

"A little from Column A, a little from Column B."While Abe Simpson is always a reliably entertaining supporting character, up to this point the show had never focused much attention on Homer's *other* parent. "Are you trying to stall us, or are you just senile?"

"Alright! I admit it, I am the Lindbergh baby! Waah! Waah! Goo-goo! I miss my fly-fly, Dada!" One minute, Homer is celebrating his second lease on life and promising to live every day to the fullest, the next he's stretched out on the couch with a half-eaten bag of pork rinds. At the same time, this episode ends on an appropriately sly note. The scenes of Homer bidding farewell to his family and confronting his imminent demise show an unusually human side of a character who so often comes across as a self-centered, even sociopathic jerk. The result could have been overly sentimental and melodramatic, but this episode toes the line between humor and tragedy easily enough. Here Homer confronts his own mortality in a very real and immediate way, fearing he's just ingested a poisonous blowfish and has only one day left to live. Number one: 'Cover for me.' Number two: 'Oh, good idea, boss.' Number three: 'It was like that when I got here.'"While The Simpsons was still honing its voice in Season 2, this unusually dramatic episode offered a glimpse of the golden period that was to come for the series. "I want to share something with you - the three little sentences that will get you through life. 29 "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" (Season 2)
