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Creators/Executive Producers:
Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Sam Simon and Mike Scully
Cast:
Dan Castellaneta ………. Homer J. Simpson, Various
Julie Kavner ………. Marge Simpson, Various
Nancy Cartwright ………. Bart Simpson, Various
Yeardley Smith ………. Lisa Simpson, Various
Hank Azaria ………. Various
Harry Shearer ………. Various
Other Voices:
Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell, Russi Taylor, Marcia Wallace and Phil Hartman
The Show:
OK, this is the ninth season of the show, and previously, you’ve been blessed with such luminaries as Scott Keith reviewing the season sets. Now, you get me. I’m not gonna say much about the show itself, as you’ve doubtless encountered it at some point or another. But I am going to talk about the season.
Season Nine has the distinction of the show reaching its 200th episode, a pretty impressive milestone for any show. Sadly, it also has the distinction of being the last full season featuring Phil Hartman as a guest voice (his last guest spot occurs early in season ten).
Episodes:
The DVDs are made up to look like labels from vinyl records, in keeping with the music theme of the DVD set. I can’t say as to whether it’s the same for the “Lisa’s head” box, though.
Disc One:
179 “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”
In order to retrieve Homer’s car, the Simpsons travel to New York City, where Homer once had a terrifying experience.
180 “The Principal and the Pauper”
Guest Voice: Martin Sheen as Sergeant Seymour Skinner
The real Seymour Skinner comes back to Springfield, leaving everyone to wonder what’s up with the Skinner they’ve known for years.
181 “Lisa’s Sax”
Guest Voice: Fyvush Finkel as himself
After Lisa’s saxophone is destroyed (during a fight with Bart, naturally), we flash back to how she got the saxophone, as well as why Bart is such a troublemaker.
182 “Treehouse of Horror VIII”
The annual Halloween episode goes 1.5 for 3 with “The Homega Man” (great), “Fly vs. Fly” (so-so) and “Easy Bake Coven” (eh).
183 “The Cartridge Family”
Homer decides to get a gun to protect his family after a riot at a soccer game, because paying $500 to install Home Security is just too darn much.
184 “Bart Star”
Guest Voices: Mike Judge as Hank Hill, Roy Firestone and Joe Namath as themselves
Thanks to nepotism, Bart becomes quarterback of his peewee league football team. Unfortunately, he’s not exactly what we’d call “good”. He probably shoulda stuck to hockey.
Disc Two:
185 “The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons”
Guest Voices: Jan Hooks as Manjula, Andrea Martin as Apu’s mother
Apu tries to get out of an arranged marriage by posing as Marge’s husband. That doesn’t go well, so he has to go through with the marriage anyway.
186 “Lisa the Skeptic”
Guest Voice: Stephen Jay Gould (an archaeologist) as himself
An archaeological dig on sacred ground (where a shopping mall is slated to be built) uncovers what appears to be the skeleton of an angel, which prompts a struggle between science and religion within Springfield’s population not to mention a restraining order between the two.
187 “Realty Bites”
Marge becomes a real estate agent, but isn’t very good at it because she’s too honest. Homer, meanwhile buys a car at a police auction. And the previous owner ain’t too happy about it. For you trivia nuts, this was the last appearance of Lionel Hutz.
188 “Miracle on Evergreen Terrace”
Guest Voice: Alex Trebek as himself
Bart burns down the Christmas tree and the family’s presents. The town thinks that the Simpsons have been robbed, and get a wee bit upset when they find out the truth.
189 “All Singing, All Dancing”
A clip show with a music-theme.
190 “Bart Carny”
Guest Voice: Jim Varney as Cooter
The Simpsons lose their home to some Carnies after Homer costs them their jobs. Now they have to get their house back.
191 “The Joy of Sect”
Homer joins a cult that has grown popular in Springfield.
