Episode 4F22
Written by Ian Maxtone-Graham
Directed by Jim Reardon
Also starring: Tress MacNeille, Joan Kenley, Michael Dees

Premise: Six months after Barney lost Homer's car in a drunken stupor, it turns up in New York and Homer must fetch it back. Homer's previous visit to the Big Apple was hardly inspiring and he's fearful of going back. Marge and the kids, however, see it as a great excuse for a day out shopping and sightseeing.

Features: Carl, Lenny, Moe, Barney, barflies.

Couch: The Family are dressed like the Harlem Globetrotters.

Trivia:

• The Duffmobile that comes to Moe's arrives to the song Oh Yeah, a 1985 single by Swiss popstars Yello.
• Once drunk, Homer and the others attempt a chorus of Macarena, the 1996 hit for Spanish duo Los Del Rio.
• When Homer was last in New York, the movie houses were showing The Godfather Part II and he was hearing Scott Joplin's The Entertainer.
• Over the credits, a version of New York, New York, made popular by Frank Sinatra, is played.
• The Simpsons go to New York via Atlanta, and Homer appears not to know what a wheelclamp is.
• Back home, 91 per cent of road traffic accidents in Springfield are caused by Homer, Barney, Lenny, Carl and the two barflies.

Homage: Homer versus the Carriage driver in Central Park has more than a passing resemblance to the chariot race in Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959).

Look out for: Woody Allen dumping his trash on Homer's head, and Bart's visit to the MAD offices where he sees such luminaries as Alfred E Neumann, Spy versus Spy, and cartoonist Dave Berg. Amongst the shows on Broadway are Tommy Tune in Gotta Mince, Ernest Goes to Broadway, Neil Simon's More About Brooklyn, and magician David Copperfield's Astonishing Girlfriend. They all go to see Kickin' It, a musical journey through the Betty Ford Center. It stars Liza Minnelli and has a central character very similar to comedian Lenny Bruce. Oh, and Bart mistaking the three old Jewish men for ZZ Top: politically incorrect of course, but this is The Simpsons.

Notes: An odd episode because it's set almost entirely away from familiar Simpsons territory. It highlights the fears many small towners have about big cities, particularly New York, which has radically changed since Homer's first visit in the seventies and so, while Homer's side of the story shows the inhospitable side of the city, Marge and the kids have a fun day out, proving that New York is actually one of the most pleasant cities in America.