Now, we are moving on to Season 7! One of the biggest things I noticed with this season was that the writers really swung for the fences with a lot of experimental episodes. The nice thing about taking these kinds of risks is that the show is able to stay fresh and find new dynamics that work. That said, the experiments they tried were a bit of a mixed bag. They have a strong finale for their first two-part episode, their early attempt at 3D looked good, and the episode focusing on Springfield as a whole had some memorable segments. On the other hand, their first format change with an episode didn't really land for me. Homer had some solid episodes in this season as he explored his fears of abandonment and his desire to avoid becoming uncool and out-of-touch.
We got to see a bit of Marge’s desire for a classier life and she has some sweet moments with each of the other members of the family as she comforts and encourages them.
Bart has some episodes that really highlight how sweet and caring he can be, even if he makes mistakes sometimes.
For Lisa, this is probably one of the seasons that balances her brains and childlikeness the best. She stands by her convictions, but sometimes she takes an impulsive or immature route to solving her problems. This is helpful because it makes her an intelligent child instead of a mini-adult who always has the right answer.
While it isn’t as comedically strong as Season 6, it is still quite funny a lot of the time. This season is also great at showing each member of the family try to be more than what they currently are. This kind of drive is a great approach to developing each member of the family in different ways. Now that we know a bit more about this experimental, character-focused season, let’s see how it plays out in the ranking!
Top 7 Best Episodes
7. "Summer of 4ft 2."
This episode offers a great exploration of Lisa’s loneliness and insecurity. It is easy to see why a nerdy character like Lisa might struggle to find people to connect with as deeper friends. It can make you think that there is something fundamentally off-putting or alienating about you that may prevent people from seeing you as a potential friend. Because of this, it makes a lot of sense that while they are on vacation, Lisa might try out pretending to be someone else. What I think is particularly endearing about this episode is that, despite Lisa’s best efforts to dress and act like a cool girl, her real personality slips through and that is what her friends truly love about her. I didn’t like that Bart exposed Lisa’s act to her new friends. It made sense for his character, but it made the last few minutes a bit frustrating. A lot of that might be that I relate so strongly to Lisa in this episode that I get a bit angry with Bart too. So, it is effective storytelling, even when it goes in a direction that I don’t like. There are also some fun jokes throughout this episode! I like that the Flanders family left little sticky notes all over the house where they instruct the family on how to do even the simplest tasks, like putting water in the ice trays. Overall, I like this episode most for its themes and exploration of Lisa, but it is fun to see a beachside vacation as well.
6. "King-Size Homer"
This episode makes my list because I think it's hilarious! It makes sense that Homer would try to find a way to work at home, and his efforts to gain the weight he needs are so funny. It’s fun hearing him get advice on how to eat greasy, fattening foods. Once he achieves this dream, the episode has some classic scenes that are so funny, like his search for the ANY key on his computer. The part when Lisa defends her father by saying that he isn’t a food-crazed maniac only to see him drive by in an Ice-cream truck eating ice cream makes me laugh every single time! I also love Homer’s decision to start wearing a mumu because he doesn’t want to look like a weirdo. They also do a good job raising the stakes and showing the consequences of Homer’s irresponsible actions as he frantically tries to vent the gas at the plant. The episode has a good dose of humor and zaniness, making it an episode that I always look forward to watching on a Season 7 rewatch!
5. "Marge Be Not Proud"
This is one of the show’s best Christmas episodes and a great exploration of Bart’s relationship with his mom. The early portion of the episode does an excellent job setting up how much Bart wants this game and all the avenues he takes to get a copy on his own. His decision to shoplift shows how impulsive Bart can be while also establishing that he has made a mistake but isn’t malicious or evil. It is so funny when Bart changes the answering machine tape to the Camp Grenada tape and Homer assumes that Lisa is at Camp Grenada. The next few minutes show how tense Bart is as he tries to hide his attempted crime from his family. It does a great job amplifying the tension as Bart goes back into the store and tries to avoid being exposed. The fact that the security guard ruins the family photo by grabbing Bart at the last moment is so tragic, as is Marge’s disappointment. It is interesting to see how a big event like this can change the relationship dynamic between the characters. Marge thinks that Bart wants to be treated like an adult now, but Bart notices that she isn’t doing all the things she used to do and worries that she doesn’t love him anymore. I love the last few minutes of the episode when Marge thinks that Bart has stolen something else and Bart actually bought a nice photo of himself for his mom. It makes for such a heartwarming reconciliation at the end of the episode. This episode is so sweet and I love this kind and observant version of Bart as well.
