‘Simpsons’ B-Stories That Were Better Than the Main Plots
Just like The Rolling Stones B-Side “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” outperformed its lead single “Honky Tonk Women,” every now and then the Simpsons writers’ room way underestimated how much more their audience would love a B-story than whatever was going on in the foreground.
In fact, sometimes Simpsons fans forget that Homer’s lawsuit against the incorrectly branded “All You Can Eat” seafood restaurant had some banal BS about Bart and a babysitter as the main plot while the most dramatic courtroom scene in TV history was unfolding in the B-plot. A secondary storyline becoming the main draw isn’t all that unusual for The Simpsons — after all, 750 total episodes means roughly 1,500 total plotlines; so a couple of the Scottie Pippens are inevitably going to outshine the Michael Jordans every now and then.
Over on the Simpsons subreddit, the show’s superfans recently sorted through their favorite B-plots that, in their opinions, blow the main story out of the water. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the trend seems to be that, whenever the main plot is a Lisa episode, the B side is better. Here are their picks…
