Yidio

First Aired: 2009-05-17
The people of Ogdenville move to Springfield after their economy tanks (thanks to Krusty Burger's veggie burgers), prompting Mayor Quimby to close off Springfield's borders.

First Aired: 2009-05-10
While at a nail salon, Marge and Lisa argue over whether or not a woman can be smart, beautiful, and powerful all at once, which is just as good an excuse as any to do an anthology show, featuring four stories of women trying to survive in a man's world, from Aunt Selma as Queen Elizabeth I to a grown-up Maggie Simpson working as an architect in a parody of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

First Aired: 2009-05-03
After Springfield Elementary is given the dubious distinction as "The Worst School in America," the Simpsons move to Waverly Hills. As Bart adjusts to the new school, he begins a rumor that Lisa is friends with "Alaska Nebraska," a Hanna Montana-esque pop singer. Meanwhile, Homer rents an apartment for himself and poses as a bachelor.

First Aired: 2009-04-26
While Marge shuts herself off from the world after finding a sauna in the basement of the house, Homer tries to help Bart and Lisa with their academic and social problems--which only makes things worse.

First Aired: 2009-04-19
Once again, Bart falls for a girl who seems to be good, but is just as mischievous as Bart is. Meanwhile, Lisa becomes depressed when she writes a report on Springfield's future.

First Aired: 2009-04-05
Moe once again searches for love and falls for a woman named Maya over the Internet. However, when Moe meets Maya face-to-face, he discovers it's more like face-to-knee, as Maya is only three feet tall.

First Aired: 2009-03-29
Homer and Marge decide to re-exchange their vows after discovering that their wedding (as seen in "I Married Marge") is invalid. But just before the real wedding, Homer disappears.

First Aired: 2009-03-22
After neglecting his father during a three-legged race, Homer makes it up to Grampa Simpson by taking him to a pub in Ireland, only to learn that pubs aren't popular in Ireland anymore.

First Aired: 2009-03-15
In this loose parody of The DaVinci Code, Maggie gets taken in by a convent of nuns, starting a chain of events that results in Lisa, Principal Skinner, and the Comic Book Guy racing against the Freemasons to find a jewel.

First Aired: 2009-03-08
When the adjustable rate on Homer's home mortgage (taken out to pay for Homer's annual Mardi Gras parties) increases drastically and Homer can't make the payments, 742 Evergreen Terrace is sold...to Ned Flanders, who rents it back to Homer...at least until Homer demands that Flanders repair the house.

First Aired: 2009-03-01
Bart gets a perfect score on a practice test for a national achievement test, which not only rattles Lisa, but it means Bart gets to attend a special party instead of having to take the actual test. Meanwhile, Homer must avoid injuring himself for an entire afternoon after failing to pay his insurance.

First Aired: 2009-02-15
Homer once again takes a trip through his mind through the use of drugs. This time, he wonders what life would be like for him if he won a high school student council election that was rigged so he could lose.

First Aired: 2009-01-25
Lisa and her new friend, Juliet, create a fantasy world that gives them a break from reality.

First Aired: 2008-12-08
Mr. Burns wins a professional basketball team in a poker game at the annual billionaire's retreat. In an effort to lure fans he decides to build a state-of-the-art facility, but the stadium site is on the last remaining bee colony in Springfield and Lisa leads the charge to block Burns' building.

First Aired: 2008-11-30
Homer suspects Bart's new friend, Bashir, of involvement with a terrorist plot to destroy the Springfield Mall.

First Aired: 2008-11-16
Lisa discovers she has an impressive knack for solving crossword puzzles and she enters in a city-wide crossword tournament. Feelings are hurt though when Homer bets against Lisa in the championship match.

First Aired: 2008-11-09
The Simpson clan takes a road trip to a cabin in the woods that Homer and Marge once vacationed at 20 years ago. In a series of flashbacks Homer and Marge reflect on some history from their courtship and Bart and Lisa recall some pleasant memories from their very early days.

First Aired: 2008-11-02
Parodies of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Michael Bay's Transformers and on Election Day a renegade electronic voting machine turns Homer's vote into one for the other guy.

First Aired: 2008-10-19
Bart meets his doppelganger, Simon Woosterfield, a member of the richest family in Springfield and the two decide to switch places. Simon adjusts nicely to his new digs at the Simpson home, while Bart discovers that his new siblings are plotting his death so they can have his inheritance.

First Aired: 2008-10-05
While trying to earn money at the country club, Bart acquires Denis Leary's cell phone after Leary angrily chucks it away. Bart keeps the phone and makes prank calls pretending to be Leary and when Marge finds out what Bart is doing she contacts Leary. Denis says Bart might as well keep the phone, but he advises her to activate the GPS system in the phone so she can track Bart's every move.

First Aired: 2008-09-28
Homer is sent to jail after a haphazard, booze-free brawl at the Springfield St. Patrick’s Day parade.
When he goes to get his bail bond, Homer meets Lucky Jim and Wolf the Bounty Hunter and decides to try his own hand at the lucrative profession. The new-and-improved Homer the Bounty Hunter soon teams up with Ned Flanders to create quite the unlikely bounty-hunting duo, but when Homer’s new no-mercy attitude gets the best of him, Flanders is less than impressed. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to her, Marge begins working at an erotic bakery.

First Aired: 2008-05-18
The end of the 19th season finds Lisa being awarded Springfield's Entertainer of the Year Award, with Sideshow Mel narrating her history in history, spoofing the movie "All About Eve."

First Aired: 2008-05-11
Past memories of his mother's abandonment has Homer reluctant to trust her as she comes for a visit. But he feels remorse when she dies before he can grant her one final wish.

First Aired: 2008-05-04
The Simpsons head to Park City, Utah to attend the Sundance Film Festival and view the film in which Lisa has created about her family.

First Aired: 2008-04-27
Bart raises a blue ribbon winning bull from a calf as a 4-H club project, but needs help saving him after discovering that it is scheduled to be slaughtered for meat.

First Aired: 2008-04-13
When Mayor Quimby realizes the city of Springfield has gone broke, Homer suggests they feign a natural disaster in order to obtain relief funds from the federal government. When the plan goes awry, Lisa goes through the town's financial records only to discover millions in uncollected city taxes. Springfield hits up its most notorious tax evaders, and Lurleen Lumpkin, a country music star Homer once managed, remains the last outstanding debtor. As Springfieldians scour the city to find her, Marge reluctantly permits the fugitive to stay with the family, creating a very interesting dynamic in the Simpson household.

First Aired: 2008-03-30
Lisa encourages Marge to become a ballerina, as she had always dreamed of. But the auditions to ballet school finds Lisa being invited to enroll. While there, Lisa becomes addicted to the other students second hand smoke. Meanwhile, Homer finds a snag in his beef jerky business.

First Aired: 2008-03-09
Marge makes a call to a reality show named "The Sneakers" to check up on Homer, when she feels that he has been cheating on his diet. Meanwhile, Lisa and Bart are afraid of the deadly circumstances that may arise after they play a prank on Martin Prince.

First Aired: 2008-03-02
Bart gets help with his pranks from a new kid at school, Danny. but he wonders if he can trust Danny after his pranks seem to backfire. Meanwhile, Homer falls in love with the new loaner car they use after Marge has an accident with their automobile.

First Aired: 2008-02-17
A touch of romance abounds in this episode as the Simpsons celebrate Valentine's Day with Homer and Marge taking a ride through the Tunnel of Love at a carnival, only to be trapped inside when Bart sabotages their fun with gelatin. Homer helps pass the time with his rendition of the Bonnie and Clyde love story, and Marge recites her version of Lady and the Tramp. Also, Bart tells his version of the Sid and Nancy story.

First Aired: 2008-01-27
Homer and Marge decide to tell their children about their lives during the 1990s, when Marge was a college student while Homer was working to pay her way through. However, the story takes a dramatic change when she reveals that she had almost broken up with Homer in order to be with an associate professor.

First Aired: 2008-01-06
While trying to raise some money for a bond problem, Quimby makes Springfield's primary election the first in the country causing the candidates and mass media to flood the city.

First Aired: 2007-12-16
Moe's newest and most potent concoction to date, the Forget Me Not Shot, causes Homer to lose his memory...and his family.

First Aired: 2007-11-25
Sideshow Bob is back! He brings his whole family with him this time in yet another elaborate attempt to kill Bart.

First Aired: 2007-11-18
Disappointed with Springfield's snooty, glitzy L.A. Body Works gym, Marge opens her own facility for ''real women.'' The success of Shapes: A Gym for Women creates a demand for franchises, making Marge a rich and famous woman. Homer fears her new fame and the possibility that he will be replaced by a new, handsome man.

First Aired: 2007-11-11
Millhouse's parents remarry and are honeymooning on a cruise ship when they are reported as having been swept overboard and lost at sea. Millhouse decides it's time he becomes a man.

First Aired: 2007-11-04
The series' 18th Halloween show features parodies of movies in three vignettes: A spoof of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"; plus a send up of "E.T." and "Se7en."

First Aired: 2007-10-14
in the middle of a bank heist, Marge convinces the robber (Dwight) to give himself up with a promise that she will visit him in prison. Marge doesn't live up to her promise and Dwight soon breaks out of jail and is in search of Marge.

First Aired: 2007-10-07
Homer begins working in the towing industry, but he runs into some trouble when he becomes mad with power and is framed for towing in a rival's territory. In the mean time, Marge joins a counseling group that shwos parents how to raise independant kids. Maggie seems to learn a lot from it.

First Aired: 2007-09-30
During treatment for his back, Homer realizes he has a tremendous opera voice, but he can only sing while lying on his back. Regardless, Mr. Burns hires him for the Springfield Opera House and a star is born. Homer gains a large following of fans including a woman named Julia, who turns out to be an obsessive stalker.

First Aired: 2007-09-23
Homer saves Mr. Burns' life and is rewarded with a trip in Monty's private jet. It depresses Homer when he realizes that he will never again get to fly in such an elaborate jet. Marge hires a "life coach" to help Homer out.

First Aired: 2007-05-20
Homer is the 1 millionth customer at an ice cream store and will be interviewed on the local news. A spilled cup of coffee on Kent Brockman's lap causes him to swear on live TV and Ned Flanders to lead the crusade to clean up TV. It''s Homer to the rescue when Ned wants Kent fired.

First Aired: 2007-05-20
A Counter Truancy Unit is set up at Springfield Elementary, and Lisa is in charge. Homer task is to dispose of a possible hazardous container of outdated yogurt. When the dangerous goo is obtained by Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney, Jack Bauer, Chloe O'Brian, Bart and Lisa are on a quest to stopping them from ruining the school's bake sale with the ultimate stink bomb.

First Aired: 2007-05-13
Homer takes the family into a corn maze after trying to escape from an incredibly boring harvest festival. Everyone escapes but Homer has to be rescued by Santa's Little Helper, who is then deemed a hero. the family puts him in the Police dog Academy and upon graduation he is teamed with Lou. Being a police dog is too stressful for Santa's Little Helper and he bites Bart. The dog is no longer safe for the family and Bart gets a new pet python. Bart must choose between his dog and his snake.

First Aired: 2007-05-06
Advice from "Smothering Mother" magazine leads Marge to dispose of Maggie's pacifiers. This leads Maggie to a path of destruction. Giving in, Marge enlists Homer to buy Maggie a new pacifier, but returns with a squeaky dog toy. The excessive noise leads Homer to take sleeping pills, but that turns him into a disruptive sleepwalker. One of Homer's sleepwalking pranks left Springfield without a fire department, until Homer and his buddies fill in. Their heroics earn them gifts,but when the gifts end the boys seek out other compensation.

First Aired: 2007-04-29
Bart is a hero after making the game-winning catch at his little league game, propelling the Isotots into the championship for the first time ever. Homer gets hired as a salesman at a department store.

First Aired: 2007-04-22
Marge becomes a spectacle during a PTA meeting for not having an e-mail address, and she takes a chance on using the Internet. Amazed by all the Internet has to offer, Marge decides to join a popular role-playing fantasy game named "Earthland Realms." To Marge's dismay, the game has her interacting with practically the whole town of Springfield, including Bart, who happens to be the game's most feared player. Meanwhile, Homer saves Lisa's soccer game from cancellation after he volunteers to take the place of a referee who quit. However, Homer's officiating skills only anger Lisa, and her competitive streak gets the best of her.

First Aired: 2007-03-25
After the catastrophe of the Simpson's losing their memorable photo album, Marge decides to try to recreate the photos. But when the background of one of these photos uncovers a scandel between two famous celebrities in Springfield, it is then that Homer decides to join the world of paparazzi.

First Aired: 2007-03-11
Homer accidentally declares bankruptcy and Grampa leaves the retirement home and falls for Selma. Lisa and Bart trick a delivery man out of cardboard boxes.

First Aired: 2007-03-04
Lisa tutors Cletus’s seven children and introduces them to the outside world. Krusty notices the children’s ability to sing and signs them to be a part of his traveling show.

First Aired: 2007-02-18
Documentary filmmaker, Declan Desmond returns to shows off his new documentary, Growing Up Springfield. The film documents and follows the lives of various Springfieldianites in eight year intervals.

First Aired: 2007-02-11
Lisa pretends to be Native American for multicultural day at school. Meanwhile, After saving Springfield from a devastating fire, Bart is rewarded with driver's license from Mayor Quimby. While traveling about, Bart finds love with an older teenager.

First Aired: 2007-01-28
Homer learns three lessons about revenge from stories told by Marge, Lisa and Bart that parody "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Batman Begins."

First Aired: 2007-01-07
When Homer takes Marge back to an island where she use to visit as a child, he finds the island has turned into one big dump. In an attempt to lift Marge's spirit he ends up burning down the dock and as punishment must go on a fishing trip where he gets stuck in 'The Perfect Storm'.

First Aired: 2006-12-17
Homer causes a brawl with skaters during a holiday ice skating show. Gil loses his job after he gives Lisa an otherwise sold out Malibu Stacy doll preserved for his boss' daughter.

First Aired: 2006-12-10
Because Bart is virtually the only Guest at Nelson's birthday party, Bart becomes Nelson's best friend. Under Nelson's protection nobody dares to mess with Bart anymore.

First Aired: 2006-11-26
After being fired from the power plant, Homer buys an ice-cream truck and sells Marge's sculptures of famous Springfieldians made from the discarded Popsicle sticks.

First Aired: 2006-11-19
Lisa aides Moe in becoming a published poet. But when he fails to credit Lisa for her help, she feels crushed.

First Aired: 2006-11-12
Bart enlists to join the Army in the future but Homer gets his release and winds up enlisting himself. Having completed basic training, Homer is set in charge to lead his men against disgruntled Army Colonel in a round of war games.

First Aired: 2006-11-05
Married To The Blob - A meteor crashes in Springfield. Homer eats a green goo that is revealed by the meteor and turns into rampaging blob.

You Gotta Know When To Golem - Bart conjures the Golem from the Jewish folklore to life and uses him to do his bidding.

The Day The Earth Looked Stupid - In a flashback to 1938, the citizens of Sopringfield are fooled by Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. But when Kang and Kodos invade Springfield, they are ignored.

First Aired: 2006-09-24
Marge discovers her talent as handy woman. But Springfield isn't ready for a woman carpenter yet. Marge uses Homer as a front man for her new business. Meanwhile, Bart uses Principal Skinner's peanut allergy against him by using blackmail.

First Aired: 2006-09-17
Once again Bart is acting out, but this time he is brought to see a child psychiatrist who tells Homer and Marge to get him involved in something he is interested in. Bart takes up the drums and to everyones surprise, he is a natural. When he is asked to join a jazz band, Lisa becomes jealous and turns her interest towards rescuing animals.

First Aired: 2006-09-10
The Simpsons are invited to dinner at Fat Tony's due to Lisa befriending the gangster's son Michael. But things take a turn for the worse when Fat Tony is shot moments after Michael reveals his desire to be a chef rather than being a gangster.

First Aired: 2006-05-21
A passionate kiss between Marge and Homer airs on the big screen at a baseball game, prompting second baseman Buck Mitchell to turn to the pair for advice about his marriage to singer Fiona.

First Aired: 2006-05-14
Reverend Lovejoy is appointed to spread the word of creationism in Springfield. Soon Lisa is the only supporter of the scientific evolution theory proposed by Charles Darwin. To revive the scientific view on evolution she holds secret evolution classes.

First Aired: 2006-05-07
With an incomplete house number on their curb, the Simpsons get lots of wrong delivered mail. Starting with a package with food, Homer opens this mail for his own profit. Within this mail is a prize for a one day house cleaning. In panic to look bad in front of the professional house keeper Marge mixes several house cleansers and gets unconscious from the arising fumes. While braking down she hits her head on a stool and suffers from amnesia.

First Aired: 2006-04-30
Skinner is replaced by a women's educational expert after making a sexist statement about women’s math skills after an Itchy and Scratchy musical. The new principle segregates the school into two sections. One for boys, and another for girls. At first Lisa agrees with this, but then she finds out that the girls won’t be learning any math, and decides to dress as a boy and sneak into the boys’ math class.

