So this is an interesting season, not because of the content necessarily, but because of the circumstances surrounding it. Of course, it debuted a couple of months after 9/11, which cast a bit of a shadow over the proceedings and forced some plot points to be altered (according to the commentaries, there were a surprising number of jokes about planes crashing or buildings getting bombed this season). However, most interesting to me personally is that the very first season of the show was being released on DVD at the time when this season was first broadcast. And although 9 years ago doesn’t seem like that much, at the time season sets of TV shows were a rarity, with studios not sure if people were willing to buy into the concept. With The Simpsons, for instance, their exposure to DVD had been limited to a few collections of themed episodes up until that point. The lesson is that this show has been on the air for a LONG time.
Onto the season itself, as Al Jean takes over as show-runner and ushers the show into a new era of mediocrity. On the bright side, most of these episodes are underplayed in syndication (with a couple of exceptions) and so I haven’t seen them a million times each. The Blu-ray features three discs instead of four, and a much more intuitive menu system than the DVDs, but other than that I can’t see why anyone would want to waste another $10 on the BD version. The show had not yet transitioned to digital animation, so the picture quality is exactly the same on both versions. As for the episodes…
Disc One
“Treehouse of Horror XII”. Homer gets cursed by a gypsy in “Hex In The City.” Oddly that the first time that it’s ever happened to him. Not much to that one, other than introducing a new recurring character in the form of the leprechaun. “House of Whacks” sees Marge converting the house into a super-computerized Pierce Brosnan. And of course he falls in love with her and tries to murder everyone else in the house. Homer’s “Mmm, unexplained bacon” is a favorite line of mine. “Wiz Kids” the show’s first riff on Harry Potter, actually released before the first movie came out and turned into a pop culture phenomenon. Smithers consuming Lord Montymort at the end is hilarious and disturbing, but the show would have much more vicious jabs to take at the series later on. Not the strongest Treehouse overall.
“The Parent Rap”. First appearance of Judge Constance Harm, as Bart steals a police car and gets tethered to Homer. Say what you will about this one, but Homer having night terrors in Bart’s class (“AAAAAH! COBRAS!”) is genius. And things actually escalate like a real plot in the second act, instead of randomly switching to the real story! Really funny, pure slapstick episode.
“Homer The Moe”. Homer’s next wacky job: Running the bar when Moe decides to find himself at bartending university in England. Sadly, before that can be pursued too far (really, you could have milked stuff like drunken frat boys for ages), Moe returns to change the bar into a trendy nightclub. Really, the “Moe’s Family Feedbag” plot from years back was way funnier. Then we move into Homer building a bar in his garage, and finally Lisa having to stop Homer from hunting turkeys to prove his manhood. Really, all of this feels like bits assembled from previous episodes and it never really pulls together.
“A Hunka Hunka Burns In Love”. First Swartzwelder episode of the season. Homer’s wacky thing this week: Writing fortunes for cookies. This somehow leads to Mr. Burns falling in love with a meter maid and pulling out every old-timey reference in Swartzwelder’s impressive arsenal of them. Although who wouldn’t want to see his collection of stereo-opticons of the Crimean War? Homer gives us “Mmm…pistol whip” and Snake steals Burns’ girlfriend away (for good as it turns out), giving us a hostage situation and typical Springfieldian media acceleration (“We’re in minute 2 of the standoff…”). Go buy Swartzwelder’s books, they’re awesome!
“The Blunder Years”. Yeah, this one doesn’t work. Continuity nerds freaked out over this one back in the day, although the ’90s episode was far more damaging. Marge falls in love with a corporate paper towel logo, which is somewhat prescient of the Old Spice revolution now ongoing. Meanwhile, Homer flashes back to an unsolved murder from his childhood, and the two plots dovetail in a surprising way! Sorry, I meant boring way.
“She Of Little Faith”. This one gives the world “The word unblowupable is thrown around a lot these days…” earning it an instant thumbs up from me already. So Homer accidentally blows up the church, leading Mr. Burns running things like a business (“Get your money changed, right here in the temple!”) and Lisa leaving for Buddhism. And the analogy is apt. APT! It’s rare to find a great Lisa line, so I’ll give it props. This one also had the epic run with Homer telling Bart to “bacon up that sausage”, so yeah, I kind of loved it overall.
