SIMPSONS, THE: THE COMPLETE 4TH SEASON - DVD review

It is ironic that Matt Groening chose to use the name of a famous Greek storyteller for an animated character that has turned out to be America's biggest idiot (don't worry, I use that word in the most loving way!) and also its foremost pop culture figure of the 90's. Over the last decade and a half, Homer Simpson has sparred and tangled with the most influential and powerful people in the world (not to mention those seeking their last 15 minutes of fame) and mingled, in animation form, with legendary rock stars and the most beautiful people on the planet. Along the way, Homer has sprouted his own wacky brand of Homer-isms, which have in turn, spawned a host of internet websites that are solely dedicated to the collection and dissemination of these Homeric quotes.

Now, if quotable quotes from the great Homer Simpson are what you seek, then the fourth season of "The Simpsons" offers a bonanza like no other. Widely considered to be one of the best, if not the best, seasons of the series (even Groening attests to this fact in an introduction on this DVD set), the fourth season is made up of many classic episodes that go on to break more rules, contain more original gags and hilarious movie references and even have time left over to offend an entire city (in this case, New Orleans). The fact that a 30-minute animated show can induce such ire among clueless and self-important denizens who can't see past the satire or take a joke, makes "The Simpsons" the colossal and influential modern cultural phenomena that it is today.

Creator Matt Groening's foray into animation started out with a comic strip called "Life In Hell" starring a lonely bunny named Binky. In 1985, Groening was asked by James L. Brooks to work on some animated projects for The Tracy Ullman Show. Coming up with the idea for "The Simpsons", Groening's most famous creation first made its debut on the show as fillers before and after the commercial breaks. These animated shorts became wildly popular. So much so that in 1989, the then-fledgling Fox television network, looking for a hit show, ordered thirteen half-hour episodes of "The Simpsons" to be shown in prime time and the rest, as they say, is history. And what a history it will be, as the series is far from seeing its end. As each new season passes by, "The Simpsons" continue to break new ground as well as a number of television broadcasting records. For example, in 1997, the show passed everyone's favorite prehistoric family, "The Flintstones" as the longest-running prime time animated show (166 episodes). Last year, Fox inked a deal to carry the series for two more seasons, at least until May 2005. This will make "The Simpsons" the all-time longest-running sitcom, surpassing "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet", which ran from 1952-1966. Of course, there is the mother of all longevity records, currently held by "60 Minutes", for the longest-running prime-time show of any kind. Amazingly, this news program has been running since 1968. Now, if the brains and talent behind "The Simpsons" do not fall apart and wither away or start to bicker bitterly with their network bosses about money, then "The Simpsons" might set longevity records that will be next to impossible to beat.

In the past, Fox has never sent a complete DVD set of "The Simpsons" for review. Usually we get our grubby hands on only two out of the four discs. I am happy to say that this time around, Fox has sent us the full four-disc set, complete with the original packaging. The 22 episodes of season four--appearing in the correct order following their broadcast dates from 1992--are spread out over four discs in the following manner:

Disc 1: "Kamp Krusty", "A Streetcar Named Marge", "Homer the Heretic", "Lisa the Beauty Queen"
Disc 2: "Treehouse of Horror III", "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", "Marge Gets a Job", "New Kid on the Block", "Mr. Plow", "Lisa's First Word"
Disc 3: "Homer's Triple Bypass", "Marge vs. the Monorail", "Selma's Choice", "Brother From the Same Planet", "I Love Lisa", "Duffless"
Disc 4: ""Last Exit to Springfield", "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", "The Front", "Whacking Day", "Marge in Chains", "Krusty Gets Kancelled"

Like previous seasons of "The Simpsons", season four consists of a wide variety of stories. Premiering with "Kamp Krusty", it is the show's take on summer camp mischief perpetrated not by the kids but by the so-called camp counselors! Amidst the atrocious conditions of the camp, the kids finally rise up to takeover the camp and demand the presence of Krusty. One of the more memorable lines from this episode come from the scene where Bart liberates an adjoining fat camp with the rallying cry, "My chunky brothers! Gorge yourself at the trough of freedom!" The second episode "A Streetcar Named Marge" serves up an original musical version of the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire". Apparently, the writers had to go with doing a musical version of the play instead because the show's lawyers could not secure a release from the play's owners. It was the opening number of the musical from this episode that caused a furor in New Orleans, when the cast sings the following line: "New Orleans! Home of pirates, drunks and whores! New Orleans! Tacky overpriced souvenir stores!" To calm down the tense atmosphere, the writers rushed to include in the opening title sequence, the following line in Bart's blackboard punishment, "I Will Not Defame New Orleans" on the very next episode! Talk about an immediate response. Also look out for the episode's tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" in a disconcerting scene involving a horde of babies sucking on their binky.

Another notable episode is "Homer the Heretic" where Homer gets permission from God (in a dream) to skip church on Sunday. Explaining to God in his dreams, Homer muses, "Why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to Hell?" God agrees with Homer and leaves with the hilarious parting shot, "Now if you will excuse me, I have to appear in a tortilla in Mexico." This episode tickled me so much because I know most guys (and kids) would rather stay home, sleep in and relax on a Sunday rather than attend church. If funny movie references are your cup of tea, then the episode "Treehouse of Horror III" is the one for you. Look for tributes to "King Kong", "Night of the Living Dead", "Cape Fear", "Psycho" and others. Another noteworthy episode is the one that cobbles together flashback scenes from previous episodes--one that most television series resort to when they run out of ideas--titled what else but "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show". In this case, it was probably done to make fun of this simple fact in television. Then of course who can forget the classic monorail episode and the one about the plough guys? OK...‘Nuff said!