First Aired: 2006-04-23
When the Simpsons' plans for a nice family outing at the Frying Dutchman turn into a dining disaster, the family tries to salvage the night by telling different stories of disasters at sea. Lisa recounts the Mayflower voyage, Bart tells tales of Tahitian mutiny and Homer puts his own spin on the capsizing cruise ships.

First Aired: 2006-04-09
The nuclear power plant Homer works at is moving to India. Now it is Homer’s job to train the new employees. Meanwhile, Patty and Selma kidnap Richard Dean Anderson (most famous for his role as MacGyver). Now after seeing real-life drama Richard wants to stay in Springfield.

First Aired: 2006-04-02
Grampa ruins Homer's plans to make Springfield the new home of a pro football franchise when he mistakes the Commissioner of Football for a burglar and the football stadium is transformed into a bull fighting arena. Tortured by threatening calls from his family and friends, Grampa seeks Manfred Manslaughter's help in committing suicide. When his plan fails at the last minute, Grampa gets a new outlook on life and decides to become Springfield's very own matador.

First Aired: 2006-03-26
Homer and Marge go on a "Wife Swap" reality show. On it Marge lives with a British man, and his son, while an overly strict woman comes to live with Homer, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie. She cracks down on family’s bad habits, while Marge shows her temporary husband exactly what he wants in a woman. After a couple days he sees that he’d rather spend the rest of his life with Marge.

First Aired: 2006-03-19
Ned Flanders wins a new computer and he offers it to Marge, as he has no use for it. In return, Marge babysits the Flanders children so that Ned can attend the Left-Handed Convention, where he meets New York Yankees guest star Randy Johnson, who is selling left-handed teddy bears. With Marge spending so much time at the Flanders', Homer must look after Bart and Lisa. Homer takes the kids to an animal retirement home, but the trip goes awry when Toot-Toot the monkey pulls Bart into her cage and holds him hostage. Marge learns of the kidnapping when it is a breaking news report and she must figure out a way to get her son back.

First Aired: 2006-03-12
While cave exploring with his family, Homer causes the cave to crumble and finds himself stuck upside down in the ceiling. Marge and Bart search for help while Lisa passes the time by telling Homer a story, which turns into a chain of narrated tales.

First Aired: 2006-02-26
Lisa attempts to transform Groundskeeper Willie into a proper gentleman.

First Aired: 2006-01-29
After Bart steals a key from Principal Skinner's office and gets himself into hot water, Marge and Homer send him to a "behavior modification camp." Homer is forced to cancel his much-anticipated trip to Las Vegas in order to drive Bart to the camp, but on the way there, Homer decides it's a great time to bond with Bart.

First Aired: 2006-01-08
Marge's rage against the new toll road system somehow leads to the discovery of a frozen mailman and his 40-year-old mail. The letters are returned to the rightful recipients, including one to Grandpa Simpson's deceased wife, revealing a secret love affair and the real father of her baby, Homer.

Confused and emotional, Homer finds Mason Fairbanks, his wealthy and much improved paternal dad, and happily establishes a father-son relationship with him while rejecting his surrogate father of 40 years. But soon Homer realizes that a DNA test doesn't necessarily tell who his true father is

First Aired: 2005-12-18
The Simpsons deliver holiday cheer in this Christmas-themed trilogy. In “The First (Annoyed Grunt) – El,” when Reverend Lovejoy’s car breaks down en route to Christmas mass, Homer takes over the sermon and delivers his version of the birth of Christ (Bart) to his parents Joseph (Homer) and Mary (Marge). “I Saw Grampa Cussing Santa Claus” finds Grampa reminiscing about his daredevil days as a WWII fighter pilot, when he was stranded on an island alongside his gunner, Burns. Grampa recalls mistaking Santa Claus for an enemy aircraft and gunning him down from the sky. Realizing their mistake, Grampa helps Jolly Ol’ St. Nick to safety, only to have Burns steal the sleigh and escape the island – leaving Grampa stranded again. The final installment, “The Nutcracker … Sweet,” which finds the townspeople of Springfield preparing for Christmas Day, is set to the tune of the famed “Nutcracker” ballet.

First Aired: 2005-12-11
After Mr. Burns crashes his Stutz Bearcat, he sends Homer and the family off to Italy to pick up his new fancy sport car. While on their Italian adventure, the Simpsons end up stranded in a small Italian village where a rehabilitated Sideshow Bob reigns as mayor. Sideshow Bob impresses the Simpsons enough so that they keep his sordid past a secret until one of the family members, in a wine-induced state, spills the beans.

First Aired: 2005-11-27
Homer has an altercation with the Easter Bunny at the Mayor's egg hunt, causing Marge to be shunned. A lonely Marge decides to join a women's group called The Cheery Red Tomatoes and agrees to help with an upcoming charity drive - robbing Mr. Burns of his Faberge egg collection. Meanwhile, Lisa's plans to spend a summer in Italy hit a bump when she learns the first requirement is being fluent in Italian, so she takes on a teacher from a classified ad - who turns out to be Milhouse.

First Aired: 2005-11-20
Homer’s inability to embrace Lisa’s Father’s Day book the same way he does Bart’s Father’s Day Toolman causes Lisa to develop DDD (Disappointed Daughter Disorder). Meanwhile, Bart steals the “Bart Boulevard” street sign and causes a huge pile-up. While Mayor Quimby creates The Safety Salamander spokesperson in response to the accident, the town still forces the ineffective Mayor into a recall election. Homer, longing to win back his daughter’s love, takes the spokesperson position, and after a heroic run as The Safety Salamander, he runs for Mayor.

First Aired: 2005-11-13
Observing that Marge is lonely, Bart offers to spend time with her. After they go on tandem bike rides and decorate Bart’s tree house as a “teahouse,” the bullies from school dub Bart a mama’s boy. When Marge finds out that Bart’s schoolmates are teasing him, she gives him the necessary tools to win back his reputation. Meanwhile, Homer teams up with Moe and joins a professional arm-wrestling circuit.

First Aired: 2005-11-06
BARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - Bart ends up in a coma after attempting to jump from the roof to the swimming pool at Spinster Arms Apartments. In an effort to cope with the loss of their boy, the family takes in a robotic boy who quickly proves to be a better son. Bart awakes to discover the family wants to keep both sons. After repeatedly being shown up by the robotic boy, Bart is abandoned on the side of the road by Homer. Bart stumbles across a friendly band of discarded robots and harvests their parts to turn himself into a cyborg. While enacting his revenge, Bart accidentally cuts Homer in half and he too becomes a cyborg.
SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST- While attending a hunting party at Burns Manor, Homer panics and believes the prey is the hunting party. Mr. Burns thinks this is much better than the planned grizzly hunt and orders the chase. After bringing bad luck to anyone he has contact with, Homer finds himself alone and running for his life. Marge witnesses the game on television and arrives in time to knockout Burns and Smithers just as they are set to execute Homer.
I’VE GROWN A COSTUME ON YOUR FACE - After losing a Halloween costume contest to Dr. Hibbert as Dracula, a real witch puts a spell on the people of Springfield causing them to take the form of their costumes. Lisa deducts that Maggie in her witch costume can reverse the spell; however, the residents with favorable costumes want to stay as they are. Maggie splits the difference by turning everyone into giant pacifiers.

First Aired: 2005-09-25
Homer capitalizes on Maggie’s Chicken Pox by throwing a Pox party and charging parents to infect their children. Kirk and Luann run into each other at the party and have a “Marge-arita” assisted hook-up which ignites a “trial un-separation”. Milhouse soon realizes he was better off when his parents competed for his love and launches “Operation Reverse Parent Trap.” Inspired by an episode of THE OC, Milhouse and Bart plant one of Marge’s bras in Kirk’s closet which causes Luann to confront Homer and break-up his marriage. Bart and Milhouse’s plan to correct the situation with a poorly thought out scheme (Homer and Marge will reunite over the tragedy of seeing a dummy of Bart fall from a cliff into a raging river) goes awry and The Simpson parents must join together to save Bart from the rapids.

First Aired: 2005-09-18
The Simpsons protest the next door construction of a stamp museum and successfully have it relocated to a cemetery lot. The family is dismayed to see the old cemetery moving into the museum’s place on their neighboring lot. Lisa soon finds herself suffering fright induced sleepless nights and attempts to stay in her parents’ bed. Homer and Marge attempt spending a night in Lisa’s room to convince Lisa that it is safe; however, they are quickly scared away. While Homer and Marge turn to a psychiatrist for advice, Lisa decides to face her fears alone one night in the cemetery. After losing her footing, Lisa hits her head on a tombstone and has an unconscious vision of herself standing up to a handful of monsters who ultimately let her know that it’s ok for her to act like a kid.

First Aired: 2005-09-11
Homer agrees to let Fat Tony shoot a porno at his home in compensation for football gambling debts. He coyly sends the family for a July afternoon at Santa’s Village, but when they return ahead of schedule, Marge blows her top and storms out leaving Homer to watch the children. While camping at a rest stop, Marge befriends an attractive marine biologist who tells her that Homer will never appreciate her if she continues to run back to him. Homer and the rest of the family go in search of Marge and discover she has run away to save the manatees. The family is able to find Marge who shoots Homer down leading him to believe the only way he can win back his wife is by saving the manatees himself. While almost being killed by a gang of jet skiers and the mob (the porno tested poorly because Homer’s stomach growling ruined the audio), Homer proves to Marge that he’s not as self centered as she believed and the couple is reunited.

First Aired: 2005-05-15
Enraged at being cast as the village idiot and having livestock disrupt his yard at the school's Medieval festival, Groundskeeper Willie sabotages the event and leaves Bart to take the blame. As a result, Bart's expulsion lands him in an affordable Catholic private school where Father Sean, an Eminem quoting Priest, uses graphic stories and comic books to turn Bart on to the cooler parts of Catholicism. Bart's increased interest in the religion alarms his parents and drives Homer to visit the church to put an end to the nonsense. Father Sean lures Homer to the religion over a beer and pancake dinner and closes the deal over a game of bingo. After a marathon confession session, Homer returns to a dismayed Marge who later enlists Reverend Lovejoy and Ned's aid in springing Bart from communion class. Set on bringing Bart back to Catholicism, Homer and Father Sean chase the gang to a Protestant Youth Festival where Marge and the prospect of playing paintball lure Bart back. After a heated public debate, all members agree to disagree under the banner of Christianity and Homer decides he'd rather return to the Protestant Church rather than divide the family.

First Aired: 2005-05-15
Financial trouble inspires Ned to rent his rumpus room to a pair of college aged women. While searching the internet, Bart and Milhouse discover the women are running a soft-core web cam from their room without Ned’s knowledge. Homer quickly learns of the activities and spreads word of hot women and his ignorant neighbor. When Marge forces Homer to inform Ned of the charade, Ned becomes the laughing stock of Springfield . Homer later feels guilty and arrives at Ned’s front door equipped with a gift basket only to find the Flanders’ have moved to their dream town, “Humble, PA – Home of the Humble Figurines”. When an unruly neighbor moves in, Homer begs Ned to leave the not-so-ideal town and return to Springfield .

First Aired: 2005-05-08
An apocalyptic movie followed by three real-life omens causes Homer to fear and begin researching the rapture. Homer deducts that the event is coming in a week and he believes the only way he can get into heaven is to warn others. A skeptical Kent Brockman does a report on Homer where Homer quotes a Biblical verse involving stars falling from the sky which later happens during a Krusty Special blimp accident. After a vision (or possibly an ice cream headache) Homer takes the new believers to Springfield Mesa and awaits a rapture that never comes. A discredited Homer returns home and discovers an error in his calculations. He then returns to the mesa alone after his friends and family turn their backs on him. At the mesa, Homer experiences the rapture (or maybe a heat induced dream) where he rampages in heaven and convinces God to delay doomsday and return Homer to his family.

First Aired: 2005-05-08
Aside from Lisa, everyone in the family contracts food poisoning after eating organic produce from The Farmers’ Market. After nurturing the family back to health, Lisa agrees to participate in a Krusty sponsored “Li’l Starmaker” competition, with the first prize winner being animated into an Itchy and Scratchy episode. Lisa panics during the competition when a Christina Aguilera type performs a better rendition of “Mocking Bird” and Homer saves the day by hammering out a manipulative tune about Springfield that leads Lisa to victory. With a win under his belt, Homer becomes a stereotypical star- crazed parent and manager who ultimately drives Lisa to fire him. A distraught Homer counters by taking Lisa’s rival, Cameron, under his wing and grooming him for the finals. Lisa comes to realize that her relationship with Homer is more important than the competition and performs an apologetic song. Homer reunites with his daughter before Cameron performs an egotistical song Homer prepared to sabotage the young boy’s performance.

First Aired: 2005-05-01
When new vending machines are installed in Springfield Elementary, Bart quickly becomes a junk food junkie. Bart’s steady diet of processed foods shockingly leads to his massive weight gain and ultimately a heart attack. He is then put on a strict diet but is unable to adhere to it. The Simpsons perform an intervention and he is shipped off to Serenity Ranch - - A Forced Starvation Facility. He cheats on his diet there as well until he finds out that his family has turned their home into a hostel working day and night to please demanding and unfriendly foreigners to pay for his stay at Serenity Ranch. In the end, Bart smashes the vending machine that made him fat in the first place and gives the money to his family.

First Aired: 2005-05-01
The perfect storm hits Springfield causing the Simpson roof to leak. Marge doesn't approve of Homer's "Hot Wheels" gutter system and questions what type of father can't keep a roof
over his family's head. A downtrodden Homer seeks companionship at Moe's;
however, he is quickly driven away for accidentally announcing Lenny's surprise party. Homer's last option is Knockers, a Hooters style bar, where he befriends a beer and
Curly Joe Derita loving roofer, Ray (voiced by Ray Romano). Ray and Homer attempt to repair the roof while Marge and the kids visit the Retirement Castle . While at the Castle, Santa's Little Helper gains immediate popularity and quickly takes on the geriatric qualities of the residents. After hours of drinking beer and shooting nails at Ned, Homer falls through the roof and lands in bed. Marge returns to discover Homer in bed alone under a gaping hole. The next day Homer runs into Ray at the hardware store who agrees to help finish the roof later that day. Ray never show's and just before Dr. Hibbert drugs him with a syringe, Marge sweetly tells Homer that Ray is a figment of his imagination. Homer awakes in a mental hospital to FIGHT CLUB styled testimonials from Bart, Ned and the Knockers' bartender (all people who allegedly saw Ray) that confirm the initial diagnosis. After a round of electric shock treatment, a cured Homer and family see Ray in the hospital lobby who explains the errors in the previous testimonials. An outraged Homer finds reparations as he and Ray sit on lawn chairs drinking beers while a malpractice shy Dr. Hibbert fixes the roof.

First Aired: 2005-04-17
Professor Frink uses an astrology machine to show Bart and Lisa what their last days as high school students will be like if they don’t mend their ways. In the not-so-distant future, robots are a part of life, Moe has a clone, Homer and Marge are separated, Lisa is dating a muscle-bound Milhouse and Bart is dating the girl of his dreams, Jenda. The Simpson kids’ relationships fall apart on prom night because Lisa doesn’t love Milhouse and Jenda has moved past Bart. In an effort to prove his maturity to Jenda, Bart takes a job at the Kwik-E-Mart. While on a routine delivery, Bart saves Mr. Burns from a robber. In turn, Mr. Burns rewards Bart with a Yale scholarship initially intended for Lisa. Bart uses the scholarship to win back Jenda and he later attempts to ease his conscience by encouraging Milhouse to reunite with Lisa. Bart and Jenda sneak away to an abandoned Frink’s house where Bart uses the astrology machine to peer further into the future. Bart is dismayed to see an unhappily married Lisa and Milhouse caring for geriatric versions of Homer and Kirk. Bart’s conscience causes him to leave Jenda, stop Milhouse’s advances and return the scholarship to his sister. In the present Bart and Lisa see how the selfless act reunites Homer and Marge.

First Aired: 2005-04-03
While on a family trip to Shelbyville, Marge is dismayed to see how Springfield residents are perceived as hicks in a production of "SONG OF SHELBYVILLE". At the next Springfield Cultural Activities Board meeting, Marge convinces the townspeople to fund a Frank Gehry designed concert hall. The opening night hustle and bustle is cut short as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony drives the uninterested townspeople away in droves which leads to the bankruptcy of the hall. The ever generous Mr. Burns assumes the debt of the hall and turns it into The Montgomery Burns State Prison. At first, the prison benefits the townsfolk by offering jobs to almost everyone (except Homer who fails his urine test due to a mix-up with Otto); however, when Mr. Burns pressures Chief Wiggum to increase capacity from 99% to 100% Homer finds himself imprisoned for kicking a can down the street 5 times in a row. Homer doesn't adjust to prison life well and becomes a snitch after accidentally ratting on Snake during a breakout. Homer enjoys the benefits of snitch life (plasma TV, cell phone, segway, a chance at a free pair of socks) until Fat Tony puts a mark on his head for selling out the mob. The angry prisoners fake a jail break and start a riot as they hunt Homer. As president of the Activities Board, Marge uses her concert hall key to sneak into the prison and convince Homer that snitching is wrong. National Guardsman swoop in at the last moment to save the cornered couple and Homer decides to use his snitch powers for good by having the prison shutdown for practices like giving haircuts to inmates without regard to their personal preference and using mournful harmonica music while on hold.