“Brawl In The Family”. Holy god is this one played out in syndication. The family gets into a brawl over Monopoly, and meet a social worker. And then the episode takes a screeching right turn with the return of the Vegas wives. Next. The commentary is great, however, with Delroy Lindo asking the questions on the mind of all the fans, like “Why are there so many producers?” and about the cultural zeitgeist of the show.
Disc Two
“Sweets and Sour Marge”. Another one that doesn’t get much syndication play. Springfield accidentally gets into the beer-sponsored record book of note as The World’s Fattest Town, and Marge feels compelled to butt in. The menace of big sugar gets expelled from the town, leading to Homer getting caught up in yet another shadowy conspiracy. Nothing memorable here. Even the commentary talks about technical stuff like the ball of people because the episode itself is so dull.
“Jaws Wired Shut”. Homer’s anger at the endless previews and commercials before “Shenanigoats” is a pain we all share, but it just sets up the main plot of Homer breaking his jaw and needing to get it wired shut. Turns out that Homer having to listen makes him a better person. Yeah, that’s hilarious.
“Half-Decent Proposal”. Artie Ziff returns! Artie’s modem noise-cancellation device is a very dated joke, as is his general status as an internet billionaire. Anyway, Jon Lovitz = Much Funnier. Artie begs Marge for a weekend to recreate the senior prom, giving us one of my favorite lines of all-time: “Disco Stu is working pro bono!” Homer and Lenny flee for the oil rigs, where life is REALLY hard. Comedically hard, in fact, with several jokes to illustrate that point. Luckily, the creepy bond between Lenny and Carl conquers all. Good stuff.
“The Bart Wants What It Wants”. AKA The Simpsons Go To Toronto. Homer stealing the Olympic torch is the kind of bizarrely out of place cold open that feels like it belongs on Family Guy. The main plot sees Bart falling in love with McBain’s daughter. Nelson bullying a butler (“Stop buttling yourself!” “Would that I could, sir”) was the line of the show for me. Runner-up is Canadian graffiti represented as “Obey The Rules”. Skinner’s stand-up comedy act was woefully under-represented here and really deserved a full B-plot.
“The Lastest Gun In The West”. This one is generally on the top 10 worst episodes of the series lists, and that covers 500 episodes so keep that in mind. It’s also a Swartzwelder episode, which makes the rampant hatred for it online all the more surprising. Bart’s battle with a vicious dog leads into the real plot: Coaxing a retired TV cowboy back into the spotlight via a western craze in Springfield. Bart’s hero worship of the aging Buck McCoy just doesn’t jibe, and once it gets into the “Buck is an alcoholic” plot, things go totally off the rails. It’s just not a funny idea.
“The Old Man and the Key”. Now this one redeems things right away. Grampa wants to drive again, in order to navigate the cliques of the old folks’ home. This gives us the epic “Old Man Yells At Cloud” headline, which has since been recycled by the Daily Show a bunch of times. Grampa as de facto embittered teenager and Homer being the RESPONSIBLE one is great reversal and the kind of character-based humor that they didn’t do enough of at this point in the game. A death race with a rival gang of senior citizens goes horribly wrong, and Grampa has to travel to Branson, MO (not to be confused with Bronson, MO) to win back his stone cold hoochie. The closing song in Branson is wonderful stuff, and this one has the kind of million-gag-a-minute pace that the season was sorely lacking.
“Tales From The Public Domain”. Hey, anthology episode! In the later years, these have been the season highlights, and this was no exception. First up, the Odyssey sees Homer and his crew in a Greek epic. Discus Stu was talking to you! The second story, with Lisa as Joan of Arc, is weak enough to be the second segment. Bart as Hamlet to close the show is much more successful, and actually sums up the original play pretty damn well. Krusty exposing Claudius’ plot through improv (“I think I heard usurper of the throne?”) kills me for some reason.
“Blame It On Lisa”. The Simpsons are going to Brazil! Aside from nearly causing a war with South America, I’ve got nothing much to talk about here. Moving on.
