The Simpsons: 15 Most Underrated Golden Age Episodes
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.
In the late 1980s, some unassumingly lucky viewers tuning into The Tracey Ullman Show were graced with something that would garner grand reception, cultivating more than a cult status and etching their name into TV history, before etching it into a Hollywood star.
These brief sketches that introduced the world to the family of five, known as The Simpsons, would birth the most successful and longest-running scripted American Primetime sitcom series in existence, which is unbelievably still being produced to this day.
Debuting as a network smash hit to the positive reception of over 30 million, The Simpsons quickly became a household name, or more accurately, a cultural phenomenon. Known for its exceptional quality and still holding a place in millions of hearts, the show still continues to maintain and even indoctrinate the fans the world over, despite its best days being far behind it.
These aforementioned best days are colloquially known as the Golden Age, which for most people starts in season one and ends at eight. Of course, with so many legendary outings which genuinely defined the 1990s in terms of television, some of the high quality episodes were buried underneath some of TV's all-time best.
But which ones still deserve our remembrance, if not our applause, over 30 years later?
15. Bart's Friend Falls In Love
The opening to this one alone should be spoken of more highly. It’s easily one of the most creative parodies that the Simpsons was known for, and it's only the beginning of what turns into a truly underrated classic.
Everything in this episode is classic Simpsons. The witty and zany humour perpetuated by series veterans like Skinner, referencing his own traumatic veteran past in the Vietnam War that and evoking some sinister laughter. This dark bit of self-referential humour is actually more pivotal than it seems, as this is the first time we meet the episode’s one time central character: Samantha Stanky, the girl that later becomes the Milhouse's girlfriend and Bart's unsuspecting nemesis.
Naturally, as Milhouse's girlfriend, she's the girl whom Bart views as nothing more than a life-ruining succubus, sucking the life out of the two boys' friendship. This leads Bart to conspire against their relationship in an indecent manner.
Throughout it all, the episode remains strong on all fonts. Other than in regards to its passively uninspired b-plot...
...A completely forgettable storyline which only commences roughly halfway through - if not later - giving it nowhere near enough time to leave any impression on the viewers. It does lead to a now worn-out, one note joke in which Homer’s intelligence becomes elevated far beyond the average man.
It's still of a higher quality than most modern a-plots at least.