4. "Much Apu About Nothing"
This episode has some interesting exploration of immigration issues, and it shows how strong and compelling Apu is as a character. A few years ago, there was a documentary called The Problem with Apu that came out and discussed how many actors from India felt maligned and discriminated against because of Apu’s accent and mannerisms. The tricky thing is that parts of Apu’s initial characterization came from stereotypes at the time, but his character grew and expanded to be much more than that. I think if they had just recast the character, they would have been able to keep him in the show. This episode shows how important Apu is and how much he has to offer Springfield and the show as a whole. This episode starts in such a funny way with the bear and the bear tax that they start. It makes sense that Quimby would blame something else, and immigration becomes an interesting centerpiece to the episode. It shows how easy it is to blame outsiders for your problems and think that removing them will solve these problems. A later episode that I like from Season 20 does something similar and goes to show that this issue continues to be important for America. You care about Apu, so you don’t want to see him sent away. It’s also interesting to see Apu’s attempt at Americanization. It’s a funny scene, but it also shows how it is good to become an American, but better if you can do that without losing your original traditions as well. This episode continues to be both funny and relevant to this day.
3. "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two"
Although Part One didn’t make my list for Season 6 because it was contending with so many other strong episodes, it offers some solid set-up that Part Two consistently pays off. I mentioned when I started this Simpsons project that I watched a lot of these early seasons on their DVD boxsets. Because of this, I experienced the same wait between Part One and Part Two that viewers at the time would have experienced. I was so excited when the Season 7 boxset finally came, and I could see who actually shot Mr. Burns. This episode positions a strong array of possible candidates and makes you wonder if Homer really did snap and shoot Mr. Burns for not remembering his name. It is also entertaining to see Lisa and the police investigate different leads as the suspects narrow down. The final answer is a bit silly, considering all the build-up, but it was probably the only way they could end it without making one of the characters go to prison or forcing the audience to see them very differently. Maggie is a good choice for that reason, and her competence and overall skill with weapons become key aspects of her character. The episode has an answer that makes sense, but there are seeds for other possible shooters as well. My favorite Simpsons Youtuber created a series of videos looking at other possible suspects for the shooting. I have included them here.
This episode is a fun mystery that offers some reasonable answers for the mystery that it sets up.
2. "Bart on the Road"
This episode has always been one that I look forward to on a rewatch, but now that I have lived in Knoxville for my PhD program, my love for this episode has only grown. Because Bart is 10 years old, there are several sitcom plots for teenagers that the show cannot really do unless they choose a minor character or place Homer in the role instead. This is why I like the simple way that this episode brings Bart and his friends together on this road trip. Their mistaken attempt to attend the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville fourteen years too late is an error that only children could really make. The World's Fair Park area looks way more dilapidated than it has ever been, but it makes a funny contrast to their expectations. I like that they all make up the lie that they are going to a Grammar Rodeo and Martin actually believes that this is where they are going. I also love the subplot where Homer bonds with Lisa at work. I went to work with my Dad a few times when I was younger, and every time, I loved it. This episode does a great job depicting a road trip with all of the highs and lows that come with it. My family went on a road trip recently and we had a wonderful time, but our van also permanently broke down in Kansas. Road trips are fun when you have good music, snacks, and a fun group of people with you. This episode captures the fun of road trips while also showing the unexpected turns they can take.
