The Simpsons: Season 4

If you're a true Simpsons fan, I think you'll agree with me in saying that this was one of the Finest seasons in the show's ongoing history. And Hey, its only taken 4 years for it to grace the DVD format...about time! But enough procrastinating, here are the goods, 22 episodes in all with a truckload of extras (like all Simpsons Boxsets) So here are the episodes and what happens in them if you need a little reminder. Enjoy! Kamp Krusty - After making a deal with Homer to get good grades in school, Bart and Lisa go away to Kamp Krusty, "The Krustiest Place on Earth!" While they're initially excited about their summer, they soon learn that Kamp Krusty is a run-down prison run by the tyrannical Mr. Black and his C.I.T. henchmen, Dolph, Kearney and Jimbo Jones. A Streetcar Named Marge - Marge is cast in the role of Blanche DuBois in Oh! Streetcar, the musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire directed by the flamboyant Llewellyn Sinclair at the Springfield Community Center. Homer the Heretic - One Sunday morning, Homer decides that he'd rather sleep late than go to church. Marge is disappointed, but doesn't argue with him. While home alone, Homer dances in his underwear, drinks waffle batter and loafs around watching TV. Lisa the Beauty Queen - To help Lisa get over her insecurities about her looks, Homer enters her into the Little Miss Springfield Pageant. Treehouse of Horror III - In this year's scarifying special, the Simpsons gather for a Halloween party and exchange ghost stories. Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie - Every kid in the world waits with bated breath for the Itchy & Scratchy movie, but Bart is the only one who's not allowed to see it. Marge Gets A Job - When the Simpsons' house begins sliding off its foundation, Marge is forced to get a job to help make ends meet. Where else can she turn other than The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant?! The New Kid on the Block - Evergreen Terrace welcomes two new neighbors, Ruth Powers and her lovely teenage daughter, Laura. Bart falls hard for Laura, but she thinks of him as just a little friend. Mr. Plow - At the auto show, Homer impulsively buys a snow plow and starts a business as Mr. Plow. An incredibly snowy winter sets the business rolling, making Homer a success and earning him the key to the city from Mayor Quimby. Lisa's First Word - While trying to get Maggie to say her first words, Marge tells Bart and Lisa about what they were like as babies. Homer's Triple Bypass - In a series of terrifying X-ray shots of Homer's chest, we see that his heart is dangerously clogged with plaque and doughnut residue and that he is in need of a triple bypass operation. Marge Vs. The Monorail - Mr. Burns is forced to pay a $3 million fine for illegally dumping toxic waste under trees in the park. At a town meeting where Springfield's citizens discuss how to best use the new fund. All agree on a Monorail. Selma's Choice - Aunt Selma realizes that she might wind up dying all alone and thinks that having a baby can relieve her loneliness. She takes Bart and Lisa to Duff Gardens to test if she can handle Parenthood. Brother from the Same Planet - When Homer leaves Bart waiting in the pouring rain after soccer practice, he must earn back his son's love. Bart expresses his anger by going to a Big Brother program and claiming to be an abandoned child so he can get a new "father". I Love Lisa - Trying to be nice to Ralph Wiggum, Lisa gives him a Valentine's Day card. Ralph misinterprets the gesture and thinks that Lisa is in love with him. Duffless - Lisa conducts a secret experiment for the Springfield Elementary School science fair to see who's smarter, Bart or a hamster. Meanwhile, Homer is forced to swear off beer after being arrested on a D.U.I. Last Exit to Springfield - Homer finds himself filling in for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's union leader when it comes time to negotiate their new contract with Mr. Burns. So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show - Bart's April Fools' prank backfires and lands Homer in the hospital in a coma. At Homer's bedside, The Simpson family reminisces about all of the good times they've had over the years. The Front - Convinced they can write better Itchy & Scratchy scripts than the writers who currently work on the cartoon, Bart and Lisa set out to write their own shows. Whacking Day - Everyone in Springfield is excited for Whacking Day, but as the holiday approaches, Lisa condemns it as violent. Marge in Chains - Marge gets busted for shoplifting at the Kwik-E-Mart and is sentenced to thirty days in prison. Krusty Gets Kancelled - After the most successful advertising campaign Springfield has ever seen, The Krusty the Clown show gets bumped in the ratings by Arthur Crandall, a droll ventriloquist, and Gabbo, his excitable dummy. Krusty puts together a huge TV Special to rival Gabbo after word his show would be cancelled. EXTRAS - We can be guaranteed the Commentaries on each episode, Featurettes, Early Drawings, Animatics, TV Specials and so forth. Forget about the Extras though, that's just the glazing on the Donut so to speak. What you want this set for is the... ...EPISODES. This is a definite MUST HAVE. Some of the greatest episodes ever created are in this box set. Do what Homer would do and act on impulse by pre ordering this baby ASAP. You will not regret it! Mmm, DVD!

