Top Ten Simpsons episodes

1. Homer the Heretic
When Homer oversleeps and misses church one Sunday, he discovers the joys of butter-filled waffles and finding one penny coins hiding under the sofa in this excellent episode that displays the show at its satirical height. The issue here is religion and writer George Meyer manages to strike a perfect balance by highlighting its good side (through Marge’s genuinely despairing pleas) while all the time showing how frustrating it is ("I'm not a bad guy,” Homer tells God. “I work hard, and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to Hell?"). That such issues could be raised in a prime-time animation underlines why The Simpsons was such an important show in the 90s.

2. Cape Feare
Nobody can do movie parodies quite like The Simpsons and this send-up of Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear remake is the best the show has produced. Having made a mockery of America's judicial system (“nobody who speaks German can be evil” says one lawmaker) Sideshow Bob makes his first concerted attempt to kill his mortal enemy Bart, forcing the family to relocate to a houseboat in the scenic and ironically-named Lake Terror. Mixing short and subtle gags (Homer proudly wearing a Witness Relocation Program t-shirt), with long, drawn-out sketches (one word: rakes), it’s relentlessly funny and contains a classic Chief Wiggum line (“Bake him away, toys”).

3. Homer: Bad Man
That Homer's inventive use of a bag of fizzy candy and can of cola is far from the best thing in this episode speaks volumes for its quality. A razor sharp satire on TV news, this season five classic finds our porcine hero accused of sexual harassment after he peeled a gummy Venus di Milo off the backside of a babysitter. Kent Brockman reports scurrilous rumours and hearsay as fact and newsmagazine Rock Bottom makes savage use of the editing machine to further condemn poor Homie. Thankfully, 'Rowdy Roddy Peeper' Groundskeeper Willie comes to the rescue, but alas the ordeal has had no effect whatsoever on Homer: "Listen to that music, Marge, he's evil!"

4. Last Exit to Springfield
Matt Groening has often said the audience loves a slow-thinker and this classic episode proves that theory. Lisa develops tooth problems at the same time Mr Burns decides to ditch the power plant's dental plan. Thankfully, Homer is on hand to act as union representative, but is quickly tempted to comply with Burns' plan after being bribed by a keg of beer. In the queue for a pint, Homer tries to put two and two together ('Lisa needs braces/DENTAL PLAN' go his insistent thoughts), but it's a good thirty seconds and a well-placed pencil in the ass-crack before the penny drops. Classic, relevant Simpsons satire with the bonus of having some classic Lenny and Carl moments. What more could we ask for?

5. Duffless
One of the most impressive things about The Simpsons and the reason why imitators like Family Guy and South Park have never quite matched its popularity, is the sense of love and morality that the series produces. ‘Homer vs Lisa and the Fifth Amendment’ and ‘Lisa Goes to Washington’ are both episodes with serious moral points, but the one issue that was rarely tackled in the early years is alcoholism - until this 1996 episode, that is. Having been reprimanded for driving while under the influence, Homer swears off the devil's juice for a month, losing weight and spending more time with his kids as a result. Once the month’s up, of course, he's tempted back to Moe's, but chooses a sunset bike ride with Marge instead. What other show could make alcoholism so moving?

6. Mother Simpson
Grandpa Simpson may be a crotchety old man with a penchant for telling stories nobody wants to hear, but what about Grandma Simpson? In this bitter-sweet episode from season seven, Homer meets up with his long lost mother but eventually has to wave goodbye when Mr Burns seeks revenge for her nuclear power protests some thirty years earlier. The show is dedicated to a late animator, and the closing credits featuring a lonely Homer sat on the bonnet of his car watching the star-lit sky drift by are appropriately melancholic.

7. Treehouse of Horror V
The Treehouse of Horror episodes are often erratic, but they do contain some of the most spot-on movie parodies ever created. The King Kong, Tron and numerous Twilight Zone references are top notch, while the interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven remains very special indeed, especially as it came so early in the show‘s history. However, it's Treehouse of Horror V that takes the crown with three wildly inventive segments, the best of which, of course, is The Shining parody, in which virtually every frame contains a joke, reference or cunning aside. Stanley Kubrick was apparently a huge fan of the show and you get the feeling he would have approved of this episode.

