7F18 - Brush With Greatness (April 11, 1991)

Summary: While Homer goes on a diet, Marge is hired to paint a portrait of Mr. Burns.

Episode Timeline:
The early 70's:
- High school Marge gets her dreams of painting crushed
- Marge mails a painting to Ringo
Friday:
- Krusty finishes his last show from Mt. Splashmore
- Bart and Lisa bother Homer into the night
Saturday:
- The family leaves for Mt. Splashmore
- Bart and Lisa get in line for H2WHOA
- Maggie plays in the kiddie pool
- Homer goes on H2WHOA and gets stuck
- The family watches the news
- Homer is 260lbs and vows to go on a diet
Sunday:
- In the attic, Homer finds Marge's Ringo paintings
- The diet starts on porkchop night
Monday:
- Marge enrolls in a painting class, Lombardo approves
- Homer is trapped by his exercise equipment
Tuesday - Friday:
- Marge takes her first class
- Homer exercises, Marge paints him
- Lombardo chooses Marge to represent him at next week's art exhibition
Saturday -Tuesday are skipped
Wednesday:
- Marge's painting wins the exhibition
Thursday:
- Burns wants Marge to paint his portrait
Friday:
- Homer is down to 249lbs
- The donut deliverer notices the pileup of donuts at the plant
- Burns visits Marge
- Marge begins painting Burns
- Maggie crawls on Burns's leg
Saturday is skipped
Sunday:
- Burns reads the funny pages
- Marge walks in on Burns in the shower
- Smithers prepares tea
- Ringo opens Marge's old painting
Monday:
- Burns yells at Lisa
- Burns teases a 239lb Homer
- Marge receives Ringo's reply
- Marge paints all night
Tuesday:
- The Burns Painting is revealed

References to Time:
- Lisa is 8

References to Other Episodes:
- There's a Burns for Governor sticker in the attic from "Two Cars in Every Garage..."

SLH Presence:
- Sideshow Mel is on the Krusty Show
- Lisa eats meat
- SLH is present

Minimum Time Spanned: 14 days, most likely in the summer

Canon: Yes

Favorite Moment:
- Ringo's letter back to Marge is pretty sweet, especially the delayed response to her question about hamburgers

Review: Another nice episode. The Mt. Splashmore stuff is funny, and Burns and Smithers greatly resemble the Burns and Smithers we love today. Jon Lovitz plays another amusing character, and Ringo is great as a guest voice. Has that good old , classic charm. A-