Homer agrees to let Fat Tony shoot a porno at his home in compensation for football gambling debts. He coyly sends the family for a July afternoon at Santaa 's Village, but when they return ahead of schedule, Marge blows her top and storms out leaving Homer to watch the children. While camping at a rest stop, Marge befriends an attractive marine biologist who tells her that Homer will never appreciate her if she continues to run back to him. Homer and the rest of the family go in search of Marge and discover she has run away to save the manatees. The family is able to find Marge who shoots Homer down leading him to believe the only way he can win back his wife is by saving the manatees himself. While almost being killed by a gang of jet skiers and the mob (the porno tested poorly because Homera 's stomach growling ruined the audio), Homer proves to Marge that hea 's not as self centered as she believed and the couple is reunited.

The Simpsons protest the next door construction of a stamp museum and successfully have it relocated to a cemetery lot. The family is dismayed to see the old cemetery moving into the museuma 's place on their neighboring lot. Lisa soon finds herself suffering fright induced sleepless nights and attempts to stay in her parentsa ' bed. Homer and Marge attempt spending a night in Lisaa 's room to convince Lisa that it is safe; however, they are quickly scared away. While Homer and Marge turn to a psychiatrist for advice, Lisa decides to face her fears alone one night in the cemetery. After losing her footing, Lisa hits her head on a tombstone and has an unconscious vision of herself standing up to a handful of monsters who ultimately let her know that ita 's ok for her to act like a kid.

Homer capitalizes on Maggiea 's Chicken Pox by throwing a Pox party and charging parents to infect their children. Kirk and Luann run into each other at the party and have a a Marge-aritaa assisted hook-up which ignites a a trial un-separationa . Milhouse soon realizes he was better off when his parents competed for his love and launches a Operation Reverse Parent Trap.a Inspired by an episode of THE OC, Milhouse and Bart plant one of Margea 's bras in Kirka 's closet which causes Luann to confront Homer and break-up his marriage. Bart and Milhousea 's plan to correct the situation with a poorly thought out scheme (Homer and Marge will reunite over the tragedy of seeing a dummy of Bart fall from a cliff into a raging river) goes awry and The Simpson parents must join together to save Bart from the rapids.

BARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - Bart ends up in a coma after attempting to jump from the roof to the swimming pool at Spinster Arms Apartments. In an effort to cope with the loss of their boy, the family takes in a robotic boy who quickly proves to be a better son. Bart awakes to discover the family wants to keep both sons. After repeatedly being shown up by the robotic boy, Bart is abandoned on the side of the road by Homer. Bart stumbles across a friendly band of discarded robots and harvests their parts to turn himself into a cyborg. While enacting his revenge, Bart accidentally cuts Homer in half and he too becomes a cyborg. SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST- While attending a hunting party at Burns Manor, Homer panics and believes the prey is the hunting party. Mr. Burns thinks this is much better than the planned grizzly hunt and orders the chase. After bringing bad luck to anyone he has contact with, Homer finds himself alone and running for his life. Marge witnesses the game on television and arrives in time to knockout Burns and Smithers just as they are set to execute Homer. Ia 'VE GROWN A COSTUME ON YOUR FACE - After losing a Halloween costume contest to Dr. Hibbert as Dracula, a real witch puts a spell on the people of Springfield causing them to take the form of their costumes. Lisa deducts that Maggie in her witch costume can reverse the spell; however, the residents with favorable costumes want to stay as they are. Maggie splits the difference by turning everyone into giant pacifiers.

Observing that Marge is lonely, Bart offers to spend time with her. After they go on tandem bike rides and decorate Barta 's tree house as a a teahouse,a the bullies from school dub Bart a mamaa 's boy. When Marge finds out that Barta 's schoolmates are teasing him, she gives him the necessary tools to win back his reputation. Meanwhile, Homer teams up with Moe and joins a professional arm-wrestling circuit.

Homera 's inability to embrace Lisaa 's Fathera 's Day book the same way he does Barta 's Fathera 's Day Toolman causes Lisa to develop DDD (Disappointed Daughter Disorder). Meanwhile, Bart steals the a Bart Boulevarda street sign and causes a huge pile-up. While Mayor Quimby creates The Safety Salamander spokesperson in response to the accident, the town still forces the ineffective Mayor into a recall election. Homer, longing to win back his daughtera 's love, takes the spokesperson position, and after a heroic run as The Safety Salamander, he runs for Mayor.

Homer has an altercation with the Easter Bunny at the Mayor’s egg hunt, causing Marge to be shunned. A lonely Marge decides to join a women’s group called The Cheery Red Tomatoes and agrees to help with an upcoming charity drive - robbing Mr. Burns of his Faberge egg collection. Meanwhile, Lisa’s plans to spend a summer in Italy hit a bump when she learns the first requirement is being fluent in Italian, so she takes on a teacher from a classified ad - who turns out to be Milhouse.

