3.1 Stark Raving Dad
Michael Jackson’s cameo legitimized the show in a way ratings couldn’t. However, thirty years later, it’s now such an embarrassment to the show they’ve tried to ram it down the memory hole. It’s a solid episode and Michael does phenomenal work, especially for a non actor. The song he composed, “Lisa it’s Your Birthday,” is a highlight, and the twist when Michael Jackson is revealed to be Leon Kompowsky is a nice metajoke.
3.2 Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington
Lisa’s disillusionment with American politics after accidentally witnessing a bribe of a crooked congressman is a clear indication the third season of the show was expanding the scope of its satire. This episode is filled with arcane and esoteric pop culture references, at times resembling a Dennis Miller monologue.
3.3 When Flanders Failed
This is the quintessential Ned episode. For the first time in the show’s run, he is fully the character we know: slightly annoying, but good natured and deserving of much better treatment than what Homer gives him. It’s hard not to feel bad for him and root for the Leftorium to succeed. This is The Simpsons delivering on what they do best.
3.4 Bart the Murderer
I love Fat Tony. Joe Mantegna is wonderful in the role and clearly loves playing the character. Bart’s descent into the underworld and Skinner’s predicament under a stack of papers are both solid ideas and I love Neil Patrick Harris’s short cameo, but I didn’t enjoy Bart’s descent into crime.
3.5 Homer Defined
In this episode we see the writers playing with the Homer failing upwards paradigm. Here, after he accidentally averts a nuclear meltdown, he’s temporarily praised as a hero before being exposed as a fraud. The formula is not quite there and some of the characterization in this episode makes it hard to root for Homer. He needs to be identifiable and relatable. However, I wish the phrase “pulling a Homer,” were more prevalent and I liked Magic’s cameo.
3.6 Like Father, Like Clown
What a genius stroke to make Krusty Jewish and to interpret his career through a Jazz Singer lens. Jackie Mason has rarely been better than as Rabbi Krustofski. A great non-Simpson family centric episode.
3.7 Treehouse of Horror II
It’s amazing how many of the now standard parts of the Treehouse formula were there in the beginning. One year in and they knew Kang and Kodos would be in all of them and each would feature three self-contained segments. The monkey paw segment is a well thought out short story. Bart’s segment is elevated significantly when he turns Homer into a jack in the box. The last segment is the weakest of the three, but Homer waking up with Mr. Burns’s attached head is a classic moment. Tree House episodes are frequently some of the silliest and most chaotic of the early seasons and let the show stretch its legs.
3.8 Lisa’s Pony
Homer’s view of being a good father is tied up in material possessions. When he disappoints Lisa by failing to bring her a new reed in time for the school concert, he decides to buy her happiness with a pony, which forces him to take a second job at the Kwik-E-Mart. Homer moonlighting with Apu is great and the image of him falling asleep in the automatic doors is one of my go to Simpsons images. The episode itself is okay, but I love Homer’s dedication to his family.
3.9 Saturdays of Thunder
Homer bonds with Bart while building a soapbox derby car, but Bart’s desire to defeat Nelson and causes him to ditch Homer for an alliance with Martin. It’s another exploration of Homer’s parenting (a huge focus of season three). Homer is a good dad, despite his flaws. The show seems to argue effort and intention are more important than results.
3.10 Flaming Moe’s
At this point in the series run, they were beginning to explore the dynamics and relationships of the characters outside of the titular clan. This is another great world building episode. The cameos are spot on. Moe’s duplicity and Homer’s anger are perfect. This memorable episode is a highlight of season three.
3.11 Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk
The land of chocolate sequence is rightly praised for its whimsy. You can see the show pushing against the boundaries of what it can be and do. I love Burns and Smithers unhealthy relationship, but something about this rings hollow to me. Why would Burns sell the plant to begin with? He’s always loved the power his money affords him. It doesn’t seem likely he would need to discover that rationale. Despite the highlights, it’s a less than stellar episode for me.
3.12 I Married Marge
The second flashback episode isn’t wonderful as the first. I liked the notion of oral storytelling within a family as a way of providing identity and place within the world. We need to know where we came from, what made us into the person we are. I love the juxtaposition of Homer telling his kids he’s so happy to have them in his life to his immediate joy when Marge reveals she’s not pregnant. Having a child causes a great deal of confusing, contradictory emotions. The love for your children is not in anyway negated by pining for the possible life you lost.
3.13 Radio Bart
Bart gets a microphone which transmits signals to nearby AM radios and uses it to prank everyone. When he drops it into a well, he realizes he can continue his game by making everyone believe a young child is trapped. There are some great moments: the parody of celebrity fundraisers, Sting’s cameo, revealing Groundskeeper Willie is jacked, Mayor Quimby as a craven political operative. However, the central conceit of Bart’s prank is a little too callous. They tried to walk a fine line with Bart in these early seasons between mischievous and cruel. Sometimes they went a little too far.
