Kredit Kookies: Flyby: Agnes on the bike.   Short credits.  Couch Gag: Repeat of the swimming lane/Homer drowning gag.

Every family tree has a few worms among its apples.For The Simpson-Bouvier clan, the worms seem to unsurprisingly outnumber the apples.Miss Hoover assigns a family tree research project to her students.Horrified by the discovery that the Simpson side of her family tree is, for all intensive purposes, rotted through, Lisa searches the family attic to find some sort of relic of family history that proves there once existed some noble Simpsons.She uncovers the diary of Eliza Simpson, an idealistic young girl who rescued a slave belonging to one of Mister Burns’ ancestors.Excitedly, Lisa digs into Eliza’s past, putting together a presentation for her class that paints the young woman and her family as heroes on the Underground Railroad.

Unfortunately, Milhouse has (somewhat inexplicably) found evidence from the diary of one of his ancestors that Eliza was a coward and that she caved in response to pressure from her father and Colonel Burns.Will Lisa’s dream of having at least one noble ancestor fall afoul of the Simpson family motto: ‘Quit while You’re Ahead’?Or is there truly a worthy person hidden within her lineage?

The Color Yellow is a slightly-better than average episode, with a plot that hangs together solidly and likable character moments for Lisa, Homer and Marge.The script was light on humor (and what few laughs that did come were either surreal – like Willie fishing in the hole where the tree once was – or corny), but the character-based plotting made up for it.Best jokes: “So many Obamas”; Ralph’s presentation.

The episode did a good job of establishing Eliza as a likable character, Virgil and Mabel as well; I wouldn’t mind revisiting these characters.It is strange to see one of Lisa’s Simpson-side ancestors resembling Marge, however.

In short, a watchable episode.If you’re looking for humor, though, try last week’s episode.

Letter Grade: B+

Ratings: The episode drew a 6.08.

Next Episode: Postcards from the Wedge airs on March fourteenth.