As I haven't seen a thread for this, I decided to go ahead and make it: what is your favorite episode, and why?
I'll add my full thing later, but my favorite episode is Principal Charming.
As I haven't seen a thread for this, I decided to go ahead and make it: what is your favorite episode, and why?
I'll add my full thing later, but my favorite episode is Principal Charming.




Springfield Files:
I think it is a hilarious episode the whole way through. From the opening with Leonard Nimoy to the "Keep watching the skis! Duh, I mean skies" line, this episode is chock full of great gags.
I also really like characterization. Homer wasn't portrayed crazy, or at least, not as crazy as he would have felt in the Scully/Jean era. He was crazy because he thought he saw an alien, but he didn't try to force people to believe him, like he almost certainly would have done in the Scully/Jean eras.
It also had a very great idea for the plot. I like mystery/sci-fi stuff, and that was exactly what this episode was. Did Homer see an alien? When others see it, is it really an alien? The mystery aspect is remarkable.
I read somewhere that this episode was originally going to end on a mystery, with the viewers not knowing if it was an alien or not. That also would've been a great ending I think!
So, this episode is my favorite of the series. Might be a random choice but it is one of those episodes I can always watch and I know, no matter what, I will love it and be entertained. 10/10 (because i don't think it is fair for a normal 5/5)
Seasons 1-9 - Classic era
10-12 - Scully era
13-16 - Silver age
16.5 - Into the abyss
17 - The shit abyss
18-24 - Zombie Simpsons
Marge Simpson Vs The Monorail: The episode starts off with a rather blatant parody of the Flinstones song which ends decently funny( it being one of the most remembered things in Simpsons history). The next bit which I found gut busting was Burns getting arrested for dumping the toxic waste making a comment about the bald children arousing suspicion. While at his court case in Hannibal Lector attire he easily pays his fine and buys the staue of just while the judge happily says SOLD! proving a subtle point about the justice system. The town hall meeting is one solid jokes after another and to cap it off ends with the best musical number in Simpsons history. The town meeting like most of Springfields town meeting do show a case for mob mentality and just stpidity on the towns part(Snake: Could this town be any stupider?). But it's not just them it also shows that in the Springfield universe most towns could be swept up by a suave man and his iseads all b/c one person accepts it. Evidence of this are that when Marge goes to the other town to pick up Cobb you can see the cracks in their street implying that their main street was all cracked and broken as well. The character of Lyle Lanley is the best performance Phil Hrtman ever gave to the show. He is suave,smart and can even beat one of the towns smartest(Lisa) with his charm.
The episode also contains a few of my favourite jokes from the show including my all time favourite one liner
Cobb:I knew I shouldn't have stopped for that haircut.
But is also chalk full of other like Lisa and Lanleys conversation before he enter the cab"Yah well my plane leaves in less than a minute".Homer as the monorail conducter is just gold with many hilarious jokes(him and Bart studying,"I call the big one bitey") and the whole development of the rail is gold. Lastly this episode contains my favourtie appereance of a guest star in Nimoy as every line he had was pure gold.
So in closing this episode may be low on settiment but the the show has never had better gags and one liners. It truly changed the way people could imagine the Simpsons and could only could've come from the zany mind of Conan O'Brien and the brillian writers of the classic era room.
Grade: A++ The Best Episode Of All Time
by: Jakro
I've watched the episodes from the classic seasons once (I'm getting around to doing it again), but the episode that got most powerfully struck inside my brain the first time around was Lisa's Wedding. Maybe not the funniest episode (though solid on jokes anyway), but Lisa is by far my favorite character and I remember being very emotionally overwhelmed after watching it.
Dancing homer just because it was entertaining and is an episode I could watch over and over and not get bored of it.