First Aired: 2005-03-20
Marge pressures Homer into buying life insurance after he suffers a garage door to the throat accident while performing a little Sunday cleaning. When she learns that Homer is not insurable, Marge takes matters into her own hands by implementing across the board cost cutting in the household. Moe, Lenny and Carl convince Homer that all financial decisions should be made jointly which drives Homer to purchase a RV as an act of defiance. Homer's frivolous purchase infuriates Marge causing the parents to divide and fight for their children's love as Marge remains in the house and Homer lives in the RV parked in the backyard. While driving through Springfield with the kids, Homer befriends a convoy of fellow RV enthusiasts and invites them to dock in his backyard. Marge retaliates by shutting off the utility hook-ups resulting in a huge argument between the couple. In an effort to save their parent's marriage, Bart and Lisa steal the RV and head to the dealer for a refund. Homer and Marge decide to work through their differences to track down the children just as the kids lose control of the RV and crash onto a departing Turkish freighter. Marge's penny pinching comes in handy when she is able to use surplus cases of soup stored in the trunk to persuade the freighter to turn around and reunite the family.

First Aired: 2005-03-13
When Selma hits menopause, she realizes that she missed her chance to have a baby and decides to adopt a baby girl from China, but comes to a bump in the road when the application asks for her husband’s name. In an act of desperation, she puts down “Homer Simpson”. So now, the Simpsons are off to China with Selma to pick up her Chinese baby girl with Homer pretending to be her husband. Their charade is revealed and their functionary, Madam Yu, takes Selma’s baby back. The Simpsons then devise a scheme to snatch steal her from the orphanage. Of course, they are caught, but Selma is able to reason with Madam Yu bureaucrat to bureaucrat and Selma is able to leave with her new baby girl, Ling Bouvier.

First Aired: 2005-03-06
Fed up with Bart’s endless taunting and torture, Lisa files a restraining order requiring him to stay at least 20 then 200 feet from her. To adhere to the restraining order, Bart is forced to live in the yard where he learns to commune with nature (you can pee anywhere!). Lisa eventually starts to miss her big brother and his teasing and after she is able to find three nice things Bart has done for her, she does away with the restraining order and Bart moves back in the house. Meanwhile, Homer takes over Grampa’s job at the Sprawl*Mart as a greeter. He loves his new job until he realizes they treat their employees terribly. When he attempts to plan a coup with the other Sprawl*Mart workers he discovers they have accepted the way they are treated and make up for it by stealing everything that is not nailed down. In the end, order is restored and the Simpsons have sixteen new plasma screen televisions.

First Aired: 2005-02-20
To boost tourism in Springfield, the town decides to legalize same-sex marriages. Homer discovers the monetary value of gay marriages, becomes an ordained minister via the internet, and soon marries everyone and everything in town. Patty Bouvier then comes to Homer and asks him to marry her – to Veronica a professional women’s golfer. Selma is happy for her sister that she found love, but is sad that now she is all alone. While Marge is coping with the fact that her big sister is marrying a woman, she discovers that Veronica is a man disguised as a lesbian! When the truth is exposed, Veronica is kicked out of the LPGA and Patty is driven back into the arms of the one person who truly understands her, Selma.

First Aired: 2005-02-13
Bart sneaks out of the house to attend a forbidden rap concert. When Marge and Homer discover he is missing, Bart fakes his own kidnapping to prevent being grounded. It is up to Springfield's finest to save him. Of course, no one has any faith in bumbling police Chief Clancy Wiggum. Inspired by an apparition of Barney Fife, Wiggum vows to rescue Bart. Meanwhile, Bart is hiding out in Kirk Van Houten's bachelor pad unbeknownst to Kirk. Wiggum cracks the case, Bart is rescued, and Kirk wrongfully goes to jail. Wiggum is promoted to Police Commissioner and Kirk becomes a lady's man among the felon-loving singles of Springfield. Lisa searches for the truth and discovers that the kidnapping was all a hoax and everyone goes back as it was before.

First Aired: 2005-02-06
After Homer inadvertently performs a wild crowd-pleasing dance at a local carnival, he is hired by several sports figures including Tom Brady, LeBron James, Yao Ming, Warren Sapp and Michelle Kwan to choreograph their victory dances. After his dances prove successful, Homer is soon tapped to choreograph the big show – the Superbowl Half-time Show. Meanwhile, Flanders, is disgusted by the filth on television, decides to start making Bible movies; ultra-violent, ultra-gory Bible movies à la Passion of the Christ. The movies are very disturbing, but nonetheless a hit; until the violence becomes too gratuitous and the audience turns on him. Homer panics during planning the show and the night before Superbowl XXXVIII still has nothing – so he teams up with Flanders and they put on a nonviolent and deeply meaningful Biblical half-time show which America chastises for it’s blatant display of decency.

First Aired: 2005-01-30
When Moe’s is shut down by the health department, Homer takes out a second mortgage without consulting Marge to finance the bar’s return. Marge finds out and decides to protect her investment by convincing Moe to renovate the bar into an English pub. The pub becomes a huge hit, and Marge and Moe become great friends – much to Homer’s chagrin. Convinced the two of them are having an ‘emotional affair’; Homer tries to intervene just as Moe professes his love to Marge while on their way to the Tavern and Restaurant Owners Convention in Aruba. Marge admits although she enjoys spending time with Moe; Homer is the one she loves.

First Aired: 2005-01-16
When Mr. Burns terminates the employee prescription drug program, the citizens of Springfield are no longer able to afford their very expensive, yet much needed prescription drugs. In order to keep the town medicated, Homer, Grampa, Apu, and Flanders go to Canada and buy the town’s drugs with fake Canadian health care cards. When they are caught smuggling, all of Springfield rallies around them to fight for their freedom and they are released.

First Aired: 2004-12-12
When Bart begins writing slogans on t-shirts, he catches the attention Goose Gladwell, a Willy Wonka-type gag gift entrepreneur and becomes a t-shirt mogul. With Bart now the breadwinner of the family, Homer realizes he no longer has a place in the family. In order to feel useful within the home, Homer begins spending time with Lisa. The balance of power is restored when Gladwell is revealed as a fraud after Homer threatens him with the nuclear bomb he built for Lisa’s science fair project.

First Aired: 2004-12-05
When Marge’s old high school friend now successful newscaster, Chloe Talbot, comes to town to cover a story, Lisa is enamored with her worldliness. Marge quickly becomes jealous of the attention Lisa is paying to her and has Marge wondering if she made the right decision choosing family over a career. Ultimately, Marge realizes that she chose the right path when she courageously saves her daughter from an erupting volcano.

First Aired: 2004-11-21
Marge, feeling her kids do not want to spend time with her anymore, takes in neglected son and town bully Nelson Muntz in as her surrogate child. Lisa develops an eating disorder after being teased about her weight on the playground. Bart is not happy about his tormentor now living in his room with him, so he finds Nelson’s parents and reunites the Muntzes. In the end, Lisa admits that she, like many women, still obsessed by her weight, has a long way to go to recovery.

First Aired: 2004-11-14
When Bart fishes Homer’s vintage “Playdude” magazines out of the trash, he decides to adopt the ring-a-ding-ding lifestyle of the 1970’s portrayed in the magazines; based on his ten year-old knowledge. Marge enters the Ovenfresh Bakeoff, but when she finds that the other contestants play dirty, she decides to get back at them by sabotaging their dishes. Lisa discovers what her mother has done and is heartbroken. In the end, Marge confesses and loses the bakeoff, but wins back the respect of Lisa.

First Aired: 2004-11-07
THE NED ZONE - After a head injury, Ned Flanders gains the power of foretelling people’s deaths. When Ned discovers that he is going to be the one to kill Homer, he tries to change fate. In doing that, Ned winds up blowing up all of Springfield.

IN THE BELLY OF THE BOSS - In a freak science accident, Maggie is shrunken inside a vitamin capsule and swallowed by Mr. Burns. The rest of the Simpsons family goes in to save her “Fantastic Voyage - style. When things start to go wrong, Homer gets trapped inside Mr. Burns forever.

FOUR BEHEADINGS AND A FUNERAL - Set in Victorian London, Master Detective Eliza Simpson (Lisa) and her faithful sidekick Dr. Bartley (Bart) attempt to catch The Muttonchop Murderer, a Jack the Ripper-type serial killer lose in the city.

First Aired: 2004-05-23
When Mr. Burns is reported dead incorrectly, all of the newspapers and news stations decide to report what they really think of him. In order to end the negative view the public has of him, Mr. Burns buys all of media outlets to brainwash the people of Springfield.

There is one newspaper he did not buy however: The Red Dress Press, put out by Lisa Simpson. When she prints an article about Burns’ attempt to manipulate the public’s thinking, he goes after Lisa. After Lisa finally gives in to his torturous ways, Homer steps up and starts his own paper with front-page news being how great Lisa is. In the end, Mr. Burns is control of public opinion ends when everyone in Springfield each prints their own newspapers stating their views.

First Aired: 2004-05-16
When Bart accidentally moons the American flag and Marge accidentally says on national television that all of Springfield hates America, the Simpson family is arrested for high treason and sent to Alcatraz.

They escape from prison and as they swim to shore, a French ship who takes them to France where they are free to hate Americans picks them up. Although France is lovely, they miss home and decide to return to America as immigrants.

First Aired: 2004-05-09
When Homer admits that Marge was not his first kiss, we flash back to Homer in summer camp where his first kiss was with an anonymous girl who turns out to be Marge.

Following their kiss, they planned to meet again, but Homer accidentally lands in fat camp and is unable to meet his mystery girl. Marge, unaware that he is locked up in Camp Flab-Away, thinks she is stood up and loses faith in men forever. In the end, they both discover that either one pined away for the other until they met their adult selves.

First Aired: 2004-05-02
Homer becomes a masked vigilante known as “The Pie Man” when he pies Springfield’s miscreants. Lisa asks him to retire when she discovers what he is up to, although she respects what he is doing. After Homer is pushed too far by Mr. Burns, he comes out of retirement for one last time, but unfortunately, Mr. Burns discovers what he is doing and blackmails him into pieing people that he does not like. Homer agrees, but when his next target is to be the Dalai Lama, Homer faces the music and unmasks himself.

First Aired: 2004-04-25
When Marge and Homer are caught by Bart and Lisa having a romantic weekend in Miami instead of having a boring family visit to Dayton, the kids embark on a cross country journey à la Catch Me If You Can in order to hunt them down and ruin their vacation.

Meanwhile, when Grandpa is abandoned in Miami during the chase, he enjoys the company of Raoul, a gay Miami swinger who enjoys Grandpa’s stories.

First Aired: 2004-04-18
Right before the long awaited wedding of Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner, Edna finds out that Seymour has doubts and calls off the wedding. While Marge is consoling Edna and convincing her she did the right thing Homer tries to help Seymour win her back. Marge then realizes that she herself is in a passionless marriage with a man that doesn’t care for her.

Meanwhile, Edna rebounds and falls for Comic Book Guy. In a last desperate attempt to win her back, Skinner fights Comic Book Guy for Edna’s love. She decides that she wants neither of them and picks every woman’s choice, Matt Groening.

In the end, Marge discovers that Homer cares for her very deeply when he offers her pie and a foot rub.

First Aired: 2004-03-28
When Bart scams the town out of wedding presents he is finally sent to a juvenile detention center. While he is tethered to Gina, a female inmate (who is also his juvie nemesis), she escapes and the two of them go on the lam a la “The Defiant Ones”.

During their time together, they discover they have much in common and when they are caught Gina admits that it was all her doing. Bart is exonerated for his crimes and set free.

In the end, Gina reveals that she has no family, so Bart takes it upon himself to set up a Simpsons family dinner inside the prison just for Gina.

First Aired: 2004-03-21
After a trip to a vineyard, Marge and Homer go on a drinking binge together. When Homer drives drunk and crashes, he places a passed out Marge in the drivers’ seat to avoid being arrested. Thinking she is an alcoholic, Marge enters rehab and soon realizes that she is not in fact addicted to alcohol, but instead to spending time with Homer.

Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa confront a famous Star Wars-esque filmmaker about his latest film. They tell him that technology doesn’t make the stories better. He goes off to once again find his storytelling roots.

First Aired: 2004-03-14
The Simpsons discover the squatter living in their attic is Marge’s old prom date and former billionaire Artie Ziff. When Homer wins Artie’s stock holdings in a poker game, he is sent to white-collar prison for ‘criminal accounting irregularities’.

After a night of passion with Selma, Artie sees the error of his selfish ways and turns himself in to the Securities Exchange Commission, setting Homer free.

First Aired: 2004-02-22
When Maggie is accepted into a gifted preschool (even though she has yet to say a word) Lisa feels she has lost her identity as ‘the smart one’. She then searches for a new one that people will accept and like her for.

Distraught when she can’t find it, Lisa finds herself mis-teaching Maggie on purpose. In the end they discover that Maggie isn’t a genius, Lisa was subconsciously feeding her answers through hand gestures.

First Aired: 2004-02-15
Milhouse moves away from town, and Bart comes to realize just how much his pathetic friend means to him. After a lot of moping, Bart comes to seek out friendship from an unlikely source: Lisa. As they start to hang out more, the siblings realize that they actually like each other’s company…until Milhouse returns and the status quo is restored.

Meanwhile, Homer looks for innovative ways to drum up the money for an anniversary gift for Marge. He becomes a really adept panhandler, and earns enough to buy her diamond earrings

First Aired: 2004-02-08
With the Springfield library dangerously low on books, the kids don’t have enough resources to do their research papers for school.

Instead, Marge gives verbal anecdotes about historical figures, and she regales the gathering with tales of King Henry VIII and his search for a woman who can produce a son, Sacagawea’s providing assistance to the Lewis & Clark expedition, and a very Bart-like Mozart’s feuds with his sister Salieri.

First Aired: 2004-01-25
Marge is inspired to write her first book, but Homer shows little interest or support because he’s fixated instead on the old ambulance he’s now driving around town, making house calls, etc. Annoyed by Homer’s tendencies, Marge channels her anger into her writing and produces a period piece that depicts a despicable Homer-like character and his wife who longs for a Flanders-like neighbor.

The book is published, and Homer is upset when the whole town recognizes who the characters are in real-life. Homer goes to confront Flanders, but instead asks him for help on how to be a more caring husband.

First Aired: 2004-01-11
In his ongoing effort to impress his son, Homer decides to build a robot that can fight on the mechanical gladiator show they enjoy watching on television. Without the technical skills to build it correctly, Homer decides to don a robot suit and fight for Bart’s affection – getting beaten to a pulp in the process.

Bart discovers what his dad’s up to, but finds it extra-cool that Homer went to such great lengths for him.

Meanwhile, Lisa is crushed when Snowball III dies, and is further distraught when she can’t keep a large number of replacement cats alive either.

First Aired: 2004-01-04
A baby riot breaks out at a children’s “concert” in Springfield, causing the town’s childless contingent to become fed up with their behavior. An anti-youth lobby is formed, gains steam, and threatens to eliminate all child-friendly aspects of the city.

Marge takes it upon herself to challenge the growing tide of anti-child sentiment and she fights back with an initiative of her own.

Ultimately, the children win out when they show up at polling places on election day and charm entering voters with their youthful innocence.

First Aired: 2003-12-14
When Homer is given a Joe DiMaggio rookie card by an oblivious-to-its-value Burns, he sells it for a pile of cash. He spends most of the money on himself, only coming to realize his greedy ways when he sees “A Christmas Carol” on TV.

Homer reverses course and starts to do favors for everyone he can, in-so-doing making Flanders jealous for becoming Springfield’s new king of being nice. He and Flanders engage in a “nice-off,” each trying to outdo the other to earn the town’s praise. Their feud escalates to ridiculous proportions.

First Aired: 2003-12-07
Krusty comes to realize that he can’t find happiness in life because he never had a Bar Mitzvah, so he reunites with his father (a rabbi) and sets about having one belatedly.

Homer fills in for him on the TV show while he’s away and becomes a celebrity for sharing his blunt observations with the world.

When Lisa convinces her dad to use his new pulpit to preach social activism, Homer’s audience becomes bored and his fifteen minutes of fame dry up.

First Aired: 2003-11-30
When Homer is caught on tape running away from a large bear at the town dump, he becomes the laughingstock of Springfield.

Determined to win his dignity back, Homer devises a bear-proof suit that will protect him once he returns to the wild to hunt down the bear.

