The Simpsons: 15 Most Underrated Golden Age Episodes

In its most experimental, meta phase of an eighth season, The Simpsons really stumbled onto some new and interesting concept ideas. The Mysterious Voyage of Homer, which is an episode that feels closer to an acid trip than an episode of America's favourite yellow family, presents an absurd amalgamation of animation that can only be described as a visual orgasm.

What, on the surface, sounds like the typical Marge and Homer storyline that we've become far too familiar with, is something that inexplicably transforms the formula dramatically. When Homer is inebriated from an extremely hot habanero, he ends up going on an abstract soul quest, meeting the space coyote (voiced by the late great Johnny Cash) who tells him to find his soul mate.

After the coyote turns out to be a talking dog (or does he?) The allusive dream comes to an end, yet Homer continues to search. (Yes, he does.)

What follows isn't a lineup of one liners as you'd get today. Instead, we get a carefully crafted collection of whimsical anecdotes and an ending that culminates on a predictable, but intoxicatingly lovable ending.

The visual style alone is a reason to come, but the story that encases it is more than a reason to stay.