Just say "O Brother, Where Bart Thou"

This is probably my favorite episode since the show went to HD, and possibly for a few seasons before that.

First of all, I love to see the characters wearing clothes other than their standard "uniforms," so episodes set in winter fill the bill nicely.

Second, it's great that we get to see a lot of the children doing kids stuff. Really, the whole focus of the story is around the children.

Third, no surreal Homer antics. No Homer as a movie star, or Homer as a super hero, or Homer as a bodyguard, or...

Fourth, nice classic stuff from the comedy team of Chalmers or Skinner (Chalmskin...)!

Fifth, there was no "B" story was there? It seemed to help.

Sixth, it's nice to see Bart behave as if he's human, rather than some kind of prankster robot.

Seventh, cameos that didn't suck.

The end seemed a little hurried, but that may be all for the better, rather than showing Bart agonizing about bringing the kid back to the orphanarium, etc.

-- R Flowers

I like those "snow" episodes too. They remind me of regions that get snow. Here in Hell Lay we get sloppy, wind-torture rain.

I fergot to add, I LOVED the couch gag (though I have no idea why).

Maybe because it actually WAS a couch gag...that is, it simply added a funny wrinkle to the Simpsons coming in and sitting on the couch. A lot of the couch gags get away from that basic setup.

I agree. It's been quite a while since I laughed as much at an episode of The Simpsons as I did with this one. Solid story, reasonable character behavior, and good laughs. It was also nice to see some of the callbacks to previous episodes, such as the appearance of Barney as the Plow King, and Huell Howser, although this time without his names reversed (too bad...why not just keep the parody character? I'm kind of glad that I didn't realize it was the real name while I was watching).

This episode reminded me of why I'm still watching. Most of the episodes in recent years have been mediocre, but they can still do something really good from time to time.