The Simpsons
Brush with Greatness
TV Flash files “Brush with Greatness” as hour 31 of 802 in the TV Flash guide — The Simpsons (1989–present) on Fox, season 2, episode 18, aired 1991-04-11, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E18: listed hour 31 of 802 in the The Simpsons guide, hour 18 of 22 in season 2. It aired 1991-04-11 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Old Money” (S02E17). Next is “Lisa's Substitute” (S02E19). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Ringo Starr has a cartoon cameo as Marge gets to paint a portrait of Mr. Burns.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Brush with Greatness sit in the The Simpsons guide?
S02E18 is listed hour 31 of 802 — hour 18 of 22 in season 2, season 2 episode 18.
When did The Simpsons S02E18 air?
Brush with Greatness aired 1991-04-11 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start if I am not watching all 800 episodes?
Start with the 1989 Christmas premiere, then a handful of golden-age hours from seasons four through eight. Treat the rest as a library, not a novel.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as a living joke encyclopedia, not a series you owe from pilot to present. The early years still teach how American satire learned to reset weekly; the later catalog is optional weather. You already speak Springfield. This is how the grammar got written.
The first image is a couch, and then it is not. The Simpsons treats the opening gag as a weekly contract: we will reset the living room, and we will still find a new joke about the country that owns it. Fox put a yellow family on Sunday nights in 1989 after the Tracey Ullman shorts, and the half-hour that followed did not merely popularize adult animation. It installed a shared vocabulary. People who stopped watching still speak Springfield.
Filed against
- Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson
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- Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson
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- Hank Azaria as Moe / Chief Wiggum
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- Harry Shearer as Mr. Burns / Ned Flanders
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