8. A Fish Called Selma
And speaking of superb movie parodies, this is the episode that satirises Planet of the Apes via the awesome power of Falco's Rock Me Amadeus. One of those great episodes which doesn't centre on Homer, but still gives him the best lines ('ooooh, I love legitimate the-atre'), A Fish Called Selma finds everybody’s favourite B-movie legend Troy McClure marrying Marge's sister in a bid to quash rumours of his sordid sex life and resurrect his long-dead Hollywood star. Sad and funny in equal measure, its poignancy has only been added to since the tragic demise of voice artist Phil Hartman.

9. Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish
No film is referenced quite as frequently (or quite as well) on The Simpsons as Citizen Kane and this politically-charged episode is full of spot-on parodies of Orson Welles’ 1941 classic. Obviously, it’s Mr Burns who’s the stand-in Kane here as he runs for Governor against Mary Bailey. Homer supports his boss, but Marge is 'a Bailey-booster', making this typical of the kind of intelligent and grounded family drama the now too-wacky show has moved away from in recent years.

10. One Fish, Two Fish, Blow Fish, Blue Fish
Mr Sulu makes a cameo, Bart and Lisa sing Shaft, the five stages of grief appear, the title puns on an old Dr Suess book, Mr Burns gets a telling off and Larry King reads the bible on tape…That this episode has all that comedy genius and still finds time for a genuinely moving plot that sees Homer think he’s going to die after eating some bad blowfish, makes it one of the best episodes of the first few series and the perfect way to end this top ten rundown.

WATCHING, READING AND LISTENING TO

THE WRITER:

WATCHING: Two rubbish 80s films in the shape of Robert Altman's Popeye and Police Academy 2. Yeah, not even the original, the second one! Of course, it's rubbish, but it still has the fella who can make the sound effects with his mouth and I could watch him in anything. Meanwhile, Popeye is surprisingly entertaining in an insane kinda way. Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall give impressively physical performances and Altman directs the whole thing with a madcap swagger that makes the film an entirely watchable flop.

LISTENING TO: Generation Terrorists, Manic Street Preachers. Having not listened to the Manics’ 1992 debut since I was about 17, I was surprised to hear that it still stands up - though only just. Little Baby Nothing is still cringe-inducing cheesy (if only they’d been given clearance for Kylie like they wanted!), while the Damn Dog cover and remix of Repeat add nothing. Still, with Motorcycle Emptiness, You Love Us and Condemned To Rock and Roll it can’t really fail.

READING: Warlord of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I do love a good bit of pulpy science-fiction and you can't get any better than Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars series. Written in 1918, this third entry displays massive imagination and attention to detail. Sadly, that doesn’t stretch to character development, with our hero John Carter displaying all the personality of a plank of wood. Still, who needs characterisation when you've got hot naked Martian chicks and love-struck space heroes running around in zero gravity with guns. This is what the English language was made for!

THE EDITOR:

WATCHING: Supergirl. Yes, it's as bad as you remember. Also watched new TV Dexter, about a serial killer who helps the police track down serial killers and, in his spare time, tortures and murders serial killers. It's like CSI directed by Rob Zombie and stars Michael C Hall (from Six Feet Under) and while it's not exactly great on the basis of the first episode, it's certainly unusual and much better than Brothers And Sisters, which also features one of the stars of SFU. Actually, if you combined the domestic stories of that with the gruesome dead people and black humour of Dexter, you'd probably have Six Feet Under...

LISTENING TO: The Incredible Moses Leroy/The Softlightes, a great band who make lovely quirky pop music. Also Japanese band Acid Mother's Temple And The Cosmic Inferno's album Starless And Bible Black Sabbath, which has the great title track, over half an hour of crunching mindlessly repetitive riffs. And it's even better than that sounds. On the flipside, there's a modern album by the Temptations which I enjoyed recently even though it's just mainstream soul music with none of the classic edge of the REAL Temptations of the 60s and 70s...

READING: I was reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang, which I'm enjoying very much, but then at the weekend I discovered Transformers: Ghosts Of Yesterday by Alan Dean Foster for £2.99 in a bookshop in Chester. It's the prequel novel to the new film, so as someone whose entire life revolved around Transformers for most of my childhood, I figured it might help me enjoy the film a bit more. So far it's pretty good, lots of familiar names (I still love Starscream) and best of all, I can imagine them looking like the original characters instead of the grey shapeless lumps that Michael Bay's team have produced. But, to be fair, the characterisations are pretty faithful and if the film is as good as the prequel novel, it should be ok.