Top 50 Episodes: 1-10

10. Marge be not Proud (Season 7 Episode 11)
It's sad that Marge doesn't get that many episodes about herself. This episode is a great example of why she deserved more episodes about herself.

The story begins with Bart and Lisa watching a Krusty Christmas special where Lisa points out that Krusty's Jewish. After that Bart gets enticed by a commercial for Bonestorm and then goes to Marge to "ask" her to buy him the game, Marge immediately says no. After Marge tucks Bart into bed, Bart sees CBG's store with Bonestorm for 99 cents. CBG then explains to Bart that 99 cents is the rental price and he is out of them for now. While walking back home, Bart sees Milhouse playing Bonestorm but is kicked out after asking Milhouse to play as well. Bart then decides to go to the Try-N-Save and hopes that someone will buy him the game out of pity. While inside, Nelson and Jimbo show Bart what they've shoplifted and tell Bart it's a victimless crime and okay to do. After a good hallucination, Bart decides to steal the game and walk out, just as he thinks he's gotten away with it, security grabs him and takes him back in. After a short video about shoplifting by Troy McClure, the security guard Mr. Brodka, tells Bart he saw on him steal the game on the surveillance tapes and calls his parents. It turns out though, he got the answering machine and lets Bart go, he then threatens Bart that if he comes back, he'll be in juvenile hall for Christmas. After it's shown that Bart changed out the tape with a bad song, we find out that the family's going to Try-N-Save for the family photo. After Bart has a dream about himself in juvenile hall, he tries to go with a disguise. Marge asks Bart for no hijinks and to have one decent family photo (After we see 3 photos he's messed up). After they get to the store, we see Bart trying his hardest to not attract attention to himself (With the store being as ironic as possible). As the family is setting up for the photo, Bart sees Mr. Brodka and tries to speed up the photo. During the photo, Mr. Brodka pulls Bart aside and reveals to Marge (And the store) that Bart tried to steal Bonesaw and this upsets Marge, which upsets Bart as well. Back home, Homer berates Bart while Marge just sits and talks to Bart as she's disappointed with him (I've actually felt more guilt when my mom is disappointed with me rather than when she yells at me). After Bart discusses what happened with Lisa, Lisa says that Marge is probably just storing up her anger and wont forgive Bart. It is then demonstrated later as Marge doesn't tuck Bart in and Bart feels shameful. Marge then decides that Bart's not her little baby anymore and she thinks she mother him too much. The next day, we see that Marge didn't wake Bart up or put the marshmallow in his hot coco. Bart then goes over to Milhouse to talk about the fact that he's afraid that his mom has stopped loving him. After we see Bart hang out with Mrs. VanHouten (He wants to be loved by a mother-figure) we see that the family made snow-people was Bart was gone and Bart makes a pitiful snow-Bart out of mud snow (If this doesn't scream symbolism, I don't know what does). Bart decides that he's tired of being the black sheep and he goes into Try-N-Save for one last thing. After Marge and Lisa spray fake snow on their tree, Marge sees Bart come in with something in his coat and she chases after him to find out what it is. It turns out that it's a photo of him to put over himself in the family photo. After Marge puts the photo up, the family photo balances out and Marge forgives Bart and loves him again.

For the last time, you WILL respect my AUTHORITAY!

Case for #1: This is a great episode about Marge and her love for her son. This is also a great Christmas episode and very memorable. The plot is just fantastic and couldn't have been done any better, the jokes are great and the writing really gets you sucked into the story very well.

9. Mr. Plow (Season 4 Episode 9)
This is probably one of the most famous episodes of the show ever. This episode has everything working in it's favor and nothing working against it.

