THE GUEST Glenn Close

THE CHARACTER Mother Simpson (from ''Mother Simpson,'' 1995)

Who'd begrudge Homer another visit from his mom? Especially when the '95 one was so entertaining: She popped up in Springfield after years of Homer thinking she was dead and revealed a big secret — she had been a fugitive on the run since the '60s, when she and a group of hippies used a Spiro Agnew alarm clock to detonate an antibiotic bomb in Mr. Burns' germ warfare lab. D'oh!