8.1 Treehouse of Horror VII
This is one of the best installments of the show’s venerable Halloween tradition. Bart’s twin is a great segment, Lisa’s tiny universe is solid, and the final portion with Kang and Kodos impersonating US presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole is one of the best bits of the entire series.
While it seems odd the writers would box themselves into a time specific joke, twenty five years later, it serves as a reminder of the show’s longevity and cultural prominence. When the townspeople threaten to vote for a third party candidate, the response to “go ahead, waste your vote” is a perfect encapsulation of American politics as is Homer’s bitter complaint after Kang enslaves the world’s population, “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.”
8.2 You Only Move Twice
Homer gets a new job working for Hank Scorpio (Albert Brooks) and moves the family to Cypress Creek. While he’s oblivious to Scorpio’s evil machinations, the family is miserable in the new city and move back to Springfield as Scorpio’s headquarters is attacked by US special forces. It’s a classic episode and Scorpio is a fantastic parody of the evil genius stereotype.
8.3 The Homer They Fall
When Moe realizes Homer can withstand insane amounts of physical punishment, he devises a plan to vicariously recreate his former boxing career. Homer is tapped for Dredrick Tatum’s comeback fight, but Moe has a change of heart and gets him out of the ring as quickly as possible.
I love Tatum and his manager Lucious Sweet (an obvious parody of Tyson and Don King), but boxing Homer’s ability to get the crap beat out of him is not funny to me.
8.4 Burns, Baby Burns
Burns discovers he has a grown son, Larry (Rodney Dangerfield). While initially happy, he’s soon disillusioned by the child who has more in common with Homer. I love Dangerfield and his casting is a coup, but I wish the episode were more worthy of his talents.
8.5 Bart After Dark
With Lisa and Marge out of town, Homer is left in charge of Bart who stumbles upon Springfield’s burlesque house and gets a job there to help pay for the damage he did to one of the gargoyles in front of the house. This is one of my favorite episodes.
Grandpa immediately turning around when he sees Bart as the doorman. Homer answering the door wearing a grocery bag for pants. “We Put the Spring in Springfield.” It’s a highlight reel from start to finish.
8.6 A Milhouse Divided
When the Van Houtens divorce, Kirk’s downward spiral prompts Homer to commit to being a better husband. Some great gags (including Kirk’s demo tape), and the easy, familiar bitterness of the Van Houten’s divorce are highlights.
I loved Homer’s remarriage to Marge; it’s the kind of grand gesture which reminds us how much he loves his wife. However, the episode is middle of the season for me. It’s solid, but gets lost in the shuffle. Bonus points for the clever title.
8.7 Lisa’s Date with Density
Lisa develops a crush on Nelson who briefly reforms to meet her expectations. Faced with the reality he’ll never change his dastardly ways, Lisa ends their brief relationship.
Nelson and Lisa is a great pairing, and while I understand why the powers that be chose to end their burgeoning entanglement, drawing it out (like Edna and Skinner) would have been better. The subplot of Homer as a telemarketer feels like retread material (but is appropriately silly). It’s solid outing.
8.8 Hurricane Neddy
When a freak hurricane leaves Ned Flanders homeless, his long simmering anger issues come to the forefront. In therapy, Ned realizes he has long suppressed his frustration with his parents.
This is a good Ned centered episode which humanizes the over eager do-gooder. I enjoyed the passing reference to the controversial crossover with The Critic, but the townspeople feeling bad and helping a down on his luck Ned out of a jam is a bit repetitive.
8.9 El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)
Marge tries to keep Homer from going to the annual chili cook-off, but his keen sense of smell thwarts her plan. After promising not to embarrass her, he eats a particularly fiery chili made with insanity peppers, leading to a night of vivid hallucinations. During this otherworldly trip, Homer encounters a coyote (voiced by Johnny Cash) who encourages him to connect with his soulmate.
Homer’s trip and Cash’s cameo are series highlights as the episode cranks up the absurdity and serves as a bridge to the surreal tone of later seasons. A+ episode.
8.10 The Springfield Files
Homer gets drunk and sees an alien on his way home. While no one in town believes him, FBI agents Scully and Mulder are sent to investigate. Eventually, we discover it was Mr. Burns, whose regular injections to cheat death and natural glow from prolonged exposure to nuclear radiation make him occasionally look and act like an alien.
The crossover with The X-Files is a solid idea in theory, but much like the previous lambasted effort involving The Critic it feels cheap and beneath the show. Leonard Nimoy’s cameo is not enough to salvage one of my least favorite episodes of the season.
