Having never seen a single episode, I was thinking of buying a season on DVD, but there is a bewildering amount of them on Amazon. Can anyone recommend a good start, is there a classic, or doesn't it matter?
jim; Thanks, I'm interested in looking further because in one of his amazing lectures, the most excellent Dr Jordan Peterson ( I hope you are up to speed on him, jim) used as an analogy how Homer slugged down a pint of vodka and mayonnaise and someone said how bad it would be for him and he said, "The future Homer will have to deal with that, I'm sure glad I'm not that guy!"
That's cool and all, but I'm here to recommend one of my childhood favourite TV shows. And I still love it -- up until around Season ten, anyway -- after that it goes downhill rather.
Funnily enough I don't remember that quote so I wonder if it's from the later seasons. Sounds like a "jerkass Homer" moment. Although there is one rather amusing scene earlier on where he proudly boasts about eating "7 pounds of fudge!" (a record, apparently).
But anyway.
Particular standout episodes probably start only in Season 4 (although Season 3 has some crackers for sure)...
S4
Homer the Heretic
Marge v. the Monorail
Brother from the Same Planet
Whacking Day
S5
Homer's Barbershop Quartet
Cape Feare
Deep Space Homer
S6
Lisa on Ice
Homer the Great
Two Dozen and One Greyhounds
Lemon of Troy
Who Shot Mr Burns?
S7
Bart Sells His Soul
Lisa the Vegetarian
Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming
Two Bad Neighbours
Lisa the Iconoclast
Much Apu About Nothing
S8
TreeHouse of Horror VII (especially the last segment)
You Only Move Twice
The Springfield Files
The Twisted World of Marge Simpson
The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show
Brother From Another Series
Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment
Homer's Enemy (arguably the best episode ever)
The Secret War of Lisa Simpson
S9
Lisa the Skeptic
Trash of the Titans
S10
Bart the Mother
Lisa Gets an "A"
Mayored to the Mob
Simpsons Bible Stories
They Saved Lisa's Brain
And after that basically there's nothing good for the rest of the show.