After Mr. Burns crashes his Stutz Bearcat, he sends Homer and the family off to Italy to pick up his new fancy sport car. While on their Italian adventure, the Simpsons end up stranded in a small Italian village where a rehabilitated Sideshow Bob reigns as mayor. Sideshow Bob impresses the Simpsons enough so that they keep his sordid past a secret until one of the family members, in a wine-induced state, spills the beans.

The Simpsons deliver holiday cheer in this Christmas-themed trilogy. In a The First (Annoyed Grunt) a " El,a when Reverend Lovejoya 's car breaks down en route to Christmas mass, Homer takes over the sermon and delivers his version of the birth of Christ (Bart) to his parents Joseph (Homer) and Mary (Marge). a I Saw Grampa Cussing Santa Clausa finds Grampa reminiscing about his daredevil days as a WWII fighter pilot, when he was stranded on an island alongside his gunner, Burns. Grampa recalls mistaking Santa Claus for an enemy aircraft and gunning him down from the sky. Realizing their mistake, Grampa helps Jolly Ola ' St. Nick to safety, only to have Burns steal the sleigh and escape the island a " leaving Grampa stranded again. The final installment, a The Nutcracker a Sweet,a which finds the townspeople of Springfield preparing for Christmas Day, is set to the tune of the famed a Nutcrackera ballet.

Marge’s rage against the new toll road system somehow leads to the discovery of a frozen mailman and his 40-year-old mail. The letters are returned to the rightful recipients, including one to Grandpa Simpson’s deceased wife, revealing a secret love affair and the real father of her baby, Homer. Confused and emotional, Homer finds Mason Fairbanks, his wealthy and much improved paternal dad, and happily establishes a father-son relationship with him while rejecting his surrogate father of 40 years. But soon Homer realizes that a DNA test doesn’t necessarily tell who his true father is

After Bart steals a key from Principal Skinner’s office and gets himself into hot water, Marge and Homer send him to a behavior modification camp. Homer is forced to cancel his much-anticipated trip to Las Vegas in order to drive Bart to the camp, but on the way there, Homer decides it’s a great time to bond with Bart.

Lisa attempts to transform Groundskeeper Willie into a proper gentleman.

While cave exploring with his family, Homer causes the cave to crumble and finds himself stuck upside down in the ceiling. Marge and Bart search for help while Lisa passes the time by telling Homer a story, which turns into a chain of narrated tales.

Ned Flanders wins a new computer and he offers it to Marge, as he has no use for it. In return, Marge babysits the Flanders children so that Ned can attend the Left-Handed Convention, where he meets New York Yankees guest star Randy Johnson, who is selling left-handed teddy bears. With Marge spending so much time at the Flanders’, Homer must look after Bart and Lisa. Homer takes the kids to an animal retirement home, but the trip goes awry when Toot-Toot the monkey pulls Bart into her cage and holds him hostage. Marge learns of the kidnapping when it is a breaking news report and she must figure out a way to get her son back.

Homer and Marge go on a Wife Swap reality show. On it Marge lives with a British man, and his son, while an overly strict woman comes to live with Homer, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie. She cracks down on familya 's bad habits, while Marge shows her temporary husband exactly what he wants in a woman. After a couple days he sees that hea 'd rather spend the rest of his life with Marge.

Grampa ruins Homer’s plans to make Springfield the new home of a pro football franchise when he mistakes the Commissioner of Football for a burglar and the football stadium is transformed into a bull fighting arena. Tortured by threatening calls from his family and friends, Grampa seeks Manfred Manslaughter’s help in committing suicide. When his plan fails at the last minute, Grampa gets a new outlook on life and decides to become Springfield’s very own matador.

The nuclear power plant Homer works at is moving to India. Now it is Homera 's job to train the new employees. Meanwhile, Patty and Selma kidnap Richard Dean Anderson (most famous for his role as MacGyver). Now after seeing real-life drama Richard wants to stay in Springfield.

When the Simpsons’ plans for a nice family outing at the Frying Dutchman turn into a dining disaster, the family tries to salvage the night by telling different stories of disasters at sea. Lisa recounts the Mayflower voyage, Bart tells tales of Tahitian mutiny and Homer puts his own spin on the capsizing cruise ships.

Skinner is replaced by a women’s educational expert after making a sexist statement about women's math skills after an Itchy and Scratchy musical. The new principle segregates the school into two sections. One for boys, and another for girls. At first Lisa agrees with this, but then she finds out that the girls won't be learning any math, and decides to dress as a boy and sneak into the boys' math class.

With an incomplete house number on their curb, the Simpsons get lots of wrong delivered mail. Starting with a package with food, Homer opens this mail for his own profit. Within this mail is a prize for a one day house cleaning. In panic to look bad in front of the professional house keeper Marge mixes several house cleansers and gets unconscious from the arising fumes. While braking down she hits her head on a stool and suffers from amnesia.

Reverend Lovejoy is appointed to spread the word of creationism in Springfield. Soon Lisa is the only supporter of the scientific evolution theory proposed by Charles Darwin. To revive the scientific view on evolution she holds secret evolution classes.

A passionate kiss between Marge and Homer airs on the big screen at a baseball game, prompting second baseman Buck Mitchell to turn to the pair for advice about his marriage to singer Fiona.