9.1 The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson
After Barney abandons Homer’s car in the World Trade Center plaza, Homer takes the family to the city to retrieve the car before it’s destroyed.
Homer running up one tower to use the restroom, finding it out of order, then going to the other tower and up the elevator to its restroom is a fun gag. The family’s adventures in NYC are great: including a Broadway show based on the Betty Ford Clinic and a run in with Alfred E. Neuman at the MAD Magazine headquarters.
It’s a solid start to the season and one of the better Simpson travel episodes.
9.2 The Principal and the Pauper
The real Seymour Skinner (Martin Sheen) arrives in Springfield and exposes our Seymour Skinner as Armin Tazmarian, a fraud who stole his identity during the Vietnam War.
This controversial episode is often cited as the point the show began a march towards mediocrity. I wholeheartedly disagree. This was a fun episode, which didn’t destroy the previous character development of Skinner, but reinterpreted it. What does it say about someone who is so committed to being someone else they will put up with (and embrace) the constant nagging of Agnes Skinner as their mother? What does it say about Agnes that she couldn’t recognize the impostor in her house?
I really loved the casting of Sheen as the real Skinner and the immediate Apocalypse Now vibes this generates. I love shows which take creative chances late in their run (not low hanging fruit like adding a kid). To me, this episode and the gamble they took are a large part of the reason the show is still around twenty years later.
9.3 Lisa’ Sax
During a fight with Bart, Lisa’ saxophone is thrown out the window and destroyed. When a despondent Lisa says she can’t remember not having her beloved instrument, Homer tells her how she initially acquired it: to provide for her happiness, Homer sacrificed the family’s air conditioner fund. In the present, faced with his daughter’s disappointment, he dips into the same fund.
Fyvush Finkel’s cameo as himself playing Krusty is fun, but by season nine, Bart vs. Lisa episodes use the same lazy formula: Bart is clearly in the wrong, Lisa complains, her parents give Lisa what she wants, Bart is never punished. Simpson flashback episodes are a mixed bag, and the origin of Lisa’s saxophone is not something I care about.
9.4 Treehouse of Horror VII
The first segment has one of my favorite Simpson moments: Homer thinking he’s the lone survivor of the apocalypse, dancing naked to Edwin Starr’s “War” in the church; and one of my favorite quotes: Comic Book Guy staring down an incoming missile, “Oh, I’ve wasted my life.”
The second segment features Bart as a fly thanks to a faulty Frink invention (has there been a character outside of Kang and Kodos more suited for Treehouse specials than Professor Frink?).
The final segment is a surprisingly subversive take on the Salem witch trials. The highlight of the season is pitch perfect Halloween fun and one of my favorite episodes of the series.
9.5 The Cartridge Family
Homer gets a gun for family protection, but his carelessness creates tension with Marge and his chapter of the NRA. The episode shows both sides to a perennially controversial subject, but the least impressive episode of the season tries to say everything and winds up saying nothing.
9.6 Bart Star
Homer undermines Flanders and takes over as coach of Springfield’s pee wee football team, then gives Bart preferential treatment to compensate for the poor relationship he had with his own father. This blatant favoritism negatively impacts the team and causes a rift in Bart and Homer’s relationship.
Joe Namath’s cameo and the Rainier Wolfcastle bits are funny, but I didn’t care for the shift in the Bart / Homer dynamic which doesn’t build on what we know about the characters. The set up is one I should enjoy, and sounds great on paper, but I didn’t care for it.
9.7 The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons
When Apu’s mother (Andrea Martin) reminds him he’s promised in an arranged marriage, he tries to avoid it by pretending he’s married to Marge. His ruse is, of course, uncovered, and he’s forced to marry Manjula (Jan) in a surprisingly sensitive depiction of a Hindu wedding.
Despite the controversy Apu would generate twenty years later, I always found him to be a respectful depiction of the American immigrant experience. His accent may be played for laughs, but Apu is rarely the butt of the joke and is often portrayed as one of the most successful people in town (including in the bachelor auction at the beginning of this episode).