Season Four of the Simpsons is where the show truly came into its own. The animation had matured from the awkward early seasons into something close to the style it's had ever since. The characters were now fully formed. The first writers had left for greener pastures, but they'd added Conan O'Brian -- who would be one of their best writers before late night TV took him away. The show was still fresh original and slyly satirical. These days it seems to want to either play it too safe or skate too obviously on the edge. In these years, they had the balance just right. I debated (a little) about buying the first few seasons. This one was a no question purchase. What I love about these episodes is that the writers paint in the corners, so to speak, milking every joke they can. Homer's friends bring him a get well card with "Danger! DO NOT REMOVE!" on the back. When Bart mentions the father-son picnic, Homer laughs "You don't have a son." A hilarious two-minute spoof of COPS. Even a serious moment has to be leavened with humor. Homer lays down the law with Bart -- just as Snake passes by with a stolen VCR and realized to his horror that it is a Betamax. The writers also excel at turning what could be sappy melodramatic moments into funny touching ones. Good writers can find humor in Bart and Lisa at "Kamp Krusty" (my personal favorite episode) or Homer founding a new religion (Homer the Heretic). But who would have thought Homer having a heart attack would be hilarious? Or that his hospital-bed speech to Bart and Lisa could be both funny and touching? Perhaps I'm a little biased. I'm about the same age as most of the writers on the show at this time, so the pop culture jokes hit home with me. (I bet you no one born after 1976 understands the Krusty Olympic Burger joke). But I still think the appeal should be universal. So why buy the DVD's, you ask? After all, the show is in syndication constantly. Well, the picture and sound are great. The shows are frequently cut in syndication, losing the most random - and frequently funniest - jokes. The extra aren't amazing, but I do love the commentaries. It's funny and interesting to hear the writers talk about how the show was put together, the fights they had with sensors, the humor that O'Brian added, the humanity that Jim Brooks added. I do wish they'd included cast commentaries as in season three, but having O'Brian and Jon Lovitz drop in for the occasional comment makes up for that. This is a must-buy for Simpsons fans, especially the younger ones who may not have seen the series in it early years, when it was -- without question -- the funniest and most daring show on TV.

What a DVD. Season 4 is easily the best of the bunch thus far, and if you are at all a Simpsons fan, you MUST purchase it! It perfectly reflects why I hold 'The Simpsons' as my favorite TV show of all time. There are so many great episodes here, it's unbelievable. You've got three of 'The Simpsons' great directors working on this one: Rich Moore, Mark Kirkland, Jim Reardon, as well as other greats Carlos Baeza, Wes Archer, David Silverman, Jeff Lynch. I mention the three in a different category only because their episodes in particular ooze dripping quality through every animated cell, but truly, the others listed are nearly just as good. Then, of course there is the fantastic writing, courtesy of a handful of brilliant comedic minds. My personal favorite episodes -- and it's really so difficult, there are so many -- are probably those directed by the three directors listed above. It's quite interesting too, as most of the directors had been with the show from the first and second seasons, so you can really get a glimpse of them really finding their niche. The dry-wit and cynicism is ever-growing, and the jokes really do come at you at breakneck speed. The animation, which HAS to be credited for the show's uproarious laugh count, has really become sublime. And I don't just mean camera angles and backgrounds, but even more so character expressions and movement, which add infinite substance to the already great writing and voice acting. It all gels together so beautifully by this point, it's a sight to behold. The commentaries, while not "that" interesting, are fun to listen to, and I've been through them all about twice. I just like hearing the guys (primarily Groening, Jean, and Reiss) talk about a great show whilst watching it. It's a very enjoyable experience. Interesting commentaries worth noting are the two in which Conan O'Brien appears; it's quite obvious the rest of the crew hold the man in sort sort of awe, as they laugh (appropriately) at his every word. The same could be said for Jon Lovitz, who is hysterical always, and the one audio track he has ("A Streetcar Named Marge") is appalingly funny, enough for me to go out and get the "Critic" DVD simply to hear him talk spontaneously (and make homosexual remarks to Jean and Reiss). All in all, this is just a great step up from the seasons before it. By this point, the show had lost most of its emotional value, but its the comedic strength that made this show what it was, not the more sentimental aspects (though those are always intact and certainly shouldn't be dismissed). It's also probably the most endearing show I've ever seen, and even though it's the biting, jaded cynisicm that I come back for, the show ultimately holds a dear place in my scathed heart.