Disc Three:
192 “Das Bus”
Guest Voice: James Earl Jones as the Narrator
The school bus crashes (Otto? Crash a bus? Nooooo) which strands the kids participating in a model UN on a deserted island. Homer, meanwhile, tries to take on Bill Gates, with the expected results.
193 “The Last Temptation of Krust”
Guest Voices: Bruce Baum, Janeane Garofolo, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jay Leno, Hank Williams, Jr. and Steven Wright as themselves
After tanking at a charity fundraiser Krusty discovers that his comedy is no longer funny, or relevant. So he attempts to reinvent himself as a George Carlin-type angry comic.
194 “Dumbbell Indemnity”
Guest Voice: Helen Hunt as Renee
Moe gets a new girlfriend, but has to commit fraud to help support her. These things happen when you order expensive champagne and the best dish stuffed with the second best dish (apparently its lobster stuffed with tacos) on a date.
195 “Lisa the Simpson”
Lisa is worried that she might be losing her intelligence, and learns how the intelligence in the Simpson family is passed down.
196 “The Little Wiggy”
Bart befriends Ralph Wiggum, and gets the master key to Springfield. Which of course, leads to trouble, because it’s Ralph fricking Wiggum.
197 “Simpson Tide”
Guest Voices: Bob Denver as himself and Rod Steiger as Captain Tenille
Homer joins the Naval Reserve after a donut-related reactor fire, and inadvertently defects to the Soviet Union. Bet you thought that they didn’t exist anymore.
198 “The Trouble with Trillions”
Guest Voice: Paul Winfield as Lucious Sweet
Homer gets audited by the IRS due to his poorly-prepared tax return, featuring such gems as Maggie being seven people. To get out of it, the government uses Homer to help entrap other residents of Springfield, and specifically Mr. Burns, who apparently possesses a trillion-dollar bill. Which, as Homer notes, is worth a lot of money.
Disc Four:
199 “Girly Edition”
Bart and Lisa get jobs anchoring a kid’s version of the evening news on Krusty’s show. And Homer gets a helper monkey.
200 “Trash of the Titans”
Guest Voices: U2 as themselves and Steve Martin as Ray Patterson
Because he doesn’t want to take out his own garbage, Homer campaigns for – and becomes – the Sanitation Commissioner for Springfield, which as you might expect, is not a good idea.
201 “King of the Hill”
Guest Voices: Brendan Fraser as Brad and Steven Weber as Neil
Homer gets into shape, and agrees to climb Murderhorn (Springfield’s tallest mountain) as a publicity stunt.
202 “Lost Our Lisa”
Lisa takes the bus to the Springfield Museum, and gets lost on the way there, which prompts Homer to try and find her.
203 “Natural Born Kissers”
Marge and Homer becomes addicted to canoodling in public, which forces them to run around town. Naked. Yikes.
The DVD:
Video:
(Presented in 1.33:1 Fullscreen Format)
You want The Simpsons in widescreen? Wait for the movie.
Audio:
(Dolby Digital: English 5.1 Surround, Spanish and French)
There’s also captioning in French, Spanish and English.
Special Features:
A Riff From Matt Groening – A quick audio introduction to Season Nine.
Animation Showcase – Watch the show in either storyboard or animatic stages.
Deleted Scenes
All Singing, All Dancing – A Bit From the Animators – Yeardley Smith talks with Matt Groening (orange) and animators Mike B. Anderson (blue) and Pete Michaels (green) over clips where they draw the characters and talk about their experiences drawing the characters.
Original Sketches – A slideshow of various conceptual sketches.
Commercials – You get three Butterfinger spots, plus two for CC’s potato chips, which I assume is a regional brand.
A Moment With U2 – Dan Castellaneta and Yeardley Smith talk about working with U2 for the 200th episode.
Special Language Feature – Listen to the 200th episode in various languages.
The Simpsons Movie Sneak Peek – It’s a quick clip, in the animatics stage of development.
Audio Commentaries – As with the previous seasons, you get audio commentary for ALL episodes, featuring various writers, producers and actors.