Homer’s brief stay at the Springfield Retirement Castle is amusing and the guest voice cast are wonderful in this fun episode.
9.8 Lisa the Skeptic
At an archeological dig, Lisa finds a fossil of what appears to be an angel. While she seeks a scientific explanation, the people of Springfield immediately accept it as legitimate, and Homer charges his fellow Spingfieldians to see the miraculous angel skeleton. When the fossil disappears, the townspeople arrest Lisa, assuming she’s responsible. During her trial, the fossil reappears and tells the astonished onlookers “The End” will come at sundown. As everyone, including the skeptical Lisa, anxiously prepare for the worst, the angel reveals itself to be an elaborate marketing ploy for a new mall advertising “the end” of high prices.
The Simpsons is secretly one of the most profoundly religious programs on television, with an uncanny ability to handle faith based subjects without resorting to cynicism. Lisa, for all her skepticism, is one of the most fair and impartial observers of faith and, ironically, often demonstrates the ways faith is a needed and necessary component of the human condition.
9.9 Reality Bites
Homer buys Snake’s old car at a police auction and Marge gets a job as a realtor. Snake fights Homer to get his car back while Marge’s honesty leads to disaster with her new employer.
The unintentional farewell for Lionel Hutz is also the debut of Gil Gunderson (a thinly veiled Jack Lemmon impression) and alpha realtor Cookie Kwan. Sad sack Gil and hyper confident Cookie are two of the better additions to the show’s expanding cast of characters.
I love Marge’s attempt to sell a murder house to the Flanders and Hutz’s harsh response to her failure to close the deal: it’s nice to see Marge as the family failure.
9.10 Miracle on Evergreen Terrace
When Bart accidentally destroys the family Christmas tree and presents, he lies and says it was a burglar. This story engenders sympathy for the family and everyone in town contributes to make sure they have a good Christmas. When the lie is inevitably exposed, everyone quickly turns on them.
There’s a nice cameo from the Plow King, and the riff on Christmas movies is fun, but the episode never really takes off. Bart’s lie is expected, but the family going along with it seems out of character for Lisa and Marge. The cynical ending when everyone forgives the Simpsons, but ransacks their house to recoup their money almost makes up for everything else, but it can’t quite get there.
9.11 All Singing, All Dancing
I understand why clip shows were necessary in the era of longer episode seasons, but, as a rule, I don’t like them. This is the exception. I love Simpsons musical numbers and it’s hard not to smile when “Who Needs the Kwik-E Mart,” We Put the Spring in Springfield,” “The Monorail Song” and “We Do” take their turn on the greatest hits album. As an added bonus, the connective tissue of the episode is a singing meta-argument with Snake. This is one of my favorite clip show episodes and proof the format is not entirely devoid of merit.
9.12 Bart Carny
When Bart crashes a limousine at the fair, Homer and Bart apprentice with a pair of carnies, Cooder (Jim Varney) and his son Spud, to repay the debt. The Simpsons men enjoy their new lifestyle, until they fail to bribe Chief Wiggum and Cooder’s rigged game is shut down. As recompense, Homer offers to let the displaced carnies stay with them. While the family is out on a glass bottom boat, Cooder and Spud change the locks and claim squatter’s rights, but Homer outcarnies the carnies, tricking them into leaving the house.
I love Jim Varney. The Ernest movies were a staple of my childhood and his performance as Cooder cracks me up. This episode is a bit of a forgotten classic overshadowed by the other consistently excellent episodes in season nine.
9.13 The Joy of Sect
The Simpson family join a cult, the Movementarians. I enjoyed the not so subtle critique of Scientology, Jim Jones, etc., but it’s a difficult subject to satirize. The real examples are so horrifying it can be hard to find the joke. Fortunately, The Simpsons threads the needle. Unfortunately, this is a non descript episode, with very little memorable in it.
9.14 Das Bus
En route to a field trip, the children of Springfield Elementary are stranded on a desert island where they try to establish a temporary society. In an insightful parody of Lord of the Flies, they turn on each other until the narrator (James Earl Jones) reveals they are eventually saved by Moe.