The story begins with Homer at Moe's as he finds out that it's snowing hard outside and decides to go home before it gets worse. As Homer tries to navigate through the snowstorm, he accidentally crashes into a car which turns out to be his other car. After Homer gets his insurance check, he hitchhikes to try to buy a new car but decides against it after seeing that the cars there are crap. Homer then decides to go to the Springfield auto show to buy a new car instead. While there we see a bunch of funny car jokes and the family meets Adam West who is just as crazy as we all think he is (Or as crazy as he is in Family Guy). After slowly backing away from West, Homer runs into a snow plow and decides to buy it because he can make money plowing snow to pay for the truck. After Marge complains to Homer about buying the plow, we see Homer fail to get his fliers out and Barney showing that nobody reads them (Okay, I can't write down every joke but believe me when I say this episode is littered with a lot of great jokes). Back home, Lisa suggests to Homer that he should buy some cheap advertising on an obscure channel. Homer becomes intrigued and we find out that he bought a commercial for 3:17 AM (I love the lampshading joke about the Simpsons being on a lousy channel). After the commercial, we see Homer's ad has worked as he gets a lot of business. Homer is then commended by the city for his work and given a key to the city. After Homer tells Barney to be the best he can be, we see a scene where Marge admits she was wrong about the plow and is turned on by the Mr. Plow jacket. The next morning we see the streets are all plowed clean and it turns out that Barney got his own plow and is now the Plow King. After a commercial for the Plow King (That also insults Mr. Plow) we see Barney steal more customers from Homer and Homer's in danger of losing his plow. Lisa then suggests that Homer come up with a new ad to which Homer suggests a rap (Bart and Lisa look on and never want him to do that again). After Homer's new surreal ad goes up, Quimby takes Homer's key and gives it to Barney. After watching the weather, Homer tricks Barney to go up to plow Widow's Peak so that he can have all the business of Springfield to himself. After Homer plows some driveways, a news report is aired showing Barney being buried by an avalanche. Homer decides to go up to save Barney. After some pretty funny scenes, Homer saves Barney and decide to become partners. God then decides to make it spring and the snowplow business is dead. After Homer's plow gets repossessed, Homer gets intimate with Marge while wearing the Mr. Plow jacket.

Mr. Plow, that's my name that name again is... *Whispers* Line?

Case for #1: This is a very popular episode, and for good reason, this was a top episode from when the Simpsons were on the top. The writing is excellent, the jokes are great and the plot is amazing.

8. Separate Vocations (Season 3 Episode 18)
Now this is a great role-reversal episode. If you've seen my review for "Postcards from the Wedge" I complained they screwed up the concept. Here is the perfect example of how it's supposed to work.

The story begins with the school taking a vocations test (You know those stupid tests that claim to know what you'd be when you grew up but when you got there it was completely wrong). After they finish the tests we find out that Bart is meant to be a police officer and Lisa is meant to be a homemaker. Lisa and Bart both can't believe the results as Lisa refuses to accept that she'd be a homemaker while Bart can't believe that he'd be fighting with the law. Marge takes Lisa to a music shop where the owner tells Lisa she's talented but she wont be able to be a blues musician because her fingers are too stubby (I really don't like this whole "You must be measurably correct to do this activity". There have been some short Quaterbacks who have played much better than tall QBs with rocket arms). Later, the police come to give Bart a ride-along to show him the life of a police officer. Meanwhile, Lisa writes in her diary about how her hopes and dreams were crushed because she shouldn't be able to play the blues as an adult (Okay this is a little out of character for her, but keep in mind that she was basically told by a test (Academics) that she wont be a Blues musician and it was confirmed by a music store owner that she couldn't. She's just depressed and feels like there's nowhere left to go now). So after Bart feels like the life of a police officer is boring, Snake cuts them off and a high-speed chase ensues (Damn boxes *lol*). After they corner Snake, Eddie gives Bart a revolver to back them up and Snakes goes to ram Bart with his car. After failing to shoot Snake, Snake almost hits him but then crashes and Bart is okay. Bart then tells Wiggum that he wants to be a cop when he grows up. The next morning, Marge tries to show Lisa the positives of homemaking but fails after Bart and Homer ignore her cleverness. After some scenes showing Bart learning how to fight crime, we find out that Lisa quit the band and she seems even more depressed. Later at school, Lisa goes into the "bad girls bathroom" and tells the two that if they want to get back at Skinner they should vandalize the school Puma. After it's vandalized we find out that Skinner was in Vietnam (Character development!) and Bart has Willie arrested for burning leaves without a permit. Skinner being shocked offers Bart the position of hall monitor to which Bart takes. After we see Bart enforce his authority as hall monitor, we find out that Bart's doing better in school while Lisa's grades are slipping dramatically. At school, Ms. Hoover assigns the class an art project to which Lisa tells her to "shove it". At the principal's office Lisa tells Skinner that she rebelling against whatever he's got. After the bad girls congratulate Lisa for what she did, we see a montage of Bart and Skinner cleaning up the school. After that, we see Lisa patronize Ms. hoover for not knowing the answers to her own questions without an answer key. At detention, Lisa decides to take all the answer keys away from the teachers to show them. The next day, the teachers are all lost without their answer keys and are afraid to teach. Bart then tells Skinner that the keys must still be in the school and they should do a search for them in the lockers. After searching a few lockers, Bart finds the keys and finds out that Lisa stole them. Bart tells Lisa that she could get expelled for this and Lisa shows remorse for what she did. When Skinner asks Bart who took the keys, Bart takes the fall and gets 600 days of detention. Lisa asks Bart why he took the fall and Bart says he looks out for her and hopes to have the favor returned someday. The episode ends with Bart in detention while Lisa is playing the sax outside. See everything went back to normal.

