Season 2: Lisa's Substitute
Basically Lisa gets a relief teacher, idolises him and wishes he was her real teacher. He leaves eventually of course, Lisa is heartbroken. Goes back home to face Homer, who does something to piss her off and she calls him a baboon. Homer noting the seriousness of the matter, went to her room and asked her what's she's sad about. Then he gets on a roll consoled her, made her laugh and they both hugged. Ending scene goes to Homer tucking Bart and Maggie in.

Actually I love all the pre Season 11 episodes. I find it hard to pick a favourites. There are many favourites. Seasons 2-8 are my particular favourites. I love episodes like Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious too.

I like the episode "I Am Furious (Yellow)" quite a bit.

That's the Angry Dad one correct? I also like that one.

I love that episode. The scene with the FBI agents always kills me. "I think he's talking to you."

It's really hard to pick a specific favorite episode, since seasons 2-8 were all pure gold. I do quite like "A Fish Called Selma" though.

It's not so much "alive and kicking" as it is "undead and decomposing".
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@topic
I have a hard time even narrowing it down to one episode per season (yes, all ten of them), so I'll just list some episodes I consider brilliant. This list is not complete and not ranked in any way.

Bart the General
One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish
When Flanders Failed
Bart the Lover
Lisa's First Word
I Love Lisa
Rosebud
And Maggie Makes Three
Mother Simpson
Summer of 4 Ft. 2
Bart After Dark
El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)
Homer's Phobia
The Secret War of Lisa Simpson
Lisa's Sax

Which dude ? The yellow one ?

I remebered another one. It is outside series I stated as best, but it is in my opinion best episode of series 3 and one of the ones I love most.

It's "Homer at the Bat" where the nuclear power plant employees play softball. I love that episode.
During series 3 the show was picking it pace, but it isn't among the best series and this out really sticks out for me.

They've had so many seasons that not only could I not pick my favorite, but I couldn't even remember the ones I like. How can you people even remember the titles. I can remember the shining one, which I loved, but other than that.

I googled. And then I realized these episodes aren't even in seasons I noted as my favorite.

Homer Loves Flanders is my favorite.

I was going to say the Treehouse of Horror V. While the third segment wasn't all that great, The Shinning and Time and Punishment are probably the funniest things I've seen on the Simpsons.

My favorite are the Homer episodes. Maybe, it's because I am stupid, or perhaps he just speaks for the whole american public.
Whatever happened to the Barney character, he used to be on the show a lot, and now you are lucky to even see him on the screen.

OK, I know I listed too much already but I just remembered another. I love "You Only Move Twice" (and yeah I am googling most of names) with Hank Scorpio and living in new town. It maybe even ranks as number 1 for me probably slightly ahead of "Homer at The Bat" and "Cape Feare". Almost everything in there cracks me up.
Also "Homer Simpson vs. New York City" is high on my list. It is great episode and when I recently saw its sequel from latest episode it almost made me cry to see how boring and awful the show became.
Interesting thing is that following right after the Homer Simpson vs. New York City there was first really bad episode "The Principal and the Pauper" which started the show downfall in my opinion. There were still many good after this one, but it never was the same again.

There are a lot of great ones in the first eight seasons or so, but my favourite is Homer's Enemy (the Frank Grimes one). Its premise is essentially "what would happen if a regular person entered the world of The Simpsons?", and it's fantastic.

Correct answer. By far my favorite scene in the series. Overall I'd agree with the people who say 5-7 are probably the strongest.