In the B plot, Homer creates an internet business despite having no idea how the internet works. Eventually he is “bought out” by Bill Gates, who hires thugs to beat him up and take his stuff.
It’s wonderful to see all the children together. The show doesn’t do this enough and it shows what a full, rich world Springfield is. I love Milhouse’s island trial, and this is one of the best episodes to feature Lisa as the moral center. Bill Gates’ appearance perfectly parodies the mad rush to get in on the easy money the internet offered and I love his throw away line: “I didn’t get rich by writing a lot of checks.” This episode continues the excellent run of season nine.
9.15 The Last Temptation of Krust
Bart convinces Krusty to perform at a comedy festival hosted by Jay Leno. When his dated material is poorly received, he launches into an angry tirade about the current state of comedy which inadvertently leads to a new career as an angry social commentator. This lasts until he accepts an offer to become a celebrity pitchman and realizes his true passion is selling out.
Krusty’s new look is a great homage to George Carlin. The episode is an insightful look at the transient nature of comedy and how radically tastes change from one generation to the next. The Cayonero commercial is a highlight. I loved the Jay Leno cameo, but Krusty’s itinerant disillusionment with showbiz, retirement, and reignited love for the industry has been done before (and better) with Leno’s predecessor Johnny Carson in “Krusty Gets Kancelled.”
9.16 Dumbbell Indemnity
To impress Renee (Helen Hunt), Moe spends ridiculous amounts of money. Running low on cash, he recruits Homer to aid him in an elaborate insurance fraud scheme. Homer, being Homer, botches the plan and winds up in jail. To save face with Renee, Moe refuses to bail Homer out and feigns ignorance of the scheme.
You can hear the real world relationship of Hunt and Azaria bleeding through in their chemistry but sadly, their relationship ended as poorly as Moe and Renee’s. The gag where Homer attempts to jump put of Moe’s car only to roll back in is sublime. Moe is, in my opinion, one of the MVPs of the series. Lonely, desperate, and cheap, he’s responsible for some of the darkest (and best) jokes of the entire series.
9.17 Lisa the Simpson
Lisa learns the Simpsons lose their intelligence as they age and fears for her fate. To cheer her up, Homer recruits as many Simpsons as possible to come to Springfield to demonstrate they’re not stupid. The men are huge disappointments, but when the Simpson women seem impervious to the genetic trait, Lisa is ecstatic.
In the subplot, Jasper freezes himself in the Kwik-E-Mart to prolong his life and Apu briefly turns the frozen man into a tourist attraction.
Homer’s willingness to sacrifice for his children (especially Lisa) is an admirable quality. The idea Simpson women are intelligent and capable is nice and explains why Lisa seems so much smarter than the rest of the family. One of the cool things about this season is the show giving tertiary characters like Jasper these runs. After 22 Short Films about Springfield, the writers gradual understood how much audiences were invested in the characters outside the Simpson clan.
9.18 This Little Wiggy
Out of pity, Marge urges Bart to befriend Ralph Wiggum. Bart is upset until he realizes a friendship with Ralph means access to Chief Wiggum’s cop paraphernalia. While adventuring with a master key to the city, the two new friends go to the abandoned penitentiary and play with the old electric chair. Unfortunately, they leave the power on which inadvertently puts Mayor Quimby in danger.
Ralph centric episodes are rare and usually involve him in contrived relationships with the Simpson children. While this episode is funny, the material was covered better in “I Love Lisa.” The previous episode was a series high point, this is like a reheated great dinner.
9.19 Simpson Tide
Homer is fired from the power plant and joins the Navy. Bart gets an earring to be fashionable, which inexplicably winds up plugging a hole in a submarine. Though it may have been written before Crimson Tide premiered, this feels like a cheap knock off. There’s some funny stuff, like the self-referential joke about “doing the Bartman,” and the bit where the Soviet Union is revealed to have never really gone away is great. However, the episode feels insubstantial, and is one of the weaker efforts of the season.
9.20 The Trouble with Trillions
As payment for missed taxes, the government coerces Homer to retrieve a trillion dollar bill from Mr. Burns who, in turn, convinces Homer to help him escape to Cuba.