Nerd without a cause

Case for #1: This is an amazing role-reversal episode that was brilliantly written and directed. The jokes were great, the plot was fantastic and I cannot say how much I love the writing for this even though Bart and Lisa are not their normal selves.

7. Bart vs Thanksgiving (Season 2 Episode 7)
This is by far my favorite holiday episode of any show period (Not including shows that are specifically meant for 1 holiday). I will always find the time to watch this around Thanksgiving or anytime for that matter.

The story begins with Marge preparing the Thanksgiving meal while Homer is watching television. After Bart and Lisa get into a battle over the glue, Bart and Homer watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade complete with all the images Fox could use without having to pay for (And a Bart balloon the first year they got one). After Maggie successfully climbs up the stairs of doom, Lisa shows Maggie what's she's been working on for a while; a centerpiece for the dinner table. After a long bit involving Bart getting the cranberry sauce, we see Homer watching some football as he's asked to pick up Grampa. After Patty and Selma come over with food of their own, Homer goes to pick Grampa up for dinner. Back homer, we see Jacquline Bouvier (Grandma) come in and tells everyone she has laryngitis and can't do much talking. After Homer fails to light up the fireplace, dinner is served as Lisa comes down with her centerpiece and puts it in the middle to everyone's amazement. Bart then comes in and tries to take it off but Lisa refuses and then they struggle a bit until Bart throws it into the fireplace where it goes up in flames. This angers Lisa and she goes upstairs crying. Marge and Homer then punishes Bart by sending him to his room without dinner for ruining Thanksgiving. At dinner we see that Lisa plays her sax to try to make herself feel better and this causes Marge to go upstairs to talk to both Bart and Lisa. Bart refuses to apologize to Lisa and he decides to go out for Thanksgiving meal. Bart then travels with Santa's Little Helper as they stumble upon Mr. Burns' mansion and Bart almost gets killed by the attack dogs after trying to grab a pie on the windowsill. Back home, Lisa writes in her diary about how Bart ruined her centerpiece and how he's evil. After walking some more, Bart finds a blood bank and he gets some money and a cookie after donating blood. After Bart passes out, some bums take Bart to a soup kitchen to get him some food. At the soup kitchen we see Kent Brockman doing a human interest story about the kitchen and the family's watching it. While Lisa tries to read a poem she wrote, the family notices Bart's at the soup kitchen and he still refuses to apologize. After Bart sees what the bums go through between holidays he decides to give his $12 to the 2 who saved him and decides to head on home. After Homer and Marge file a police report about Bart, the in-laws all leave and try to say something comforting to the family. Right before Bart walks in he has a dream that everyone will blame him for everything and he decides not to go in but rather go on the roof. While on the roof, he hears Lisa crying and tells her to come up. Lisa asks why Bart did what he did and he says he doesn't know so Lisa asks him to apologize. After Bart again says no, Lisa tells him to look into his heart to see if there's any guilt. After Bart realizes that he destroyed something that she worked very hard on he apologizes to Lisa and she forgives him (Homer and Marge watching from a window). The episode ends with the family having a second Thanksgiving meal.

