What have been the incidents of adulterous behavior (or profound marital temptation) on the show?
Homer was tempted by Mindy and Lurleen, and Marge was tempted by Jacques and Dr. Caleb Thorn (manatee man), but neither acted on it.
Homer’s mom strayed from Abe with Mason Fairbanks and I seem to recall Abe may have been unfaithful, too, but I can’t remember with whom.
Apu got it on with the Squishy lady.
Mayor Quimby is a serial adulterer.
That’s all I can think of offhand. The Flanders and Lovejoys are clean, as are the Hibberts. The Van Houtens were divorced before seeing other people. Selma was faithful to all her husbands (that we know of).
Any other recurring characters/incidents come to mind?
Of minor relevance is an appearance of “The Homewreckers”, a bowling team made up of Mindy, Lurleen, Princess Kashmir (the stripper Homer briefly cavorted with in an early episode) and Jacques, Marge’s former bowling instructor, whose performance was apparently sub-par, judging from the reaction of his teammates.
Even though Abe was still married to Mona (or at least their divorce/legal separation has not been firmly established, though he’d certainly have grounds on the basis of abandonment), he dallied with both Bea Simmonds and Zelda, both residents of the old folk’s home. In addition to Mason Fairbanks, it is very strongly implied that Mona got it on with Seth and Munchie, who had “heard about” how she was a demon in the sack.
As Homer’s mom is still alive, just missing, I suppose any romances involving Grandpa would be adulterous. I don’t know if they ever did the deed (probably unlikely) but he did have a brief relationship with Bea.
I thought Mona was presumed dead, which would absolve Abe, IMHO. Also, I assumed Seth & Munchie were in her pre-marital commune days, but I probably should’ve brought them up.
Abe was also adulterous with an unnamed carnival woman who “did things that your mother never would - like have sex for money!” resulting in Homer’s half-brother, Herb Powell. (I’m assuming the quote implies he was married to Homer’s mom when it happened, though I suppose it’s not conclusive proof.)
Mona’s commune days were post-marital. She had her consciousness raised while she was an ordinary housewife singing the fig newton song to her son every night.
Well before, I assume, since the child was conceived during the second world war two.
Anyway, Abe never presumed Mona was dead, but he told Homer she was. Heck, the city bureaucrat Homer talks to still has her on file as alive. Damn you, Walt Whitman!
And Barney, Lenny and Carl never come around any more now that they’ve got their mistresses.
Abe told Homer she was dead, but we don’t know what he thought.
Abe also had a daughter with a British woman during World War II. [D’oh, someone beat me to it!] The timeline of the Simpsons is so confused for so many reasons - Abe’s deliberately-hidden age being one of them - that it’s impossible to say if he was married to Mona when that happened.
Smithers has never done anything with Burns, of course, but his obsession with Burns broke up Smithers’ marriage.
Abe had a fling with Marge’s non-gay sister, although it’s unclear whether it progressed to actual intercourse.
In the Illegal Immigrant episode an adult Apu was shown leaving his child bride behind in India so any sex he had between that episode and the retcon in which he was betrothed to Manjoula as a child was adulterous. Post-retcon, Apu had an affair with the Squishee lady while married to Manjoula.
The child bride(-to-be) in India was Manjula - they mentioned her by name - so there was no retcon. That was one of those instances where they wrote a joke, then made an episode out of it years later. The Abe-marries-Selma thing was another one of those.
I recently saw the start of the episode Otto’s referring to. Abe and Selma get stuck at Homer’s place for an evening and begin to find each other attractive. They’re sharing a kiss when Homer and Marge arrive home. Don’t know what happens after that.
I guess if a series is on long enough, everyone will hook up. (I mean, at the beginning, who would’ve thought Agnes and Comic Book Guy would do the dirty deed?)
Flanders and Homer getting married was mentioned earlier up thread, but (as was also mentioned), neither of them had sex with their second wives. Maude was around at that point, too.