The idea of a trillion dollar bill Burns swindled from the US government is surprisingly facile and gets more mileage than I would have guessed. I’m a sucker for Burns’ WWII era stories (I love that even though he looks younger, he still acts like he belongs in a bygone era). This episode sounds flimsy on paper, but worked for me, and the ending joke with Castro is brilliant.
9.21 Girly Edition
Krusty’s program needs educational content so Bart and Lisa are hired to work on a kids’ news program. When Bart’s human interest segment, “Bart’s People” is a smash, a jealous Lisa works to sabotage him. The two siblings reconcile just in time to learn their show is cancelled.
In the B plot, Homer hires Mojo, a helper monkey.
I didn’t love the A story (although it did feature the debut of Crazy Cat Lady and a hilarious gag of rerouted cream corn exploding Willie’s shack). However, the B story with Mojo is delightful.
9.22 Trash of the Titans
Homer gets in a fight with the sanitation department, leaving the Simpsons without trash service. The standoff prompts Homer to campaign to be the next Sanitation Commissioner. After Moe inspires a catchy slogan, he unexpectedly wins, and things go as poorly as everyone anticipated.
The “Candy Man” parody, U2’s cameo, the cynical creation of Love Day, the debut of Costington’s, and Steve Martin’s cameo as the sanitation commissioner, Ray Patterson, are brilliant. I especially loved Patterson’s refusal to return to the job after Homer’s colossal failure (in a riff of a Red Foxx anecdote he’s played on and immediately off stage to the theme song from Sanford and Son). A lot of this episode is throw away filler, but the highlights are some of the show’s more inspired jokes.
9.23 King of the Hill
After embarrassing his family, Homer trains with Rainier Wolfcastle to get in better shape. His new physique leads to a sponsorship from a sketchy health food company to climb the Murderhorn. Despite warnings from Grandpa, Homer agrees to the publicity stunt.
Out of shape Homer stories don’t interest me, and Homer using the body of Grandpa’s erstwhile climbing buddy to sled down the mountain is not nearly as funny as the writers think. I enjoyed the Wolfcastle stuff, but wish he had been utilized in a better episode.
9.24 Lost Our Lisa
Called away to deal with an emergency, Marge is forced to cancel plans to take Lisa to the museum. Desperate to see the exhibit before it closes, Lisa manipulates Homer into letting her take the bus downtown. After a talk with his coworkers, Homer realizes this idea is horrible and hunts for his daughter in downtown Springfield.
This is one of the weaker efforts of the season. Dr. Hibbert’s attempts to help Bart out of his predicament are funny, but Homer getting caught in a drawbridge skirts just over the line into wanton cruelty. There’s a nice message about the value of risk taking, but it’s buried in a subpar episode.
9.25 Natural Born Kissers
During a rough patch in their marriage, Homer and Marge discover they’re aroused by sex in public spaces, and, like a couple of horny newlyweds, can’t keep their hands off each other. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa uncover an alternate ending to Casablanca.
The subplot feels more suited to an SNL skit, but is pretty funny. Similarly, Homer and Marge as exhibitionists leads to some funny moments, but the season ends on a mediocre episode.
- Treehouse of Horror VIII (9.5)
- Lisa the Skeptic (9.8)
- All Singing, All Dancing (9.11)
- Reality Bites (9.9)
- Bart Carny (9.12)
- The Principal and the Pauper (9.2)
- The Trouble with Trillions (9.20)
- Dumbbell Indemnity (9.16)
- Das Bus (9.14)
- Trash of the Titans (9.22)
- Lisa the Simpson (9.17)
- The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson (9.1)
- The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons (9.7)
- Natural Born Kissers (9.25)
- The Joy of Sect (9.13)
- This Little Wiggy (9.18)
- Girly Edition (9.21)
- Lisa’s Sax (9.4)
- Lost Our Lisa (9.24)
- Simpson Tide (9.19)
- The Last Temptation of Krust (9.15)
- King of the Hill (9.23)
- Miracle on Evergreen Terrace (9.10)
- Bart Star (9.6)
- The Cartridge Family (9.5)