Episode 4F15
Written by John Swartzwelder
Directed by Bob Anderson
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell
Special guest voices: Joe Mantegna (as Don Tony), Dave Thomas (as Rex Banner)

Premise: After a riotous St Patrick's Day parade in which Bart gets drunk, the town discover that prohibition was never repealed in Springfield. Rex Banner is brought in to replace the ineffectual Chief Wiggum, creating a new wave of speakeasies, masterminded by Homer and Moe.

Features: Carl, Lenny, Moe, Barney, barflies, Grampa, Kent Brockman, Chief Wiggum, Mrs Wiggum, Lou, Eddie, Skinner, Ms Krabappel, Miss Hoover, Groundskeeper Willie, Milhouse, Martin, Nelson, Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney, Sherri and Terri, Lewis, Richard, Ralph, Janey, Rev. Lovejoy, Helen Lovejoy, Ned Flanders, Maude Flanders, Mr van Houten, Mrs van Houten, Dr Hibbert, Sylvia, Quimby, Android's Dungeon Guy, Krusty, Apu, Herman, Cletus, Dr Nick Riviera.

Couch: The Western Simpsons rush in - and the sofa takes off like a wild bucking bronco.

Trivia:

• Dr Hibbert calls his wife Bernice rather than Sylvia.

Homage: The Untouchables (Brian de Palma, 1987) and just about every other prohibition/gangster flick you care to mention.

Notes for Brits: Prohibition was the forbidding of the manufacture of alcohol in America in 1920, brought in under the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. It was repealed in 1933 under the Twenty-first Amendment.

Look out for: Lisa's actions mimicking Marge's when they discover Homer's beer factory in the cellar. The No Entry sign on the cellar door is written in English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese. Everything goes green for the Irish Festival (itself another great Simpsons moment of unparalleled xenophobia) including Marge's hair and Lisa's dress.

Notes: A nice episode in which Homer actually devises a clever plan to keep the beer flowing, one which even Marge approves of. We like the catapult, including the rather dark moment as a cat tests it out.