I know, I know. The Eighth Season has been out for six weeks but I had to watch all 25 episodes and then repeat the viewing process with the commentaries on. When it comes to the commentary track though, The Simpsons crew definitely have raised the standard. Usually I don’t bother with other shows because it’s an ego trip filled with boring blathering or it’s rather uninteresting (The Venture Brothers were disappointing). They also expanded upon having the guest stars participating: in the Seventh Season there was Jeff Goldblum for “A Fish Called Selma;” for the Eighth there’s John Waters, Dave Thomas, Alex Rocco and Kelsey Grammer (maybe the last two don’t count since they play recurring characters every couple of years).
Sadly, this was the last season run by the duo of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. They were the first fans of the show to become writers and then executive producers (show runners). Their vision for every year was one Sideshow Bob episode (“Brother from Another Series” with David Hyde Pierce), one Halloween episode (“Treehouse of Horror VII”), one that pushed the limits of what was established in the past (“The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase” which removed the fourth wall), and the remainder covering the various family members or the people around them. When you listen to all the naysaying about current episodes, you frequently hear that this was one of the last good seasons. I don’t agree but I’m not going to waste the electrons over what’s on Fox right now since we don’t receive the local channels on Dish, intentionally. I do agree about the Eighth Season being one of the best because whenever I catch The Simpsons in syndication, it’s often a rerun from this time period. The DVDs definitely breathe new life into the reruns. For example, I was so sick of “Bart after Dark” thanks to syndication showing it frequently and the two minutes the additional commercials trimmed off. Now I could enjoy it more as my memory got jogged over the missing parts while the commentary explained why the writers chose voice actress Tress MacNeille over a famous celebrity for the role of Belle.
What about the extras? I don’t think they really did any commercials at the time so those are lacking. There is another language showcase on the fourth disc including what the characters sound like in Parisian French (even more unintelligble than “standard” French). The looping segments that cycle while you decide on what to play are awesome as always and short segments of Matt with the directors and illustrators explaining the technical aspects of scenes by illustrating over them while it happens.
This is a no brainer purchase for fans. To the casual viewer it’s still a good buy because this season was ten years ago. As The Simpsons enters its 18th season on Fox, there are hordes of kids and teenagers (namely my nephews, nieces, friends’ kids and coffee shop patrons) who have never seen these. Some might require an explanation for the dated jokes involving the Fan Man or why is the Poochie Rap so “old school.” But this DVD set continues the strong tradition of solid releases from Matt Groening and the writers who’ve worked with him.