8.11 The Twisted World of Marge Simpson
Frustrated by her efforts with the Investorettes (Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Agnes Skinner, Luann Van Houten, and Edna Krabappel), Marge purchases a pretzel cart franchise from Frank Ormand (Jack Lemmon). Homer secretly asks Fat Tony to scare off her competitors to help her floundering business. In response, the Investorettes involve the yakuza.
I adore Jack Lemmon and the subtle bitchiness of the Investorettes, but this season is full of episodes which build and build and build to a huge climax with no ramifications going forward. The show is morphing into an animated sketch show, where entire subplots are built around a throwaway joke. This change in tone is why the show has survived thirty plus years, but sometimes these explosive endings don’t pay off.
8.12 Mountain of Madness
Burns forces his employees to participate in a team training exercise: teams of two will race up a snowy mountain. Burns and Homer are paired together and reach the cabin destination first, but their celebration causes an avalanche, trapping them inside. Their subsequent efforts to escape bury them deeper and deeper.
The show wisely shied away from Homer’s work at the power plant in future seasons. Work place sitcoms can become monotonous, much like work itself. This episode suffers because the antagonistic relationship between Homer and Burns had run its course.
8.13 Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious
When the Simpsons decide to hire a nanny to relieve Marge, Shary Bobbins magically glides in from the sky. Of course, Shary’s attempts to reform the family with good cheer, optimism, and song fail miserably.
My childhood love of Mary Poppins means this episode is tailor made for me. Apparently, producers attempted to get Julie Andrews to voice Shary Bobbins, but it didn’t work out. Even so, this remains one of the highlights of season eight: a practically, perfect parody of a childhood classic.
8.14 The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show
To revive the sagging ratings of Itchy & Scratchy, Roger Meyers Jr. adds a new character: Poochie, a dog with “attitude,” voiced by Homer. Predictably, the new character and tone of the show are not well received and Poochie is hastily and unceremoniously written out.
Some of my favorite Simpson gags are in this meta-episode: Roy, a college aged man, is suddenly living with the Simpsons; Homer asks “will this episode be airing live?” and his costar responds “they tried, but it was a terrible strain on the animators’ wrists;” the debut of Comic Book Guy’s “Worst. Episode. Ever.” rant. In a season full of peak episodes, this one is a standout.
8.15 Homer’s Phobia
After realizing his new friend John is gay, Homer worries about this influence on Bart.
It’s a classic Simpsons episode, and may be John Water’s biggest cultural contribution outside of Hairspray. Homer’s rant about queer being “our word to make fun of you,” is a well structured and still relevant piece of social commentary. As much as The Simpsons is heralded for its political predictions, their reckoning with homophobia and efforts to normalize homosexuality were fairly cutting edge in 1997.
8.16 Brother from Another Series
When Sideshow Bob is once again released from prison, Bart is convinced Bob is trying to kill him once more, but eventually discovers the true villain is Bob’s brother Cecil who’s planning to blow up a dam and destroy Springfield.
In a testament to the show’s elasticity, the whole episode is structured around an inside joke: Kelsey Grammer voices Sideshow Bob while Cecil is voiced by David Hyde Pierce who also portrays the brother of Grammer’s most famous character, Frasier Crane. Unlike previous attempts at crossovers, this one works because it isn’t a promotional tie in forced on the show by corporate synergy, but a well crafted parody. Another notch in the argument for season eight as one of the best seasons of the show.
8.17 My Sister, My Sitter
After Lisa proves herself a competent babysitter with Rod and Tod, Marge leaves her in charge of Bart while she and Homer attend the opening gala of the revitalized Springfield Squidport. Bart resents being left under the care of his younger sister and does everything possible to sabotage her.
It’s a solid, but not spectacular episode focused on the well-mined Bart / Lisa dynamic.
8.18 Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment
After Bart accidentally gets drunk during a St. Patrick’s Day parade, Springfield overreacts (surprise!) and bans alcohol. When Chief Wiggum proves ineffective at enforcing the new regulations, federal agent Rex Banner (Dave Thomas) steps in. Homer becomes a bootlegger and eventually unites with Wiggum to discredit and remove Banner. As alcohol is one again flowing freely in Springfield, Homer leads the elated townspeople in a toast: “To alcohol! The cause of… and the solution to… all of life’s problems.”