1. "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"
While I have a strong connection to the previous episode on this list, I had to choose this one for the top because it's just so funny every time. I love that Homer and Marge get into hot water with social services for a series of perfectly understandable issues that all paint them in a terrible light. When the children are taken away, we get the chance to see something we didn't even know we wanted--life inside the Flanders' house. It's so funny that they eat bland ice milk and want Bart and Lisa to provide evidence that Todd smells before they print it. My favorite thing is that they play a Bible trivia game with questions from the Latin Vulgate and the Apocrypha that I don't even recognize. I think later Simpsons seasons make the mistake of presenting Flanders as a stereotypical judgmental Christian who prizes Old Testament vengeance. This episode instead shows how Flanders isn't perfect, but he is trying to be loving and generous to those around him. Taking in the Simpson kids is a kind gesture, even if they act condescending and judgmental at some points, because they are helping to keep the kids out of the larger and much more challenging foster system. Their mistake of trying to baptize the children without Homer and Marge's permission is definitely something that they would do, and the way they act as they are preparing for it is pretty hilarious! I think my favorite moments are at the end of the episode. First there is Homer's accidental baptism that singes his head like acid and then makes him act very different afterwards as he speaks in "thous" and "thys." I also think it is funny when Maggie is forced to choose between her family and the Flanders family, the choice looks pretty one-sided, but when Marge comes around the corner, Maggie runs to her. Overall, this is a good reminder of how much Homer and Marge love their kids and an amusing visit to the Flanders house!
Top 7 Worst Episodes
7. "Lisa the Vegetarian"
This one has so much going for it that it almost made my best list, but there are a few things that bring it down for me. The video that they show Lisa's class to convince her to give up her vegetarianism is a hilarious display of every single logical fallacy. I also like that it presents Lisa as a kid developing ethical values and not always knowing the best way to act on them. The problem is that I don't think the episode offers enough justification for Lisa to give up meat. It shows the petting zoo, so I can understand Lisa's emotional reaction, but I was hoping that there would be a bit more detail on the other factors that impact her decision. I also think that the episode offers some reasons for why Lisa escalates to stealing the pig, but it's hard to believe that she wasn't aware of how much this hurt her father or that it wouldn't change his eating habits. The episode mostly establishes that Lisa was wrong, but her apology seems a bit half-hearted to me. It offers a good message about tolerance and not forcing people to believe the same as you do, but it could have had more of an edge to it if Lisa realized that she was doing the same thing to her father that the school tried to do to her. As a result, the episode is funny but can come off a bit preachy as well.
6. "Homer the Smithers"
For this episode, I like a few jokes, but have trouble with how mean Mr. Burns is to Homer. I like how everything that Homer tries to cook sets on fire. Some of his mistakes remind me of Amelia Bedelia because they are understandable from a certain perspective and funny. I also like the irony that Smithers chooses Homer so that Burns won't give his job away but Smithers loses his job anyway when Burns becomes too self-sufficient. The part that I find a bit confusing and off-putting is when Homer injures Burns and Burns becomes a frightened, cowering wreck. After this, he becomes self-sufficient, but it seems like a bit of a weird progression to me. It would have made more sense if Homer's incompetence had forced Burns to take on more and more of his daily tasks. But maybe that wouldn't have been as funny. I just find that whole portion of the episode a bit unpleasant and wish they had found a different way to make Burns more self-reliant. I also like seeing Smithers' search for a new job, but I don't like the way that he gets his job back. Overall, some parts of this episode are fun, but others are a bit too dark and dreary for me.
5. "A Fish Called Selma"
Selma is an interesting character, and I like many of her marriage episodes, but I was not a big fan of her relationship with Troy McClure. Phil Hartman is a great actor, but I think that Lionel Hutz had more comedic potential. This episode flushes McClure out a bit more, but I don't think any of the things it adds make him more interesting. He has a fetish that has something to do with the aquarium and is willing to do anything his agent suggests to revitalize his career. I appreciate Selma's conviction at the end that while she is fine with a fake marriage, she does not think it's right for a child to come into that kind of relationship. The Planet of the Apes musical and the Muppet Camelot are both fun breaks from the plot though. It is never entirely clear if McClure ever liked Selma or if he just thought she was the easiest way to get himself uncancelled. This is an episode that I never really look forward to when I am rewatching Season 7.
