The Simpsons: 10 Most Important Episodes Ever Made

4. Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife (15.17)

In the almost two decades leading up to the season seventeen episode, Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife, writing for The Simpsons was done internally. It was only possible to write an episode of The Simpsons if you were on the writing staff. That all changed when Matt Groening extended an offer to Ricky Gervais after declaring The Office and Extras to be TV masterpieces. And so Gervais became the first ever "Guest Writer" on the show. Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife isn't a particularly great episode, though Gervais - who voices a character named "Charles" who attempts to seduce Marge - is a great addition. Still, it's an important landmark in the series on the whole as it designated a point at which the time-tested approach to writing the show was busted open; an outsider was let in and given free reign to pen an entire episode, signalling a change in the show's procedurals. That's to say, comedy actor Seth Rogen (and his writing partner Evan Goldberg) were later granted an episode of their own, and plenty more will presumably follow suit.