POOL #7 RANKING
1. Lisa's Rival
2. The Curse of the Flying Hellfish
3. Three Men and a Comic Book
4. She of Little Faith
5. Das Bus
6. Treehouse of Horror XIII
(explanation/commentary below)
As usual, pseudorandom numbers pick the episodes; I rank 'em on the spot, you critique my rankings (and/or give yours) and a week later I post the revised list. No voting per se in this benevolent dictatorship but I do use your opinions for awesome.
Coming this spring: All six tiers listed, plus your chance to nominate episodes from each list for promotion or relegation. After that... if we're still interested, then ranking within the tiers will be 100 times as tricky as the prelims were.
Stay tuned for #11 by Wednesday morning (along with the #8 results), and be sure to weigh in on #9 and #8 if you haven't already, or even if you have. You can also browse the category archive.
Numbers, please...
2: 7G02 (SI-102 / S01E02) Bart the Genius
Bart swaps IQ tests with the class brain, and ends up the butt of everyone's jokes at a school for gifted kids.
164: 4F08 (SI-808 / S08E11) The Twisted World of Marge Simpson
Marge's new pretzel franchise is failing until Homer strikes a deal with Fat Tony, Springfield's local mobster. Jack Lemmon and Joe Mantegna guest star.
11: 7G13 (SI-113 / S01E11) The Crepes of Wrath
After flushing a cherry bomb down the school toilet, Bart is sent to France via a student exchange, and ends up working for some crooks who want to put anti-freeze in the wine. Meanwhile, the Simpsons receive Adil Hoxha, an Albanian exchange student who is actually a spy.
174: 4F17 (SI-817 / S08E21) The Old Man and the Lisa
Mr. Burns loses his vast fortune and turns to Lisa for help in getting it back through environmental means. Bret "the Hitman" Hart guest stars.
135: 3F05 (SI-705 / S07E07) King-Size Homer
A strong desire to work at home prompts Homer to gain a lot of weight so he can claim work disability. Joan Kenley guest stars.
288: DABF14 (SI-1314 / S13E19) The Sweetest Apu
Apu's unbearable life of work and eight kids drives him to have an affair with another woman, and when Manjula finds out, Apu will have to do everything it takes to win her back.
My first impressions:
Season 1, welcome to the party! This is also an extremely deep bracket, if not especially top-heavy. The #6 choice is obvious to me, and yet it's really not a terrible episode, just a lackluster one. (Note: This is the one where he has an affair, NOT the Valentine's special or anything else about Apu's love life for which you'd have been tempted to mistake it.)
The #1 choice is also obvious to me, though that's partly out of sadistic glee about how it ends. The contrarian take on environmentalism here is almost worthy of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
It's very hard fairly to rank the Season 1 eps against the rest because at the outset it was a fundamentally different show. For example you'd NEVER see Season 1 Homer say something like "Aw, man, the little guy didn't do anything yet, and you know it was going to be cool". He might ask "Where's the ANY key?" but it'd be with a bit of a growl, played straight, rather than like a giggling village idiot. Anyhow... Season 1 isn't the gag-a-minute pace of subsequent seasons but on the flip side it's more genuine and less meta. And best of all, it's long enough ago that some eps really did stand the test of time (and some not). In fact, the Season 1 DVD release itself has been around long enough for that effect to repeat itself.
Preliminary rankings:
1. The Old Man and the Lisa (Li'l Lisa Slurry always just kills me!)
2. Bart the Genius
3. The Twisted World of Marge Simpson
4. King Size Homer ("'Lisa Simpson, can you afford to miss another issue of the Utne Reader?'")
5. The Crepes of Wrath
6. The Sweetest Apu
Pool #7 explanation:
Turned out to be way easier than I'd have expected. I worried that I was overrating Hellfish, but if anything quite the opposite. The top two were neck and neck with the other four falling neatly into place. You learn things from a pool like this... I had no idea how reviled Treehouse XIII is but come to think of it I can see why.
1. Bart the Genius -- great classic Simpsons episode. Bart trying to visualize the math problem, only to cause the two trains to collide, is a perfect symbol of cerebral struggle.
2. The Old Man and the Lisa -- any episode featuring Bret Hart saying "old man stink" wins points in my book. Another bonus -- Burns promising the seniors a trip to the most duck-filled pond they'll ever see if they work harder, prompting Grandpa to say the same promise got him to vote for Lyndon LaRouche.
3. Twisted World -- Jack Lemmon was great as the voice of the pretzel vendor, and the sight of Fat Tony and friends rubbing out Marge's competition (overturning Hans Moleman's hot dog cart, driving the Girl Scouts to the city limits) was priceless.
4. King-Size Homer -- for some reason, viewers in DC ranked this episode the funniest Simpsons ever a few years back. It has its moments, but the episode has more misses than hits in my book.
5. The Crepes of Wrath -- the show did the "punishing Bart by taking him out of school" storyline better in later episodes.
6. Sweetest Apu -- the epitome of later-season lameness.
Posted by: James Dinan at January 24, 2005 10:21 AM1. Genius - acids and bases don't mix!
2. Twisted - I could go for a Whitey Whacker right about now
3. Old Man - I was always a little surprised that Burns knew the hippie was a hemp smoker. Opium smoker, sure.
4. Crepes - though it should be higher for its frank depiction of the Albanian threat to security
5. King Sized - meh
6. Sweetest Apu - meh on the curve
Hmm, tough one. No really great episodes in this bunch. I guess it goes
1. Crepes of Wrath
2. Twisted World of Marge Simpson -- poor Whitey Ford.
3. Bart the Genius -- I've always thought this was an overrated episode.
4. Old Man and the Lisa -- Reeee-cycling?
5. King-Size Homer -- this is pretty blah, except for the dialing attempt.
6. Sweetest Apu
1. Bart the Genius
2. Twisted World
3. King-Size Homer
4. The Old Man and the Lisa
5. The Crepes of Wrath - This was season one? "And the main export is furious political thought."
6. Sweetest Apu