It’s a fun episode and the closing quote is rightly guarded as a series highlight, but Homer’s career as the Beer Baron wasn’t as entertaining to me as I hoped (although I loved using bowling balls and Barney’s Bowl-a-Rama as the delivery mechanism). I liked Dave Thomas as Banner, but his Robert Stack impression left me wishing they had gotten Stack to voice the character. Of course, Fat Tony is always appreciated, but I wish he had been been a little more involved.
8.19 Grade School Confidential
Bart discovers Skinner and and Edna are romantically involved and agrees to keep their relationship a secret. However, he grows tired of being their messenger boy and exposes the affair to the school, which briefly costs them their jobs.
It’s hard to remember Edna and Seymour weren’t always a thing; it’s a wonderful gag, and the introduction of their pairing (and Bart’s involvement) is a fantastic episode.
8.20 The Canine Mutiny
I’m not a huge fan of episodes featuring Santa’s Little Helper. How many times can the family abandon the dog only to realize how much they miss him? Bart trying to steal his dog back from a blind man who provides a more stable, loving home comes very close to cruelty. Easily the weakest link of the season.
8.21 The Old Man and the Lisa
A bankrupt Burns asks Lisa to help him become financially stable again. She reluctantly does so on the condition he change his evil ways. When Lisa discovers Burns’ obvious lie, she disavows him.
There’s some funny stuff when Burns is forced to live with Smithers, but by season eight, Lisa’s conscience episodes were wearing thin.
8.22 In Marge We Trust
Marge helps Reverend Lovejoy deal with burnout. Jealous of her success, the good reverend falls into a depression, but rescuing Ned from a gang of bullies at the Leftorium renews his sense of purpose. Meanwhile, Homer discovers a Japanese detergent logo, Mr. Sparkle, bears a strong resemblance to him.
Lovejoy’s crisis of faith is interesting even if the character is not, but I didn’t like Marge’s turn as the Listen Lady. The subplot is the highlight. Mr. Sparkle and the ensuing emergence into Japanese culture is very funny, but not enough to salvage the episode.
8.23 Homer’s Enemy
New power plant employee Frank Grimes, extremely critical of Homer’s buffoonery and everyone’s blase acceptance of it, vows to prove his incompetence. Ultimately, things don’t bode well for Grimey, and the episode ends with attendees of his funeral laughing as Homer makes an ass of himself.
It’s a dark episode, but one of my favorites. I love Grimes, and I love trying to impose real world logic on the characters, heightening the absurdity. When Homer blithely mentions his Grammy win or his time as an astronaut, it serves as meta-critique of the show’s tonal shift away from the realism of its first few seasons.
8.24 The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase
Troy McClure introduces three Simpsons spin-offs: Chief Wiggum, PI, The Love-matic Grampa, and The Simpsons Family Smile-Time Variety Hour.
After an episode subtly critiquing the show’s absurdist bent, this one leans into it in a send up of Hollywood’s insatiable desire to maximize profits from popular intellectual properties. Wiggum as a New Orleans investigator paired with Skinner, Grandpa’s ghost inhabiting a love tester, and a variety show featuring the titular family (sans the ever principled Lisa). None of these work on their own, but in short bursts they’re delightful.
8.25 The Secret War of Lisa Simpson
Bart gets in trouble so his parents send him to military school. Dissatisfied with her education, Lisa joins him, becoming the first girl at the school. Bart is initially embarrassed by his sister, but familial love wins and he secretly trains her to pass the final test.
A few funny bits and Willem Dafoe as a guest star, but there’s nothing special here.
- Treehouse of Horror VII (8.1)
- Bart After Dark (8.5)
- Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious (8.13)
- Homer’s Enemy (8.23)
- The Mysterious Voyage of Homer (8.9)
- You Only Move Twice (8.2)
- The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase (8.24)
- Grade School Confidential (8.19)
- Brother from Another Series (8.16)
- The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show (8.14)
- Homer’s Phobia (8.15)
- Lisa’s Date with Density (8.7)
- Milhouse Divided (8.6)
- Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment (8.18)
- The Twisted World of Marge (8.11)
- Hurricane Neddy (8.8)
- In Marge We Trust (8.22)
- My Sister, My Sitter (8.17)
- Burns, Baby, Burns (8.4)
- The Secret War of Lisa Simpson (8.25)
- The Homer They Fall (8.3)
- The Old Man and the Lisa (8.21)
- Mountain Madness (8.12)
- The Springfield Files (8.10)
- The Canine Mutiny (8.20)