Disc Three
“Weekend At Burnsies” AKA the pot episode. Homer befriends a murder of crows for some reason, and as generally happens when you turn birds into your evil minions, they turn on him. So Homer turns to smoking pot to relieve his searing eye pain, and the minds of stoners everywhere are BLOWN. Fox’s censors also had their minds blown and made sure that no image of Homer actually smoking a doobie would be seen on the show. Stoned Homer is pretty funny (getting Flanders to read him the Bible and watching TV with Otto), as is his promotion at work and rapidly deteriorating suit. Otto’s “They call them fingers, but you never see them fing” is another line that is frequently quoted around the house. Al Jean, on the commentary, admits that he ripped himself off since it original came from The Critic, but no one watched that show anyway. Speaking of rip-offs, there’s a giant poster of Homer meant to evoke Citizen Kane at the pot rally. Once I finally got to see that movie, I actually was able to recognize about 40% of it strictly from Simpsons references alone. So if you’re worried about seeing it and not getting it, fear not! Anyway, this episode was much more fun and much less preachy than Family Guy’s entry into the wacky tobacky field.
“Gump Roast” Clip show.
“I Am Furious Yellow”. Stan Lee is on the commentary here, sending the writers into nerdgasms. On the show, a slacker comic book creator (possibly based on Todd MacFarlane?) inspires Bart to being cartooning. Man, he goes through a lot of heroes. “Angry Dad”, loosely based on Homer, becomes an internet sensation, allowing Bart to buy billions of shares of stock in a startup internet animation company. And with that kind of rock solid business model, what could go wrong? Meanwhile, Stan the Man hangs around the comic book shop, his mind “no longer in mint condition”. Milhouse clarifies once and for all: He’s not a nerd, because nerds are smart. Good to know. Homer’s hilarious rage somehow leads to him getting painted green and rampaging through the city (“I’m just glad his pants stayed on.”) and it’s a lot of fun. The commentary, with the nerdy writers quizzing Stan Lee like a bunch of giddy schoolgirls, is even more fun than the episode.
“The Sweetest Apu”. The town riots again, albeit with purpose this time because of a Civil War reenactment. This is particularly pointless, even for the first act of a Simpsons episode, and leads to Apu cheating on Manjula with the Squishee Lady and then having to make up afterward. I think he was happier as a bachelor anyway, but this one wasn’t bad.
“Little Girl In The Big Ten”. Lisa (very improbably) passes as a college student, while Bart gets sick and has to live in a plastic bubble, just like that movie about the boy who also lived in the plastic bubble. I forget the name of it. The whole “Lisa tries to impress older peers” thing was done way better in “Summer of 4’2″. That’s all I got here.
“The Frying Game”. This one is Swartzwelder at his craziest. Homer gets stuck protecting the endangered Screamapillar, which somehow leads to he and Marge getting falsely accused of killing an old woman. Homer’s nonsense reaction (Muh? Fuh? Zuh?) is another one I quote all the time for some stupid reason. And yet my wife still married me. Go figure. A brilliant gag sees Homer on death row cutting a deal to take all the blame for the murder in exchange for Marge going free, and then expecting Marge to do the same thing in return. That’s some awesome stupid Homer logic right there. Of course, the payoff hits the reset button on the episode, but frankly I’m shocked no one has ever tried to do “Frame Up!” as a reality show since then.
“Papa’s Got a Brand New Badge”. And we close with some crazy “Homer’s new wacky job” fun, as a heat wave causes the town to riot AGAIN, and results in Homer taking up the mantle of private security. Homer listing all his jobs to Marge is a great meta-joke, which was pretty blatantly stolen by Family Guy for their return to TV. Homer ascends to head lawman of the town, but runs afoul of Fat Tony for the Sopranos references, back when that was a fresh thing to parody. Given they had nowhere to go with the story by the end, having Maggie gun down everyone with a sniper rifle was as good a finish as any.
So yeah, no all-time classics and a couple of pretty terrible episodes definitely makes this one skippable. However, there’s loads of extras and some great commentaries, which makes enough for a recommendation if you haven’t seen these ones in syndication to the point of saturation. Mildly recommended.
