17.1 The Bonfire of the Manatees
After a fight with Homer, Marge contemplates an affair with marine biologist, Caleb Thorn (Alec Baldwin).
I like Baldwin, but this is one of the worst episodes of the season. There aren’t enough jokes to overcome this retread of an idea.
17.2 The Girl Who Slept Too Little
After the Springfield Cemetery is transplanted next door to the Simpsons, Lisa develops insomnia.
It’s a hyper contrived plot, but has moments of charm and silliness. It’s not one of the best of the season, but it’s far better than the worst.
17.3 Milhouse of Sand Fog
When Maggie gets chicken pox, Homer throws a “pox party” where Luann and Kirk rekindle their relationship. Milhouse enjoyed the attention his parents gave him when they were separated and conspires with Bart to break them up. This backfires on Bart and causes marital problems between Homer and Marge; so Milhouse and Bart work to reunite The Simpsons.
The plot is a lot to deal with in twenty two minutes, but the Van Houten’s dysfunctional relationship is always humorous to me. It’s not a spectacular episode but in the top third of the season.
17.4 Treehouse of Horror XVI
Spoofs of AI, Artificial Intelligence, the short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” and a Twilight Zone episode. I’m a big fan of AI, but this left me flat. “The Survival of the Fattest” was a fun parody building on our history with Mr. Burns and I loved the Terry Bradshaw cameo in this section.
The last section had potential and the pop culture references with the costumes was good. I loved seeing Quimby as Mayor McCheese and Lisa as Einstein, and Moe as Hugh Hefner is a funny inversion. The segment didn’t have an ending and Maggie’s decision to turn them into pacifiers was “meh,” but I did enjoy the non-sequitur tag with Dennis Rodman.
Overall a slightly subpar Treehouse Episode, but average on the season.
17.5 Marge’s Son Poisoning
Bart realizes his mom is lonely and tries to bond with her, but after seeing the Skinners’ dysfunctional relationship, Marge has an epiphany and encourages him to be his own person.
Meanwhile, Homer pursues a career in arm wrestling (with Moe as his manager).
Sad Marge stories don’t do anything for me. And the Bart / Marge dynamic is probably my least favorite of the core family.
I’m predisposed not to like this, and the jokes aren’t good enough to overcome it.
17.6 See Homer Run
Homer disappoints Lisa and while trying to fix it, winds up running for mayor to replace Quimby. He almost wins, but then reality strikes.
I didn’t care for this. I don’t really want The Simpsons to do politics and I tend to favor the more absurd, silly episodes. One of the worst of the season in my opinion.
17.7 The Last of the Red Hat Mamas
When lonely Marge joins a social club, the members convince her to steal from Mr. Burns. Meanwhile, Lisa is tutored in Italian by Milhouse and finds herself attracted to him. I like the inversion of the Lisa / Milhouse relationship and loved the Lily Tomlin cameo. The rest was pretty substandard. Marge as a forlorn housewife looking for ways to express herself has been done way too much.
17.8 The Italian Bob
When the Simpsons go to Italy to pick up a car for Mr. Burns, they unexpectedly run into Sideshow Bob who has reinvented himself as a small town mayor in the Italian countryside.
Bob claims he’s reformed, but it doesn’t take long for the Simpsons to invoke his ire and it’s another mad dash to foil his murderous plot.
There’s a really fun gag with Krusty in a production of Pagliacci which fishtails into Bob’s love of elite cultural art once again thwarting his nefarious plan.
There’s laughs, but it’s not as good as it could be. The Bob stuff worked, but the tour of Italy was a little too silly.
17.9 Simpsons Christmas Stories
For a variety of reasons, I hated this episode. Moe’s repeated suicide attempts are not funny. I get he’s a sad sack, but I’d like more hope. This episode is hostile to religion and treats the Christmas story as a joke. Why introduce a brother for Abe and promptly ignore him?
It’s a low point.
17.10 Homer’s Paternity Coot
Marge’s vendetta against a new toll booth inadvertently leads to melting ice exposing a long frozen mailman whose unopened mail indicates Abe is not Homer’s actual father.
Of course, the episode ends with the central father / son relationship confirmed and intact.
I don’t like episodes which toy with the core family dynamics. The humor from Abe / Homer is because they do love each other despite their flaws.
It’s low hanging fruit.
17.11 We’re on the Road to D’ohwhere
When Moe takes his regulars to Las Vegas, Homer travels separately to drop Bart off at reform school.
During the trip, father and son plot to ditch one another, but eventually reconcile.
Back at home, Marge and Lisa are unsuccessfully selling the boys stuff in a yard sale. When Otto convinces Marge to sell him their old prescription drugs, Wiggum promptly arrests her.
The episode ends with Lisa realizing she and Maggie may be forced to live on their own.
It’s disjointed, although the structure of a good episode is there. In most seasons, this would be in the bottom echelon, but it’s one of the best in this subpar season.
17.12 My Fair Laddy
In a parody of My Fair Lady, Lisa bets Bart she can turn Willie into a sophisticated gentleman.
I like the focus on Willie. My only real quibble is the transgender “joke” about Ms. Pummelhorst; it was weird for The Simpsons and hasn’t aged well.
This is one of the better episodes of the season.
17.13 The Seemingly-Never-Ending Story
When Homer gets stuck in a cave, Lisa distracts him with a shaggy dog story about gold, the Rich Texan and Mr. Burns which includes an unexpected Edna / Moe love story and ends with a dramatic Mexican standoff between Burns, Moe and Snake.
It’s an innovative story and I liked the Edna / Moe dynamic, but it tries to do too much and the end is too clever with a twist ending implying it was Bart telling a story to Skinner and then pivoting to suggest it did happen with a small Moe / Edna moment.
