Episode 4F18
Written by Domck Carey
Directed by Steven Dean Moore
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell, Frank Welker, Karen Maruyama (as dancer), Gede Watanable (as factoryman), Denice Kumagai (as dancer)
Special guest voice: Sab Shimono (as Mr Sparkle)

Premise: While Homer is horrified to find his face being used to advertise a Japanese cleaning powder ('a magnet for food stuffs who will banish dirt to the land of wind and ghosts'), Marge calls Rev. Lovejoy's bluff and volunteers to take on his workload at the church, successfully becoming The Listen Lady. Lovejoy, as a result, has a crisis of career.

Features: Lenny, Moe, Barney, Kent Brockman, Chief Wiggum, Mrs Wiggum, Agnes Skinner, Skinner, Ms Krabappel, Miss Hoover, Milhouse, Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney, Rev. Lovejoy, Helen Lovejoy, Ned Flanders, Maude Flanders, Mr van Houten, Mrs van Houten, Captain McCallister, Dr Hibbert, Sylvia, Ruth Powers, Hans Moleman, Sideshow Mel, Dr Nick Riviera.

Couch: A vending machine drops a couch from the ceiling on to Homer.

Trivia:

• Amongst the attractions at the zoo are Aardvark Paark; Baboon County, USA; Habitat for Huge Manatees; Elephant-Cage and The Emu Experience.
• Tim seeks guidance from St Lucius, St Eleutherius, St Bartholomew and St Donikus.
• When Timothy Lovejoy arrived to work in Springfield, Ned Flanders was already there and The Bump was a popular dance craze, so it was around 1974 then.
• He has a number of noises to awaken his congregation, including a bird, an ambulance siren, and a disco whistle, and his next sermon will be entitled The Miracle of Shame.
• In fact, he actually gives one called Conquest of the County of the Apes.
• The Springfield Library does indeed keep phone directories for Hokkaido in Japan, and to call there uses 19 number presses.
• Springfield Dump has a sign saying No Littering.

Itchy and Scratchy in: Deal Comedy Blam!

Look out for: Marge listens to a number of local problems. Ned, of course, has to deal with the boys terrorising him in the Leftorium, while Helen worries about Timothy. Less important perhaps are Captain McCallister's lost Nintendo Gameboy, Sideshow Mel's dreams of falling, Skinner and his mother fighting over the television, Moe losing his will to live (his cat also has a problem, but we never find out what), and Lenny having lied to Carl about his marriage. Keep an eye out as well for Snowball II trapped under the floorboards, the Mr Sparkle advertisement with its two-headed cow, and the in-joke of the family believing someone is watching them.

Notes: A rare case of both storylines being worthy of full episodes in their own right, this is a cracking episode which highlights the unduly neglected Rev. Lovejoy and makes you realise Homer isn't the only one ready to kill Ned Flanders! Great stuff.