The Best Episodes of The Simpsons Season 13
Every episode of The Simpsons Season 13 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The Simpsons Season 13!
Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.
Season 13 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "The Simpsons" season 13 is "Treehouse of Horror XII", rated 7.6/10 from 2401 user votes. It was directed by Jim Reardon and written by Carolyn Omine, Don Payne, John Frink, Joel H. Cohen. "Treehouse of Horror XII" aired on 11/6/2001 and is rated 0.5 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The Parent Rap".
7.6/10 2,401 votes#1 - Treehouse of Horror XII
Season 13 Episode 1 - Aired 11/6/2001
In the twelfth Treehouse of Horror episode: Hex and the City – While on a day trip through Ethnictown, Homer's bumbling catches the ire of a gypsy, who curses Homer's family and friends into receiving nothing but bad luck. House of Whacks – in this mixed parody of Demon Seed and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Marge buys an automated house and customizes it with the Pierce Brosnan personality, who falls for Marge and attempts to murder Homer. Wiz Kids – In this Harry Potter parody, Bart and Lisa go to a school for wizards, and Lord Montemort (Mr. Burns) uses Bart to capture Lisa's magic. Guest star: Pierce Brosnan and Matthew Perry.[20]
Director: Jim Reardon
Writer: Carolyn Omine, Don Payne, John Frink, Joel H. Cohen
7.1/10 1,926 votes#2 - The Parent Rap
Season 13 Episode 2 - Aired 11/11/2001
Bart gets in trouble for joyriding in a police car, but feels confident he will be let off by Judge Snyder. However, Snyder goes on vacation before ruling his verdict and is replaced with a coldhearted judge named Constance Harm. She accuses Homer of being a negligent father and sentences him to be tethered to Bart. The two are against it at first but later start to bond. Marge however is unable to take anymore of it and slices the tether off of them both. Homer and Marge then go after Judge Harm only to end up sinking her houseboat. Eventually Bart decides to take punishment and is about to be sentenced to 5 year in juvenile hall, only though Judge Snyder returns and dismisses Harm.
Director: Mark Kirkland
Writer: George Meyer, Mike Scully
7.1/10 1,906 votes#3 - Homer the Moe
Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 11/18/2001
Moe becomes depressed and decides to return to bartending school so he can re-evaluate himself. He meets an old teacher, who suggests that Moe try improving his bar, which might make him happier. Moe takes the advice, and turns his bar into a trendy nightclub, which does not sit well with his regular customers Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney.
Director: Jen Kamerman
Writer: Dana Gould
7.1/10 1,849 votes#4 - 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
7.6/10 2,356 votes#5 - The Blunder Years
Season 13 Episode 5 - Aired 12/9/2001
After tricking Marge into thinking an advertising spokesman is coming to visit her, Homer takes Marge and the rest of the family to a restaurant. A hypnotist uses his powers on Homer, and makes him remember a horrific childhood incident where Homer found a dead body in a ravine. The Simpson family decides to investigate this and find out where the body came from.
Director: Steven Dean Moore
Writer: Ian Maxtone-Graham
7.1/10 1,979 votes#6 - She of Little Faith
Season 13 Episode 6 - Aired 12/16/2001
After Homer and Bart's model rocket damages the church, Mr. Burns makes a deal to commercialize the church in return for paying for the damages. Lisa becomes disgusted at what the church has become, so she decides to find a new religion suitable for her. She eventually converts to Buddhism, causing Marge to fear for Lisa's soul.
Director: Steven Dean Moore
Writer: Bill Freiberger
6.8/10 1,825 votes#7 - Brawl in the Family
Season 13 Episode 7 - Aired 1/6/2002
A social worker is assigned to make the Simpson family functional after they get arrested for fighting while playing Monopoly. He helps them learn how to work together and function as a family. The moment is ruined when, Ginger and Amber, the barmaids who married Homer and Flanders while they were drunk in "Viva Ned Flanders", arrive at the Simpsons' home, which outrages Marge.
Director: Matthew Nastuk
Writer: Joel H. Cohen
6.9/10 1,821 votes#8 - Sweets and Sour Marge
Season 13 Episode 8 - Aired 1/20/2002
Springfield is officially declared the World's Fattest Town after an attempt to break a world record lands everyone on top of a truck scale. Out of embarrassment and disgust, Marge goes on a crusade against the local sugar corporation. However, when sugar is banned, Homer, Bart, Mr. Burns and Apu start bootlegging sugar.
Director: Mark Kirkland
Writer: Carolyn Omine
7.3/10 1,878 votes#9 - Jaws Wired Shut
Season 13 Episode 9 - Aired 1/27/2002
A jaw injury from colliding with a new town statue turns Homer into a better listener while recuperating with his jaws wired shut, but once the wires come off, Homer does not go back to being loud and obnoxious and Marge becomes starved for thrills.
Director: Nancy Kruse
Writer: Matt Selman
7.2/10 2,215 votes#10 - Half-Decent Proposal
Season 13 Episode 10 - Aired 2/10/2002
Homer develops a snoring problem, so Marge decides to spend a night with her sisters Patty and Selma. After a night of drinking, Marge sees a news report about her ex-prom date Artie Ziff, who is now very wealthy, and decides to send him an e-mail. Artie is still obsessed with Marge, so he offers the Simpsons $1 million in exchange for Marge spending a weekend with him.