I will destroy your hopes and dreams sis!

Case for #1: This is a very good Bart episode and a very touching Bart-Lisa plot as well. The writing is fantastic with Bart being ignorant to what he did until the very end, the jokes are great and I could not praise this episode enough.

6. Last Exit to Springfield (Season 4 Episode 17)
Another episode that may be placed too low for most people. The problem is that I thought there were 5 slightly better episodes than this, not that this was the 6th best. I don't think lowly of this episode at all.

The story begins with Bart and Homer watching a "McBain" movie where Homer assures Bart that no man could possibly be as evil as the villain there (Cut to Mr. Burns laughing evilly). After a Jimmy Hoffa reference, Mr. Burns has a flashback of when his grandfather was running the "Atom Factory" showing that there wasn't a union and the lack of it caused one employee to have an eerie premonition of unions. Mr. Burns decides to fight the union by getting back the dental plan. At the dentist's office we see probably the evilest doctor since Dr. Kevorkian (Wow, that was terrible. Allow me to pour hot acid in my pants as punishment *Screams*) Dr. Wolfe then tells Marge that Lisa will need braces or else her teeth will come on crooked and make her unpopular (Moreso). Marge tells Homer that Lisa needs braces as Homer assures Marge that his dental plan will pay for it. Later at a union meeting, Carl tells the employees that Mr. Burns gave them a keg in exchange for their dental plan (While you're at it why don't you exchange your healthcare plan for 6 dozen donuts, or your 401(k)s for 15 cartons of cigarettes?) This causes Homer to have an internal argument with Marge saying "Lisa needs braces" while Lenny says "Dental plan". After that, Homer decides that they can't give up the dental plan and he tears up the contract, Burns sees this and is displeased. Carl moves that Homer be the president as he gets an overwhelming majority (With one nay, I love the "Nay" joke). At breakfast, Homer has a dream that he's the Godfather (From Godfather 2) and is tricked by Bart into making a bad deal after saying he needs to be the better negotiator. At the dentist office, Lisa and Marge find out that Lisa's going to get braces from the 17th century. After Homer gets some candy off his back, he goes into Mr. Burns' office for negotiations but confuses Burns' dialogue and thinks he's trying to come onto him. After we see Dr. Wolfe show Lisa some dentists tools we'd see in our nightmares, he puts her under where she has a great hallucination including the Beatles in the "Purple Submarine". When she wakes up she decides to imitate Jack Nicholson's Joker after he gets the surgery. We then see Lisa come home and get some hate from SLH because of her appearance. Homer then gets taken away by hired goons to Mr. Burns' mansion, Mr. Burns tries to show him around the place as we get quite a few funny jokes along the tour. At the end, Burns tries to negotiate with Homer but fails after making him need to use the bathroom. After retuning Homer back, Mr. burns gets severely hurt twice and Homer contemplates retirement citing the job's too hard. After Lisa has a sad picture day, the union decides to go on strike (Except the nay person). The next day, we see the strike with Lisa singing a song about them fighting against Mr. Burns. After Mr. Burns gets tired of listening to the strike breakers we see Mr. Burns fail to bust the strike himself. After Mr. Burns gets tired of seeing Homer walking around he decides to run the plant with Smithers in the best way possible: a funny montage. Later, we see Homer, Burns, and Dr. Brothers sit down for a talk on Smartline about the strike. On the show, Mr. Burns reveals that he's going to send down horrible events if the strike does not end. After a Get Smart entrance to the main power room, we see Mr. Burns shut off the power to Springfield. This does not affect the strike and Burns tells Smithers (After his Grinch impression) to call Homer to negotiate. Burns agrees to give back the dental plan only if Homer quits, Homer's ecstatic and agrees. The episode ends with Lisa given better braces and everyone laughs after they find out that the laughing gas was left on.