By the fourth season, the Simpsons were completely unstoppable for a good four or five more years. There is not a single weak episode this season. The social commentary was becoming stronger and ingeniously written, the characters were delivering nonstop classic one-liners (such as "I love the sexy slither of a lady snake... oh baby..." by Barry White in "Whacking Day"), the animators had perfected the outstanding visual look of the series, and all the voice actors had raised their efforts to an art form. The cast of supporting characters became stronger this season; especially Grampa and Ralph Wiggum (in the sensational "I Love Lisa"), while within the Simpson family Marge and Lisa were becoming more outspoken characters as well. Even little Maggie developed well this season, with many indications of her budding genius, though that notion was unfortunately forgotten in later seasons. Here Maggie provides us with what I think is one of the most brilliant Simpsons scenes ever, as she engineers the mission to rescue the pacifiers at the Ayn Rand School for Tots in "A Streetcar Named Marge." While it's hardly the end of the world, there is one major case of censorship in this package, as Bart's aping of Tourette's Syndrome has been removed from "Marge Gets a Job" (though other reviewers don't need to be such crybabies about it). However, there is one good case of reverse-censorship here. In "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" one of the remembered scenes is when Homer fell down Springfield Gorge, and his entire second trip down the gorge is seen, including when the gurney slams him in the head at the bottom. This scene had been removed from "Bart the Daredevil" back in the Season 2 DVD set. This package has voluminous DVD extras, some of which are great for everyone like featurettes about controversies the show got involved in after insulting New Orleans (in "A Streetcar Named Marge") and getting criticized by George and Barbara Bush. Two episodes come with deleted scenes, with the special option of watching them with the deleted scenes restored (those that were cut from "The Front" are especially funny). And finally, every single episode comes with audio commentary from the production team. That's okay for collectors and obsessives, but this is the main reason why it is taking so dang long for these Simpsons DVD packages to come out. I'd rather get these packages once every six or seven months, like we have for Futurama, than wait an entire year for this barely crucial commentary. [~doomsdayer520~]

One of the first classic Ralph Wiggum lines which appeared in this season, and an indication of many more to come. As a major Simpson fan, I naturally ordered this box set right away. There are many excellent episodes in this season, plus an increased depth to most of the characters and the introduction of some great new ones (Llewelyn Sinclair, Lyle Langley, etc). I'm giving this DVD only 4 stars (well, maybe 4 1/2) for the time being because this set lacks several things the Season 3 DVD set had. First of all, I've been a big fan of the commentary tracks in all four seasons, and I can listen to them over and over. However, I was disappointed that the cast members were not featured in the commentaries this year, with the exception of Hank Azaria and John Lovitz in "A Sreetcar Named Marge". (In retropect, the commentaries may have been recorded around the time the cast was renegotiating their contracts, so maybe that's why they didn't participate.) Secondly, I have only come across one hidden commentary track, on "Marge vs. The Monorail", while season 3 had four of them. Thirdly, the "Cajun Controversy" and "Bush vs. Simpsons" featurettes were just voiceovers by Jeff Martin and Jim Brooks, respectively, instead of videotaped interviews, which seemed odd. Finally, assuming there are Easter Eggs on this DVD, I haven't found any of them yet. Despite these problems, I feel that that there are many improvements to the DVD presentation compared to earlier seasons. The menu organization is much better, the Special Features are easier to access, and there is now an option to play all of the episodes at once with the commentaries as well as without. Also, there are some really excellent Special Features, including Deleted Scenes on selected episodes, and the Animation Showcase, in which the storyboards and animatics for selected episodes can be viewed. Oh, and the little character animations in the menus are funny. Overall, I'd say the creators of this DVD set did a nice job, and I'm very much looking forward to the season 5 DVD set.

