Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 20146 DVD
- Running time: 334 minutes
- Year: 1990
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, 4, PAL
- Chapters: 78 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: 5 languages
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 3 * DVD 9
- Price: £39.99
- Extras: Four original scripts, Out-takes, Documentary: “The Making of theSimpsons: America’s First Family”, Early Sketch Gallery, Foreign Language Clips,ABC News Special, Simpsons short, Audio commentary
Directors:
- David Silverman, Wesley Archer, Gregg Vanzo, Kent Butterworth, Rich Moore andBrad Bird.
Creator:
- Matt Groening
Developed by:
- James L. Brooks, Matt Groening & Sam Simon
Cast:
- Homer: Dan Castellaneta
Marge: Julie Kavner
Bart: Nancy Cartwright
Lisa: Yeardley Smith
Principal Skinner: Harry Shearer
plus Marcia Wallace, Hank Azaria, Christopher Collins, Susan Blu, Jo AnnHarris, Pamela Hayden, Sam McMurray, Russi Taylor and many more…
Once upon a time.. well, eleven years ago, the BBC passed on their chance to show The Simpsons,a cartoon that was to become one of the best TV programmes ever made. Yes, it’sa cartoon but it’s not just for kids no matter what Channel 4’s compilationshow might say. Packed with slapstick, film and TV references, as well asthe occasional adult humour that can still be got away with before thewatershed, it’s a programme that works on so many levels for both childrenand adults alike and really does have a laugh a minute.
Back in its early days since graduating from playing as filler material onThe Tracey Ullman Show, which the BBC also clipped so as just to retainher content, the animation was more crude – and Homer had a much deeper voice -but it still works perfectly in its own way. When the episodes were shown onSky they used to censor them, but from around early 2001 they began to showthem uncut.
There are thirteen episodes on this DVD boxset:
- Simpsons Roasting On A Open Fire: The debut show and Christmashas arrived for the Simpson family. It’s set to be a big one with stacks ofmoney saved up – that gets spent on having Bart’s tattoo removed (D’oh!).
With the lack of a Christmas bonus this year from Homer’s job as safetyinspector at the nuclear power plant, he has to take a second job as a Santaat the mall but the meagre wages force him to place a bet at the dog track andthat’s where they meet the newest member of the family, Santa’s Little Helper.
- Bart the Genius: The opening few minutes of most episodes have littleto do with the rest of it and this one starts the trend with the Scrabble scenewhere Bart scores big by cheating with his word “Kwyjibo”.
Move on to the school and his dishonesty continues when he swaps papers withMartin the school swot and winds up with a Mensa-style IQ and is placed at aspecial school with brainiacs who have class discussions about whether freewill is an illusion, but Bart confesses to his crime when a science experimentgoes a little ka-ka and turns him green!
- Homer’s Odyssey: Bart and his school friends go on a class visitto the nuclear power plant and he wants to show off how good his father is.Alas, Homer cocks it up and gets the sack.
This becomes one of those episodes where Homer goes off on a crusade and aftertrying to commit suicide on a bridge, a close call with traffic makes himdemand a stop sign. This continues until you can’t look anywhere BUT see astreet sign.
- There’s No Disgrace Like Home: An instant classic here. Too muchfamily squabbling at Mr Burns’ annual picnic means they have much to learn aboutgetting along and see an offer they can’t refuse when Dr. Marvin Monroe’sclinic provides shock therapy that’s bound to work. If it doesn’t, then their$250 fee will be reimbursed and doubled.
As the family are placed in chairs wired up to each other, disagreements canbe expressed by pressing that person’s buzzer. Hit the buzzer and you throwan electric shock in their direction. The results are… well, see for yourself.
Do not try this at home…
- Bart The General: A scuffle with Nelson the bully after a cupcakeincident, causing blood to exit his nose, leads to a showdown after schooland Bart’s got no chance of winning unless a plan of action and advice fromGrandpa Simpson are implemented.
Good fights evil when the cavalry deploys 200 water-filled balloons that eachsay “Happy Birthday” on the side.
- Moaning Lisa: “Lisa refuses to play dodgeball because she issad.” is the letter sent home with her from school as everything is gettingher down. She finds solace in playing her sax outside on the bridge with localjazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy.
Also, here, Homer gets endlessly thrashed at a video boxing game by Bart andgoes to the local arcade to get some tips and is just about to win his finalrematch against the lad when… (that would be telling!)
You can also spot in this episode, the moment where Homer sits in front of theTV eating pork rinds, which was replayed over and over again in One Fish,Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish (Series 2, episode 11) after Homer faces anear-death experiences and then vows to live the rest of his life to the limit,because that is as exciting as it gets for him, but whatever floats your boat.
- Call of the Simpsons: Flanders has a caravan, so Homer must have onetoo. Not being able to afford “The Ultimate Behemoth”, they choose somethinga little more modest to go camping with – until it falls off the edge of acliff.
Left to their own devices, Maggie calms a growling bear with her pacifierand Homer and Bart stretch out ‘au naturel’, the former being mistaken forBigfoot on the evening news. Imagine the marking possibilities…
- The Telltale Head: Told in flashback, Bart and Homer incur thewrath of the townsfolk when they’re cornered holding the head of the brassstatue erected in honour of the town’s founder, Jebediah Springfield.