My God! What have I created?!

Case for #1: There aren't many problems with this episode and a lot of the references are genius. The plot is fantastic, the writing is amazing and the jokes are great.

5. Marge vs the Monorail (Season 4 Episode 12)
This is probably the consensus best Marge episode ever in the series and for good reason, it is amazing.

The story begins with Homer imitating the opening to The Flintstones until he crashes into a tree. Mr. Burns then attempts to dump some toxic waste off in the park but is captured by the EPA after being tipped off by some scouts. In court Hannibal Burns, er I mean Mr. Burns is fined $3 million for his crimes. After Bart and Lisa think of ways the money could be used to "help the school" we go to the town meeting where they discuss idea of how to use the money. Marge suggests that they fix main street and everyone's on board until Lyle Lanley appears and tells them in song (A la The Music Man) to use the money on a monorail (Phil Hartman always rises to the occasion). After Homer tells Marge she should have written a song to get Main St. fixed, we cut to the 2nd grade where Lyle takes questions. Lisa asks an intelligent question about why such a big transit system should be placed in a small town, Lyle gets around it by praising Lisa's intelligence and patronizing Ms. Hoover. Homer gets the idea to become a monorail conductor after watching a commercial for Lanley's school for conductors. After Bart says he's proud of Homer trying to be a conductor, Marge asks Homer if the monorail is safe or not. Later, we see based on Lyle's book that he plans on running off with the money, while the people of Springfield are left to die. After Homer shows his family the monorail (Including a funny opossum joke), Marge finds Lanley's book and finds out that the monorail is unsafe and will kill anyone on it. Afterwards, Marge decides to go to North Haverbrook to see how their monorail is. When she gets there, she finds the town to be a wasteland and the monorail drove away all business and the people. Marge then meets Sebastian Cobb who offers to help Marge and Springfield from the monorail. During the maiden voyage we see a lot of celebrities including Leonard Nimoy come out for the first run. After Lisa asks Lyle why he doesn't ride the monorail, we see everyone get on as Homer starts it up and it begins to fall apart. After Marge and Cobb get there, we see the train is going too fast to stop and the brakes are out. After a funny solar power joke, we see that Lyle's plane makes a layover in North Haverbrook where Lyle immediately gets mobbed by the townspeople. Homer is then told by Sebastian to get an anchor to try to slow down the train to a stop,Homer then grabs a cowboy's lasso and the M from the monorail. After throwing it out, the anchor latches onto a huge doughnut and stops the train.

Stop! Song Time!

Case for #1: This is a beautifully written episode, the writing is amazing, the plot was genius and the jokes were funny throughout the episode.


4. Lisa on Ice (Season 6 Episode
This is my favorite Bart-Lisa episode and for a good reason, this episode is just great in every aspect of a Simpsons episode.

