Episode 1F03
Written by Bill Canterbury
Directed by Mark Kirkland
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Maggie Roswell, Russi Taylor
Special guest voices: Phil Hartman (as Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz), George Fenneman (as the narrator), Pamela Reed (as Ruth Powers)

Premise: Marge decides to spend some time with her new neighbour, Ruth. She hadn't bargained for going on the run across country in a stolen car.

Features: Troy McClure, Ruth Powers, Carl, Lenny, Patty, Selma, Ned Flanders, Maude Flanders, Rev. Lovejoy, Helen Lovejoy, Mr Burns, Smithers, Barney, Lionel Hutz, Groundskeeper Willie, Kent Brockman, Kearney, Moe, Otto, Mayor Quimby, Apu, Chief Wiggum.

Couch: The Simpsons rush in - and crash through the wall.

Trivia:

• Lionel Hutz's alternative identities are Miguel Sanchez and Dr Nguyen van Falk.
• Ruth Powers was introduced in New Kid on the Block.
• Marge and Ruth visit a Country and Western dirt bar called The Sh*tkickers and a punk club called The Hate Box.

Homage: The episode's very clearly based on Thelma and Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991). Both Ruth and Chief Wiggum have tapes of Lesley Gore's 1964 hit Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows. Ruth also has a Guns 'n' Roses cassette, featuring their first single, 1987's Welcome to the Jungle. The closing theme is played in the style of the theme of Dragnet.

Hi, I'm Troy McClure, you may remember me from: Such telethons as Out With Gout '88 and Let's Save Tony Orlando's House.

Notes for the Uneducated: Garrison Keillor, parodied in the opening sequence of the episode, is an American author and intellectual.

Mmmmm: ...invisible Cola ...candy.

Look out for: Chief Wiggum's rationale of 'ghost cars'. Homer hitting the television set and demanding that it be more funny.

Notes: Marge getting to let her hair down is always a treat, and in Ruth Powers she seems to have a real friend. A pity we don't see more of her.