Season 23

Season Information
Original Run	September 25, 2011 – May 20, 2012
Number of Episodes	22
Season Chronology
Previous season	22
Next season	24

Season 23 was announced on November 11, 2010. It premiered on September 25, 2011, with "The Falcon and the D'ohman" and ended on May 20, 2012, with "Lisa Goes Gaga."

Episodes

Screenshot	Total Episode #	Season Episode #	Title	Production Code	Original Airdate	Viewers in Millions
	487	1	"The Falcon and the D'ohman"	NABF16	Sunday, September 25, 2011	8.08
Homer meets a new security guard, Wayne, at the nuclear power plant, who is a former CIA operative. Unfortunately, Wayne gets fired for attacking Mr. Burns while a group of Ukrainian mafia members are on route to Springfield to kill Wayne. Later, Homer is kidnapped and Wayne must leap into action to make a rescue.
	488	2	"Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts"	NABF17	Sunday, October 2, 2011	6.19
Superintendent Chalmers is convinced into educating Bart about Theodore Roosevelt, which turns out to be successful. Bart invites the bullies to his education stint, and they like it; however, when Nelson gets injured on a unauthorized field trip to locate Teddy Roosevelt's spectacles, Chalmers gets fired. The boys then take over the school, with all of the kids in it, and agree to allow the staff to enter if Chalmers gets his job back.
	489	3	"Treehouse of Horror XXII"	NABF19	Sunday, October 30, 2011	8.10
Homer takes a dangerous dive into an isolated canyon on Candy Peak, but when a crashing boulder traps his arm, he channels Aron Ralston to save himself. The first of three hair-raising Halloween tales, a venomous spider bite leaves Homer paralyzed, but when Lisa discovers Homer's ability to communicate through natural gases, he is able to express his love for Marge. When Ned Flanders, devout preacher by day, transforms into a cold-blooded vigilante by night. Bart and Milhouse are assigned on a mission to access a sacred extract on a distant planet. They morph into the land's indigenous one-eyed avatars, but when Bart finds love and an eternal mate abroad, he is caught in planet warfare.
	490	4	"Replaceable You"	NABF21	Sunday, November 6, 2011	8.00
Bart and Martin invent a robot baby seal for a science fair. The plans turns into a success and the toy actually made Jasper and other senior citizens happy. However, the managers of some cemeteries realize that the number of funerals are depleting and turn the seals evil. Meanwhile, Homer gets a new assistant, but he becomes her assistant when he ditches work so he can watch a comedy film with Barney.
	491	5	"The Food Wife"	NABF20	Sunday, November 13, 2011	7.50
Marge wants to be as fun as Homer so she, Bart and Lisa taste foreign food. They become foodies and get an invitation to the famous restaurant in town, but Marge didn't want to invite Homer and told him the wrong address.
	492	6	"The Book Job"	NABF22	Sunday, November 20, 2011	5.77
Lisa learns that all authors write books for money and is shocked. Homer, who learns that authors can make millions out of a successful franchise, and makes a team consisting of himself Bart, Patty, Moe, Principal Skinner, Professor Frink and Neil Gaiman. Meanwhile, Lisa has plans for a single made novel, but she just can't think of an idea and Homer ends up making her the fake author of the teams' book.
	493	7	"The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants"	PABF01	Sunday, November 27, 2011	5.61
Homer is promoted to account executive and has an ad professional to guide him through the process. However, Homer's newfound lease on life comes at a cost. In the meantime, Bart starts classic works.
	494	8	"The Ten-Per-Cent Solution"	PABF02	Sunday, December 4, 2011	9.00
Krusty is down on his luck when his show gets cancelled and he also loses his talent agent. To help him out, the Simpsons find a veteran agent, who happened to be his first one, Annie Dubinsky. Despite their troubled past, Krusty gives Annie another chance. The move to bring the retro style helps revive his show. However, it has downside, Krusty must choose of getting help afterwards, from his agent or the network.
	495	9	"Holidays of Future Passed"	NABF18	Sunday, December 11, 2011	6.43
At Christmas 30 years in the future, Bart and Lisa bring their kids to Homer and Marge's house. When there, they learn about parenting and loving your family. Meanwhile, a pregnant Maggie is traveling to visit her family and falls into labor after arriving in Springfield.
	496	10	"Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson"	PABF03	Sunday, January 8, 2012	5.07
While flying on a plane, Homer starts protesting about modern flights while riding an aircraft food trolley, and Bart records a video. This video goes viral and Homer creates a TV show. The show is a bit too good and Homer is chosen by the Republicans to choose the presidential candidate running against President Obama, and he quickly starts endorsing Ted Nugent.
	497	11	"The D'oh-cial Network"	PABF04	Sunday, January 15, 2012	11.48