After all that I have described here, it is still just a small sampling of the types of humor that you will find on the show. I could go on and on describing all the funny quips and gags but do you really want me to spoil any of your fun in watching all the episodes? I think not! Notable guests lending their voice to the show in season four include Phil Hartman, John Lovitz, Bob Hope, Tom Jones, Sara Gilbert, Adam West, Leonard Nimoy, Brooke Shields, Barry White, Johnny Carson, Hugh Hefner, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bette Midler and Elizabeth Taylor.

Most of us fans have come to assume and expect that absolutely nothing is sacred on "The Simpsons"--and we often go down on our knees and thank a higher power for that. However, in expecting politically incorrect gags and jokes from the show, sometimes we miss the bigger picture of seeing Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie as a TV family that is wonderfully dysfunctional but at the same time also possesses all the typical family charms and who care very much for each other; even if they don't show it.

Season four also marked a milestone in terms of the animation production company that handles the show--switching from Klasky-Csupo to Film Roman Productions starting with the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge". Klasky-Csupo, founded by graphic designer Arlene Clasky and animator Gabor Csupo, later went on to create a host of successful Nickelodeon cartoons like "Rugrats", "The Wild Thornberries" and "As Told By Ginger". The company received their first big break when James L. Brooks approached them to produce the title sequence for "The Tracy Ullman Show" and later to produce one-minute teasers for a then-unknown cartoon by the name of "The Simpsons". Quality-wise, the transition from Klasky-Csupo to Film Roman looks seamless, with hardly any visible changes in the way that the show is animated.

Video:
Like the previous seasons' DVD releases, the video is presented in its original broadcast full frame aspect ratio measuring 1.33:1. Because of the age of the source material, the video transfer does not look as good as more recent productions like Matt Groening's other TV show "Futurama". However, the overall colors are bright and decently detailed with solid black levels. All the episodes look mostly clean with very little noise or dirt present and subtitles are available in English and Spanish.

Audio:
Fox has done fans of this series a huge favor by encoding the audio for every episode since season 1 in Dolby Digital 5.1. Originally produced in stereo, the new digital audio mix is great to listen to but not as active as one would expect it to be. Surround channels are used sparingly for ambient sounds and even when they are active, they only offer weak responses. Most of the audio, as expected, is concentrated in the front speakers. Other audio options that are available include Spanish and French language audio in Dolby Surround 2.0.

Extras:
Again, like previous releases of the series, this is the area where the DVD set shines. First off, every single episode--all 22 of them--comes with an audio commentary. And not just typically from one person only. These audio commentaries bring together three to four people (sometimes more) all of whom are very knowledgeable about the show and have a great sense of humor to boot. Well, the latter's a given since you've got to have a quirky sense of humor if you work on "The Simpsons". I have to say that I really enjoyed listening to the commentaries as much as watching the episodes themselves.

Let me break down the rest of the other special features on this DVD set:

Disc 1, by virtue of it containing only four episodes (compared to six for the other discs), also features the most extras. Starting off is "A Word From Matt Groening", a 2-minute introduction by the show's creator describing all the great stuff you will find on this fourth season DVD set. Next is an "Art & Animation" section featuring the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge." Further broken down into several sub-sections, the first, "Animation Showcase" enables the viewer to view the episode in three forms: Storyboards, Animatic and Completed Episode. Using the ‘Angle' button on your DVD remote, you can switch between each one where all three will appear in a Picture-in-Picture format with two small windows at the bottom. The other sub-sections include "Animatic" and "Animatic with Illustrated Commentary."

Moving on, "The Cajun Controversy" has Jeff Martin, writer of "A Streetcar Named Marge" episode explaining the controversy about the song that offended the people of New Orleans. In the next feature called "Special Language", you can watch the episode "Kamp Krusty" in four other foreign languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Castilian Spanish. An interesting feature is "Bush vs. Simpson" where James L. Brooks talks about the time when Barbara Bush lambasted the show in a 1990 magazine interview saying that the show was "the dumbest thing I have ever seen". Of course, these guys could not let it go (God bless them!) and a letter from Marge was sent back to Barbara. George Bush Sr. also got into the act when he said in a speech that he wants the American family to be "more like the Waltons than the Simpsons." Again the show responded by making a joke about the speech in an episode later on. Finally, Disc 1 closes with "Promotional Stuff" where Groening talks about the origins of the characters and the show.

Disc 2 extras start with "Commercials", a collection of four television commercials for both the show and products like Butterfinger and KFC. Next is another "Animation Showcase", this time for the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", with the same options that I have described above.

Disc 3 contains four deleted scenes from the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass", which can all be played individually or accessed during the audio commentary. Also available on this disc is another "Art & Animation" extra for the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass."

Finally on Disc 4, the special features include six deleted scenes for the episode "The Front" and yet another "Art & Animation" section for the episode "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show."

Packaging:
The packaging is similar to previous seasons', only this time the slipcover and foldout Digipak has a blue-colored theme.

Film Value:
Imagine, if you will, the perfect Simpsons episode where cartoon universes collide and we find Fry, Bender and the rest of the "Futurama" gang watching episodes of "The Simpsons" cooked up by an animated Matt Groening's cryogenically-preserved head.

OK...OK...snap out of it! Sorry but one can dream, right?

Even with the long periods between each season's releases, I really appreciate the fact that Groening and his team pack each season's DVD release with the best quality for each episode plus the most relevant and interesting special features. So, here is a grateful toast from a big fan, to another triumphant season release of "The Simpsons".

Mmmmmmm.......toast......