I Married Marge

"I Married Marge"
The Simpsons episode
Homer leaves Marge to look for work. Marge was designed with shorter hair to make her look younger. The characters' pupils were larger than normal in the episode, and their eyeballs were unusually round and big.[1]
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 11
Directed by	Jeffrey Lynch
Written by	Jeff Martin
Production code	8F10
Original air date	December 26, 1991 (1991-12-26)
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"I will not torment the emotionally frail"
Couch gag	The family (except Maggie) cartwheel into place and strikes a pose. Maggie hops onto the couch and joins them, striking the same pose.
Commentary	Matt Groening James L. Brooks Al Jean Mike Reiss Dan Castellaneta Jeff Martin Jeffrey Lynch
Episode chronology
← Previous "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" Next → "Radio Bart"
The Simpsons season 3
List of episodes

"I Married Marge" is the twelfth episode of the third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on December 26, 1991. In the episode, Marge worries that she may be pregnant again and visits Dr. Hibbert's office. While anxiously waiting at home, Homer tells Bart, Lisa, and Maggie the story of his and Marge's marriage and Bart's birth. The episode was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Jeffrey Lynch.

"I Married Marge" was the second flashback episode of The Simpsons after season two's "The Way We Was", which focused on how Homer and Marge met. It features cultural references to The Empire Strikes Back, Charlie's Angels, and Ms. Pac-Man. The title of the episode is a play on the American television series I Married Joan. Since airing, "I Married Marge" has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 11.9 and was the highest-rated show on Fox the week it aired.

The episode was the first of three about the births of the Simpsons children, this one covering Bart's birth, with Lisa's covered in "Lisa's First Word" in the fourth season, and Maggie's covered in the sixth-season episode "And Maggie Makes Three". The episode also expands upon the family's origins as a result of Marge falling pregnant with Bart, briefly referred to in "The Way We Was", and introduces key moments, such as Bart's conception at a mini-golf course, which would ultimately become a major part of the series' canon.