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I guffaw at "The Simpsons," now the longest running TV sitcom at 17 seasons. My wife, Jana, is annoyed by it. I, obviously, get the cartoon sitcom. Billions can't be wrong, I say. "The Simpsons" are now so embedded in American culture, you can write a graduate thesis about them. I weighed returning to college for a degree in Early Romantic Simpsons Literature, but Jana put the kibosh on the idea.

I hoot at Homer's stupidity, Marge's practicality, their son, Bart's, disrespect, their daughter Lisa's activism, and even baby Maggie's binky habit.

I should make one caveat: "The Simpsons" isn't a morality show on marriage. Yet, through the years of watching Homer and Marge, I've encountered several principles from their marriage that seem to resonate with mine.

Jana's and my taste in sitcoms is no commentary on our marriage, though it sums up our degree of compatibility on a range of interests. And that, perhaps, is the first lesson I've learned from Homer and Marge, America's First Middle-Class Couple of Sitcoms: You can stay married for at least 17 seasons even if you're not compatible on all fronts. (My wife and I just hit 15 this summer.) For starters, with his brain-dead job at Springfield's nuclear power plant, Homer is definitely blue-collar in flesh and spirit, no matter his off-beat adventures, such as running for political office. Marge, the mostly stay-at-home mom, owns both the highest eq (emotional intelligence) and iq of the two. If I were writing the script, I'd have Marge finish her college degree and then head to law school, once the kids are out of the house.

My friends would definitely concur that Jana owns the highest eq and iq in our marriage, and while we like to watch the Top 20 Countdown on cmt (Country Music Television) at night after we've berated our kids into staying in bed, she's a little bit country, and I'm a lot (alternative) rock and roll. So I submit to her radio and cd tastes in the minivan, and nobody gets hurt.

Yes, I know the marriage of Homer and Marge is an artificial construct. They have to resolve all tiffs in 20 minutes of script. Good things happen when you have a short script to resolve your marital beefs. Twenty minutes attaches a short leash to grudges. Homer and Marge's marriage is like ours: I'm most often the dope. Jana and Marge are good at the fundamental but not intuitive skill of forgiving their spouse.

In one episode, Marge is angry at Homer, once again, and the final shot recreates a scene from the movie Thelma and Louise, where the two women on the lam drive their car off a cliff. In "The Simpsons" episode, however, Homer leans out the police car (one of a legion that's chasing Marge and a friend as they head for the cliff) and shouts into a megaphone: "I'm sorry for making gravy in the bathtub." Marge immediately forgives Homer, the car swerves to avoid the cliff, and Marge averts her demise. VoilÀ! The marriage and sitcom are saved.

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