3.14 Lisa the Greek
Once again Homer’s relationship with Lisa is in trouble. Marge suggests Lisa find a common interest and she starts watching football games with her dad. When Lisa displays an uncanny ability to predict the outcome, Homer sees an opportunity. Lisa sadly realizes “Daddy / Daughter Day” is an excuse for Homer to make a quick buck. The Homer / Lisa relationship makes for pretty formulaic episodes. Lisa provides Homer with a moral lesson, while Homer proves to be a more insightful father than at first glance. The nature of animation and America’s seemingly tireless love affair with the Super Bowl means this episode has been consistently edited to accommodate the most recent Big Game: a nice touch which keeps it fresh in people’s minds.
3.15 Homer Alone
Marge gets stressed and goes to a spa for a vacation, leaving Bart and Lisa with Patty and Selma and Homer alone with Maggie. It doesn’t go well. The older kids hate staying with their aunts and Homer loses Maggie. A lot of episodes over the years have focused on how lost Homer is without Marge. There were of course some funny bits, but overall this is a weak episode. Patty and Selma are annoying caricatures of real people and Homer’s ineptitude is almost irredeemable. I didn’t care for this episode.
3.16 Bart the Lover
Another episode where a prank from Bart spirals out of control. He answers a personal ad from Edna Krabapple and invents a mysterious dream man named Woodrow to toy with her emotions. It’s once again a little too cruel and leads to some very awkward moments like Bart receiving racy pictures of Edna. Edna’s loneliness should not make her a punching bag, and this episode does not respect her at all. However, when the whole Simpsons family comes together to get Bart out of the predicament without destroying Edna’s self-respect, it does lead to one of my favorite lines from the show: “Welcome to Dumpsville! Population: you!”
3.17 Homer at the Bat
This is a quintessential Simpsons episode. Homer joins the company softball team and, with his trusty homemade bat, becomes a star player, but when Burns makes a bet, he hires professional ringers to man the team: Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey Jr., Jose Canseco, etc. Homer is replaced by Darryl Strawberry. But, because of a string of bizarre maladies, Homer is called on to pinch hit for Strawberry in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded. He’s hit by a pitch, winning the game for the power plant. This delightful, silly episode was the first one to beat The Cosby Show in the ratings.
3.18 Separate Vocations
After an aptitude test gone awry, Bart is told he would be a great policeman and becomes a school enforcer, while Lisa is told her musical dreams won’t work and becomes a hell raiser. When she steals the teacher’s answer books and exposes their ineptitude, Bart finds out and takes the fall. This is a great role reversal episode and works because they’ve done a great job establishing who these characters are and their place in this family.
3.19 Dog of Death
Santa’s Little Helper needs an expensive medical procedure. The family makes sacrifices to afford it, but their resentment causes the beloved, family pet to run away, eventually finding a home as an attack dog for Mr. Burns. Santa’s Little Helper centric episodes are a nice change of pace, and I usually enjoy them, but this episode pretty much exhausts what we can do with him, and I hope there aren’t more in the near future.
3.20 Colonel Homer
After a fight with Marge, Homer goes to a bar and hears country singer Lurleen Lumpkin. Under his management, she is an instant success. She tries to seduce him, but Homer remains faithful to his wife. Beverly D’Angelo is great as Lurleen and her songs are an inspired parody / homage of country music. Colonel Homer (Homer’s manager persona) is one of my favorite of his many occupations.
3.21 Black Widower
Selma’s love life and the numerous husbands she has is always funny and Sideshow Bob episodes are among my favorites. Bob marrying Selma to get closer to Bart establishes the pattern of the character we all love. It’s a seminal Simpsons moment.
3.22 The Otto Show
There were some funny moments. I loved the Spinal Tap cameo, and Otto living with the Simpsons is rife for comedy, but Otto is not that interesting as a central character, and stretched to a whole episode, it doesn’t work for me.
3.23 Bart’s Friend Falls in Love
This is a clunker. Milhouse is by definition a sad sack. Seeing him with a girl is not right and Bart’s petulant reaction to it is equally off-putting.
3.24 Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
I like Herb (Homer’s half-brother) and I think Danny DeVito does an excellent job. Herb’s baby translator is pretty neat, but his stubborn refusal to forgive Homer is at odds with the ethos of the show. Part of what makes The Simpsons so wonderful is everyone’s insistence on Homer’s complete lack of accountability. Holding a grudge is not something The Simpsons does well and seeing it here is jarring.
- Like Father, Like Clown (3.6)
- Tree House of Horror II (3.7)
- Homer at the Bat (3.17)
- Black Widower (3.21)
- Colonel Homer (3.20)
- Flaming Moe’s (3.10)
- Radio Bart (3.13)
- Lisa the Greek (3.14)
- Bart the Lover (3.16)
- Separate Vocations (3.18)
- Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington (3.2)
- Stark Raving Dad (3.1)
- When Flanders Failed (3.3)
- Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? (3.24)
- I Married Marge (3.12)
- Lisa’s Pony (3.8)
- The Otto Show (3.22)
- Saturdays of Thunder (3.9)
- Bart’s Friend Falls in Love (2.23)
- Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk (3.11)
- Dog of Death (3.19)
- Homer Alone (3.15)
- Homer Defined (3.5)
- Bart the Murderer (3.4)