Director: Lauren MacMullan
Writer: Tim Long
7.0/10 1,785 votes#11 - The Bart Wants What It Wants
Season 13 Episode 11 - Aired 2/17/2002
Bart befriends Rainer Wolfcastle's daughter Greta. She has a crush on Bart, but he does not seem to realize it and eventually stops seeing her. Seeking revenge, Greta begins dating Bart's best friend Milhouse, which causes Bart to start missing her. She leaves for Toronto with her father, and Bart convinces his family to follow them there.
Director: Michael Polcino
Writer: Don Payne, John Frink
6.5/10 1,806 votes#12 - The Lastest Gun in the West
Season 13 Episode 12 - Aired 2/24/2002
While running away from a vicious dog, Bart meets Buck McCoy, a former Western film star. Bart begins hanging out with him and starts to idolize him. Bart wants to help McCoy stage a comeback, so he convinces all of the kids in town to become interested in the Wild West. McCoy appears on the Krusty the Clown Show, but the comeback flops when Buck begins drinking again and injures Krusty the Clown.
Director: Bob Anderson
Writer: John Swartzwelder
6.5/10 1,746 votes#13 - The Old Man and the Key
Season 13 Episode 13 - Aired 3/10/2002
Grampa falls in love with Zelda, a woman who has an interest in men who can drive. He decides to get his driver's license back, but is ignorant to Homer and Marge's concerns that she is only using him for his car.
Director: Lance Kramer
Writer: Jon Vitti
7.1/10 1,796 votes#14 - Tales from the Public Domain
Season 13 Episode 14 - Aired 3/17/2002
When Homer gets a notice from the library that he has a book of classic tales that is years overdue, he finds it on the shelf and reads three stories: The Odyssey (where Homer and his bar buddies try to get home after fighting the Trojans), Joan of Arc (where Lisa leads the French against the English with the help of God), and Hamlet (where Bart tries to kill Moe after Moe kills Homer in order to marry Marge).
Director: Mike B. Anderson
Writer: Andrew Kreisberg, Matt Warburton, Josh Lieb
7.0/10 1,878 votes#15 - Blame It on Lisa
Season 13 Episode 15 - Aired 3/31/2002
When Homer gets the family's telephone service cut off for refusing to pay for calls made to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Lisa confesses that she was the one who called Rio after sponsoring an orphan who goes missing. She convinces the family to travel to Brazil to look for him. However, once there, they have no luck finding him, and Homer is kidnapped.
Director: Steven Dean Moore
Writer: Bob Bendetson
7.7/10 2,084 votes#16 - Weekend at Burnsie's
Season 13 Episode 16 - Aired 4/7/2002
Homer is prescribed medicinal marijuana after getting pecked in the eyes by a murder of crows. While his family and friends worry about the drug altering his personality, Homer becomes Mr. Burns's vice president after cracking up at Burns's antiquated jokes.
Director: Michael Marcantel
Writer: Jon Vitti
5.4/10 1,924 votes#17 - Gump Roast
Season 13 Episode 17 - Aired 4/21/2002
In this clip show episode, Homer is honored at a Friars' Club Roast. A number of characters show up to roast him, but the celebrating is interrupted by Kang and Kodos, who say that humanity will be judged based on Homer's experiences.
Director: Mark Kirkland
Writer: Dan Castellaneta, Deb Lacusta
7.7/10 1,997 votes#18 - I Am Furious (Yellow)
Season 13 Episode 18 - Aired 4/28/2002
Inspired by a cartoonist who speaks at the school as part of a career day assembly, Bart creates a comic book series based on Homer and his anger problems, which turns into a popular Internet cartoon series called Angry Dad. Homer finds out about this and is at first outraged, but after talking to his family, he decides to try to become a less angry person.
Director: Chuck Sheetz
Writer: John Swartzwelder
6.7/10 1,699 votes#19 - The Sweetest Apu
Season 13 Episode 19 - Aired 5/5/2002
Homer and Marge discover that Apu is having an affair with the Squishee delivery lady at the Kwik-E-Mart. They decide to keep Apu's wife Manjula from finding out about it. However, she eventually learns of Apu's affair by watching store security tapes. She throws Apu out of the house and decides to file for divorce, but soon realizes that she misses him.
Director: Matthew Nastuk
Writer: John Swartzwelder
7.1/10 1,751 votes#20 - Little Girl in the Big Ten
Season 13 Episode 20 - Aired 5/12/2002
Lisa tries to fit in with two college students by lying about her age. She finds that the college atmosphere is perfect for her, but her lie is soon discovered and she is shunned by her fellow elementary school students. Meanwhile, Bart is diagnosed with a weakened immune system after getting bitten by a Chinese mosquito and must live in a plastic, germ-free bubble.
Director: Lauren MacMullan
Writer: Jon Vitti
6.9/10 1,787 votes#21 - The Frying Game
Season 13 Episode 21 - Aired 5/19/2002
While faced with community service for abusing an endangered insect, Homer begins assisting an elderly woman named Mrs. Bellamy. One night, Mrs. Bellamy is murdered, and Homer and Marge are accused of committing the crime.
Director: Michael Polcino
Writer: John Swartzwelder
7.7/10 2,423 votes#22 - Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge
Season 13 Episode 22 - Aired 5/22/2002
Homer starts a security company with Lenny and Carl after the police are ineffective during a blackout, and eventually Mayor Quimby decides to have them replace the police. Homer finds that he excels at the job, but then he runs afoul of mob boss Fat Tony, who threatens Homer with death unless he leaves town.
Director: Pete Michels
Writer: Dana Gould