’s relationship is always funny to me, I love panhandling Homer, and the Lisa / Bart dynamic was good in this episode.
Additionally, the Isabel Sanford cameo providing a meta commentary was very effective.
15.13 Smart and Smarter
When Maggie tests well on an IQ exam, Lisa is initially happy to have a sibling she can relate to, but her threatened ego leads to an intense jealousy.
It’s nice to see Maggie emerge from the background (and not as an attempted murderer). Maggie and Lisa are not often paired in an episode, and casting Simon Cowell as a judgy preschool teacher was genius.
15.14 The Ziff Who Came to Dinner
When a bankrupt Artie Ziff (Jon Lovitz) is found squatting in the Simpson attic, the family generously allows their one time nemesis to stay. He, of course, responds to their generosity by getting Homer to take the fall for his financial misdeeds.
I love Lovitz and I love Ziff. It’s the best use of his set of skills.
However, it’s weird Ziff has had such a long history on the show. In his first episode, he attempts to rape Marge. Ziff should be the poster child for #metoo, but instead he’s a walking punch line.
15.15 Co-Dependents Day
Part complaint about Star Wars (Cosmic Wars), part deconstruction of Homer and Marge’s marriage, this is a weird entry in The Simpson canon. As the prequels have been reevaluated and wrapped in nostalgia, the Star Wars critique feels quaint and out of touch. Lucas criticism was lazy then, and now seems beneath the show.
The Marge / Homer stuff is disturbing. After a drunken night and an accident, Homer frames Marge as the driver to avoid another DUI on his record, but, after a brief stint in rehab, she forgives him.
Some jokes land and I enjoyed the Brave Combo cameo. (an obscure group helped immensely by powerful fan Matt Groening). The episode is not as bad as it could have been, but there’s not a lot to like and pissing all over Homer / Marge while attempting a full on heel turn for Homer is a bit much for my taste.
15.16 The Wandering Juvie
A misguided prank involving a wedding registry gets Barts sent to juvenile detention where he meets Gina Vendetti (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The pair escape confinement and work together on the lam (reminiscent of The Defiant Ones).
Gellar is game, but she’s a minor entry in the list of Bart’s crushes / love interests and the wedding registry prank is not nearly clever enough. It’s one of the more forgettable episodes of the season.
15.17 My Big Fat Geek Wedding
Skinner and Edna are finally going to tie the knot, but she leaves him at the altar after a brief hesitation and a pursues a fleeting fling with Comic Book Guy. Her new love proposes, but Edna forgoes being with either of her suitors.
I enjoyed the Skinner / Edna relationship and wish they had stayed together, but I understand why his warped relationship with his mother prevented him from having a real relationship. It’s sad, but true to the character we know.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the romance between Edna and Comic Book Guy. Edna’s intense desire to make a real connection and find love is one of the more moving stories of the show.
I like this more than most, because I really believed in the central relationships.
15.18 Catch ’em If you Can
Because their children are preventing them from being intimate, sexually frustrated Homer and Marge take a trip to Miami instead of going to Uncle Tyrone’s funeral. Bart and Lisa discover the ruse when a tornado destroys the hotel they are supposed to be staying at and convince Grandpa to take them to Miami to retrieve their parents.
An elaborate game of chase ensues.
This slightly above average episode is a fun send up of the sometimes mixed blessing of having children and really leans into the Simpson family dynamic.
15.19 Simple Simpson
Homer becomes a masked vigilante, Pie Man, whose sole “power” is throwing pies in the face of bad guys. Lisa discovers his identity and begs him to stop, but Burns blackmails him into continuing as his personal vigilante.
The premise is too silly and the jokes don’t land. It’s one of my least favorite episodes of the season and the series. The only thing I enjoyed was the Nichelle Nicols cameo.
15.20 The Way We Weren’t
After Bart accidentally kisses Milhouse, Homer reveals his first kiss was not with Marge but with an unknown girl at a camp for elementary kids. However, In a bizarre twist, his mystery suitor was actually Marge: she was temporarily a brunette and he was accidentally blinded in one eye at the time so they didn’t recognize each other. Marge was bitter because this boy had abandoned her and she only opened up to love with Homer in high school. This new information causes a renewed pain, but when she learns Homer kept a memento from their brief time together, their love is reaffirmed.
I didn’t really like this further exploration of the Marge / Homer dynamic. In the fifteenth season their history is pretty well established and I don’t like the shading they tried to give it here.
15.21 Bart-Mangled Banner
After Dr. Hibbert gives Bart a shot, he has a horrible reaction and temporarily loses his hearing. Through a series of bizarre mishaps, this results in Bart mooning the flag of the United States and the Simpson clan labeled as anti-American. Marge’s ill advised attempts to mitigate the damage cause even more harm and the family is imprisoned in the “Ronald Reagan Re-education Center.”
There’s some biting satire, however, The Simpsons is better at lighter fare, the harsher it’s view and angrier it grows, the less fun it becomes.
It’s one of the better political episodes of the show, but that’s damning with faint praise.
15.22 Fraudcast News
Lisa’s attempts to publish a poem, but discovers the newspaper is only interested in sensationalism, so she self-publishes a rival newspaper. When Mr. Burns buys all the local media to protect his image, this brings them into (another) conflict. Lisa is determined to fight the man, but slowly loses the battle of attrition.
Inspired by her quixotic quest, Homer launches his own newspaper and Burns realizes he can’t stop everyone from having their own opinion.
It’s a decent Lisa vs. the world episode. Sometimes her relenteless pursuit of her cause of the week is offputting, but this was one of the more tolerable ones.
Homer’s support of his daughter is admirable and Burns’ as a megamillionaire with no scruples is the character at his best,.
Not the best episode of the season but much better than it could have been.
Season ranking
| 1 | The President Wore Pearls |
| 2 | Treehouse of Horror XIV |
| 3 | Today I am a Clown |
| 4 | I (Annoyed Grunt)-bot |
| 5 | My Mother the Carjacker |
| 6 | Milhouse Doesn’t Live Here Anymore |
| 7 | My Big Fat Geek Wedding |
| 8 | Smart & Smarter |
| 9 | The Ziff Who Came to Dinner |
| 10 | Catch ‘Em If You Can |
| 11 | Diatribe of a Mad Housewife |
| 12 | The Regina Monologues |
| 13 | Bart-Mangled Banner |
| 14 | Fraudcast News |
| 15 | Co-Dependents’ Day |
| 16 | Tis the Fifteenth Season |
| 17 | Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays |
| 18 | The Way We Weren’t |
| 19 | The Wandering Juvie |
| 20 | Simple Simpson |
| 21 | Margical History Tour |
| 22 | The Fat and the Furriest |