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“I Married Marge” is the 12th episode of the The Simpsons’ third season. The episode title is a play on the 1952 sitcom I Married Joan. The episode aired on December 26, 1991, the same day the Soviet Union collapsed.

The episode featured three songs, The Logical Song by Supertramp, You Light Up My Life by Debbie Boone and Nine to Five by Dolly Parton.

Plot
Marge and Homer are worrying that Marge may be pregnant again. After a home pregnancy test Marge gives inconclusive results, Marge drives to Dr. Hibbert’s office. Homer begins to tell Bart, Lisa, and Maggie about how he and Marge got married, and Bart’s birth thereafter.

In 1980, Homer was working at a miniature golf course and dating Marge. One night, Homer and Marge make love inside of a golf course castle after seeing The Empire Strikes Back. Shortly afterwards, Marge discovers that she is pregnant. Homer decides to propose to Marge, and she eagerly accepts. The two marry in a small wedding chapel across state lines, while Marge is visibly pregnant. The two spend their “wedding night” at Marge’s parents’ house, sleeping on a couch in the living room. Needless to say, this aggravates Marge’s mother and sisters extremely.

Unfortunately for Homer and Marge, Homer’s wages are not enough to pay for his new family. Homer attempts to get a job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, but fails. With Homer and Marge’s newly purchased baby supplies and Marge’s wedding ring are repossessed, Homer decides to leave and find a job, in order to provide for Marge and his unborn son, leaving a letter to a sleeping Marge explaining his actions. Marge is brought to tears by Homer’s absence. However, even in sorrow, Homer still winds up irritating Patty, who complains for Homer to “not scratch the pen so loud”.

Homer gets a job at a “Gulp ‘N Blow” taco restaurant, where Patty and Selma find him. Selma, feeling sorry for Marge and some pity for Homer, decides to tell Marge the truth in spite of Patty’s reluctance. Marge, now well into her third trimester of pregnancy, finds Homer and convinces him to come back home with her. Homer decides to try to apply for a job at the Nuclear Power Plant once more, this time marching into Mr. Burns’ office and telling him dramatically that he will be the perfect spineless employee. Mr. Burns is so impressed that he hires Homer on the spot. Homer, glad that he has this well-paying job, is able to now buy back the repossessed wedding ring and baby items.

When Homer returns to Marge’s house, he discovers she has gone into labor and is already at the hospital. He arrives at the hospital with Marge’s mother, telling Marge of his success. After the baby is born, Homer and Marge decide to name him Bart. Bart takes Homer’s cigarette lighter and lights his tie on fire. Homer quickly dips the tie into a glass of water, gets mad at Bart (”Why you little–!!”) and tells Marge that he did it on purpose, but Marge tells Homer that Bart is only ten minutes old.

After Homer finishes telling his flashback story, he tells Bart that the day he was born, Homer received the greatest gifts for the family. Marge arrives home with the news that she is not pregnant. Homer and Marge are overjoyed and high-five.

Continuity
I Married Marge is the second episode in which Dr. Hibbert hands Homer a booklet related to his family members’ body condition. After announcing Marge is pregnant, he hands Homer a booklet showing a pregnant woman and is titled “So You’ve Ruined Your Life”. In One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish, Dr. Hibbert, after telling Homer he has been poisoned, hands Homer a booklet with a picture of the gates of Heaven titled “So You’re Going to Die”.

During the episode, Mr. Burns is seen playing a game that is a parody of Ms. Pac-Man. This implies that Homer gets his job at SNPP in 1981; the flashback starts in 1980. However in Homer Defined, Smithers reminds Burns that Homer was hired under “Project Bootstrap”, to which Burns says to himself sarcastically “Thank you, President Ford”. Ford left office in 1977, and it is unknown how an economic initiative about hiring practices made in his administration could have survived into the early 1980s.

It is established in Homer’s Enemy that Homer applied for his job the day the plant opened, and in You Only Move Twice that this meant that Homer was more senior than Smithers, who joined the plant after Homer. However, this episode shows two inconsistencies: first, that there were only two positions available when Homer applied, and Smithers evaluated Homer’s application. The first inconsistency could be explained away if Homer was not the first employee hired, but simply the most senior employee remaining at the plant after a decade of attrition, but the second inconsistency cannot be explained away.

Homer’s resume additions
This episode marked several additions to Homer’s resume. Most of his jobs were accompanied by Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.
* Sir Putt a Lott’s miniature golf course - Attendant who turned windmill rotors; quit in order to find better paying work to support himself and Marge.
* Pitiless Pup Attack Dog Training School - Padded decoy; quit after being unable to handle pressures of dogs attacking him.
* Ye Olde Springfield Colonial Village - Candlemaker; fired for unsatisfactory performance.
* Slash-Co Knives - Door-to-door salesman; presumably fired for negligence.
* Millions for Nothing Pyramid Scheme - Ground level participant; organization was dissolved after group’s founder committed suicide when he heard police sirens.
* Gulp & Blow Tacos - Service trainee; quit when he reunited with Marge and he made another application to Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

Cultural references
When Marge is suspected to be pregnant, Bart wants to name the baby after rapper Kool Moe Dee, while Lisa wants to name her after Ariel, from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

In Homer’s flashback, the Gulp n’ Blow logo looks like the 1970s logo of Jack in the Box. Homer tries his hand at selling “Slashco” knives, a parody of “Cutco” knives which are sold almost exclusively by young adults. While exiting the movie theater, Homer spoils the ending of The Empire Strikes Back for dozens of moviegoers awaiting the next show. He exclaims to Marge, “What a great movie! Who would have ever guessed that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father?!” much to the consternation of the moviegoers.

Nearing the end of the episode, Homer is seen wearing a t-shirt exclaiming ” I shot J.R. “