Anyway, what happened was this: Mr. Burns brought tons of misery to the town and trying to block the sun out was the last straw, before he tried to take Maggie’s candy and sh- someone shot him, bringing the end to season six.

Anyway, let’s move on from the tin foil hats and onto a behind-the-scenes look at the Simpsons. Ish.

In 2000, we were brought “Behind the Laughter”, a mocumentary show highlighting the Simpsons’ success and the fallout from their unprecedented popularity (if they made an episode today like this, I’ll be highly likely they won’t mention this, or the episode will be popular itself, just check out the poor ratings), and then being brought together again with a phony awards show, also bringing an end to season 11, or as Homer implies in the episode, the penultimate season.

Also on this day in 1952, Mr. T, who guest starred in “Today, I Am a Clown” as himself was born, and as was Richard Appel, writer and producer who worked on 99 episodes, was on this day in 1963.

See you next week for a sad Throwback Thursday.

In season 11, a formerly tension-free (almost) Marge finally lets off all of her years-built up and hidden steam (again) as Otto dumps his bride-to-be on the Simpsons’ front garden and she, Becky, ends up staying with them. Marge quickly finds herself playing hostess to a Becky, and when Becky’s attempts to earn her keep upstage Marge’s own homemaking abilities, Marge quickly finds herself losing her mind. You could call it, a battle of the housewives. No pun there, couldn’t think of one.

And onto the “Tree” part of our completely failed pun, as Springfield’s lemon tree was stolen by Shelbyville in 1995, and Bart, Milhouse and some other kids try to retrieve it, while Homer, Ned and some other fathers end up going to retrieve their children. They eventually get the tree, back, but…….

Finally, the “Last” section of our abhorrent pun, (is that even a synonym of horrific?), as the last The Simpsons aired. Not episode, before you start tearing your hair out (even though you already know it’s been renewed upto its 28th season), but the last Ullman short, from this day in 1989. Homer sends Bart outside to fly a kite when he wants to watch bowling (something of Homer’s personality we saw virtually disappear after season 1, for one brief appearance in season 24), but the kite gets tangled in the antenna and distorts the TV picture. Homer is forced to climb up onto the roof to restore it, and ends up falling off the roof.

Also today, David Bryne, artist, musician and who guest starred in “Dude, Where’s My Ranch?” as himself was born on this date in 1952, as was Mark Zuckerberg in 1984, co-foundner of Facebook and guest starring as himself in “Loan-a-Lisa”.

That’s all for this Throwback Thursday! See you next time where the Throwbacks start to wind down for the summer months.

Well, Homer got arrested, now Bart isn’t getting bedde- I mean, courted. In 1992, Bart’s Friend (Milhouse) Falls in Love with new girl Samantha Stankey and Bart immediately grows jealous, so tries to split them up – the method being contacting her father and making her being sent to a convent school. All this because a Magic 8 ball said they wouldn’t be friends at the end of the day. Oh, well, at least Bart has some change to spend on comfort food at the Kwik-E-Mart, and Homer’s got an improved vocabulary.

And after that, in 2000, Lisa was injusticated (is that even a word? cromulent, it probably isn’t) by when she tried out for tap dancing school and ended up being the rope-puller at the recital, or performance, or whatever they call it. (Man, I need Homer’s Vocabulary Builder) But then Frink offers her a special pair of dancing shoes which hafve a couple of motors, which when attached to her shoes, will make them tap for her whenever a loud sound is made. The show begins, and her shoes pick up the tapping of the other performers. She becomes the star, matching the envious teacher, Little Vicky, tap for tap, but when the audience applauds the shoes go haywire. Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse abandon their camping trip for fear of Nelson’s fists, and end up residing at the Springfield Mall where Chief Wiggum sets a puma out to catch them, thinking it’s a giant rat that’s gone into all the stores and vandalized them. (You can’t see me shaking my head, can you?)

Six years later on the exact date, Marge lost her memory after Consuela spilt some Lemon Pledge- sorry, wrong show, after she tried to clean the house top-to-bottom because she’d won a prize of a maid (meant to go to 74 Evergreen Terrace, but Homer didn’t want to pay Nelson and Bart to paint the “2” on the kerb) and to try and clean a stubborn stain on the kitchen floor, combined her cleaners together but ended up becoming woozy and hitting herself on a stool. She slowly remembers her family, except for Homer, who she kicks out of the house and goes on a date. The date leaves her, and Homer arrives telling him how great he is before he offers to drive Marge home. Homer brings beer, and Marge remembers him.

