Since its animation I thought I would share with you a video I just posted of my favorite Simpsons episodes. It’s a longer video but the list starts at 4:17 mark. Please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t.
My top 13 Simpsons episodes.
13. Brick Like Me
12. Bart the Mother
11. Bart on the Road
10. When Flanders Failed
9. Bart Gets an F
8. The Cartridge Family
7. Treehouse of Horror V
6. Secret War of Lisa Simpson
5. Homer the Great
4. Lisa Gets an A
3. Marge vs the Monorail
2. King Sized Homer
1. Homer’s Enemy.
What are your favorite episodes?
My absolute favourite episode is “Homer Badman” – the jokes are hilarious and it’s a good satire of the media. “Mayored to the Mob” is probably second. Other favourites include “Radio Bart”, “Treehouse of Horror IV”, “Deep Space Homer” and “Lemon of Troy”.
Great choice with Homer Badman. I’d forgotten about it but that one is brilliant. I especially love the Little Mermaid reference. The take on feminism, sexual harassment, and the media is great. Good choice.
The other 4 are really strong one’s I could have gone with. The Lemon of Troy is a great town episode if you like the side characters and has some hilarious Homer/Flanders moments.
Morgan and Chelsea would probably love this video, lol!
Are they Simpsons fans? I’ll have to message it to them. Morgan and I think might secretly be twins. We have so much in common!
Oh yes, they quote it often in the Rotoscopers Podcasts! I’ve never seen an episode of Simpsons, so I wouldn’t know much about what this video will be about.
Cool. I have missed that. I just heard their Watership Down which was awesome. A viewer reminded me of an episode you would like called Mypods and Boomsticks about the Simpsons getting Muslim neighbors. It meant a lot to my friend. Really quite touching
I think I might have heard of that episode before, but I’ll havta check it out sometime.
I love The Simpsons. I gave my sister the Season 2 DVD set for her birthday and we had a lot of fun watching them.
You have a good list, which I know you have written elsewhere on your other blog before. Bart Gets an F and Lisa Gets an A were stand-out episodes. I actually don’t like Bart on the Road at all, though. I just found it pushed the boundary far too much of what Bart and his friends could get away with. The whole scheme with driving the car on cruise control, I think was far too over-the-top and ridiculous. They should have at least gotten in trouble for that.
I also have never understood the appeal of Marge vs. the Monorail. I went into it expecting something brilliant and amazing and I just felt disappointed. The story seemed cliched and boring and I just felt empty, like there weren’t many laughs.
I also have not seen Homer’s Enemy or The Secret War of Lisa Simpson. Or Brick Like Me, but then I think the show should have ended after Season 11. Season 11 wasn’t that good but Married… with Children, Cheers, Frasier, and M*A*S*H all had 11 seasons so for me it makes sense.
Also Behind the Laughter would have made a great finale. I didn’t like Mypods and Boomsticks much because I thought Homer was too unlikable, the way he treated the Muslims for the flimsiest reasons. In particular him telling Maggie not to eat the cake he had tried to give them because it was poisoned was completely over the top!
But he realizes he was wrong and that moment of connection at the end was very moving. Anyway it meant a lot to my friend. You can read his comment on the video.
Behind the Laughter was a very meta episode but I agree would have been a good one.
The Jeffersons and Happy Days had 11 seasons too.
My favorite drama ER had 15. Crazy! 🙂
I guess different things appeal to different people. Luckily there’s a lot of episodes so something for everyone 🙂
I wonder: have you seen Doug Walker’s video giving his Top 11 favorite episodes of The Simpsons? He had Bart Gets an F at the top.
I have. He makes some good choices. I’m jealous that he has the clout to use clips and stuff. If I did that my video would be taken down for copyright. Sigh
I found this good review blog for The Simpsons up to Season 21 here. You might like it, but be warned, the reviews for the later episodes are brutal:
https://meblogwritegood.wordpress.com/author/rockstrongo17/
He also has a great Disney blog!
http://firethedisneycannon.blogspot.com/
Cool. Thanks for the recommendation
Sweet list. How you managed to narrow it down to 13, I will never know. I agree with most of these, but if I made such a list, I would have to include “Lisa’s Substitute”, one of the sweetest episodes the show ever did. It makes me tear up every time I watch it.
Oh that one is so good too! I didnt think of it but you are absolutely right. One of the best.
