1. Mother Simpson
Season Seven
1995

All the years we watched “The Simpsons” we never quite knew about Homer’s mother. We know that Homer grew up with an overbearing occasionally mean father who didn’t care much for Homer, but we barely garnered a glimpse in to Homer’s other parent. I naturally assumed for many years that she died when he was a baby and Homer was stuck with an awful dad. Truth be told, Homer’s father Abe isn’t even that much of a mean dad, just someone who grew up in a different time. There was that stern belief that dads couldn’t and shouldn’t be friends with their sons. That idea still carries over today with some parents. In either case, we’re finally given an idea of what happened to Homer’s mother and why he never really spoke of her all this time.

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2. Deep Space Homer
Season Five
1994

All hail the inanimate carbon rod! Homer is able to finagle a trip to space by NASA thanks to his usual bumbling and insanely good luck. NASA, just like every other organization, wants to attract public interest to their space launches (that are losing out to “A Connie Chung Christmas”), and decide to find an average man to go to space with them. Little does Homer know that they’ve picked him after he spends an unusual amount of time calling them to complain about their boring space launches. After a twist of fates, Barney becomes Homer’s competitor for the spot as an astronaut allowing for one of the wackiest and most memorable episodes of the series bar none.

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Before the series wore out the gimmick like a bad pair of pants (Homer was a Seattle grunge rocker? Seriously?), “The Simpsons” had the tendency to evoke some of the most heartfelt nostalgic episodes of all time. They not only were hilarious and infinitely quotable, but they also packed a lot of heart. “The Way We Was” chronicles the beginnings of Homer and Marge’s tumultuous romance, and how they managed to find love in one another in spite of being polar opposites. The episode has great meaning to me, if only because it introduced me to one of my favorite songs of all time, “The Joker” from Steve Miller.

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5. Bart of Darkness
Season Six
1994

“Flanders is going to kill Rod and Tod, that’s horrible…! In principle.” This episode drew a little bit of a connection for yours truly, as I could pretty much sympathize with Bart’s situation, sans the lunacy. Breaking my arm years ago, I was excluded from many summer activities including sports, and yes, going to public pools. In possibly one of the best episodes I’ve ever seen, the summer heat wave is so bad in Springfield that a guitarist singing “Sunshine on my Shoulders” gets knocked cold by a passerby, and the ice cream man drives around the neighborhood announcing that he’s all out of Ice Cream.

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