Looks like she forgot Maggie, though, as on this date in 1989 we find The Thrilling Conclusion to Maggie’s story in an Ullman short. Basically, she flies home on a bunch of balloons she got from a nearby carnival.

And also today, in 1933, the late Johnny Unitas, a football player and guest star as himself in “Homie the Clown” was born.

Well, that’s all the Simpsons injustices for this week. See you next week for more Throwback Thursday, written in a country where we don’t know what’s happening next week!

Smell ya later!

This day in 2000 saw the episode which is considered one of the worst of the show by fans air – and it wasn’t even under Al Jean as showrunner – the one where Homer says Arizona smells funny and he runs over a town in Florida’s beloved alligator with a speedboat. Oh, my, God, so comedic. So the Simpsons go on the run and the sheriff catches them and then the alligator appears – it’s only been stunned, so the Simpsons are let go and can’t return to Florida again – because they hit a bloody alligator in some small town.

This day in 2006 also saw Lisa decide to dress up as a toilet – sorry, Jake Boyman, a boy, to access hard maths. After Principal Skinner is found to be incredibly chauvinist, saying girls are bad at maths, a new principal takes over and splits the school into boys and girls – where girls don’t do maths properly – they learn about the philosophy and magic of maths (no wonder Skinner said they were bad at it)….. anyway, so she dresses up as a boy to get into the maths class. Now, hypothetically, a “boy”, she has to act like one and ends up getting beaten up by Nelson. Bart sees her upset, and teaches her to act like a boy – which means beating up Ralph Wiggum. She receives an award for outstanding achievement in maths, and exposes herself on stage – as a boy, that is, and ends up hitting Martin Prince over the head with her award. OK, we’ve got the Lisa back from the Ullman shorts, then.

So, that’s two arguments to why America is weird – forcing a young girl to dress up like a boy to do math, and banning a family from a whole state because one town’s alligator was hit by their speedboat. Just, ????????

In 1995, there was another Lisa episode aired in which her idol, “Bleeding Gums” Murphy passed away, and Bart offered to buy her his last album using money he got as compensation for him accidentally swallowing the prize of one of Krusty’s cereals, a metal Krusty-O. Lisa convinces a radio station to pay the $500 album, whose antenna then gets hit by lightning allowing everyone in Springfield to hear it, before Murphy appears in the clouds, allowing Lisa to have one last jam session with the Jazzman.

On this date in 1926, Cloris Leachman, actress and guest star in “Three Men and a Comic Book” as malicious pensioner Alice Glick was born. On this date in 1933, Willie Nelson, actor and guest star in mockumentary episode “Behind the Laughter” as himself was born. And finally, Tom Poston, actor and guest star as the Capital City Goofball in “Dancin’ Homer” died on this date in 2007.

Well, that ends the final Throwback Thursday of April. See you next week to find out what happens to Maggie. (Or you can just look it up on Wikisimpsons) Bye!

He seeks an answer to the family’s problems, saying that they don’t laugh any more. But soon the psychologist’s smug remarks about the family get on their nerves, and Bart proceeds to shoot him in the face with little plunger-guns, after eating most of his mints and then spitting them out in a congealed white substance, before Lisa cuts off the bottom of his tie. The family breaks into a collective chuckle after the psychologist kicks them out of his office – problem solved, until the following January. B.F. Sherwood later made an appearance in season 23’s “How I Wet Your Mother”, making it the longest gap between his first and second appearance of any other recurring character. His second appearance in “How I Wet Your Mother” was 3 shorts and 502 episodes after his first appearance in “Family Therapy”.

In 1992, Otto came to live with the Simpsons family and it certainly became “The Otto Show,” as Bart inadvertenly made Otto lose his job as the school bus driver, partially because he didn’t have a driver’s license, and, after being kicked out of his apartment, went to live with the Simpsons. Soon, Otto makes a nuisance of himself as he becomes comfortable laying around the house and playing his guitar, so the family resort to trying to get him back into work by taking him to the DMV and encouraging him to retake his test.

In 2006, The Wettest Stories Ever Told were in a nautical restaurant where the owner, Captain McAllister, is constantly trying to make up excuses for the Simpsons not getting their food, and so the family decide to tell some sea-tales, or yarns, as McAllister calls them.

Also on this date, in 1857, composter Ruggero Leoncavallo, was born, who wrote “Vesti La Giubba”, which was used in The Longest Daycare and “The Italian Bob”. In 1939, Patrick Williams, another composer who scored the music for “Simpson and Delilah”, was born on this date. On this date in 1953, the late Richard Joseph, who was an additional recording engineer for the song “I Just Can’t Help Myself” for The Yellow Album, was born. Author Michael Moore was born on this date a year later, to guest star as himself in “The President Wore Pearls”. The late Jan Hooks, who voiced Manjula in six appearances, was born on this date in 1957. In 1977, John Oliver, comedian and guest starring as Booth Wilkes-John in “Pay Pal” was born. Finally, in 2002, voice of Homer Dan Castellaneta‘s album I Am Not Homer was released.