As the mastermind and creator of the online social networking phenomenon SpringFace, Lisa is called to trial when Springfield's obsession with the site becomes chaotic and dysfunctional. Lisa recounts her story and explains that she created the site after realizing she had no real friends. But as SpringFace expands and Springfield's fixation with the site causes mass hysteria, Lisa begins to realize that adding thousands of friends online did not compare to having real friendships. Later, Patty and Selma compete against the Winklevoss Twins.
	498	12	"Moe Goes from Rags to Riches"	PABF05	Sunday, January 29, 2012	5.03
Moe's beloved bar rag, loomed as an ornate medieval tapestry, recounts its millennium-spanning life story. The tapestry was woven out of demon wool, so it could tell the future. It went from being a tapestry hung up in a building to a bar rag. And when the rag goes missing, the supposedly friendless Moe realizes that he has more friends than he thought, so Santa's Little Helper gets the rag, and the rag says that it has never felt such love in its entire lifetime. Meanwhile, Bart begs Milhouse for forgiveness after a fight ensues between them. Bart will be forgiven only if Milhouse allows a tough man to punch his best friend. Will Bart lose his fame and have to behave the same way as a loser does?
	499	13	"The Daughter Also Rises"	PABF06	Sunday, February 12, 2012	4.26
Nick, a seemingly gallant boy, becomes a potential love interest for Lisa. Marge and Lisa's mother-daughter Valentine's Day plans take a turn when Lisa meets Nick, an intellectual romantic who shares the same passion for culture, history and literature.
	500	14	"At Long Last Leave"	PABF07	Sunday, February 19, 2012	5.77
The Simpsons are evicted from Springfield and join an off-the-grid community outside of town. But when Homer and Marge try to sneak back into Springfield, they are welcomed with hostility from their former friends and neighbors and begin to appreciate their new and more accepting home.
	501	15	"Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart"	PABF09	Sunday, March 4, 2012	5.09
Bart plasters unflattering graffiti images of Homer all over Springfield. They catch the eyes of established street artists Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Kenny Scharf and Robbie Conal, who catch him in the act, and they invite Bart to exhibit his work at a gallery show of his own. Meanwhile, a new health-food superstore threatens to put the Kwik-E-Mart out of business.
	502	16	"How I Wet Your Mother"	PABF08	Sunday, March 11, 2012	4.97
In a parody of Christopher Nolan's Inception, following a traumatic incident, Homer's bed-wetting problem worsens, and his family plans to infiltrate his dreams to get to its subconscious source. Also in Homer's dreams is where his late mother Mona Simpson (voiced by Glenn Close) resides.
	503	17	"Them, Robot"	PABF10	Sunday, March 18, 2012	5.25
Mr. Burns replaces all of Springfield Power Plant's employees with robots but plans to keep Homer as the sole human worker. With unemployment at an all-time high and mechanical arms operating the workplace, Springfield becomes a dismal and humorless place. But when Homer's machine-programmed peers start to turn on the community and his former real-life fellow employees come to the rescue, they all realize that robots can't replace human friends. This episode is a parody of the movie I, Robot.
	504	18	"Beware My Cheating Bart"	PABF11	Sunday, April 15, 2012	4.96
When Bart is forced to chaperone Jimbo's girlfriend, Shauna, to a movie, Shauna develops feelings for Bart, resulting in serious trouble with the bullies at school. Meanwhile, Homer buys a new treadmill, which comes with an online TV website, and becomes hooked to the show "Stranded".
	505	19	"A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again"	PABF12	Sunday, April 29, 2012	5.00
Bart, in a slump, wants the family to go on a cruise. When they get aboard, they have a lot of fun, but Bart wants the fun to last longer.
	506	20	"The Spy Who Learned Me"	PABF13	Sunday, May 6, 2012	4.84
Homer and Marge go through marriage problems, and when Homer suffers a concussion at work and gets two months off, he imagines the secret agent Stradivarius Cain, to help Homer be a better man. Meanwhile, Bart learns a way to prevent Nelson from stealing his lunch money - giving Nelson Krusty Burgers until he is too fat to punch anyone.
	507	21	"Ned 'N Edna's Blend Agenda"	PABF15	Sunday, May 13, 2012	4.07
When the town of Springfield discovers that Ned and Edna have secretly gotten hitched, Marge offers to throw them a congratulatory reception. However, bringing everyone together makes them all realize that no marriage is perfect. Meanwhile, Edna tries to help Ned's children become more socially acceptable by changing some of the rules.
	508	22	"Lisa Goes Gaga"	PABF14	Sunday, May 20, 2012	4.82
Lisa tries to reverse her status as one of the least popular girls in school by ghostwriting positive things about herself on the school blog. When her plan backfires, her social ranking plummets to a new low - until a psychic force tells Lady Gaga that Lisa needs her help. With Gaga's assistance, Lisa and the entire town of Springfield realize that being yourself is better than being like anyone else. Note: This episode is regarded as the most notorious in the show's history.