4. "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"
I don't think this episode makes a lot of sense. While it is perfectly understandable for a high class thespian like Sideshow Bob to consider some television lowbrow and stupid, much like how he even makes Krusty's show more academic, I don't think it is realistic for him to try and eliminate TV altogether. Because I don't connect with his motivation, his whole terrorist attempt is frustrating, excessive, and unrealistic. He is even foiled in a dumb way as he chooses the biggest, most classic-looking bomb, but happens to select one that is expired. Then, he steals the Wright Brothers' plane and tries to kamikaze it into the last vestige of TV that Krusty has commandeered. But he doesn't consider the fact that he isn't going fast enough to damage the building where Krusty is and he once again fails. What I like about "Black Widower" is that Bob makes a brilliant plan, and yet Bart is still able to outwit him. In this episode, Bob only fails because he makes a series of stupid blunders, and that is very frustrating to watch. The air show is fine, but not particularly riveting, and Bart and Lisa don't really have that much of a cool team-up either. Overall, it just makes me irritated with Sideshow Bob as a character, and that is never a good reaction to the villain in a hostage story. I may not agree with Hans Grueber in Die Hard, but I at least find him entertaining to watch.
3. "Bart the Fink"
This episode once again focuses on Krusty, and he has never been my favorite character. I find it particularly hard to like him when he is being a drugged-up, poor example to Bart. In this episode, he loses all of his money because of his own poor decisions, so it is really hard to sympathize with him, even when Bart thinks he is dead. I like the brief mystery where Bart keeps seeing Krusty everywhere and everyone thinks it is due to his grief. Unfortunately, they don't really give enough time for there to be an interesting mystery in all of this. It is probably because they spend too much time focusing on Krusty losing all of his money. I also enjoy Bob Newheart's extremely awkward eulogy and the fact that people voted between whether to put Krusty's smile or his fiery death on his commemorative stamp. It spends way too much time on Krusty losing his money and his fake death, and as a result, it doesn't leave enough time to build up the mystery of whether he has actually died. It also lacks any development of Krusty deciding to come out of hiding. There is so much happening in this episode that it cannot really devote the time it needs for anything.
2. "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"
As I mentioned at the beginning, this is one of the Season's experimental episodes. Instead of being another clip show, it promised to offer deleted scenes, alternate endings, and trivia. While it was fun to see some of the original Tracy Ullmann shorts before the show was greenlit, the Troy McClure framing is painfully unfunny. I hate that he doesn't really answer any fan questions and that the trivia he offers is all untrue. One of the things I dislike most in this world is being given false information, and this episode does it in a very unfunny manner. The scene of Homer getting dumber in every season is mildly entertaining, but it really isn't worth McClure spearheading an episode where he is apathetic and unfunny. Perhaps this would have been funnier if I knew what they were spoofing on here, but I mostly find it false and a slog to sit through.
1. "Two Bad Neighbors"
While the previous episode was frustrating because of its false trivia and McClure's half-hearted hosting, this episode is one that I find actively irritating almost the whole way through. I like the garage sale at the beginning, Homer's discovery that he is good at selling things, and the first appearance of Disco Stu, but once Bush arrives, the episode starts to go downhill. Bart is mischievous at times, and I would have been fine if he had been actively trying to sabotage Bush, but he kept doing irritating things by accident. Maybe this was a spoof of Dennis the Menace, but it also created an annoying dynamic where Bart does something to ruin Bush's work or home, Bush expresses his irritation, and Barbara Bush says that "boys will be boys" or that Bart just likes Bush and that's why Bart stays close and wrecks everything. When Bart destroys Bush's memoirs, I completely understand Bush's anger. My dissertation took me two years to research and write. If Bush's memoirs took even half as long and Bart had permanently destroyed it, I think his response was more than justified. That is the part that aggravates me the most about this episode. Afterward, the writers make the feud seem like Bush and Homer have equally reasonable motivations when I am almost entirely on Bush's side. The pranks and fighting are also frustrating because Homer and Bart's pranks are always the more effective ones.
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