After really hitting their stride in Seasons 2 and 3, the Simpsons kept on rolling in Season 4. This season, Homer has completely supplanted Bart as the star of the show. Bart still gets a few starring episodes, along with some for Marge and Lisa. Even some side characters like Selma, Ralph Wiggum, Grandpa, Krusty, and Mr. Burns get their moments in the spotlight. Here is a look at the episodes that make up season 4: 1) Kamp Krusty - Bart leads a revolt at Krusty's summer camp 2) A Streetcar Named Marge - Jon Lovitz guest stars as the director of the musical "Oh, Streetcar!" 3) Homer the Heretic - Homer discovers the benefits of skipping church 4) Lisa the Beauty Queen - a junior pageant sponsored by Laramie Cigarettes 5) Treehouse of Horror III - includes an evil Krusty doll, Homer as King Kong, and some zombies 6) Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie - Homer punishes bart (other than by strangling him) 7) Marge Gets a Job - at the power plant, and Mr. Burns falls for her (features Troy McClure hosting "The Half-assed Approach to Foundation Repair", and Smithers kidnapping Tom Jones) 6) New Kid on the Block - girl of Bart's dreams is stolen by Jimbo (features a great prank call to Moe's) 7) Mr. Plow - a classic episode - Homer and Barney compete as snow plow operators 8) Lisa's First Word - continuing the trend of flash-back episodes that provide Simpsons history (featuring Elizabeth Taylor as the voice of Maggie) 9) Homer's Triple Bypass - Homer tries to save money by going to Dr. Nick for surgery 10) Marge vs. the Monorail - con-man sells Springfield a monorail, and Homer is the driver 11) Selma's Choice - Selma goes on a date with Hans Moleman, later takes Simpson Kids to Duff Gardens (also features Homer's beloved 10-foot sub sandwich) 12) Brother from the Same Planet - Bart and Homer abuse the "Big Brothers" program 13) I Love Lisa - Ralph Wiggum reads too much into a valentine from Lisa 14) Duffless - after a tour of the Duff Brewery leads to a drunk driving arest, Homer promises to quit driking for a month 15) Last Exit to Springfield - Homer becomes a union boss (includes a scene where Burns parodies the Grinch) 16) So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show - some new, some old - centers around Bart's April Fools prank that nearly kills Homer 17) The Front - Bart and Lisa use Grandpa's identity to submit "Itchy and Scratchy" scripts 18) Whacking Day - a Springfield annual tradition of clubbing snakes 19) Marge in Chains - Marge spends time in jail for accidentally shoplifting, and the Simpsons home is a shambles without her 20) Krusty Gets Kancelled - loaded with guest stars (Johnny Carson, Bette Midler, Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Sideshow" Luke Perry) and still manages to be a very funny episode

The Simpsons may well be the best TV sit-com ever. The weird thing there is that you rarely see it mentioned on great sit-com lists. Currently, the show is in its 16th season, which should lead to the assumption that it would get it some mention on those lists. But for some reason it doesn't. I think other great shows like Seinfeld, M*A*S*H, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barney Miller, I Love Lucy, Cheers, The Cosby Show, The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Friends, Get Smart, Sex in the City, The Jefferson's, etc. All of which should be mentioned on a list of great Situation Comedy, but the Simpsons should get mentioned. The major reason that the Simpson's probably doesn't often get mentioned is that it is an animated show. Animation does not get a lot of respect. The second big reason I would think is the Simpson's make fun of everything, and doesn't give itself a lot of respect. It has a postmodern look at the world and itself, and that is what a lot of the fans love about the show, but what a lot of other people just "don't get". The fourth season of the Simpsons has often been called the best of any of its seasons. I don't know about that, but it does include episodes like: Homer the Heretic A Streetcar Named Marge Selma' Choice Kamp Krusty Mr. Plow Marge vs. The Monorail Homer's Triple Bypass Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie Whacking Day Krusty Gets Kancelled All of them are among the (pause) best (pause) episodes (pause) ever. The Simpson's are cool and you aren't cool unless you think the Simpson's are cool. Which, of course, means you aren't cool. If you don't understand that line of reasoning, then you should just move on to some other show. If you do get that, then you'll love the Simpson's. The other thing I like about the DVD's is the commentary on each of the episodes that includes Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, James L. Brooks, and a good number of the Cast, Writers, and even a few with Conan O'Brien on them. Each episode is uncut. Nothing is cut out to make room from more commercials, which is a common occurrence in syndicated shows. You also get some outtakes and other features that are kind of cool. All in all, one of the best "seasons" of any TV program that has been put out on DVD.

Producto impecable