The story begins with a huge snowstorm outside that convinces Bart that school will be closed the next day. Lisa tries to tell Bart not to pay attention and he should do his work but Bart throws his book in the fireplace anyways. The next morning, Lisa throws a snowball at Bart and runs outside to reveal that there's no snow and she made the snowball out of ice from the freezer. At school, Bart almost has to read his book report but is saved by an assembly. Skinner then tells the school that anyone failing a class will be given a notice and he starts handing them out. After Skinner says Simpson, he then says Lisa who finds out she's failing gym. After taking their notices back to Homer and Marge, Homer offers to buy Bart a present while Marge chews Lisa out for failing gym (Which Lisa points out is unfair). Lisa then finds out from her gym teacher that she can avoid failing by joining a pee-wee team outside of school. After Lisa fails at a few sports, she goes home crying to Marge about her being scared of failing a class. Marge tries to comfort her with the notion that sports is a small part of life until Bart and Homer come in loving sports. At the game, we see Bart is the star player for his team and he knocks Milhouse out with a shot to the face. After Bart's team wins Bart tries to belittle Lisa with the notion that he's better than her at sports. Lisa's unimpressed and Bart starts slapping stuff at her (Which she bats away). Apu then notices Lisa and after shooting a puck her way, she catches it and Apu tells her she's his new goalie. The next day Marge is adamant to the idea of Lisa playing hockey but Lisa insists that if she doesn't she'll get her first F that will haunt her for life (As seen in a dream sequence). Homer tries to make sure that the team accepts Lisa but he gets distracted and starts towel-whipping Utter. At Lisa's first game, we see that she's good but also scared of the game and so many people trying to hit her with the puck. Afterwards we get a mini-montage of Lisa improving her game and becoming a great goalie. After a party at Apu's to celebrate the season, Bart thinks that if Lisa's better than him and hockey than it might mean he's better than Lisa at school. After testing this theory, it fails and the bullies beat up Bart for wasting Mrs. K's time. Lisa saves Bart as Bart realizes he's been pulled down a few pegs. After not being able to watch TV with Homer Marge agrees tom play basketball with him which turns out to be embarrassing. Later that night, we see Bart sitting on Lisa's bed waiting for Lisa so that he can "settle the differences" between them. Lisa tells him to get out and it erupts in the two of them fighting. Marge goes to split them up as Homer comes in to tell them that Bart's team will be playing Lisa's team. After some scenes promoting the game between Bart and Lisa we see the family eating dinner with Bart and Lisa still being bitter rivals towards each other. After Moe tries to get some inside information for gambling, we see Bart and Lisa get into a brawl on the ice before the game starts. Marge tells Homer in the stands that they shouldn't have a favorite kid and having them go against each other is wrong. At the beginning of the game, Bart scores a goal against Lisa but Lisa responds by saving the next goal. During the game we see both Bart and Lisa get hurt while playing due to the sport. With the score tied 3-3 Bart gets tripped and is awarded a penalty shot. As he sets up for it, both Bart and Lisa have flashbacks of the other being a good brother or sister to them. After realizing that the other is the best sibling they could ever have, Lisa unmans the net and Bart throws his gear off to the side and they approach each other and give a big hug congratulating the other for a great game. The crowd then gets irate over a tie and a riot ensues. The episode ends with Bart and Lisa skating off together as the rink is being destroyed.

Let's go home, these people are too angry

Case for #1: This is an excellent episode showcasing the relationship between two siblings who hate each other on the surface but deep down love each other. The ending is very heartwarming and a great way to end a great episode. The plot is so good they duplicated it for a future episode (Which I mentioned earlier)m the writing is fantastic and the jokes are great.

3. Duffless (Season 4 Episode 16)
This is a great episode in an already great season. I really love the plot for this episode as it deals with Homer's drining problem and how it affects his life.