My favorite episode is Bart Carny. Cooder and Spud are the BEST one-time characters the show has ever had, and the jokes just never stop. I never understood how it is possible to dislike this episode, because it is simply genius.
The original Favorite and least favorite by season
Shorts: 1: The Pacifier Watching TV 2: World War III Maggie's Brain 3: Bathtime Scary Movie
Episodes: 1: Krusty Gets Busted The Telltale Head 2: Bart Gets an F The War of the Simpsons 3: Homer at the Bat Separate Vocations 4: Marge vs. the Monorail Krusty Gets Kancelled 5: Cape Feare $pringfield 6: Homer Badman Lisa on Ice 7: King-Size Homer Lisa the Iconoclast 8: Simpsoncalifragilisticexpialad'ohcious The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase 9: Girly Edition The Trouble with Trillions 10: Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble" 11: Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner? Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder 12: HOMЯ Tennis the Menace 13: Tales from the Public Domain She of Little Faith 14: The Dad Who Knew Too Little Helter Shelter 15: The Ziff Who Came to Dinner Bart-Mangled Banner 16: Don't Fear the Roofer She Used to Be My Girl 17: My Fair Laddy The Italian Bob 18: The Haw-Hawed Couple You Kent Always Say What You Want 19: Funeral for a Fiend All About Lisa 20: Gone Maggie Gone Four Great Women and a Manicure 21: The Bob Next Door The Color Yellow 22: Homer Scissorhands How Munched is That Birdie in the Window? 23: The Falcon and the D'ohman A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again 24: Hardly Kirk-ing What Animated Women Want
My all-time favorite episode would be The Boy Who Knew Too Much. A superbly crafted episode, with some wonderful gags, tight and nicely flowed pacing, some excellent characterization and a perfect balance of drama and comedy. I particularly like the beginning of the episode with Skinner hunting down Bart in a way hilariously reminiscent of Westworld and Bart's line "Oh my God, he is like some sort of...non...giving up...school guy!". Another very memorable moment in the episode is of course Dan's performance of the Miao Mix commercial which always cracks me up. The episode also has one of the best parodies of the legal system in the series imo. The Freddy Quimby character was fun and suitably arrogant. I also really like the hotel stuff between Homer and Skinner, the 'new' director's cut version of Free Willy (which also reminds me of Skinner's line "Justice is not a frivolous thing, Simpson. It has little if anything to do with a disobedient whale."). Definitely one of the best Swartzwelder-written episodes and one that'll continue to remain my favorite.
Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.
by:
Bella Drape 'er
Bart's Comet, it's one of the few classic episodes that make me laugh from beginning to end, you get to see an off school activity of Skinner, we get introduced to the 'super friends,' and I liked how Homer kept reassuring his family everything was going to be ok even though he didn't know for sure, and ended up being right on the nose in the end!
Also Bart of Darkness, it reminds me of summers with my older brother since we have a pool in the backyard. Strangers would come over just to use the pool, if one of us couldn't swim we had to fake pity/accompany the other, finding weird ways to stay cool in the SoCal heat, etc.




The Boy Who Knew Too Much is definitely one of my favourites too!
The beautiful day beginning and the reluctance of going to school/work is such a downer of misery and therefore very relatable. Shunted into school, Bart delivers a comic-enducing note of absense: "Please excuse my handwriting, I busted whichever hand it is I write with. Signed, Mrs. Simpson." Which naturally converts Skinner into a detective figure - albeit a bad one: "If I were a truant boy out for a good time, I'd be right here:
the Springfield Natural History Museum."
Little wonderful touches continue throughout with traunt Bart and work absentee Homer meeting up, Skinner tastes Bart's gum on the street, the Terminator-esque chase, Bart's enduring climbing up a rocky cliff with added tense music. Homer elected to Dury duty: "Aw, jury duty? I'll see that Quimby kid hanged for this!". Bart battling his conscience, Lisa trying to push him in the right direction. Marge revealing some disturbing family history. Homer and Skinner in a hotel room. And finally justice is served at the end.
I can only recall in delight of the fun I've had watching this countless times. To see justice and humour served so magnificently in the Court of the Simpsons.
And although this is my favourite episode, I would delightfully reward Lisa's Substitute, Stark Raving Dad and Lisa's Wedding runner up places.
by: cinco
Homer The Heretic:
Just a great all around episode, featuring my favourite line of the series (As shown in my sig), also each character was at their best in this one. I still get a kick out of one of the Flanders kids telling their father to speed up and Ned saying: "I Can't, it's a GEO"
Kids, let me tell you about another so-called ``wicked'' guy. He had long hair and some wild ideas. He didn't always do what other people thought was right. And that man's name was...
I forget. But the point is... I forget that, too. Marge, you know what I'm talking about. He used to drive that blue car?
-- Homer's parable of the guy in the blue car, ``Homer the Heretic''
Ralph: I Won! I Won!
Principal Skinner: No Ralph this means you're failing English
Ralph: Me fail English? That's unpossible.
^
That's actually in Homer Loves Flanders.
Maude tells Ned to speed up and he says that he can't, because it's a GEO.
^ Homer Loves Flanders
^ Homer the Heretic
Last edited by Little Nellie Kelly; 06-08-2010 at 02:58 PM. Reason: Found Examples
haha all this time, and Tom doesn't even know his favourite episode's quotes
We got no food, we got no jobs, our PETS HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!
Bart Sells his soul is #1 followed by Eeny Teeny Maya Moe and Moe Baby Blues.
they're sweet episodes and moe is in them a lot.
Favorite: Bart Sells Soul
Reason:
I.
Ron
Butterfly
Originally Posted by morbot
Lisa on ice
- Great jokes
- Solid simple story
- Nice emotional moments
- Ends with a riot and a great hokeyesque take on the simpsons theme