When he confronts the beast, he realizes the bear is only upset because he’s been tagged with a painful tracking device. Homer reverses course and helps bring the bear to safety

First Aired: 2003-11-23
When Bart finds $1000, Lisa is able to convince him to take the family on vacation instead of spending it on himself.

They choose to go to England, where Homer promptly rear-ends the Queen of England with their rented car.

Homer is then held prisoner in the Tower of London. He escapes prison only to be caught again, but he sweet-talks his way out of it. Tony Blair guest starred.

First Aired: 2003-11-16
In order to reduce the school budget, Principal Skinner decides to put forth “Operation S.L.A.A.M.: So Long Athletics Art and Music”.

Upon hearing this, the children of Springfield Elementary go on strike. Joining them in the ranks of protest are other art loving unions throughout Springfield including the police force, Goat Milkers, Hand Models Local 702, & the United Federation of Theme Park Zombies.

In the end, Principal Skinner reinstates the banished programs by doing away with a less popular school necessity, flu shots.

First Aired: 2003-11-09
Homer receives a cryptic message to meet someone at a special time and place, and that someone turns out to be his mother.

They reunite, and Homer promises to never let her leave his side again. Eventually, the police catch up to Homer’s mother and take her into custody for old crimes.

Homer busts her out of jail by taking control of the prison bus she’s traveling in. Finally, she slips away again, but leaves another secret message for Homer to reaffirm her love for him.

First Aired: 2003-11-02
REAPER MADNESS – The Grim Reaper has come for Bart, but Homer saves the day by “killing” him. When Homer then tries on the Grim Reaper’s robe, he becomes the new Reaper and starts wreaking havoc until he’s told he must kill Marge; he tricks God into thinking he’s killed Marge to get out of it.

FRINKENSTEIN – Frink wins the Nobel Prize, but laments that his father didn’t get to see him win it before they grew apart. The Simpsons track down Frink’s long-lost father only to discover that he’s dead and has been cryogenically frozen. They figure out a way to thaw him out and revive him, but once he’s alert, Frink Sr. still finds a way to disappoint his son. Finally, father and son are able to make up before he expires once more – this time for good.

STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GOOF OFF – Bart gets his hands on a magic stopwatch that can freeze time and uses it to mischievous ends. When he breaks the watch while time is frozen, he must figure out how to bring things back to normal.

First Aired: 2003-05-18
Moe is especially lonely and contemplates suicide. While standing on the side of bridge, about to jump, he accidentally catches Maggie – who was thrown from the Simpsons’ car in a traffic accident. The little baby immediately takes a liking to him.

The Simpsons are pleased, and they offer Moe the opportunity to babysit their youngest. Moe has a chance to explore his softer side with Maggie, but once Homer and Marge get sick of his being around all the time, they forbid Moe from babysitting anymore. When Moe then saves the baby a second time, Homer promises Moe that he’ll bring Maggie by the bar more often.

First Aired: 2003-05-18
When Bart and Milhouse become bored, they head over to Flanders’ house and wreak havoc.

When they’re caught in the act, Homer and Marge decide to enroll Bart in the “Pre-Teen Braves,” a club to keep kids off the streets. Homer becomes the “tribal chief,” leading the kids in such traditional Native American activities as eating Buffalo wings and watching football.

Milhouse is separately enrolled in the “Cavalry Kids,” and the two groups feud over which group can do more for charity. The fight escalates as the groups engage in a heated battle to see who can sell more candy.

First Aired: 2003-05-11
Homer loses his driver’s license and Marge is forced to drive him around town. She gets increasingly stressed by having to chauffeur everyone, and she grows angrier and aggressive.

Meanwhile, Homer actually starts to enjoy walking – but Marge clips him with the car while he’s crossing the street. Homer and Marge go to therapy together, and the family tries to cheer Marge up by paying attention to her needs and not making her tend to them at all.

First Aired: 2003-05-04
When a fire breaks out, Homer is trapped beneath an ice sculpture. Santa’s Little Helper is turns tail and runs away, leaving the family cat to perform the rescue.

The poor dog is banished from the house. While playing alone outside, Santa’s Little Helper toys with a discarded can of Duff beer. A photojournalist snaps a picture, which inspires the Duff Corporation to name the dog as the new mascot. In exchange, the Corporation showers the Simpsons with wealth.

Out of nowhere, the original owner of Santa’s Little Helper appears and reclaims the dog. Santa’s Little Helper is now miserable, so the Simpsons create an elaborate plan. During a Duff Beer publicity event at the beach, Homer pretends to drown. (In reality, he is merely balancing on a keg of beer.)

Once again, Santa’s Little Helper is afraid to save him. The once adoring public is shocked by the dog’s cowardice. Meanwhile, Homer is attacked by a giant shark. The shark bites the keg of beer, and gets drunk. The inebriated animal floats to the shore, where the crowd is delighted by his antics. In a burst of inspiration, the Duff Corporation fires Santa’s Little Helper and names the shark as the new mascot.

The dog’s owner wants nothing to do with him any longer, and the Simpson’s family pet is once again their own.

First Aired: 2003-04-27
Homer decides to write an original Christmas carol, and pens a tune called “Flanders is a Jerk.” The song rockets up the charts, and the Simpsons are overwhelmed by the sudden success. They decide to get away from it all and take a restful vacation at a dude ranch.

At the ranch, Homer and Bart befriend a tribe of native Americans. They want a dam removed, to restore running water for their village. Battling a swarm of beavers, Homer and Bart manage to destroy the dam and become honorary members of the tribe.

Meanwhile, Lisa falls for a cowhand named Lukas, who happens to be – much to Marge’s dismay – a few years older. Lisa’s jealousy gets the best of her when she finds that he has girlfriend, and she gets the other girl lost in the woods by giving her bad directions. Eventually, Lisa apologizes for her meddling and she and Lukas part as friends.

First Aired: 2003-04-13
Homer and Marge have a fight when Homer realizes Marge married him because she was pregnant with Bart. He decides to leave the house and tries moving in with Milhouse’s dad.

After not being able to sleep, he’s eventually taken in by Karl, his old assistant. It turns out that Karl has a flamboyant lifestyle which Homer gets a heavy dose of.

Homer tries to get back together with Marge, but he screws it up and goes out drinking – heavily. He ends up in the hospital where he and Marge reconcile. Homer realizes that Marge loves him and that’s all that matters. He moves back home.

First Aired: 2003-03-30
A British filmmaker comes to Bart’s class to make a documentary on the typical American school, and Bart’s celebrity status is plunged into jeopardy when Nelson receives attention from the filmmaker for stealing hood ornaments.

Moreover, the filmmaker leaves Lisa with feelings of inadequacy, causing her to run out and choose a career in astronomy. Bart begins searching for unique hood ornaments while Lisa, unable to find a dark spot to stargaze, climbs Mt. Springfield. She encounters Professor Frink at the summit, and he teaches her about the problem of light pollution.

Lisa starts a campaign to reduce the amount of light usage in Springfield, but when Chief Wiggum encourages Springfield to double its light usage to fight crime, night becomes day and the town goes “mondo bizarro,” unable to sleep with the constant light.

Lisa finally decides that enough is enough and breaks into the power plant with Bart, overloads the system and plunges the town into total darkness, returning Springfield to normal.

First Aired: 2003-03-16
Homer enrolls in a “How to Succeed in Being You” course and takes a new attitude to work, where he makes suggestions to improve safety at the power plant. When Burns laughs at Homer’s proposals, Homer and Lisa devise a plan to take the plant from him.

After being legally out-maneuvered, Burns signs the plant over to Homer, and Homer becomes the new CEO. With the company’s future in his hands, Homer begins to make cutbacks to ensure financial stability. He even lays off everyone save himself, but there is no one to monitor the machines now running the place and the plant suffers a major meltdown.

At the eleventh hour, Burns returns to restore order.

First Aired: 2003-03-09
When The Simpsons become fed up with the new flight patterns at the Springfield airport which are sending loud planes over their house all the time, they take a stand and demand action from their congressman.

The politician promptly dies as he’s hearing their proposal, and the family goes about helping Krusty win his now-vacant House seat and take up their cause in Washington.

Once Krusty is installed in power, he wreaks havoc on the U.S. political system – but not without getting a Springfield plane rerouting bill passed.

First Aired: 2003-03-02
When a famous and sultry movie star swoops into Springfield, every man’s jaw drops. It turns out that she has eyes for none other than Ned Flanders, who has been lonely ever since his wife passed on.

Flanders is the envy of Springfield as they go arm and arm together around town, and Homer is dying to know if they ever did the “deed.”

The movie star eventually tires of Flanders and leaves to return to LA, but Flanders still refuses to tell Homer what he wants to know. Naturally, Homer goes nuts.

First Aired: 2003-02-16
On the first day back to school, Lisa wins a spelling bee and is recruited by a well-known spelling scout, Joe Beadle. Meanwhile, Homer is distraught after Krusty Burger offers a limited-time Krusty rib sandwich, only to promptly remove it from the menu.

Homer temporarily forgets the sandwich by hustling bar patrons around Springfield, challenging them to a spelling duel with Lisa. Once Homer discovers that Krusty’s rib sandwich is scheduled to appear in neighboring Shelbyville, he abandons his scam and travels around the country (a la Deadheads in the ’70s) following the sandwich from town to town.

Upon arriving at the National Spelling Bee, the Chair of the Bee asks Lisa to take a dive and let the much cuter boy win. The Chair tells her that she can go to college for free if she takes the dive. Lisa is about to give in, but her morals take over, only she loses anyway when she spells a word wrong, losing the Bee and the scholarship opportunity.

When she gets home however, the town of Springfield erects a monument to her for accomplishing more than anyone else has in the history of the town.

First Aired: 2003-02-16
When Bart learns that Homer has lost his earnings from a TV commercial he appeared in as a baby, Bart takes Homer to court and is granted emancipation from his parents.

Now a legal adult, Bart moves out of the house and into a downtown apartment, where he befriends Tony Hawk and his gang of skating buddies who live upstairs.

Homer appeals to Tony Hawk to let him win in a skate-off to impress Bart and lure him back home, but Bart finally lets Homer know that he was just looking for Homer to care about his feelings. Homer finally gets it, and the father and son reunite.

First Aired: 2003-02-09
Homer gets jealous of Flanders and his incredible string of good luck. So he decides to imitate his neighbor and pray to God for good things to happen.

Sure enough Homer starts to have things go his way, but it gets out of hand when he prays for a better house.

By twist of fate, the town church is handed over to Simpsons as their new home, and the churchgoers are evicted. Hell then descends on Springfield and chaos ensues until Homer promises to vacate the church.

First Aired: 2003-02-02
When Marge gets mugged, she becomes agoraphobic and can’t leave the safety of her home. She holes up in the basement and starts working out on a weight set.

She gets stronger and stronger, enough so that she’s able to re-enter the world and beat up the man who robbed her, but she takes it too far and becomes a steroid-crazed bully as she beefs up for the “Iron Maiden Fitness Pageant."

When Homer appeals to her to calm down, she finally relents and goes back to being the old Marge.

First Aired: 2003-01-12
Lisa is upset when she realizes that her own father doesn’t even know her very well. It’s even more evident when he fails to get her the birthday present she wanted. In an effort to get closer to her, Homer hires a detective to spy on Lisa and find out her likes/dislikes.

Lisa is impressed with Homer’s new detailed knowledge of her, but when Homer refuses to pay the detective’s bill, the guy tries to frame Lisa for a crime.

When the police arrive at the house, Lisa and Homer have to go on the run together, and Homer confesses to spying on his daughter. Lisa forgives him because she knows he did it out of love.

The police trace Homer and Lisa to a circus where Lisa uncovers clues to exonerate her.

First Aired: 2003-01-05
Bart's class is assigned a paper on World War I. Naturally, Bart procrastinates until the last second. He asks Grampa for help, but all Grampa can offer is a bizarre story about being a 4-year old in the trenches. Not surprisingly, Bart receives an F on the paper and has to stay after class to write a new one. Krabapple stays to watch him. Principal Skinner enters to take Edna away on their date. But then Agnes calls for help getting out of the tub. Skinner blows off Edna once again for his mother. Bart offers to take Edna out on the town. At home, Lisa wonders what happened to the Bart who put mothballs in the beef stew. Bart said he felt bad seeing Mrs. Krabapple so upset, apparently much like the time he invented her blind date, Woodrow. Lisa suggests Bart nominate Edna for Teacher of the Year to make her feel appreciated. During the press conference heralding Krabapple's nomination, Cletus - from the Outhouse Times-Picayune - asks if Edna wins, will she leave her old life behind? Sensing trouble, Skinner begins to offer his tribute to Edna, but again blows her off after receiving an emergency page from Agnes.

The family joins Edna in Orlando, bored to be at EFCOT Center. Krabapple is lonely, but it turns out that Skinner has come down to be with her. Thing is, he brought Agnes along. Edna dumps him when she finds out.

Later, Skinner overhears that the winner of the teacher contest will win enough money to not have to ever teach again. Skinner wants to rig the contest so Edna doesn't win, and he doesn't lose her forever. Unsurprisingly, he enlists Bart's help in pranking the contest. During the ceremony, Little Richard comes out as presenter of the Teacher of the Year award. To decide a winner, the three finalists are going to be asked one last question by the students that nominated them. Bart pretends that he can't read the question because Edna never taught him to read. Skinner feels bad and pulls back the curtain on the whole sordid affair. Skinner says she should be Teacher of the Year since she taught him to love. He asks her to marry him, and she accepts. Next stop, a very special Simpsons wedding!

First Aired: 2002-12-15
Homer comes in with the mail. He uses the George Foreman mail sorter to find out what's good and what's bad. The bad pile is then grilled into a patty, which Homer eats on a bun. In the good pile is an invitation for the family to spend a free weekend at Stagnant Springs Spa.

Marge enjoys a mud bath and neck massage from turtles. Homer ducks in for a steam. A mystery man sneaks by and turns the steam room thermostat from "Invigorating" to "Murder," and bars the door shut with a wrench. Homer begins to sweat profusely, then passes out. Later, Krusty opens the door. A prune-like Homer falls out.

First Aired: 2002-12-01
Walking through the plant, a section of pipe falls on Homer and damages his brain. Afraid he might sue, Burns offers him the company's skybox tickets for a hockey game. The Simpsons enjoy the luxuries of high sports life, including sushi, hot tubs and massages. Annoyed with the classism, Lisa heads down to ice level to watch the game. She advises a Russian player on how to beat the goalie. He scores and gives her his stick in thanks.

At home, Homer nails Lisa's stick above her bed. During the night, an army of termites pours out of the stick. In the morning, the family finds their house falling apart. An exterminator fumigates the house and tells the Simpsons the house is uninhabitable for six months. Homer decides to move everybody into a hotel. Finding every room in town sold out, the family moves in with Lenny. But he shares a wall with a jai alai court, so they move in with Comic Book Guy. But he freaks them out, so they move into a house on a reality program that simulates life in 1895.

The family has a rough time adjusting to the lack of modern day amenities, but Homer says they have to stick it out because they're on TV. They begin to bond and enjoy their new, austere lives, which TV audiences find boring. The network execs decide a guest star is necessary to revive the show, so they send Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley into the house. That doesn't do it, so the execs pick up the house with a crane attached to a helicopter and dump it into a fast moving river. Eventually, the house goes over a waterfall and washes up on shore. The Simpsons escape just before the house collapses.

First Aired: 2002-11-24
After winning a bet with Homer on the Dewey/Truman presidential election of 1948, Lisa gets to pick the day's father/daughter activity. She chooses to help build houses for the homeless. After getting paint on his wedding ring, Homer takes it off. Two business women see Homer's bare finger and take to him. Driving past the scene, Marge sees what she thinks is Homer flirting with the women. In fact, he's explaining in detail how Marge gave birth to Bart.

Marge begins to worry that Homer isn't as attracted to her. Manjula advises plastic surgery, and Marge goes under the knife for some liposuction. Waking up, she finds that the doctor accidentally gave her breast implants instead.

At first, Marge enjoys the attention and her new trade show modeling career. But she eventually tires of the leering and back spasms and gets the breasts removed.

First Aired: 2002-11-17
With the family tired of watching reality television, Bart suggests a satellite dish. Homer has an idea to raise money. Horse racing. Flush with cash, Homer buys a system. Watching hours upon hours of bad TV, Bart neglects to study for the Elementary School Achievement Test. He fails so badly that he gets dropped back to third grade. Meanwhile, Lisa does so well, she gets moved up to third grade.

Haven taken all the tests of third grade before, Bart excels. But Lisa struggles to catch up. On a field trip to Capital City, the class has a project to design a new state flag. Bart sabotages Lisa's design, humiliating her in front of Governor Bailey. Bart and Lisa break into a fight and miss the bus back to Springfield.

Principal Skinner informs Homer and Marge that the kids are missing. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa spend the night in the woods. A family of hillbillies comes across Bart and Lisa and drives them back to Capital City, where they're reunited with Homer and Marge. Principal Skinner tells Bart and Lisa they should return to their respective grades to maintain the status quo.

