7.5/1033 votes#1 - Near-Death Wish
Season 7 Episode 10 - Aired 8/15/2012
The Professor is deeply disturbed when his parents return from virtual retirement aboard the Near-Death Star.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Eric Horsted
7.2/104 votes#2 - Clown v. Board of Education
Season 34 Episode 21 - Aired 5/14/2023
Krusty opens a school for clowning, and it becomes the most successful thing he's ever done.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Jeff Westbrook
7.1/1021 votes#3 - Skinner's Sense of Snow
Season 12 Episode 8 - Aired 12/17/2000
A snowstorm traps the students of Springfield Elementary inside, with them overthrowing Principal Skinner when he uses his Army skills to control them. Meanwhile, Homer tries to rescue the children–using Flanders' car.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Tim Long
7.1/1034 votes#4 - T.: The Terrestrial
Season 7 Episode 16 - Aired 6/26/2013
After being marooned on an distant planet, Fry is befriended by a young monster.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Josh Weinstein
6.8/1032 votes#5 - Leela and the Genestalk
Season 7 Episode 22 - Aired 8/7/2013
After a rare condition causes Leela to grow tentacles, she stumbles upon a secret genetic engineering facility.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Eric Horsted
6.7/1018 votes#6 - Specs and the City
Season 25 Episode 11 - Aired 1/26/2014
When Marge tries Homer's new high-tech glasses on, he learns she's seeing a marriage counselor; Bart refuses to buy Nelson a Valentine's Day card.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Brian Kelley
6.6/1021 votes#7 - Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes
Season 20 Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/2008
Bounty hunter Ned is forced to scrap his partnership with Homer when the hapless layabout skips bail, and Marge mistakenly takes a job at an erotic bakery.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Kevin Curran
6.6/1020 votes#8 - Homer the Whopper
Season 21 Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/2009
Homer gets the lead in a movie about a superhero who can take on the powers of every superhero in any comic book he touches. To whip Homer into superhero shape, the studio hires a celebrity fitness trainer.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Seth Rogen
6.5/1015 votes#9 - Bull-E
Season 26 Episode 21 - Aired 5/10/2015
After Bart gets bullied at the school dance, Marge convinces the town to pass anti-bullying legislation. Homer then gets arrested and sent to rehab for bullying Ned Flanders, only to subsequently leave rehab as a hero.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Tim Long
6.3/1017 votes#10 - A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love
Season 13 Episode 4 - Aired 12/2/2001
Homer becomes a fortune cookie writer for a Chinatown restaurant. Mr. Burns reads one of Homer's fortunes, which says that the reader will find love before Flag Day is over. Burns goes searching for love and meets Gloria, a meter maid, and asks her out. Gloria reluctantly agrees, and Burns recruits Homer to help him look young and hip to his new girlfriend.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: John Swartzwelder
6.3/1019 votes#11 - To Surveil with Love
Season 21 Episode 20 - Aired 5/2/2010
A bomb squad mistakenly blows up Homer's unattended gym bag, releasing radiation into the city and authorities react by suspending civil liberties. Wiggum and his men install surveillance cameras around Springfield and round up suspected terrorists, including groundskeeper Willie, but when monitoring the nonstop flow of video imagery proves to be too much, Wiggum enlists concerned citizens to help keep the city safe. Meanwhile, Lisa becomes fed up with being blonde, so she dyes her hair a dark color.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Michael Nobori
6.3/1014 votes#12 - The Real Housewives of Fat Tony
Season 22 Episode 19 - Aired 5/1/2011
Fat Tony and Marge's sister, Selma, fall in love and get married; Bart discovers a special ability.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Dick Blasucci
6.3/1014 votes#13 - How I Wet Your Mother
Season 23 Episode 16 - Aired 3/11/2012
When Homer's bed-wetting worsens, his family tries to infiltrate his dreams to find the source of the problem.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Billy Kimball
6.2/1020 votes#14 - No Loan Again, Naturally
Season 20 Episode 12 - Aired 3/8/2009
When the adjustable rate on the Simpson couple's mortgage resets at more than the pair can afford, they must sell their house. Good Samaritan Ned Flanders buys the house and rents it out to them at an affordable rate. But Homer pushes his luck too far when he takes advantage of Ned's generous landlord duties.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Jeff Westbrook