There is a story behind it which they have to tell in order to convinceeveryone into NOT killing them and it centres around falling in with the wrongcrowd.
Hmm… not much going on in there.
- Life on the Fast Lane: It’s Marge’s 34th birthday and while they’reout dining, everyone buys her useful presents except for Homer who buys hera new bowling ball, even inscribed with his name on it.
Determined to make the best of things she gets assistance from the lane’soccupier next door, a French man called Jacques which starts to develop intoan affair, but is eventually resolved in a take-off ofAn Officer and a Gentleman.
- Homer’s Night Out: This episode starts with a bathroom scene verymuch reminiscent of the camerawork used in Scorsese’s 1991 remake of CapeFear.
Homer makes an arse of himself at a party where a belly dancer provides theentertainment, unaware that the rest of his family are eating out next door.With his spy camera, Bart takes a photo, copies it and sends it around hisschool, but before long is gets around the whole town.
- The Crepes of Wrath: I love the start of this episode as it’s anotherHomer classic. Here, he skids on Bart’s skateboard, crashes down the stairs andhas to listen to Bart’s Krusty doll winding down, watch as the dog licks himand Maggie crawls over his face, all because of a bad back.
Like many episodes, there are two concurrent themes. Bart is sent to France onan exchange student program where he’s not exactly made to feel at home andhis temporary replacement attracts a lot of attention from the localconstabulary.
- Krusty Gets Busted: Krusty The Klown has a show on kids TV in theafternoon so he’s the last person who you’d expect to rob the Kwik-E-Mart armedwith a gun, but who else looks so weird?
Bart and Lisa smell a rat and aim to prove his innocence. Being such devoteesof his show, they spot the evidence that evaded the police and sets the realKrusty free. So, who’s the real culprit? Any chance it might be his slapstickpartner Sideshow Bob? (voiced by Frasier‘s Kelsey Grammer)
- Some Enchanted Evening: Marge becomes so fed up with her family shephones Dr. Marvin Monroe’s advice line for help, aiming to restore things witha lobster dinner out for her and Homer and a babysitter for the kids.
Alas, the latter turns out to be a nightmare when she turns up on “America’sMost Wanted” as the Babysitter Bandit, ties them up and then they struggleto get the message across to a non-listening world.
One highlight of the show is that Bart’s known for making prank calls toMoe the Bartender and fake names in this series include: “I.P. Freely”,”Jock Strap” and “Al Coholic”.
Suck on this.The programme has always been made and presented in 4:3 fullscreen and onceyou get past the occasionally-crude animation, it mostly looks damn good, savefor some backgrounds that come out in patches because it appears that theencoding isn’t quite up to scratch.
Originally filmed in stereo, there aren’t quite as many special effects appliedhere than there are in later series, but what is has been enhanced with aDolby Digital 5.1 remix throughout the entire series. This was quite unexpectedbut most welcome. Even in the scenes where not much action happens, the clarityis the dialogue greatly benefits from this treatment.
The Simpsons Season 1 boxset.All of the extras are on disc 3, apart from some of the scripts.
- Never Before Seen Outtakes (5 mins): from an unaired version ofSome Enchanted Evening, which has a very dodgy-looking quality to itbut you easily overcome that to appreciate the rarity.
- Animatic from Bart The General (2 mins): Narrated byMatt Groening and the episode’s director David Silverman, this brief footageshows the basic outlines for Bart being chased and beaten up by Nelson.
- The Making of The Simpsons: “America’s First Family”: Just afive-minute collection of interviews and show clips that showed on BBC in amuch-longer show – and in 16:9 widescreen, which is cropped to 4:3 here. Hence,the clips of the series which were zoomed in to fill the 16:9 frame have beencropped at the sides, thus windowboxing them. Why couldn’t we have the wholeprogramme?
- Foreign Language Clips: Clips of the show dubbed into French, Italian,Spanish, Japanese and Portuguese.
- Tracey Ullman Short (2 mins): “Goodnight Simpsons” was one of themany 4-parters that bridged the advert gaps in her programme to make peoplereturn afterwards.
- Albert Brooks Audio Outtakes (4 mins): As he takes on the role ofJacques in Life on the Fast Lane.
- Art of the Simpsons: A one-shot look at Matt Groening’s Life inHell and some early sketches and drawings.
- Scripts: For four episodes: Bart the Genius, Bart the General,Moaning Lisa and Some Enchanted Evening, each of which show theoriginal typed pages and annotations – a warts and all look and it’s whatI like to see. Let’s have a full book of all of these please!
- Audio Commentaries: One for each episode, usually featuring creatorMatt Groening along with various directors and writers.
Each episode has six chapters which is a good figure and subtitlescome in 5 flavours: English for the hearing-impaired, Danish, Finnish, Norwegianand Swedish.
Despite it losing slight points for picture and sound quality, it’s easilyworth a purchase because it’s high time the Simpsons were on DVD. Now let’shave all the other series made available!
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.