First Aired: 2002-11-10
When Homer is secretly videotaped complaining about his family during an episode of “Taxicab Conversations,” they send him off to a rock and roll fantasy camp so that he can regroup and try to live his dream.

Once there, he lives the life of a rock star, as taught to him by the likes of Mick Jagger, Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, Brian Setzer, Tom Petty and Lenny Kravitz. When the camp ends after a week, Homer doesn’t want to leave. He just wants to rock.

Mick Jagger then invites Homer to come on stage for a benefit concert they’re giving. Once on stage, Homer realizes that he’s not a star, but just the groups Roadie. Homer decides to then wail on a guitar and introduce the band with a musical number of his own. Mick, Elvis, Keith, Tom, Lenny and Brian try to run Homer off stage and a riot breaks out at the venue.

In the end, the rockers apologize to Homer for their behavior and ask him to come on stage for another benefit concert. Homer declines however, saying that he’s already the rock star of the Simpson family, so there’s no need to go on stage any longer.

First Aired: 2002-11-03
1) SEND IN THE CLONES – Homer gets a magic hammock that “copies” himself and makes duplicate Homers. Things get out of hand when the army of Homer clones begins wreaking havoc in Springfield.

2) THE FRIGHT TO CREEP AND SCARE HARMS – Lisa fights to have guns banned in Springfield when she sees how many tombstones in the cemeteries belong to shooting victims. Once Springfield complies, however, the town is rendered defenseless against the swarming hordes of gun-toting zombies who come back from the dead to seek revenge.

3) THE ISLAND OF DR. HIBBERT – The Simpsons head for an island vacation hosted by Dr. Hibbert. Only once they arrive do they realize that he’s gone mad and has taken to morphing his visitors (various Springfield residents) into manimals.

First Aired: 2002-05-22
When Homer gets bored - again - he begins listing his vast accomplishments throughout his life. He comes to the realization that he's never worked in security so he decides to start his own security company with Lenny and Carl to help protect the citizens of Springfield.

When Mayor Quimby realizes how inept Wiggum is, he decides to make Homer head of security for the whole city. Unfortunately for Homer, he gets tangled up with the Mafia who try to rub him out of the security business. In the final showdown in front of the Simpson home, Homer stands off with a group of Fat Tony's men. Out of nowhere though, shots are fired as Tony's men are all taken out. Unbeknownst to anyone, Maggie was the one who shot and saved Homer from the Mob.

First Aired: 2002-05-19
Homer buys Marge a Koi pond as an anniversary present, but the pond becomes a home for a rare screaming caterpillar. The EPA makes Homer responsible for the screamapillar, but when he tries to kill it the court sentences him to do community service.

During his community service Homer meets Mrs. Bellamy, a wealthy old lady, and ends up doing additional odd jobs for her. Homer spends so much time helping Mrs. Bellamy that he neglects his own family. When Marge talks to her about the situation, she ends up working for Mrs. Bellamy too. After a party, they discover Mrs. Bellamy passed out on the floor as a burglar escapes out the window with her diamond necklace. Mrs. Bellamy dies and Homer and Marge are suspected of murder. During a search of the Simpson’s house the police find the missing necklace and Homer and Marge are arrested.

At the trial they are found guilty of murder and are sentenced to die in the electric chair. Homer decides to save Marge, by confessing to the murder. On the day of Homer’s execution, it’s revealed that the whole thing was a scam and part of a new reality show called “Frame Up,” and that Mrs. Bellamy is alive and is actually Carmen Electra in disguise.

First Aired: 2002-05-12
Lisa befriends some college girls who are unaware of her age. At home with their heady intellectualism and always seeking acceptance, Lisa pretends to be enrolled at their school. She spends most her time on campus while going to great lengths to avoid having her cover blown. When the truth is finally revealed however, she realizes that her old life suited her just fine.

Meanwhile, Bart is relegated to living in a bubble when he's bitten by a contagious mosquito.

First Aired: 2002-05-05
When Homer accidentally catches Apu cheating on his wife in the Kwik-E-Mart, he struggles to keep the news to himself. He eventually tells Marge who forces him to confront Apu. Apu feels ashamed of his infidelity but still doesn't have the courage to tell Manjula. Unfortunately for Apu however, Manjula discovers the security tape from the store and kicks Apu out of the house.

Marge and Homer desperately try to get the couple back together and secretly invite them both over to the house for dinner. Manjula finally agrees to take Apu back, but only after he completes a list of activities she sets out for him, which obviously includes breaking up with his mistress. She eventually lets Apu back into the house, but she says it'll take time to get back to where they were.

First Aired: 2002-04-28
When a cartoon animator speaks to Bart's class on career day, Bart gets the idea to make an animated series of his own. After countless efforts and derogatory statements from Comic Book Guy, Bart's attempts at cartooning come to a crashing halt. That is until the biggest character of all inspires him at home: Homer. Bart creates a character based on Homer called "Angry Dad," that chronicles Homer's daily antics via flash animation on the Internet.

Bart's problem however, is that he's running out of material when Homer begins to suppress his rage. As a result, Bart decides to create an elaborate scheme to make Homer go crazy and provide ample fodder for his cartoon. When Homer falls victim to Bart's prank, he becomes so enraged that he turns into a delirious version of the Incredible Hulk and has to be subdued by countless police officers from Springfield's finest. In the end, Homer realizes that keeping all the rage inside can sometimes actually be a bad thing.

First Aired: 2002-04-21
In another classic clip show, Homer J. Simpson is the talk of the town as the Springfield Friar's Club decides to "roast" him. All his close friends and even Mr. Burns relay Homer's countless foibles, follies and fables. Just as the roast is about to end however, the two aliens, Kang and Kodos crash the party and threaten to destroy the earth because they can find no innocence or good. It's not until they probe Maggie's mind that they find there are things on earth worth living for. The innocence of a child.

First Aired: 2002-04-07
When Homer is attacked by a mob of crows, he injures his eyes and Dr. Hibbert prescribes him medical marijuana. Homer quickly becomes addicted to the wacky weed though and starts exhibiting all the known traits of pot-headedness: hunger, laziness, mellowed personality, etc.

While looking for someone to laugh at his company's dismal quarterly report, Mr. Burns hires Homer who finds everything funny while he's high. Burns feels that if he makes the report funny, it'll lesson the blow. Unfortunately, a new law is passed that bans the use of medical marijuana and Homer is unable to laugh at any of Mr. Burns' outdated humor.

At the shareholders meeting, Mr. Burns fakes his own death and Homer and Smithers use his body as a puppet to trick the stockholders. The plan works and the plant is saved from another major crisis.

First Aired: 2002-03-31
Marge is on a campaign to bring down the phone company because she's convinced they are billing them for calls the family didn't make. When Lisa sheepishly admits that she's been calling Brazil to check up on an orphan she's been sponsoring, the whole family decides to head down to Rio de Janeiro for a visit.

Upon arrival, Homer is promptly kidnapped and forces the family to come up with ransom money. Not able to raise the proper capital, Homer begrudgingly calls Mr. Burns for the money and gets deeper into debt with his demonic boss. The family is finally reunited and the orphan it turns out is doing quite well and has a job performing at Carnivalè.

First Aired: 2002-03-17
When Homer gets a notice from the library that he has a book of classic tales that's years overdue, he finds it on the shelf and begins reading aloud.

The first tale chronicles Homer as Odysseus and the battle of Troy. Ned is the King of Troy and Homer brings the Trojan Horse into the castle and slaughters the lot of them. But on his return home, he angers the gods and they send him off course where he encounters the sirens (Selma and Patty) as well as a trip through Hades and an encounter with a Cyclops. He finally makes it home to his wife Penelope (Marge).

The second tale follows Lisa as Joan o

First Aired: 2002-03-10
When a sultry new woman takes up residence in his retirement home, Grandpa is determined to win her affections by impressing her with his driving skills. Grandpa convinces Homer to let him borrow the car, and he proceeds to make a mess of the town's roads. Although he impresses the new old gal, he's still forced to compete with the younger Casa Nova of the retirement home.

When the younger man takes Grandpa's new girl on a road trip, Grandpa "kidnaps" Bart, taking him on the road to win back the woman from the arms of the other man. Of course in the end, he's unsuccessful in his attempts, but he and Bart are able to bond through the experience.

First Aired: 2002-02-24
Bart befriends an elderly cowboy who was once a Big Screen Legend, a la John Wayne. The cowboy becomes Bart's new idol, and soon all of Springfield's children are renewing their interest in the Old West. Of course Homer is jealous of Bart's new hero and tries repeatedly and unsuccessfully to win Bart back. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa help the cowboy regain his fame by booking him on Krusty's show. Unfortunately, the cowboy is a drunkard and when a bad bout of stage fright kicks in, he turns to the ol drink. He's subsequently humiliated when he's forced to admit he's an alcoholic. Down, but not out, the cowboy redeems himself by restoring order at the scene of a bank robbery and lassoing the robbers with his classic lasso trickery.

First Aired: 2002-02-17
Greta Wolfcastle (Reese Witherspoon) gets a crush on Bart, and the whole family begins enjoying the royal treatment her father, Rainier, provides them. After getting used to the lifestyle of the rich and famous, the Simpsons' privileges are revoked once Bart bores of Greta and breaks up with her. Trying to lure Bart back, Greta pretends to have a crush on Milhouse to provoke Bart's jealousy. Her plan works, but when Greta takes Milhouse to Canada with her for a movie her father is in, Bart loses it and lures his whole family to come to Canada as well. While on the set, Bart confronts Milhouse and they get into a fight, crashing into sets and ruining props. Greta's plan, clearly worked, but Bart's attempts are unrequited as she loses interest in both of them.

First Aired: 2002-02-10
Homer's snoring reaches epic proportions and is driving Marge insane. The lack of sleep begins weighing down on her so she takes Homer to Dr. Hibbert to get him looked at. The surgery option is too expensive so Marge ends up sleeping at Patty and Selma's so she can get some much needed rest. While there, she catches a news report about the success of her high school prom date, Artie Ziff. In a drunken blunder, Marge emails Artie a sexified letter. Upon receiving the email, Artie immediately gets in his helicopter and flies to the Simpsons house.

Artie takes the whole family to his yacht and makes Homer a proposal. He offers $1 million to spend a weekend with Marge. Homer and Marge throw the offer in Artie's face, but when Homer's snoring becomes uncontrollable, Marge is forced to give in, needing the money for the surgery. Homer is devastated by the decision, and spies on a party that Artie throws in Marge's honor. Homer sees them kiss, but misses the part when Marge throws Artie off of her. Homer, crushed, leaves home and goes to work in an oil field in West Springfield. Just as death seems imminent for Homer, Marge flies in on Artie's helicopter and rescues him from a burning rig. They're reunited but they refuse Artie's money. Instead, Marge buys Homer Artie's latest invention, which converts his snoring into sweet music (with subliminal messages).

First Aired: 2002-01-27
While running rampant through Springfield, Homer accidentally smashes into a new statue of Dredrick Tatum, the heavyweight champion of the world, and breaks his jaw. Dr. Hibbert wires his jaw shut to allow it to heal, and forces Homer to shut his mouth…for once. Because he can't speak, Homer is forced to listen to his family for the first time. To everyone's surprise, Homer is surprisingly good at listening to their problems/concerns and creates harmony in the family.

When he finally gets the wires off, he remains the good listener. Marge steadily begins going crazy as Homer is now the voice of reason in the family. She begins coming loose at the seams and needs an outlet. She decides to take matters into her own hands and fulfill one of Homer's dreams for herself: driving in a demolition derby. Except when she's in the ring, she begins getting pummeled by the other cars. Homer is forced to lose his gentile side and revert back to old-Homer to save the day and ultimately the marriage itself.

First Aired: 2002-01-20
After buying the Duff Book Of World Records at a library book sale, Homer is inspired to set a record of his own. He rounds up all of Springfield and decides to build the world's tallest human pyramid. Just as the town is ready to accomplish the feat, the pyramid tumbles down and creates a massive rolling ball that finally comes to rest on a truck scale. The Duff representatives see the scale and determine that Springfield is pound for pound the fattest town on earth.

Disgusted by the flatulence, Marge decides to go on a crusade to stop the sugar onslaught on the town. She hires a lawyer and wins a class-action lawsuit against big sugar. The Judge then decrees that sugar be banned from Springfield for life. The town up in arms, Homer becomes a sugar bootlegger and starts smuggling sugar into town. When he brings in his big score, Marge implores him to dump the load, but when she realizes how sugar makes everyone in town happy, she gives up her crusade and the judge rescinds his decree.

First Aired: 2002-01-06
While playing a heated game of Monopoly, the family gets into a fight and causes Maggie to call the police. The whole family is arrested and the story makes all the papers. A social worker is assigned to the case and attempts to get everyone to work together as a team and break out of their traditional roles. While on a retreat in the woods, they encounter heavy obstacles, but are ultimately able to overcome, work together and bond as a family. Soaking in the warmth of their new relations, they drive home but find two floozies standing in the driveway. Evidently the family riot story made the papers in Las Vegas and Homer and Flanders' Vegas wives finally track them down.

Ashamed and embarrassed, Marge kicks Homer out of the house, forcing him to sleep in the yard. His second wife decides to settle in, making Homer even more miserable. Eventually, Marge feels sorry for him, and the family decides to work together to get rid of her. Homer gets his trashy wife roaring drunk and gets Grandpa to marry her, annulling his own marriage.

First Aired: 2001-12-16
Homer and Bart build a model rocket together but lose control of it as it burns down the church. Without any money for repairs, the church decides to sell out to corporate sponsors: mainly Mr. Burns. Lisa is appalled by the shameless display of billboards and corporate monikers emblazoned on the church walls and finally decides to simply quit the church for good. She decides to test out new religions and finally happens upon a Buddhist temple.

Lisa becomes enamored with the easy-going approach to enlightenment and decides to take Buddhism as her new religion. Her family, worried about her soul, try to bring her back to Christianity by subtly dropping Christian innuendo. Lisa realizes that Buddhism allows for the celebration of all holidays and finally comes back to her family to celebrate and simply pay "lip-service" to the church.

First Aired: 2001-12-09
When Homer brings the family out for a nice dinner and a show, a hypnotist inadvertently conjures up repressed memories from Homer's past and causes him to scream uncontrollably. Realizing that he's been traumatized by some horrific event in his past, Marge gives him a special Yaqui Indian tea to sharpen his memory. Homer recounts when he was 12 and went on a hiking expedition with Lenny, Carl and Moe.

It turns out that while they were swimming in a quarry, Homer happened upon a corpse that fell out of a drainpipe. With the memory now out in the open, Homer is able to stop screaming, but the mystery of the corpse remains. The whole family goes to investigate and when they find the body again, they decide to follow the drainpipe up to its source. They arrive in Mr. Burns' office, where Mr. Burns tells them that the corpse is from Smithers' dad, Waylon Sr. Mr. Burns then shows them a movie about how Smithers' dad died, which was from the constant contact with radiation.

First Aired: 2001-12-02
When the family goes to a Chinese restaurant in China Town, Homer is disappointed by the unoriginal and lame fortunes from the fortune cookies. Homer impresses the restaurant owner with his own brand of fortunes and is hired as a writer. From one of his fortunes, Mr. Burns is told that he will find true love. When he's being given a ticket by female cop Gloria, he decides to ask her out. Initially, Gloria feels that Mr. Burns is too old for her, but when Homer tells her about all of Burns' exploits, she begins falling for him.

Mr. Burns continues dating Gloria and has Homer come along on their dates to support in a "youthful" way. While bowling, Mr. Burns decides to propose to Gloria and she accepts. When Burns goes to buy champagne, Gloria and Homer are kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend Snake. Snake takes them to his hideout where he ties she and Homer to chairs and tries to win her back. The police arrive and there's a standoff. When Homer inadvertently catches on fire, the whole place goes up in ablaze, leaving Gloria trapped inside. When Burns sees her trapped, he musters up enough energy to save her. Only when they come out, Gloria realizes that she's still attracted to Snake's bad boy image, leaving Mr. Burns loveless again.

First Aired: 2001-11-18
When Moe becomes too depressed for his own good, he decides to leave Springfield for his alma mater. In doing so, he leaves the bar in Homer's care, who subsequently turns it into more of a sty then it already was. While at bartending school, Moe consults a former professor and comes back to Springfield with a renewed sense of spirit. Moe decides to tear down the old bar and hires a foreign decorator to create a whole new look. The new bar is called "M" and features a snobbish clientele and more expensive drinks.

Feeling betrayed by his friend, Homer decides to open a bar in his own garage under the auspices of a hunting club. Moe eventually realizes that the new glitz and glamour of the new place can't replace the dank of his old friends. So he goes for a walk and overhears the sounds from Homer's garage where REM is playing a tribute concert. He tells Homer that the only way he can stay open as a hunting club though is to actually go hunting. Homer goes out the next day and tries to kill a turkey but accidentally shoots Moe instead.