Lisa’s Substitute is basically a masterpiece. It has one of the most touching endings of all time, “I’m on the greatest roll of my life.”
And that paper with the words “You are Lisa Simpson” printed on it is so profound and beautiful in its simplicity. It always irritated me when my little sister, who was only 8, laughed at it, thinking it was just another joke. I hope she will learn better in time.
I should thank you for giving me an appreciation for the subplot, too. You mentioned elsewhere all the aspects of the political system it could teach people about, and you’re right. I never thought of that.
It really is a lovely moment. I sort of wish I’d included that one in this list. Oh well. That always happens when I make lists.
I just watched it. The Bart election subplot is brilliant too with everyone forgetting to vote!
The phrase also works well when you consider Mad Men, and how Don’s name, his identity, is completely stolen from someone else’s. He was born Dick Whitman, he threw that away, and Dick Whitman arguably died in 1965 with Anna Draper.
It always said a lot about him that he was willing to keep the box with mementos of his old life, and maintain contact with Anna in California.
And now he seems to be trying to leave his old life goodbye completely to the point of getting out his car so it can be stolen forever. I’m not sure if I want to watch the finale now. I don’t think it can live up to my expectations, and in a way everything seems to have been resolved nicely.
I was surprised that Roger wasn’t in the episode at all after the prediction I had that he would die. But the storyline with Betty made sense, and was something I predicted, considering her cancer scare in Season 5. My one real complaint there is they’ve had 3 women at this point who are the victim of smoking-related diseases at a fairly young age (30s-40s): Anna and Rachel previously. It’s funny how the death rate for men is always consistently younger in every culture, and yet someone viewing our pop culture would probably think it’s the other way around, even from Up.
Good point about the women dying first. Hadnt thought of that but you are right. I think last night the message was Don has been replaced by Pete who will basically have the life Don had at the beginning of the show. I would never have guessed that.
And just the idea that even in hodunk America Don cant sell himself any more. He gets beat up in one way or another either way. I dont know what he’s going to do in the finale but I think it will be some kind of new start.
The Betty stuff was very sad. That last episode is going to be emotional!
I think Betty showed remarkable character growth when we consider in Season 3 she got angry at her father for being mature about his mortality and giving her plans for what to do in the case of his death.
Here she’s willing to be up front with Sally in that way eventually. My one complaint is that Henry throws the cigarettes into the backseat instead of her. It would have been more effective, I think, and signaled Betty’s change if she had paused and then thrown them out the window.
In any case I think Betty at least did find contentment. She’s accepted her fate and is going through her life as normal. It’s sad it took that much, but it did come.
For Pete and Don that question is very debatable. Who knows what is out there for Pete. Don just seems intent on leaving everything behind. I thought at first his allowing the car to be stolen was signaling that he equated it with his theft of Lt. Draper’s identity and he might as well let that kid be reborn as him and realize all that makes him feel, because just telling him what it will amount to will never make an impact.
I don’t know where he can go from here, though, but I think it might be better if the show ended with this one, and left us to forever wonder. We know what is going to happen to Betty, and we know enough about Pete and Don to guess,
I honestly think I would be satisfied if the show just stopped here. The Sopranos apparently followed the model of the penultimate episode being the climax. Mad Men followed that in Season 1 and 5, and it seems here as well.
My prediction on Roger dying still holds for the finale. The fact he wasn’t in this episode just made me more suspicious, but I’m convinced now that Don may survive to the finish. And I am absolutely terrified to tune in to see what that finish is.
One more! Cant believe it. I do think Pete is getting the Don Draper beginning of the show treatment. He will have the wife, family, fancy job and power. I would never have guessed he’d get the happy ending.
I agree what you are saying about Betty. This was a time when she could choose in her life. The scene with the letter. Rip your heart out but it is an oddly good way to leave Betty. So far we are getting interesting endings. I loved Peggy’s ending last week. Joan’s was very sad. You’re right though no ending for Roger. Don is already this new person but once he finds out about Betty is he going to take the kids? Move somewhere and become someone new again? I could see it. Thats why they were showing him repair stuff. Maybe his third life will be some small town repairing tvs?
Oh and the fact he finally came full circle on Dick with the army guys and then right after confronted a kid who is trying to change his identity. Again coming circle with the loss of Dick and the cover up. That’s why I think next will be the loss of Don and moving on to next person.
Anyway who knows. Great episode last night. Will be sad to see it end even though I fell out of love with it for a while.