Colonel Homer

"Colonel Homer" is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons' third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 26, 1992. In the episode, Homer embarrasses his wife Marge at a movie theater, leading to a big argument between the two. Homer, angry at Marge, visits a redneck bar in the middle of the night where he meets a waitress named Lurleen Lumpkin, a talented singer. Homer becomes Lurleen's manager and tries to make her famous, but he does not appear aware that Lurleen has fallen in love with him. With Marge already upset and thinking Homer is cheating on her, he must decide on the importance of his marriage after Lurleen makes romantic advances toward him.

The episode was written by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, and directed by Mark Kirkland. It is the only episode of the series for which Groening received an individual writing credit. American singer and actress Beverly D'Angelo guest starred in the episode as Lurleen. Although the character makes several cameo appearances after this episode, Lurleen makes her second full-time appearance sixteen years later in "Papa Don't Leech". The episode features cultural references to songs such as "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)" by The Carpenters and "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc, and the films Deliverance, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Look Who's Talking.

Since airing, "Colonel Homer" has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It attained a Nielsen rating of 14.8, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network for the week it aired. The episode was selected for inclusion in a video collection of selected episodes, titled The Last Temptation of Homer, that was released on November 9, 1998. An action figure set based on "Colonel Homer" was released in March 2002, and two of Lurleen's songs from the episode appeared on the Simpsons compilation album Songs in the Key of Springfield.