To reconcile, Homer brings his family to Moe's for Thanksgiving dinner. He never kills a turkey, but REM joins them and brings over a tofu Thanksgiving feast.

First Aired: 2001-11-11
When Homer makes Bart and Milhouse walk to school, the boys get into trouble and are arrested for stealing Chief Wiggum's squad car. Milhouse gets off but when Bart comes to the bench, Judge Constance Harm (Jane Kaczmarek) takes over and lays down the law. She holds Homer responsible for Bart's deeds and sentences he and Bart to be tethered together.

Marge finally gets fed up with the punishment and cuts the rope. Only now, she and Homer get brought back before Judge Harm and have their heads and hands locked up in old-fashioned wooden stocks. Not being able to bare the punishment any longer, they break free and decide to get back at the judge. When the plan goes awry, they accidentally sink the Judge's houseboat and are once again brought into court. Just as Judge Harm is ready to bang her gavel, Judge Schneider comes back from his fishing trip and declares a verdict of "boys will be boys," dismissing the case.

First Aired: 2001-11-06
A Simpsons Halloween to never forget!
The first cryptic tale brings the family to "Ethnictown" where Homer angers a gypsy who then places a curse bringing bad luck to everyone but him. Marge grows a beard, Lisa turns into half of a horse and Bart's neck becomes rubbery. To break the curse, Homer captures a leprechaun, only the leprechaun falls in love with the gypsy and winds up marrying her.

The second scary story pays homage to 2001 as Marge decides to purchase the Ultrahouse 3000, a futuristic house (Pierce Brosnan) with homicidal tendencies that controls every aspect of the family's lives. When the House falls in love with Marge, it attempts to kill Homer and take his place.

The final Halloween Haunt finds the Simpsons in a Harry Potter-esque existence, with the kids learning sorcery at a wizard school. Montymort and his sidekick Slithers, try to take Lisa's essence only to be out-dueled by Bart.

First Aired: 2001-05-20
Homer refuses to pay an airport tax for their flight, they hop an illegal train ride and share a railroad car with a singing hobo. The hobo enchants them with tall tales taken from American folklore. He weaves stories about Paul Bunyan (Homer) saving the earth from a meteor, Connie Appleseed (Lisa) turning settlers onto the health benefits of apples, and the lesser-known adventures of Tom Sawyer (Bart) and Huck Finn.

First Aired: 2001-05-13
The Simpsons take advantage of one-time-only free classes at the YMCA. While Marge learns self-defense, Homer plays in the "Over 35 Basketball League" and promptly blows out his knee. During surgery, Homer falls off the gurney and injures his back, leaving him unable to work. Bored and lonely, Homer opens a home daycare center to keep himself occupied. To everyone's surprise, "Uncle Homer's Daycare" is a huge success and earns him a nomination at the "Good Guy Awards". Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa become jealous of Homer's attention towards other kids. They decide to edit the award show with some of their home videos. When Homer is presented with his trophy, the sabotaged footage is revealed and exposes him as a "beer-drinking meanie".

First Aired: 2001-05-06
When Ned is reunited with an old crush named Rachael, he starts to believe that he is finally ready to date again. But after he tries to mold Rachael into Maude's image, he realizes he needs to break his obsession with his departed wife. Ned asks the Simpsons to go through Maude's things. Homer is quick to put everything in the wood chipper, but Maude's sketchbook survives - revealing her dream of creating a Christian amusement park. As a final tribute, and with help from the Simpsons, Ned creates "Praise Land." The squeaky clean park is a bomb, until a miracle occurs in front of the huge Maude statue. Paid visits to "Miracle Maude" raise tons of cash for the orphanage, but Ned soon discovers that a gas leak is responsible for everyone's so-called visions. Even though the park is shut down, the experience helps Ned put the past behind him - and ask Rachael out on another date.

First Aired: 2001-04-29
Three, intertwining tales offer different perspectives on a day in the life of the Simpsons. First, Homer's attempt to steal a freshly baked brownie results in Marge accidentally cutting off his thumb. They must race to the hospital to have it reattached. In the meantime, Lisa can't find her bike and is left without a ride to school on the day of the big science fair. Her invention, a robot that corrects grammar, can't win first prize unless she enters on time. In her numerous attempts to get to school, she eventually crosses paths with the rest of the family. Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse uncover a stash of fireworks. When Chief Wiggum catches up to them, he enlists their help in an undercover sting operation, with explosive results. As the mayhem of the day unfolds, it becomes clear how the actions of each family member directly affects the rest of the household.

First Aired: 2001-04-01
Tired of constant mistreatment, the bag boys of Springfield go on strike, creating a grocery shortage. In Homer's frantic search for food, he unearths a thirty-year-old box of animal crackers in the attic. He bites into a giraffe but is surprised to find that it's made of solid gold - which means he's just won an African safari for the entire family. Once in Africa, the family is awed by the majestic scenery, wildlife and colorful local customs. However, during a dance ceremony, the family is chased by an enraged hippo and must flee via a raging river. Lost and weary, the Simpsons are saved by friendly chimps. They return the favor by fighting off poachers and freeing the chimps from the control of an evil scientist.

First Aired: 2001-03-11
Lisa tries to befriend a new student, only to become the target of the girl's violent outbursts. When the bully, Francine, beheads Malibu Stacey, Lisa vows to get to the root of the problem. After scientific research on typical bully targets (i.e. nerds), Lisa discovers that it's the nerd scent that sets off Francine and the other school bullies. Lisa invents an antidote and is hailed a heroine by geeks everywhere. Meanwhile, Homer becomes driven to protect the babies of Springfield with his cheap and easy safety devices - which drives the "injured baby" industry out of business.

First Aired: 2001-03-04
Homer becomes a Good Samaritan after seeing the benefit of helping people. When he attempts to get Lenny a refund on his Springfield Isotopes season tickets, Homer discovers that the baseball team's new owner, Duff Beer, plans to move the team to Albuquerque. Homer tries to rally the town in protest, however, no one believes his allegation. To expose Duff's plan, he stages a hunger strike by chaining himself to a light pole near the stadium. Days later, the Duff Corporation deems Homer their ballpark attraction. They unchain him and tempt his cravings with an Isotope Dog Supreme. Before eating it, Homer realizes that the Southwestern ingredients on the hot dog prove that the team is moving to Albuquerque.

First Aired: 2001-02-25
Homer participates in the Springfield marathon. Bart receives an offer to be part of a boys band called "Party Posse". The other members of the band are; "Milhouse", "Nelson" and "Ralph". With the help of NASA technology their voices are changed. They become very popular until it becomes clear their music is being used to "encourage" people to join the marines

First Aired: 2001-02-18
Krusty the Clown decides to retire after his show is eclipsed by the popular game show "Me Wantee." During a farewell interview with Kent Brockman, the funnyman reveals that he accidentally erased the tapes of his first ten years on the air. When news of his erasure from the Krusty canon reaches Sideshow Bob in prison, Bob vows to get revenge. Upon his release from prison, he comes up with the ultimate revenge plot: hypnotize Bart Simpson and program him to kill Krusty during his farewell show. The night of the
show, all of Springfield turns up to honor the retiring clown, including Bart, who has been strapped with explosives. Bob programmed Bart to blow Krusty up when he hears a special trigger phrase. However, at the last minute, Bob has second thoughts and attempts to interrupt his violent plan.

First Aired: 2001-02-11
When Homer installs a tennis court, he and Marge become quite popular in the Springfield social scene. Marge soon learns, however, that the town mocks them for always losing on their own court. She dumps Homer in favor of Bart for an upcoming doubles tournament and wins. Hurt, yet set on revenge, Homer enlists Lisa's help to play against their family members in Krusty's celebrity event. At the tournament, Homer befriends tennis ace Venus Williams, changes her last name to Simpson and bumps Lisa courtside. Marge protests and gets Bart replaced by Serena Williams. It's not long before Marge and Homer are bumped by Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, relegating the entire family to the bench.

First Aired: 2001-02-04
When Bart wins a $50 bet with Homer, he and Milhouse go on a spending spree through Springfield. After blowing most of their wad at the Kwik-e-Mart, they hit the Android's Dungeon for some comic book action. But when they screw up Comic Book Guy's biggest deal ever, they are banned from the store for life. Special FX guru Tom Savini is making an appearance at the store that night and Bart and Milhouse are forced to watch the amazing gore with their noses pressed against the glass of the store window. During the show, Comic Book Guy has a heart attack and must be hospitalized. While he's away, Bart and Milhouse take over the store. They discover Comic Book Guy's bootleg video library and open it to the public for profit. Comic Book Guy and Agnes Skinner find love together, but their relationship is threatened after the police raid the Android's Dungeon.

First Aired: 2001-01-14
While attending a prison rodeo with the family, Marge is struck by the painting talents of a sensitive prisoner named Jack. Later, she decides to teach an art class at the prison and eventually helps Jack get parole. With Jack released in her custody, Marge sets him up with a job painting a "Puma Pride" mural at Springfield Elementary School. Jack angers Principal Skinner by painting a shocking Heavy Metal-style mural which he is forced to paint over. When the new mural mysteriously catches on fire, all fingers point to the newly-released prisoner. Marge and Jack have a heart-to-heart and she tries, one last time, to help him.

First Aired: 2001-01-07
Homer takes Bart and Lisa to the "Sick, Twisted, and Totally F***ed Up Animation Festival" where they sample some of the most cutting edge cartoons from around the world. During a workshop, Homer becomes fascinated by an electronic device that renders cartoons from human movements called the Animotion machine. Later, he invests the family's life savings in the company and loses all their money. To make back some cash, Homer becomes a human guinea pig. During one experiment, the scientists find a crayon lodged in his brain-the cause of Homer's slow wit. After the crayon is removed, Homer becomes smarter. Soon, he discovers that being intelligent doesn't make people like you any more. He decides to return the crayon to his brain and become his old self again. Lisa is disappointed to lose the new, smarter Homer, however she knows that he's wise enough to continue loving her.

First Aired: 2000-12-17
The Simpson family attends Cirque du Puree, a snooty French circus. During the show, a massive snow storm strikes Springfield, blanketing the entire town under piles of snow. The next morning, Bart and Lisa are horrified to learn that Springfield Elementary is still in session. After a treacherous bus ride to school and a day spent watching "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't But Then Was," the students and a cheery Principal Skinner find that they have been snowed in. Under Skinner's martial law, the students are forced to suffer through a night at school. Despite Homer and Flanders' best efforts to save the kids from their slow torture, Bart and the rest manage to make their unbearable situation a little more livable by capturing Skinner and taking over the school. As de facto leader, Bart runs the school with an iron fist until Homer and Flanders, with a little help from sodium chloride, save the day.

First Aired: 2000-12-10
Bart becomes obsessed with magic after the family attends dinner at a magic theme restaurant. On the way home from the restaurant, a sturgeon falls from the sky onto the hood of the car, crushing it like a can. When Homer gets the bill, he takes Bart on the road with his magic act in a desperate attempt to raise some cash. While the act proves a failure, Bart manages to score some big money after Homer abandons him. Knowing a good thing when they see it, Bart and Homer begin conning Springfield's citizens out of their money using a series of confidence scams. However, when Grandpa Simpson joins them on the biggest heist of their short career, they run into trouble.

First Aired: 2000-12-03
After Homer realizes he's missed out on the computer revolution, he buys the nicest model a fifth mortgage can buy. However, when his web site fails to attract any attention, Homer begins calling himself Mr. X and becomes Springfield's number one source for dubious news and questionable scandals. His first scoop reveals Mayor Quimby's secret pool and his second brings down Apu's phony donut cartel. After winning the Pulitzer Prize for his journalistic dynamite, however, Mr. X's popularity wanes. In a desperate attempt to rekindle interest, Homer starts really making up the news. But when he accidentally stumbles upon a dangerous secret, he finds himself kept prisoner on a strange island occupied by other prisoners. Homer's best attempts to get back home only land the entire family on the island.

First Aired: 2000-11-26
In celebration of Bart's first 'A' the Simpsons go out for a nice dinner. Unfortunately, Homer's credit card is rejected and the family realizes their finances might be in more trouble than they thought. So, on the advice of a financial planner, Homer asks Mr. Burns for a raise. Lucky for him, Smithers is off to New Mexico for the production of his Malibu Stacy musical, leaving Mr. Burns in quick need of a new henchman. Promoted to Executive Assistant in Charge of Hi-jinks, Homer begins playing practical jokes at Mr. Burns prompting. For every nasty trick Homer plays on an unsuspecting sucker in Springfield, Burns pays him handsomely. Things get a little rough when Burns convinces Homer to dress up as a panda and make "friends" with a real panda at the Springfield Zoo. Realizing his dignity is worth more than money, Homer decides to quit the hi-jinks business.

First Aired: 2000-11-19
Lisa joins up with a militant environmental group called Dirt First and wages war on corporate polluters. Finally, Lisa has a found a cause worth fighting for. Also, Jesse, the leader of Dirt First, is a totally cute non-threatening teenage boy. Feeling challenged by Jesse's intense beliefs and cute hair, Lisa decides to camp out in an ancient redwood tree to stop deforestation. Lisa prevents the loggers from destroying the tree. But when she sneaks down for one night, the tree is struck by lightning, making Lisa a martyr for Dirt First. Lisa has to decide what's more important: being a symbol for the environmental movement or being honest.

First Aired: 2000-11-12
When Homer and Bart spend the day doing chores there's bound to be some fireworks - literally. Fixing Lisa's VCR with firecrackers backfires and the two are forced to make it up to her with a trip to the Festival of Books. At the festival Krusty is signing his new memoirs. And who is waiting for a signature but his long lost daughter, Sophie, the product of a Gulf War romantic liaison. Sophie wants to have Krusty in her life, but Krusty isn't so sure. When their day at the beach is no day at the beach, Krusty enlists Homer as his mentor in fatherhood. No wonder they end up nearly getting killed by the mob.

First Aired: 2000-11-05
When Bart discovers a badger has taken up residence in Santa's Little Helper's doghouse, Bart and Lisa try to lure him out. After consulting WhatBadgersEat.com and Homer, they decide to call animal control. Dialing the number, Homer runs into trouble when it turns out the area code for half of Springfield has been changed. After Phoney McRingRing and other executives fail to quell the town's fears, area code and class rivalries split Springfield in two. And when Homer becomes mayor of New Springfield, his plan to build a wall between the two towns doesn't solve any problems. The Who might be the only thing to bring the two towns together again.

First Aired: 2000-11-01
Our first fright comes when Homer's horoscope is a real horror show. "Today you will die," it says, but somehow Homer manages to avoid death at every turn. That is, until dinner turns deadly. After choking on some broccoli, Homer passes to the afterlife. To get into heaven, he has 24 hours to do a good deed. Unfortunately helping old ladies cross the street isn't going to cut it.
The second screamer is a fairy tale that may not end happily ever after. The Simpsons' pumpkin home is falling apart. And it doesn't help that Homer was just fired. While Marge tries to figure out how to feed the children, Homer finds an easy solution - throw them in the woods. Bart and Lisa run into even bigger trouble when they find themselves caught in a gingerbread house where a nice old lady wants to have them for supper… literally.
And our final spook comes when the Simpsons see a dolphin show at their local Marine World. Lisa feels bad for a poor dolphin Snorky. But when Lisa sets Snorky free, she unwittingly aids the cause of a dolphin revolution that threatens humanity.

First Aired: 2000-05-21
A special behind-the-scenes look at the ups and downs of "the first family of American laughter." As the story unfolds, we learn of Homer Simpsons' humble beginnings and the demo tape that made him famous. Unable to get his videotape seen by any big time network execs, the family turns to FOX. The Simpsons quickly became an enormous hit, the future looking bright. But success comes at a great price and all the baggy pants in MC Hammer's old house can't save the family from themselves. Homer's addiction to painkillers, the tax problems, Bart's reckless behavior - it all spelled trouble for the show and the family. How did they ever pull through? With style and class. And a little help from their friends.

First Aired: 2000-05-14
One morning on the way to school, Otto takes the bus on a short detour to propose to his girlfriend Becky through the drive-in window of the restaurant where she works. Bart persuades Marge to have the wedding in their backyard, and everything goes well until Otto insists on playing the heavy metal music Becky hates so much. The marriage is over as soon as it starts and Becky winds up living with the Simpsons as she tries to put her life back together. Soon, it becomes clear that Becky is becoming competition for Marge in the home, baking, teaching the kids karate, and helping them with homework. It's only a matter of time before Marge snaps and tries to take back her life--by force.

First Aired: 2000-05-07
During an outing at the mall, Homer gets his eyes examined while Marge and Lisa shop for items Bart will need for his camping trip. Seeing a film about tango dancers, Lisa is inspired to get dance lessons. Lisa, however, does not prove to be the most talented of dancers. Her role in an upcoming dance recital: curtain puller. Lisa is crushed. Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse sneak out of their camping trip and decide to spend a week in the mall. Hiding out in an air vent until the mall closes the boys stuff themselves silly with candy, cookies and play with all the toys. The next morning Chief Wiggum is called in to investigate. Thinking he is on the trail of an enormous rat, Wiggum tries to catch them using various traps and tricks. Meanwhile, with a little help from Professor Frink, Lisa becomes the star of the recital.