6.0/1018 votes#15 - The Caper Chase
Season 28 Episode 19 - Aired 4/2/2017
Disappointed in Yale, Mr. Burns decides to start his own for-profit university and Homer is hired as a professor
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Jeff Westbrook
6.0/1020 votes#16 - Saddlesore Galactica
Season 11 Episode 13 - Aired 2/6/2000
Homer and Bart befriend a diving horse at a county fair. They turn it into a racehorse with an attitude, whose success runs them afoul of mysterious, tree-dwelling jockeys.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Tim Long
6.0/106 votes#17 - Burger Kings
Season 32 Episode 18 - Aired 4/11/2021
Mr. Burns gets into the plant-based burger business. Lisa refuses to believe he's up to no good.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Rob LaZebnik
5.9/1014 votes#18 - 'Tis the 30th Season
Season 30 Episode 10 - Aired 12/9/2018
After a failed Black Friday shopping spree, Marge is determined to fix Christmas; Homer and the kids surprise Marge with a vacation to a Florida resort.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: John Frink
5.9/1016 votes#19 - Little Orphan Millie
Season 19 Episode 6 - Aired 11/11/2007
Milhouse stays with the Simpsons when his parents remarry each other and honeymoon on a cruise ship. But when his parents are knocked overboard and lost at sea, Milhouse decides to grow up and be a man.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Mick Kelly
5.8/1012 votes#20 - Crook and Ladder
Season 18 Episode 19 - Aired 5/6/2007
Homer, Apu, Moe and Skinner volunteer as firemen after Homer's sleepwalking accident injures the town's firefighters. They do some light looting at the fires to make up for not being compensated, but Marge and Lisa shame them into mending their ways.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Bill Odenkirk
5.8/1021 votes#21 - How the Test Was Won
Season 20 Episode 11 - Aired 3/1/2009
Bart gets a perfect score on a practice test for a national achievement test, which not only rattles Lisa, but it means Bart gets to attend a special party instead of having to take the actual test. Meanwhile, Homer must avoid injuring himself for an entire afternoon after failing to pay his insurance.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Michael Price
5.7/1015 votes#22 - Smoke on the Daughter
Season 19 Episode 15 - Aired 3/30/2008
With Lisa's encouragement, Marge pursues her dream of becoming a ballerina. But when Marge auditions at the ballet academy, Lisa is invited to enroll. Unfortunately, Lisa becomes addicted to secondhand smoke from the other dancers. Meanwhile, Homer's beef-jerky operation runs into a snag.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Billy Kimball
5.6/1018 votes#23 - Friends and Family
Season 28 Episode 2 - Aired 10/2/2016
Mr. Burns hires the Simpsons, except Homer, to be his virtual family; Homer becomes best friends with the girl next door.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: J. Stewart Burns
5.6/1013 votes#24 - Left Behind
Season 29 Episode 19 - Aired 5/6/2018
Homer gets Flanders a job at the plant, and he soon learns that no good deed goes unpunished when Flanders starts to insist on carpools and demands more from Homer's work performance. Meanwhile, Marge feels as though their marriage has lost its spark.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: N/A
5.6/1016 votes#25 - Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington
Season 14 Episode 14 - Aired 3/9/2003
An air traffic route is redirected so that airplanes start flying directly over the Simpsons' house. The noise starts to disrupt their lives and, desperate for a solution, the family turns to their Congressman. However, he dies of a heart attack, so they ask Krusty the Clown to run for Congress so that he can help them. Krusty is successful in his campaign, but finds that his air traffic bill is ignored by the veteran Congressmen. He soon becomes disillusioned with the system, so the Simpsons, with guidance from Walter Mondale, help him out by blackmailing one of his opponents and attaching the bill to a more popular one. The bill passes, and the air traffic is re-routed.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: John Swartzwelder
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Lance Kramer Ratings Summary
"Near-Death Wish" is the best rated episode directed by Lance Kramer. It scored 7.455/10 based on 33 votes. It was written by Eric Horsted. It aired on 8/15/2012 and is rated 0.3 points higher than their second-best episode, "Clown v. Board of Education".