The Simpsons: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Season 2
1. Making Kiss-Tory
Season 2's second episode, "Simpson and Delilah", features an absolutely fantastic guest appearance from Harvey Fierstein.
The Tony Award winner plays Karl, Homer's mysterious new assistant who helps him handle the newfound success and attention he garners when he grows back his hair.
Karl is a brilliant character, thoughtlessly devoted to Homer even to his own detriment. It's a fantastic performance by Fierstein and it also made a very significant piece of television history.
Towards the climax of the episode, Karl gives Homer a rousing speech and utters the line "my mother taught me never to kiss a fool" before planting one right on Homer's lips.
Not only is this an iconic line, but it is also the first time that a man-on-man kiss was shown on American TV.
Happening a full decade before the first real-life gay kiss on TV in Dawson's Creek (and a year before the first same-sex TV kiss in L.A. Law), Karl and Homer's lip-lock is a truly special moment and one that meant a lot to Fierstein himself who wanted Karl to be "the first openly-gay cartoon character".
This kiss was a huge risk for the show to take, but it paid off massively, securing The Simpsons place in TV legend as one of the most ground-breaking shows ever to air.