2. Simpson and Delilah

Episode Title: "Simpson and Delilah"
Episode Number: 15
Original Air Date: October 18, 1990

Plot Synopsis: While watching TV with the family (and Patty and Selma for some reason), Homer sees an add for a new wonder drug baldness cure called Dimoxinil. When he visits a store that sells Dimoxinil, he finds out that it's $1000 which is way out of his price range. When recounting the story at work, Lenny convinces Homer to essentially commit insurance fraud by charging the drug to his company's insurance policy. Homer gets the Dimoxinil, uses it, and wakes up in the morning with a new head of hair and a massive amount of confidence.

Mr. Burns, creepily surveying his employees via a security camera system, notices Homer's new hair and mistakes him for someone who is both a "young up-and-comer" and "good at his job." Burns immediately orders Homer promoted to an executive position, which annoys Mr. Smithers. Part of the gig is that Homer gets a new assistant, named Karl. Karl continues to boost Homer's confidence and helps him pick out a new suit. In an executive meeting, Homer suggests keeping the employees happy (sort of - he suggests making the portions of tartar sauce bigger), which results in accidents decreasing and productivity increasing across the plant. Smithers is quick to point out that these numbers are also consistent with whenever Homer takes a vacation, but Burns ignores him.

Smithers, still jealous, finds out that Homer charged the Dimoxinil to the company insurance policy. When Smithers tries to fire Homer, Karl takes the blame and gets fired instead. Karl leaves Homer, reminding him that the hair was meaningless and that he accomplished everything on his own. Though Homer is nervous about losing Karl, he figures everything will work out because he still has his hair. Bart almost immediately spills all of the Dimoxinil on the ground, so then Homer doesn't even have that.

Karl writes a great speech for Homer to give in front of executives, but because Homer doesn't have any hair anymore nobody cares. Homer is demoted back to his old position - the only reason he isn't fired is because Mr. Burns is sympathetic to the cause of "male pattern baldness." The episode ends with Marge reminding Homer that she loves him, hair or no hair, in a very sweet and poignant moment.

Overall Thoughts: I was happy to see that the quality on display in "Bart Gets an F" is continuing into this episode. If last episode was a home run, this episode is a solid double (note: those references may not check out. I'm not a big sports guy, as evidenced by the fact that I'm reviewing an episode of "The Simpsons" every day).

What Works: This episode is really quite funny. Nearly every character that appears on screen gets some type of good joke, so there never feels like a wasted moment. Lenny and Carl, for example, don't appear much in this episode but they're still able to make me laugh.

This episode also features a great guest appearance by the equally great Harvey Fierstein as Karl, Homer's new assistant who harbors an obvious crush on him that Homer never even comes close to picking up on.

The episode has one really, really funny "voice over" joke towards the end of the episode. Homer is reading a note from his assistant Karl, and the voice over that Homer and the audience hears turns out to be Karl actually in the room and not just in Homer's head as we thought. Homer realizes that Karl is there and gets startled. It's one of the earliest examples of the show's willingness to use the medium as a setup to a great punchline. That's not the type of joke you could pull off in a book, for example. Hell - it's not even the type of joke I can pull off in this description.

The world of Springfield is starting to expand beyond just the Simpsons themselves in a really noticeable way. Even "Season One" had appearances from a lot of fan favorite characters, but they never really did all that much. By comparison, Mr. Burns and Smithers play a large role in this episode. Smither's jealousy of Mr. Burns' affection for Homer is great, and it's an aspect of the character I've always really liked. Mr. Burns is, for the most part, Evil Billionaire Mr. Burns and not just Giant Dick Mr. Burns like he was in "Season One."

Despite being a funny and somewhat silly episode (Homer grows a flowing head of hair overnight), it still delves into some real issues for Homer - namely, his giant insecurity about being bald and how it holds him back in life. Though a lot of silliness is going on around it, Homer's core emotional story is handled in a really nice and grounded way. Also on display are Homer's never-ending money issues when he can't afford the miracle drug that could help him grow his hair back.

I really like that Bart ends up being the reason that Homer has to return to his previous bald state when Bart ends up spilling all of the Dimoxinil on the bathroom floor. Homer and Marge's marriage also gets a few touching moments (she is totally supportive to Homer regardless of whether or not he has hair), including a really sweet moment that closes out the episode.

What Doesn't Work:  Despite its humor, the story does kind of come off the rails after awhile. It forgets those bigger character issues for a big chunk of the middle. It begins grounded and ends even better, but the middle portion is really just "Homer fumbles his way through his new job." It's funny, but it loses some steam in the center portions.

While I really like Harvey Fierstein's performance, his place in the plot quickly becomes an excuse to wrap everything up as tidily as possible. He's not totally wasted, but it's a shame nonetheless.

Closing Thoughts:  This episode is notable for including the show's first obviously gay character with Karl. I had to qualify that just now because Smither's isn't quite obviously gay yet this early on in the show.

The primary joke of the episode seems to be "If Homer only had hair he would be able to fail upwards in life," which is very funny.

This episode is also notable because Mr. Burns' specifies his age as 81, which is something that changes very often throughout the rest of the series. I mainly just wanted to state that so that I could refer back to it later on when he suddenly becomes 100+ years old.

All in all, a totally solid episode. Not one of my favorites necessarily, but a good way to spend a half hour.

Final Grade (out of 10): 8