What a swashbuckling Throwback Thursday this has been. See you next week! (Remember to avoid the mints)

Well, it did, for a brief minute in 1995. As tensions between Skinner and Krabappel rose to a tipping point, Bart exacerbated the situation and exploited the want for better pay by forcing the school’s teachers to strike – leading to delight for Bart, dismay for Lisa (who tried to disect her raincoat), and boredom for the tutor-striken Milhouse.

Earlier, in 1989, the Simpson family decided to briefly add a huge forest to the back of their garden, for Bart, Lisa and Maggie to borrow their father’s clothes to act like animals living in a jungle and for Homer to end up hanging upside-down in a trap for the rest of the night.

Bye for now! Smell ya next week!

There were also some other losses born on this date over various years, such as Selma almost losing her life to the notorious Sideshow Bob in the brilliantly directed and animated “Black Widower” in 1992, the Simpson family losing out on a fortune giving away their Two Dozen and One Greyhounds to Mr. Burns (by the way, have you seen his vest?) in 1995, Barney losing his alcoholism to be able to rescue Bart and Lisa from a flaming mountain (but gaining a caffeine addicition) as he lost the Days of Wine and D’ohses in 2000, and in 2006, as Springfield lost its main source of power and Homer relocated to India where he becomes deluded to think he’s a god, as he goes “Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore” in 2006.

Also today, Hugh Hefner, magazine publisher and guest starring as himself in “Krusty Gets Kancelled” was born on this date in 1926.

That’s it for this Throwback Thursday. See you next week!

Also today, on this date in 1934, Carl Kasell, radio personality and guest starring as himself in “Pay Pal“, was born; then, in 1941, Dr. Demento, also a radio broadcaster and guest starring as himself in “Sideshow Bob Roberts“; and lastly, Pamela Reed, actress and guest starring as Simpsons neighbor, Ruth Powers in “New Kid on the Block”, “Marge on the Lam” and “Strong Arms of the Ma”.

A short Throwback this week. See you next time!

It’s been nearly a month since Leonard Nimoy died, on February 27, aged 83, and today, it would’ve been his 84th birthday, as he was born on this date in 1931. And it’s been two years since the acclaimed show-writer and producer Don Payne died, aged 48, whose final two episodes, “Labor Pains” and “White Christmas Blues“, aired posthumously in 2013.

Then, in 1992, Homer’s love life was imbalanced as he began to feel mutual feelings for newly-discovered country singer Lurleen Lumpkin, and became her road manager, much to Marge’s jealousy and annoyance, in “Colonel Homer“, one of only four episodes written by show creator Matt Groening, and the only one he has written individually.

And Homer and Marge’s marriage returned to the rocks in 2006 when a game of wife/husband-swapping ended in Homer receiving a nagging old bat, and Marge receiving a love-lost husband voiced by Ricky Gervais in “Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife“, who was also penned by him.

Hence, we come to the birthday section of our Throwback Thursday. James Caan, who voiced himself in “All’s Fair in Ovens War“, was born on this date in 1940. Then, in 1948, Steven Tyler, member of Aerosmith and voice of himself in “Flaming Moe’s“, was born on this date. In 1957, Leeza Gibbons, who voiced herself in “Homer vs. Dignity” was born. Two years after, Chris Hansen, voicing himself in “Loan-a-Lisa“, was born. In 1966, Michael Imperioli was born, who voiced Dante Calabresi, Jr. (a mobster) in “The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and her Homer“. James Iha, a former member of The Smashing Pumpkins, who guest starred as himself in “Homerpalooza“, was born on this date two years after. And in 1972, Leslie Mann, who voiced herself in the critically-acclaimed “Steal This Episode” was born.

See you next week for another Throwback Thursday.

Oh, welcome to Throwback Thursday!

Another 5 years prior, we endeavored into another Lisa story, and more future-telling as we saw Lisa’s Wedding And we go even further back in time (unlike the episodes featured in this post) to the Tracey Ullman era of most of 1989 as Bart’s Bathtime turned into a house insurance disaster.

And that’s it for a Throwback Thursday, which I’m pretty sure beats last week in length, but, looking at next week, won’t beat that. See you next time for a birthday and sadness-fuelled Throwback Thursday.