The story begins with Bart winning the science fair, but it turns out that it was a dream that Lisa was persuading. At breakfast, we find out that Lisa grew a huge tomato using steroids that Lisa hopes will help end world hunger.After Marge tells Bart not to have Santa's Little Helper smoke cigarettes, Homer has one of the best internal-external dialogue bits ever in the show. After Homer escapes from the plant in a complex manner, Lisa asks Bart to hold onto her tomato for a minute and Bart throws it at Skinner angering Lisa. After some good Duff jokes at the Duff Brewery, Lisa tells Marge that Bart wrecked her project and the fair's very close. Marge suggests an experiment involving a hamster with a maze and this leads to Lisa thinking of the hamster as Bart as she decides on her new project. After Barney distracts the inspector for a while, we see Barney trying to drive but Homer taking the keys because he is less drunk than Barney. Wiggum has them pulled over and Homer gets arrested for DWI. After Marge finds out, Homer gets his license revoked and has to attend two months of AA meetings. After Lisa buys a hamster for her project, we see that Homer's using a bike to get to work. As Lisa writes up her hypothesis, we find out that her project is to determine if a hamster is smarter than Bart. Lisa then sets up identical tests having a piece of food out of reach for both Bart and the hamster. The hamster gets the food while Bart has a bookcase collapse on him (Thankfully not puncturing a lung in the process). The second test is connecting food to a mild electrical current. The hamster tries to eat the food but stays away after the initial shock, Bart does not learn after the first shock and tries to grab the cupcake over 3 times. After a PSA video by Troy McClure against drunk driving is shown to a group that includes Homer, Homer goes to his first AA meeting (Which causes him to jump out of a window). Later, marge asks Homer to quit drinking for a month, Homer is hesitant but agrees to it. After Marge asks Bart to grab some cupcakes (Clockwork Orange parody, I love it) Homer pours his beer down the drain and sings a song about how he began drinking. Later Bart finds out about Lisa's experiment and he hides her findings only for her to find it less than a minute later. During the science fair, Lisa sets up her both only to notice that Bart's getting attention for putting her hamster in a plane. Skinner loves it and gives Bart first prize despite it has nothing to do with science. During Homer's month of sobriety, he sees so many ads for Duff and does his best to resist it. After Homer notices he's losing weight, he admits at his AA meeting that he's done some low things to get some beer. As Homer rides the bike, there's beer everywhere ad he does his best to avoid it. At the end of the month, Homer goes off to Moe's despite Marge's objections. At Moe's Homer gets ready to drink a beer until he realizes who's there and decides to go home to his wife. The episode ends with Homer and Marge riding on the bike while singing "Raindrops keep falling on my head"

Oh cruel irony!

Case for #1: This is a great episode about Homer's drinking problem. The plot is great, the writing is some of the best the show has ever produced and the jokes are hilarious from beginning to end.

2. Lisa's First Word (Season 4 Episode 10)
This is probably the most heartwarming episode of the show. To me this cements Maggie as one of the cutest characters ever and only Liz Taylor should ever voice Maggie.

The story begins with the family trying to get Maggie to talk but she can't. As the family's trying to understand why she can't talk we find out what Bart's first word was (Aye Caramba!) Marge decides to tell the story of Lisa's first word instead because it's more family friendly. As Marge tells the story, we find out that the family lived in an apartment in the lower-East side of Springfield. After Homer strangles Baby Bart for not calling him Homer, we get a montage of life in the apartment. After Bart flushes down Homer wallet (And later his keys) Marge reveals to Homer and Bart that she's pregnant. After Bart has a dream sequence of what a perfect life with a baby sibling would be like, Marge tells Homer that they need a bigger place and Homer initially says no. After Marge drops Bart off with Patty and Selma we see Marge and Homer go house-hunting until they find the house they live in today. Homer finds out it's too expensive and asks Grmapa to give him a loan to pay for the house, Grampa decides to sell his own house and Homer offers him a room in the new house (which lasts for 3 weeks). After Homer almost goes off on a tangent, he goes back to telling the story of the day they moved in. Right after they move in, Ned and Todd come over to we them, Homer and Bart are annoyed at first glance as Homer asks to borrow Ned's TV tray (Which he still has). After we see a scene of Bart being as annoying as, well a 2-year old Homer and Bart watch an I&S cartoon which leads to Krusty having a contest involving the Olympics which causes him to lose millions because the Soviets boycott the Olympics. After Homer tries to get Bart away from his crib, Homer builds Bart the infamous "Clown Bed" which scares Bart (This is another one of my favorite jokes of the show). After Marge tells Homer that the baby's coming, they leave Bart with the Flanders while Homer takes Marge to the hospital. After we see Bart is miserable at the Flanders, he runs into grandma Flanders who creeps him out. After Lisa is born, Bart goes into the nursery where he sees newborn Lisa and immediately hates her. After Marge shows Lisa off to Patty and Selma, Bart gets jealous and sad that he's not getting attention. After Bart is told he can't hold Lisa, he decides to try to remove Lisa from the equation by cutting her hair, mailing her off and dropping her off in front of Flanders. This story comes to it's climax when Bart tells Lisa that it was better when it was just him, Marge and Homer and he's leaving. Lisa gets his attention by saying his name as her first word, Bart then shows this off to Homer and Marge. After Lisa too calls Homer Homer instead of daddy Bart hugs Lisa and then we cut to present day where they're having a small fight. Homer takes Maggie to her room and hopes she never talks so that she can be his angel, the episode ends with Maggie saying daddy and going to bed.