I love expanding the universe, but this was too busy for me.
17.14 Bart Has Two Mommies
Marge babysits Rodd and Todd and encourages them to live a little. Meanwhile, Bart is kidnapped by a chimpanzee looking for a replacement for her missing son.
I enjoyed discovering Mr. Teeny was the chimp’s missing son. Randy Johnson’s cameo was great. I like seeing Ned grow as a parent and I enjoyed Rod and Todd as more realistic characters.
However, the episode is not as sharp as it could be. The jokes don’t land. Good character development, but not enough laughs.
17.15 Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife
To make enough money to buy an HDTV, Homer signs the family up for a wife swap reality show.
Marge’s temporary “husband” is with Charles Heathbar (Ricky Gervais) who falls for her because she’s so different from his stern wife, Verity.
Much was made about Gervais’s involvement; he was the first person to receive a writing and a guest starring credit for the same episode.
The opening couch gag was (in its original airing) a live action version which originally aired as a Sky One Promo. I enjoyed this version and wish it aired on re-runs.
I liked Verity leaving her husband and winding up with Patty (bonding over their shared enmity of Homer).
It’s a fine episode, but mostly interesting for its novelty, not for any particular merit of its own. I wish I could hear more of Gervais’s voice. I wanted the conflict between the two comedy worldviews, instead of a sanitized version of Gervais designed to make him palatable for American audiences.
17.16 Million Dollar Abie
Homer launches a successful grass roots campaign to relocate an NFL team in Springfield, until an encounter with Grampa forces the NFL commissioner to change his mind.
When everyone in Springfield turns on Grampa he unsuccessfully tries to kill himself, and, with a new lease on life, unexpectedly decides to become a matador.
I really like the Springfield Meltdowns and the city’s flirtation with “Down Syndrome.” I loved the city’s competition with Los Angeles (including the “Springfield Blows” video).
Grampa episodes are a nice change of pace and rarely does the show focus on the Grandpa / Lisa dynamic.
One of the better episodes of the season.
17.17 Kiss Kiss Bangalore
Burns outsources the nuclear power plant to India and sends Homer to run the plant. Homer’s inflated ego leads him to abuse the Indians, until the Simpson clan comes to bring him home.
In the B story, Patty and Selma have an adventure with Richard Dean Anderson, inspiring him to fall back in love with his character Macgyver.
I really, really like the B story. Building on the sisters’ obsession with MacGyver and getting Anderson to guest in the episode feels like a major coup.
The Homer story is solid if not spectacular, and I enjoyed the Apocalypse Now references.
It’s a solid outing.
17.18 The Wettest Stories Ever Told
I like the Treehouse of Horror anthology stories, but when the show does an anthology outside of that specific formulation, it’s decidedly hit or miss.
This is one of the misses.
This trio of nautical themed parodies (The Mayflower, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Poseidon Adventure) is fine, but each one feels underdeveloped.
It seems the show goes to this crutch when they need a filler episode. “You don’t have a full episode in you; can you write a six minute sketch based on some common theme”?
17.19 Girls Just Want to Have Sums
When a new (temporary) principal segregates Springfield Elementary by sex, Lisa, dissatisfied with the girls’ class, disguises herself as a boy and befriends Bart.
Frances McDormand is great as the temporary principal. I like this twist in the Bart / Lisa dynamic and seeing Skinner put in his place is always delightful.
It’s one of the shining stars of the season.
17.20 Regarding Marge
Marge has temporary amnesia. She quickly remembers everyone in the family except Homer.
It’s too much stress on the central romantic relationship. The laughs aren’t there and I found it to be insulting.
Not the worst this season has to offer, but towards the bottom.
17.21 The Monkey Suit
When Ned and Reverend Lovejoy conspire to have creationism taught at Springfield Elementary, Lisa is arrested when she secretly continues to teach evolution.
Her trial (a parody of the Scopes trial) ends with Ned conceding Lisa’s point of view has merit and withdrawing his effort.
This episode deserves credit for admirably approaching a religion vs. science debate without pandering or seeming overtly hostile, but using Homer’s out of control antics to undermine Ned’s religious conviction is low hanging fruit and unfair to both characters. I’m not sure I buy Lovejoy’s involvement in Ned’s plot. It’s out of character for him to be so confrontational.
17.22 Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play
Homer and Marge become reluctant marriage counselors to a Springfield Isotopes player and his rockstar girlfriend.
Predictably, Homer is mistakenly thought to be having an affair with the girlfriend. Why do so many people in Springfield assume women are interested in a forty year old, balding, overweight, married father of three? The show seems to suggest Homer possesses an otherworldly sexual charisma.
It’s not a bad episode, but the jokes are not numerous enough to overcome a tired conceit.
| 1 | Girls Just Want to Have Sums |
| 2 | Million Dollar Abie |
| 3 | Kiss Kiss Bangalore |
| 4 | We’re on the Road to D’owhere |
| 5 | Milhouse of Sand and Fog |
| 6 | The Seemingly Never-Ending Story |
| 7 | My Fair Laddy |
| 8 | Treehouse of Horror XVI |
| 9 | The Italian Bob |
| 10 | Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife |
| 11 | The Monkey Suit |
| 12 | The Wettest Stories Ever Told |
| 13 | Regarding Marge |
| 14 | Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play |
| 15 | Bart Has Two Mommies |
| 16 | The Last of the Red Hot Mamas |
| 17 | Homer’s Paternity Coot |
| 18 | The Girl Who Slept Too Little |
| 19 | Marge’s Son Poisoning |
| 20 | See Homer Run |
| 21 | Simpsons Christmas Stories |
| 22 | The Bonfire of the Manatees |