This was my favorite too and it was from so very early.
I love the strike episode also with “Lisa in the sky” as part of dental work that set off the strike and of course the most classic Grandpa Simpson:
“We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don’t go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you’d say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…”
Is this the REAL 500th episode? How do they count them? Are clip shows counted? I remember readiing a bit back at the 300th episode about it not being the real one.
This will indeed be the real 500th episode. Clip shows are counted, but the Tracey Ullman shorts aren’t.
The episode that was billed as #300, ‘Barting Over’, was in fact the 302nd episode to air, and the 301st to be produced. This wasn’t the only milestone attributed to the wrong episode; ‘Once Upon a Time in Springfield’ was billed as the 450th episode despite it actually being #451 in broadcast order and #449 in production order.
As for my favourite episode, it’s Cape Feare hands down - Sideshow Bob steps on rakes, Homer’s “I kill you scum” letter to Bart, Sideshow Bob’s “Die Bart, Die” (The Bart, The) tattoo, Homer bursting into Bart’s bedroom screaming “Bart do you want to see my new chainsaw and hockey mask?!”, the hilarious “Hello Mr. Thompson” scene…
It’s already been said - this is an impossible task. I love “You Only Move Twice,” “Homer at the Bat,” and “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer,” but I’ll also give a highly deserved mention of “Deep Space Homer.”
Homer: Stupid carbon rod.
Buzz: Careful…they’re ruffled!
Scientist: People, we’re in danger of losing our funding. America isn’t interested in space exploration any more.
Assistant: Maybe we should finally tell them the big secret: that all the chimps we sent into space came back super-intelligent.
Chimp: No, I don’t think we’ll be telling them that.
Bart: Wow, my father an astronaut. I feel so full of…what’s the opposite of shame?
Marge: Pride?
Bart: No, not that far from shame.
Homer: Less shame?
Bart: Yeah…
I’ll add my vote for $pringfield. My favorite bit:
Lisa: Dad, I had a bad dream, we were being chased by the bogey man.
Homer: The bogey man! Ahhh!..(wakes up Bart) Bart, I don’t want to alarm you, but there may be a bogey man or bogey men in the house!
Bart: Aaahh!!
(Marge returns home, to find the family hidden behind a mattress, with Homer pointing a shotgun toward the door) What happened?
Homer: Oh, nothing, Marge…just a little problem with the BOGEY MAN!!! (throws down the shotgun, which lets off a “bang!”)
Also love Mr. Burns’ descent into mad paranoia, Homer’s ineptitude as a blackjack dealer, the scene where Barney drinks down a cup of coins and he starts burping them up, and people punch him in the stomach because “Hey, this guy’s paying out!” “I’m not a state, I’m a monster!” An awesome episode all around.
Also must give props to the wolf scene in “Marge gets a Job,” from the beast’s introduction in Krusty’s studio to Willie sharing a drink with it. Pure gold.