I love you little Lisa

Case for #1: This ending is perhaps the greatest ending for the show ever. The plot is great the writing is great, the jokes are great and this is such a heartwarming episode. The "Daddy" line alone is a heart melting moment and probably one of the best in TV history.

1. Cape Feare (Season 5 Episode 2)
Okay if you didn't see this coming, go back and read the others, I clearly put in subtle hints that the #1 would be a sideshow Bob episode and here's Sideshow Bob's best episode.

The story begins with Bart and Lisa watching a show on Fox that's controversial when marge comes in and gives Bart a letter that is a death threat against him. We then cut to his threatener making another death threat with his blood. After an I&S cartoon, Homer reads Bart's newest death threat and gives it to Bart. At the table we see all of Bart's death threats that includes one from Homer (This is one of my favorites jokes ever from the show, it never gets old to me). Bart's paranoia transfers over to school where he gets pants by Nelson. The next day, his day consists of many people talking to Bart in a seemingly threatening manner which scares Bart. After Marge gets no help from the police, Lisa thinks it may be Moe and she tells him to knock it off or they'll go to the cops (Which causes Moe to release his pandas. This is so random and yet so funny). As Bart tries to figure out who's sending him the letters, we get a dramatic flyover to the prison where we find out it's Sideshow Bob and he has his own theme music! The next day SS Bob goes up for parole and after a funny bit, Bob is given parole and he leaves prison a la Cape Fear. At the theater, the Simpsons are trying to watch a movie but SS Bob is being very inconsiderate. When Homer asks him to stop Bob asks why Homer's being obnoxious. Seeing S Bob scares Bart and Lisa and Bart figures out ti was Bob who was sending him the threats. After Marge tells him to leave Bart alone, Bob says he will in the eeriest way possible. We then see Bob at his home working out in ways that shows his hatred towards Bart. After a detective fails to get Bob to leave, Bob tells Bart's neighborhood that everyone except him is safe from his urge to kill them. The Simpsons are then taken to the witness relocation program where they are changed to the Thompsons and relocated to Terror Lake (Homer's a bit slow in learning his new name). On their way there, we see SS Bob is strapped to the undercarriage of their car and takes a lot of abuse on the way to Terror Lake. After the Thompsons do their new opening, Homer mocks that if he doesn't like his neighbors he can leave (Which causes all the other house boats to leave). SS Bob then gets out from under the car and does the best running gag of the show where he hits himself with multiple rakes to the face. Later Bart find out that Bob followed them there and Bob gets crushed by a parade after he decides to tempt fate (This is my all time favorite joke of the series no exaggeration). After Bart tries to tell his parents, we see SS Bob in the Bates Motel *snickers* planning Bart's death. Later that night, Homer scares Bart twice (First time with a knife and brownies, second time with a hockey mask and a chainsaw). Bob then gets on the boat (Where there's a rake there to meet him) and he cuts the rope and the boat sails off. Bob approaches Bart and almost cuts him, as Bart tries to escape, Bart tricks SS Bob by stalling him with a performance from the HMS Pinafore. After the performance, Bob gets captured by the police and everything is okay.

What were you trying to warn me about? Oh that! OH SHI-

Why it's #1: This is the perfect combination of comedy, drama and seriousness. The writing is beyond compare, the plot is very impressive and the jokes are very good and memorable. Every time I have my doubts about the series, I always watch THIS episode to reassure me that this is a good show.