First Aired: 2000-04-30
A self-help test gone wrong convinces Homer he has only four more years to live. The weight of the news begins to unravel what little sanity he had left and the Plant psychiatrist recommends a long vacation. But as the Simpson family arrives in Florida for Homer's recovery, they realize the state has been invaded by Spring Breakers. Despite Marge's best efforts to keep him in his hotel room, Homer manages to escape and make it to a Kid Rock concert. But when the Spring Breakers leave, Homer refuses to let the party end. After renting an airboat, Homer accidentally runs over the alligator Captain Jack, a local legend. The sheriff promptly arrests the whole family and locks them in jail. But thanks to Homer's quick thinking, they manage to escape.

First Aired: 2000-04-09
After Homer accidentally sets fire to the backyard, he takes refuge in Moe's, where Barney is busy complaining that his friends missed his birthday. Homer reminds Barney that he threw him a party and shows him a video of the drunken birthday boy to prove it. Barney is so embarrassed he vows to quit drinking and take the helicopter lessons Moe bought him for his birthday. Meanwhile, back at the Simpson house, Bart and Lisa enter a competition to create a new cover for the Springfield phone book. Finding an old camera, they set out to snap the winning photo. But while taking a picture from a scenic outlook, a stray flash bulb creates a brush fire, leaving Bart and Lisa trapped while a fire rages all around them. A newly sober Barney is the only man who can save them.

First Aired: 2000-03-19
During a family outing to an Indian-owned casino, Bart sees a vision of his future courtesy of the wise Native American casino magnate. Flash forward thirty years: Bart is crashing on Ralph Wiggum's couch, trying his hardest to make it as a rock guitarist. His sister has just been elected the first straight woman President of the United States and when Bart gets evicted for not paying rent, he decides it's time to pay Lisa a little visit at her new home. Bart moves into the White House, which is already overrun by Homer and Marge and Maggie, Jr., Maggie's beautiful baby girl. As Lisa begins her Presidency, Bart makes a total nuisance of himself, interrupting press conferences to promote his demo tape, setting off the Secret Service with his Frisbee, and using an official Presidential helicopter to fly in Ralph Wiggum to hang out and drink beer. Lisa and her top advisor, Milhouse, decide to send Bart on a wild goose chase to get rid of him. But when Bart discovers the plot, he is hurt and offended. Returning to the White House, he finds Lisa in a critical meeting with other leaders of the free world, begging them not to collect the loans they gave to her financially strapped country. Bart, who is by now an expert at dodging creditors, helps Lisa fend off their demands and saves the day. Back in the present, Bart realizes that he can change his future if he tries and goes off with Lisa and tells her all about his vision.

First Aired: 2000-02-27
Moe competes for top honors at a Duff Beer festival and wins a chance to appear in a Duff calendar. When the calendar finally comes out, Moe's face is covered with a giant sticker due to his hideous ugliness. Despondent, Moe goes in for some much-needed plastic surgery and emerges from the operation with a smooth, handsome face. After settling some old scores with people who've wronged him, Moe heads over to the TV studio, where he confronts the producer of It Never Ends, a soap opera he once tried out for. Because of his new face, Moe is hired on the spot and made a regular on the series. But when Moe and Homer discover that Moe's character is about to be written off, they sabotage the entire show by revealing top secret plot points for the next year. The producers fire Moe and then, in a freak accident, a set piece falls on Moe's face, destroying all of his doctor's hard work. After that, it's back to Moe's Tavern for Springfield's least comely bartende.

First Aired: 2000-02-20
Homer anonymously pledges $10,000 to PBS to save Do Shut Up, his favorite British sitcom. When Betty White and her PBS cronies track him down, Homer is forced to flee for his life. Seeking sanctuary at the Springfield Community Church, Homer begs Reverend Lovejoy to save him from the violent PBS posse that has grown to include Mr. Rogers, the Teletubbies, and Oscar the Grouch. Reverend Lovejoy smuggles Homer out of the Church parking lot inside a bag labeled "Children's Letters to God" and deposits him on a Christian Relief plane bound for the South Pacific. When he arrives on a lush tropical island, Homer is forced to act as a missionary, teaching the ways of the Lord to the natives. Back in Springfield, Bart becomes the man of the house and takes Homer's place at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Mr. Burns pokes Bart with a stick for over an hour during his first day on the job. On the island, Homer brings civilization to the natives in the form of casino gambling and beer. But Homer's newly opened Lucky Savage Casino does not lead to progress. Instead, it leads to violence and alcoholism. Attempting to repent for his mistake, Homer tries to finish the construction of the island's first chapel. After he completes the building with the help of the natives, Homer and a native girl he has named Lisa, Jr. ring the church bell so loudly that they cause an earthquake. The earthquake opens up a fissure in the island's floor that unleashes a deadly river of lava. Will Homer and Lisa, Jr. survive? It's up to Bart--and a well-placed phone call to FOX--to save the day.

First Aired: 2000-02-13
Tragedy strikes Springfield as one of the town's most beloved citizens dies in a freak car-racing accident. During a walk through the Springfield bird sanctuary, the Simpson family discovers a new auto-racing track. On the track's opening day, all of Springfield gathers to see the racing action. During a routine T-shirt promotion during the intermission, Maude Flanders is knocked from atop the stadium bleachers and crashes to her death. After a brief, poignant funeral, Ned must learn to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Homer tries his best to help his neighbor, even going as far as pushing the still-grieving Ned back into the dating scene. After a series of dates that run the gamut from bad to horrible, Ned resigns himself to being alone. But in his darkest hour, he draws some inspiration from Rachel Jordan, the lead singer of a Christian rock band. Touched by Rachel's talent and beauty, Ned takes his first small step toward happiness.

First Aired: 2000-02-06
During a trip to the State Fair, Homer and Bart save a diving horse named Duncan. To help pay for the horse's food and care, Homer tries to train Duncan to be a field goal kicker, but NFL regulations specifically ban the use of horses in professional football. As Homer curses the NFL and their draconian rulebook, Bart comes up with the idea of turning Duncan into a racehorse. With a pajama-clad Bart as his jockey, Duncan loses his first race. Bart and Homer are the laughingstocks of the racing community, but after giving Duncan a Rodman-esque makeover as a bad-boy rebel renamed Furious D, they take the racing world by storm. Furious D intimidates all his competitors with his dyed hair and nose ring. Miraculously, Furious D and Bart become champions. After a race, Homer is ambushed by crazed, singing jockeys who reveal themselves to be magical elves who live in an underground lair. The jockeys tell Homer that if Bart doesn't lose the big Springfield Derby, they'll eat his brains. Terrified, Homer tries to convince Bart to throw the race. Bart refuses and he and Furious D go on to win it all. But the victory is brief as the murderous elves pursue Homer, Bart and Duncan as they flee the racetrack and try to make it home. It's up to Marge and her trusty garden hose to stop the elves before they can dine on what's left of Homer's brains. Homer throws out the elves with the trash and the family says goodbye to Duncan, who gets put out to stud.

First Aired: 2000-01-23
After receiving an award for being Springfield's oldest citizen, Mr. Burns decides to take a trip with Mr. Smithers to the Mayo Clinic for a complete check-up. While he's away, he asks the Simpson family to look after his mansion. Right away, Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa begin to act like snotty millionaires, sliding down the banister, riding a horse down the hallway, scratching their butts with the good silverware and so on. All goes well until Homer decides to throw a party aboard Mr. Burns' prized yacht, Gone Fission, and invites Moe, Barney, Lenny and Carl along. Meanwhile, at the Mayo Clinic, Mr. Burns goes through a series of painful and invasive tests that yield some pretty shocking results: It turns out that Mr. Burns has every disease known to man and a few new ones that haven't been discovered yet. Luckily, all of the diseases cancel each other out and Burns remains the picture of health, sort of. Back on the boat, Homer and his buddies are taken hostage by a group of pirates who throw them overboard. As luck would have it, the group survives and Homer returns to his family just as Burns returns home. Marge and Lisa have cleaned the house so there is no evidence of the Simpson family's messy stay and everything goes back to normal.

First Aired: 2000-01-16
Homer attends a fundraiser for Springfield University, where he is briefly reunited with his old pals Benjamin, Doug and Gary. For old time's sake, the four team up to pull a prank on the dean. When the prank goes tragically awry, Homer is forced to live with its aftermath: A bucket full of super glue gets stuck on his head. Every attempt to remove the bucket fails until the Simpson family attends a religious revival, where a preacher named Brother Faith empowers Bart to remove it. Sensing a new calling, Bart devotes his life to becoming a faith healer. He manages to heal a number of Springfield's residents, but experiences a crisis of faith when he causes Milhouse to be hit by a car. Swearing off faith healing for good, Bart is forced into it again when a field goal kicker for Springfield University injures his ankle during an important game. Does Bart really have the power to heal him? Or will Springfield U lose the big game? Bart had better have faith and the team doctor had better have some morphine.

First Aired: 2000-01-09
When Marge breaks her leg in a skiing accident, it's up to Lisa to run the Simpson household in her mother's absence. Lisa thinks she can handle the responsibility by implementing a structured plan and using fun management techniques like a "chore hat" from which her father and brother can randomly select a chore. Of course, Homer and Bart ignore Lisa's system and the house turns into a pig sty. Meanwhile, Marge is discovering the wonders of shiatsu massage as she receives foot, leg and hair rub-downs in the hospital. Lisa is so angry at Homer and Bart's lack of consideration that she decides to play a trick on them. With a little inspiration from the spirit of Lucille Ball, Lisa comes up with a way to trick Homer and Bart into thinking they have leprosy. Her trick works so well that Homer and Bart get sent to a leper colony in Hawaii courtesy of Ned Flanders. When Marge gets out of the hospital, she and Lisa track Homer and Bart down at the leper colony but discover that they don't want to leave.

First Aired: 1999-12-19
When Fat Tony and his legitimate businessmen friends extort $200,000 from Principal Skinner, Springfield Elementary goes broke. The children rejoice while Skinner tries to figure out a way to raise enough money to reopen the school. Enter Jim Hope and his Kid First Industry (KFI), a touchy-feely corporation that buys the school and privatizes it. KFI fires all the teachers and rewrites the curriculum based on its own curious corporate mandates. Strangely, every lesson plan seems to revolve in some way around toys and marketing. When Lisa's class is asked to come up with names for toys, Lisa becomes very suspicious of KFI's motives. After a little investigating, she discovers that the school is full of hidden cameras and two-way blackboards that allow KFI to gather marketing data on children. Lisa tries to share her discovery with her parents and Chief Wiggum, but KFI removes all evidence from the school before they can investigate. When Christmas rolls around, Lisa notices that a popular new toy named Funzo has many of the traits her classmates said they wanted. Lisa and Bart break into the KFI headquarters to figure out what's going on. Slipping by Gary Coleman, who is working as a security guard at KFI, Lisa and Bart confront Jim Hope. Hope admits that he may have exploited the kids, but he gives them a free Funzo, which is enough to satisfy Bart. Funzo becomes a huge hit at Christmas time, but when Bart discovers that it's programmed to destroy all other toys, he agrees with Lisa that Funzo is bad. Bart and Lisa decide to get rid of all the Funzos they can by having Homer steal them from their neighbors' homes. When Homer tries to throw all the stolen toys into the Springfield Tire Fire, he's stopped by none other than Gary Coleman. But by talking with Gary, Lisa is able to show him the truth about KFI and the way that other companies have exploited Christmas. The Simpsons invite Gary over for Christmas dinner and everyone has a wonderful day.

First Aired: 1999-11-28
The Simpson family has dinner at Greaser's Café, a '50s-themed restaurant. While there, Homer and Marge enter a dance contest and win a vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycle. After Bart teaches his father how to ride his new hog, Homer forms a biker gang called the Hell's Satans with Lenny, Carl, Moe and Ned Flanders. While riding around town making trouble, the Satans attract the attention of another, more authentic biker gang who also happen to be called the Hell's Satans. The real biker gang, led by two guys named Meathook and Ramrod, take over the Simpsons' house and trash the place. Marge, ever the gracious host, cooks and cleans for her new guests. When the Satans leave, they take Marge with them. While pursuing the men who kidnapped his wife, Homer goes to Poppa Wheelie's, a biker bar where he sees NRBQ playing. Marge isn't there since she's being held at a campsite by the Hell's Satans. Marge tries to reason with her captors and teaches them that violence is wrong. Just then, Homer arrives to steal her back and winds up battling with Meathook. Luckily, Homer wins the fight and takes his wife home. The Hell's Satans, meanwhile, will take the lessons they learned from Marge and start new, more productive lives.

First Aired: 1999-11-21
Apu and his wife decide to have a baby. With the help of fertility drugs, their attempts to conceive prove successful--very successful: Nine months later, Manjula gives birth to octuplets. The townspeople of Springfield celebrate the arrival of the babies, and local companies shower Apu and Manjula with free products. But when a Shelbyville couple has nine babies at once, all the attention turns to them and Apu and Manjula are left to raise their babies together. It's a big job and Apu realizes he's not up to the task. When Larry Kittkill, the owner of the Springfield Zoo, offers to pay Apu and Manjula to raise their babies behind the glass of a zoo exhibition, Apu foolishly accepts. When he decides he wants to take his new family away from the zoo, Apu discovers that he can't get out of the contract he signed. Homer and Apu steal the babies but Homer must make amends with Mr. Kittkill by performing at the zoo himself.

First Aired: 1999-11-14
Homer breaks his tea party date with Maggie to go bowling, lying that there is an emergency at the plant. The lie is revealed when Homer bowls a perfect 300 and attracts the attention of the media. Because of his accomplishment, Homer becomes a celebrity, appearing on The Springfield Squares with Bumblebee Man, Sideshow Mel, and his old nemesis, Ron Howard. But fame proves fickle and Homer quickly goes from Man of the Moment to Where Are They Now? Depressed, he decides to devote his life to his children. Bart and Lisa don't really take to his extra-aggressive parenting, but Maggie can't refuse, mostly because she can't speak. Homer takes Maggie to a Daddy and Me swim class but she's too scared to go in the water. Later, Homer nearly drowns and only Maggie can save him. Homer realizes that he might not have fame, but he'll always have his baby.

First Aired: 1999-11-07
Homer begins challenging everyone around him to duels after he sees a Zorro film at the Googoplex. Most people back down, until Homer meets an old-fashioned Colonel who takes him up on his dare. Unable to get out of the contest with the Colonel, Homer and his family flee to the country, where they become farmers. Farm life is difficult until Homer creates a new crop called tomacco--tomatoes crossed with tobacco. The new fruit is disgusting to eat, but incredibly addictive. Selling barrel upon barrel of tomacco, Homer attracts the attention of some tobacco industry executives who want to capitalize on his new crop. Will Homer sell his cash crop for a pile of cash? Why are all the animals who ate tomacco suddenly going berserk? Would it really have been so bad to duel that Colonel after all?

First Aired: 1999-10-31
In this year's exceptionally evil Halloween episode, Springfield catches a case of the Y2K bug, Lisa and Bart catch some radiation, and Ned Flanders gets caught under Marge's car's tires. In the first segment, Marge accidentally kills Ned Flanders while driving late at night. But when Ned comes back to haunt the Simpsons, his own evil secret is revealed. In the second story, Bart and Lisa become superheroes after getting zapped by radiation. Together they battle against the evil Comic Book Store Guy after he takes Lucy Lawless, TV's Xena: Warrior Princess, hostage. In the final segment, Homer forgets to make the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Y2K compliant and accidentally brings about the complete destruction of the town. When the government sets up spaceships to send citizens to safety, Marge, Lisa and Maggie are granted seats but Homer and Bart have to fend for themselves.

First Aired: 1999-10-24
Homer gets the perfect side job when he becomes the chief restaurant critic for The Springfield Shopper newspaper. He loves the perks, but can barely write a complete sentence. When Lisa helps out by ghosting his columns, Homer becomes the most powerful--and feared--critic in town. Soon Homer earns the wrath of every restaurant owner in Springfield and they join together in a plot to kill him with a poisonous éclair. Can Homer survive this death by chocolate (and butter, and custard)?

First Aired: 1999-10-03
After Bart is caught performing another destructive act, Homer and Marge put him on medication. The boy starts taking Focusyne, an experimental Attention Deficit Disorder drug that at first turns him into the very model of manners and efficiency. But the drug has some strange side effects, and Bart becomes paranoid, ranting that Major League Baseball is using a satellite to read his thoughts. Marge and Homer try to take Bart off Focusyne, but he resists and overdoses. During his Focusyne bender, Bart steals a tank from a nearby army base and shoots a satellite out of the sky. Sure enough, the satellite is controlled by Major League Baseball, but America's hero, Mark McGwire, helicopters into Springfield to assure everyone that nothing suspicious is going on.