International broadcast from this season

Country / Region	Channel	Premiere
Latin America countries	FOX	February 26, 2012
Hungary	Viasat 6	October 21, 2012
Australia	ELEVEN	October 26, 2011
Italy	Italia 1	March 4, 2013
Mauritius	MBC 1	March 12, 2014

Regarding the show itself

• When a fan asked why there were no musical numbers in The Simpsons Movie, Jean said that they wound up on the cutting room floor, including a big song about Alaska, with music by The Eurythmics' Dave Stewart. "They got pretty far along in the animation, and then we got scared that the movie began to drag in that section," explained Jean, noting that the song will be included on the next DVD release of the movie.
• In answering a fan's question, Groening said that it was always his intention to not have the characters on the show age, thanks to the wonders of animation. But, as he quipped, "we may do it when we run out of ideas. That may be the last sad season of The Simpsons. Bart will turn 11."
• Two more "Banksy-eseque" gags occurred during the season.
• The 500th episode, titled "At Long Last Leave", aired February 19, 2012.
• The guest voices this season included Kiefer Sutherland, Jane Lynch, Michael Cera, Andy Garcia, Armie Hammer, Joan Rivers, Jeremy Irons, and Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.
• Anthony Bourdain had a cameo in "The Food Wife".[1]
• Bryan Cranston guest starred as Stradivarius Cane in "The Spy Who Learned Me", a suave Hollywood superspy.[2]
• Although Lisa explored romantic possibilities with Michael Cera's character, "(...)she may ultimately find true love with a certain four-eyed nerd."[3]
• The show bent its format with an episode that followed the saga of Moe's bar rag over hundreds of years, voiced by Jeremy Irons. ("Moe Goes from Rags to Riches")
• The family finally visited the last continent they had not yet been to, Antarctica. ("A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again").
• In one episode Mr. Burns had an iPad app called Angry Burns.
• One episode involved an Inception parody where one dream level was drawn in The Tracey Ullman Show style and Dan Castellaneta reverted to his old, Walter Matthau-inspired Homer voice for the segment. ("How I Wet Your Mother")
• Homer became a Glenn Beck-esque TV pundit and leader of the "Gravy Boat" movement. His preferred presidential candidate is Ted Nugent, who guest-stars. ("Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson")
• Homer became addicted to Stranded, a show that's based on Lost. The show ended 5 years previously but Homer wouldn't let anyone tell him how it ended.[4]
• Lady Gaga, whose song Just Dance was heard in the Season 21 episode "Moe Letter Blues" returned as a guest star in "Lisa Goes Gaga".
• Since “Holidays of Future Passed” was originally intended to be the series finale, this would’ve been the series’ final season.