First Aired: 1999-09-26
When Homer and Marge attend a test screening of Mel Gibson's remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Homer gives the film a mercilessly rough critique. Rather than be angered by Homer's remarks, Gibson decides to hire him as a consultant on the script rewrites. Together Mel and Homer turn the movie into a bloody action flick. The film studio is so disgusted by the new cut that they attempt to block its distribution. Homer and Mel steal the only print of the film and escape the studio lot with the executives pursuing them. Commandeering the old Mad Max car from the Hollywood Auto Museum, the Simpsons and the movie star careen through the streets, causing all sorts of destruction. Can they escape with the print intact? Does Mr. Smith ever get to go to Washington? Why doesn't Mel Gibson have an accent anymore?

First Aired: 1999-05-16
After attending a Mega-Savings Seminar where they learn how to save money on everything, the Simpsons take a trip to Tokyo. While there, they lose all of their money and must enter a degrading game show called Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show to win tickets back to Springfield. After a series of increasingly cruel stunts meted out by the game show's host, Wink, the Simpsons win the tickets and return, a bit haggard, to the United States. On the way home, their plane is attacked by Godzilla.

First Aired: 1999-05-09
Lisa joins Mensa, the high I.Q. society. While there, she spends her time interacting with such geniuses as Dr. Hibbert, Professor Frink and the Comic Book Store Guy. By a twist of fate, the members of Mensa become the leaders of Springfield and try to remake the town in their geeky likeness. But the geniuses can't agree on anything and begin squabbling amongst themselves. It's up to the ultimate genius, Stephen Hawking, to intervene and set the smarty-pants straight.

First Aired: 1999-05-02
When a popular, charming billionaire named Arthur Fortune opens a megastore in Springfield, Mr. Burns decides that he wants to be loved, too. With Homer's help, he comes up with a scheme to capture the Loch Ness Monster and bring it to Springfield. He succeeds in his mission, but accidentally causes a fire during the unveiling of the monster. Burns decides that he doesn't need to be loved and gets the monster a job working at a casino.

First Aired: 1999-04-25
Bart starts visiting Grandpa and the other old people at the Springfield Retirement Castle as part of a community service assignment. Meanwhile, he has bought thousands of springs for a project that never materializes. The boy tries to scare some life into the old codgers, but finds that they like passing their days peacefully. When he takes them all aboard a boat for a little adventure, the boat sinks and nearly kills them. Luckily, the boat bounces back up on a pile of springs Homer flushed down the toilet.

First Aired: 1999-04-11
Homer becomes a conceptual artist, creating striking "outsider art" that catches the eye of Astrid Weller, a beautiful Springfield art dealer. Astrid arranges for Homer to have his own show, but when the Springfield elite gather for the opening, many are disappointed by his work. Homer decides that he must create something truly groundbreaking, so he floods the entire town, turning Springfield into an American Venice. His piece is a hit and everyone, including artist Jasper Johns, voices their approval.

First Aired: 1999-04-04
A particularly boring sermon by Reverend Lovejoy sends each member of the Simpson family into his or her own biblical fantasy. Marge imagines herself and Homer as Adam and Eve, living in harmony with the flora and fauna of the Garden of Eden until Homer stupidly eats from the Tree of Knowledge. Lisa dreams of herself and the other kids of Springfield Elementary as the Israelites in ancient Egypt. Principal Skinner is Pharaoh and it's up to a nervous Milhouse to act as Moses and free his people from bondage. In Homer's dream, he is King Solomon, solving every dispute by cutting the contested object in half. When Lenny and Carl bring a pie to the King, he cuts it in half and eats both pieces. In Bart's action-packed fantasy, he is David, fighting Nelson as Goliath's son, Goliath II. When the Simpsons awake from their dreams, they discover that Revelation has come and it's time for God's final judgment. Only Lisa is allowed into Heaven, but Homer drags her down into Hell with the rest of the family.

First Aired: 1999-03-28
When Homer accidentally causes the death of Red, a famous truck driver, he and Bart take over Red's truck to deliver his last load. While they're away, Marge and Lisa buy a new doorbell. On the road, Homer learns of a long-held trucker secret: All the trucks are controlled by an auto-drive system and the drivers just hang out as the trucks drive themselves. When Homer can't keep the secret, several angry truckers try to run him off the road and kill him for violating the code of silence. Meanwhile, Marge has troubles of her own when the new doorbell malfunctions and plays the Carpenter's "Close to You" over and over again. Homer escapes his attackers and brings Red's delivery to its destination. Returning home, he discovers a mob scene outsidehis house as everyone in town tries to stop the annoying doorbell. Only Senor Ding-Dong, the mysterious and debonair dean of doorbells, can stop it with his magic touch.

First Aired: 1999-02-28
When Homer agrees to allow an OmniTouch cellular phone tower to be placed on the roof of his house, Lisa begins to grow increasingly irritable. Seeking a solution to her tension and stomach aches, Homer takes her to a New Age store, where the salesperson recommends Sensory Deprivation. While resting in a tank full of water, Lisa has a series of visions that show her how much her father loves her. Homer, meanwhile, is in his own tank, which somehow drifts out of the store and sends him on an entirely different journey. When they each emerge from their deprivations, Lisa and Homer have a new understanding of their relationship and agree to spend more time together by going to the demolition derby.

First Aired: 1999-02-21
Homer buys a Canyonero, a giant all-terrain vehicle. At first he's excited about his new car, but when he discovers that the F-Series was made primarily for women, he gives it to Marge. Marge takes to the vehicle by becoming a more reckless, aggressive driver. While racing about town, she is busted for an illegal maneuver and must go to traffic school. But the classes turn out to be useless--Marge accidentally crashes the Canyonero into a prison and sets off a crime wave. When her license is revoked, Marge can only drive again when the police beg her to use the Canyonero to round up some stampeding rhinos who've escaped from the zoo. Marge saves the day, but wrecks the car as a result.

First Aired: 1999-02-14
When Apu finds increasingly elaborate ways of expressing his love for his wife, the men of Springfield feel as though they're being shown up in the romance department. Singer Elton John's arrival at the airport is the last straw--assuming he's in town at Apu's request, the Springfield men, led by Homer, kidnap John and lock him in a dog cage. Apu's real plan is to have a sky writer spell out his love for Manjula, but Homer also tries his best to foil the pilot's efforts. Eventually, John does sing for Manjula and everyone has a happy Valentine's Day.

First Aired: 1999-02-07
When he finds out that a character on the TV show Police Cops is named Homer Simpson, the real Homer decides to change his name to Max Power. The new name earns him new, high-profile friends like Trent Steel, a young businessman. Steel invites "Max" and his wife Marge to a garden party, where they meet such luminaries as Ed Begley, Jr. and Bill Clinton. While Clinton tries to seduce Marge, Homer learns that the gathering is part of an effort to save the Springfield redwoods, and joins the protest. After chaining themselves to the giant trees, "Max" and his buddies are attacked by police. As he runs from the cops, "Max" accidentally pulls down the tree he's attached to, which in turn knocks down the entire forest. Humiliated, he retreats from his new friends and returns to being Homer Simpson.

First Aired: 1999-01-31
Homer meets a travel agent named Wally Kogen who offers to send him to the Super Bowl for free if he can sign up all of his friends for a special travel package. Homer convinces Moe, Barney, Lenny, Carl, Kirk Van Houten and a bunch of other guys to sign up. All the men pile into a bus Wally furnishes for the trip and drink their way to Miami for the game. When they get there, however, they discover that the tickets Wally sold them were counterfeit. Homer devises a plan to get them into the game, but they all wind up in a holding cell beneath the stadium and nearly miss the Super Bowl. The only person who can spring them is Wally's old friend Dolly Parton. Free from their cell, the group invades a high-class skybox owned by Rupert Murdoch. When Murdoch arrives, he has his guards attack the group. Fleeing Murdoch's guards, Homer and his friends crash the field and then the winning team's locker room, where they each get their own Super Bowl ring.

First Aired: 1999-01-17
Homer and his buddies start a riot after the Springfield Isotopes win the league championship. Thinking the destruction is the fault of the town's youth, the authorities impose a curfew for everyone under a certain age. The children of Springfield rebel by starting a pirate radio station and broadcasting a show called "We Know All Your Secrets," in which their parents' most private peccadilloes are revealed. When the adults realize the kids are behind the broadcasts, the two groups confront one another in song and dance. Eventually, the senior citizens arrive and insitute another curfew that keeps the grown-ups inside, too.

First Aired: 1999-01-10
In an attempt to show Flanders a good time, Homer takes him to Las Vegas, where they gamble and drink. After a night of debauchery, the men wake up in a hotel room to discover that they've married Amber and Ginger, two trashy but sweet cocktail waitresses from Nero's Palace. Over a breakfast buffet, Homer and Ned try to explain to the women that they already have wives, but the brides prove to be frighteningly tenacious. Homer and Ned are forced to flee Las Vegas when everyone, from hotel security to the Moody Blues, beats them up for dishonoring two young women in need.

First Aired: 1998-12-20
When Homer saves Mayor Quimby and Star Wars star Mark Hamill's lives during a sci-fi convention riot, the Mayor hires him as his personal bodyguard. Following Quimby around, Homer has to turn a blind eye to his new boss' corruption and bribe-taking. But when Homer learns that Quimby has allowed Fat Tony to supply Springfield Elementary with rats' milk, he confronts the Mayor and demands that the deal be broken. Quimby calls off the deal, but in doing so becomes a target for Fat Tony and his henchmen. When hitman Louie tries to kill the Mayor during a performance of Guys and Dolls (starring, coincidentally, Mark Hamill), Homer attacks the assailant and stops him. While Homer makes Quimby safe from Louie, Fat Tony takes the opportunity to beat the mayor repeatedly with a baseball bat.

First Aired: 1998-12-06
When Homer refuses to pull the car over and let Grampa go to the bathroom, the old man's kidneys explode. Out of guilt, Homer agrees to donate one of his kidneys to his father. But just before the operation, Homer, fearing he won't survive, flees the hospital and hops aboard a boat headed to an unknown destination. On the boat, he meets a group of lost souls who accept him until he reveals that he left his sick father waiting for a kidney. The lost souls throw Homer overboard and he realizes that he must go through with the transplant. As luck would have it, Homer gets run over by a car on the way to the hospital. When he wakes up in a hospital bed, he discovers that not only has he broken all of his limbs, but Dr. Hibbert has removed his kidney and given it to Grampa.

First Aired: 1998-11-22
A sick-day puts Lisa in a difficult academic predicament: She wants to do her best on a reading test, but didn't study at all when she was home. After consulting with Bart, she reluctantly decides to buy the test answers from Nelson and scores a perfect A+++. But when her high test score raises Springfield Elementary School's average and earns the troubled school a huge state grant, Lisa is plagued with guilt. Meanwhile, Homer grows attached to a lobster that he brought home for dinner, naming it Mr. Pinchy. When Lisa admits that she cheated to Principal Skinner, he is disheartened but still wants to keep the grant money. Skinner and Chalmers trick Lisa into thinking that she's turned down the school's grant, but secretly keep the cash. Back at home, Homer loses his beloved new pet when he gives it a hot bath. Heartbroken but hungry, Homer bids farewell to his crustacean friend by eating it.

First Aired: 1998-11-15
During a search for his roots, Homer meets Seth and Munchie, two aging hippies who lived on a rural commune with his mother. Inspired by their example and memories of his freewheeling mother, Homer becomes a flower child. After accidentally sabotaging their natural juice business, Homer tries to make it up to them by picking an entire crop of vegetables and making a whole new batch of juice himself. It turns out that Homer picked the wrong crop and has bottled a powerful blend of hallucinogens that drugs all of Springfield. When the police catch wind of what's going on, they raid Seth and Munchie's farm and Homer gets shot during the melee. Luckily, his only injury is a flower embedded in his head.

First Aired: 1998-11-08
Homer befriends superstar couple Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger and becomes their personal assistant. But when he spills the beans about the celebrities living in Springfield, who also include Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, the entire town sets up camp outside the gates of their mansion. Alec and Kim fire Homer as their assistant. Homer gets revenge by revealing everything he has learned about them to the world. The conflict escalates into a high-speed car chase, during which Ron Howard is injured and Homer is eventually caught. A judge places a restraining order on Homer and he is forced to remain 500 miles away from all celebrities.

First Aired: 1998-10-25
In this year's gruesome grouping of Halloween gore, Homer gets a killer new hairdo, Lisa and Bart discover first-hand that TV violence is bad, and Maggie gets her first tooth and a glimpse of her real father. In the first segment, Homer's brain is taken over by Snake when he gets Snake's hair in a transplant. With Snake controlling him, Homer kills Apu and Moe and then sets his sights on Bart. Luckily, Chief Wiggum saves the day by busting a cap in the evil hair piece. In the second story, Bart and Lisa get sucked through the fourth wall into the land of Itchy and Scratchy in the cartoon world. At first it's all fun and games, but when Itchy and Scratchy try to kill the two Simpson kids, their only escape is through Homer's inept flipping of channels. As they flip through the dial, Bart and Lisa wind up in the most frightening place of all: Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. In the final segment, the appearance of Maggie's first tooth leads to a confession Marge never wanted to make: Homer is not Maggie's real father. Kang, the drooling alien, actually inseminated Marge. Now Kang is back and he wants his baby. Homer and Marge refuse to give Maggie up. There's only one thing for the two parties to do: Go on The Jerry Springer Show and fight it out on national television.

First Aired: 1998-09-27
When Bart is hanging out with Nelson, he accidentally kills a bird sitting in her nest. Seeing that the bird has left behind two perfect eggs, Bart is overcome with guilt and takes it upon himself to hatch the baby birds. He keeps the eggs warm anyway he can, sometimes with a lightbulb, sometimes by sitting on them. Eventually the eggs hatch, but there are no birds inside. Instead two nasty-looking lizards emerge. Confused by what happened, Bart and Marge take the lizards to the Springfield Birdwatching Society and ask them why the lizards were inside the bird's nest. Principal Skinner, a member of the Society, explains that the lizards are Bolivian tree lizards, a species that steals bird's eggs and leave their own eggs to be watched after by the mother bird. Skinner wants to kill the lizards since they're bad for the ecosystem, but Bart flees with his lizards and sets them free. The lizards go on to eat all of Springfield's pigeons.

First Aired: 1998-09-20
Homer quits his job and becomes an inventor. Setting up a tinkering shop in the basement, he sets for himself the modest goal of inventing more stuff than the prolific Thomas Edison. Homer comes up with some incredible new inventions, like an electronic hammer, a reclining chair with a built-in toilet, and a rifle that shoots make-up at women's faces. One of his creations, a chair with two extra feet that lets you lean way back, seems to be very popular. When Homer realizes that his six-legged chair was actually already invented by Edison, he takes his trusty electronic hammer and goes to the Edison Museum to smash the original, which is inside a replica of Edison's workshop. While there, Homer realizes that Thomas Edison was also working in the shadow of a great man: Leonardo Da Vinci. Homer feels a deep kinship with Edison and decides not to destroy the six-legged chair. Later, when authorities find the electronic hammer, which Homer forgot, in Edison's workshop, the deceased inventor gets credit for yet another amazing creation. Homer is furious.

First Aired: 1998-08-23
A sophisticated, intelligent new girl named Alex Whitney comes to Springfield Elementary and threatens to overshadow Lisa. Alex is even a hit with Principal Skinner, who lets her organize a school dance. Meanwhile, Homer comes up with a new get-rich-quick scheme: He and Bart will round up as much grease as they can and sell it to a rendering plant. They target the richest source imaginable: the Springfield Elementary cafeteria kitchen. Lisa goes to the dance, but sells tickets outside the gym because she couldn't find a date. At the same time, Homer has crawled through the school's air ducts and into the kitchen, where he uses his wet-dry vac to suck grease out of the stove. But Groundskeeper Willie appears on the scene and tries to prevent the theft. One thing leads to another, and as a result of a misplaced wet-dry vac the school's air ducts fill with the stove's contents. Alex's event is interrupted when the oil begins to drip through the gym ceiling, but no matter--the children of Springfield are happy to frolick in the grease. Lisa is pleased to see her friends acting like kids again and breaks down Alex's uppity facade by goading her into a grease fight.

First Aired: 1998-05-17
In an incredibly revealing episode, Homer and Marge learn to spice up their love life by "snuggling" in very public places. After conquering a nearby barn and experimenting with at Sir Putts-a-Lot miniature golf course, they find themselves trapped in public without their clothes. Trying to get back home, the two sneak and skulk about Springfield, nearly being caught fully naked at every turn. Homer accidentally moons an entire church congregation and both he and Marge wind up in a crowded football field where they are exposed to thousands of cheering people.

First Aired: 1998-05-10
When Lisa cons Homer into letting her ride the bus alone to the Springsonian Museum for the "Treasures of Isis" exhibit, she gets lost along the way. Wandering arou