It has been eight months since Fox released a DVD set of The Simpsons so my prediction was accurate. With the anticipation of the movie in July and the show reaching its 400th episode, this latest collection definitely had a lot of hype to compete with.
The Tenth season is the first one completely managed by show runner Mike Scully, Al Jean’s return as a permanent writer, the debut of the Simpsons doing three short stories in an episode a la “Treehouse of Horror”—“Simpsons Bible Stories”—and the more of the family traveling to other cities or nations as a plot device: “Thirty Minutes over Tokyo,” remains one of the funniest observations of Japan, it’s small wonder that South Park and King of the Hill followed with their own takes.
Fox really went crazy on the interaction animation. Not only are there funny sight gags in the episode or feature menus, Bart does separate acts of a vandalism on the Twentieth Century Fox logo preceding the start of each disc. Fox also included the tenth season’s Butterfinger and Australian junk food commercials plus the odd Intel ad. Hearing Homer’s patented “D’oh!” at the end doesn’t really give me much faith in those processors, then again it was for the Pentium II’s which are ancient history now. Finally, there are some demonstrations of the animators in action. I watched how they draw and lay out the key poses for those interactive menus. As a huge animation fan, I was really impressed with their speed, accuracy and how they made it look relatively easy through their usage of simple circles and rectangles.
Commentaries continue to be worth the effort despite several having really long silent gaps and Groening’s reduced presence. I highly recommend listening to two in particular. The first one is “Mayored to the Mob” with Mark Hamill. You learn that his son Nathan works at Bongo Comics (Groening’s “label”); Scully was reluctant to let Hamill do the bodyguard trainer Leavelle; Hamill had been wanting to be on the show for years because he’s a huge fan and to him, The Simpsons is the pinnacle of voice acting. Dan Castellaneta joins in on the commentary with Hamill and they both tell their hilarious stories about the late Jonathan Harris. The other is “They Saved Lisa’s Brain” written by Matt Selman. The writer explains the consequences of insulting the city of East St. Louis in an interview he shortly did after it aired. Selman’s quote resulted in Fox’s publicity department deflecting the angry letters and calls (sounds like New Orleans II). So Scully and Jean punished Selman through a practical joke in the writers’ room with incredible results.
Anything from the recent movie? Just an animatic of the town singing near the end. This was released too close to the film’s run so I’m sure they’re saving all the treats, deleted scenes, alternate takes, etc. for the DVD. Actually this article says they are.
It was an automatic purchase for me since I hate watching the show in syndication. Thanks to Fox lowering the standard on prime time shows being only 21-22 minutes long, syndicated airings are probably 19. It feels about that brief with all the commercials and plugs for Channel 7’s inane news hour. I am also one of the most jaded TV viewers around. I greatly dislike most commercial network shows so when I had cable, I only watched the more specialized channels: Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, etc. However, I have never agreed with the “oh it was better back in season (insert number here)” or “the show is creatively bankrupt” crowds. If you’re in those camps, then borrow this DVD and watch them again. These episodes haven’t aired in their entirety for 10 years. You may see things you didn’t notice before and/or there are jokes you missed last time. If you still are in those critical herds I ragged on earlier, then at least you didn’t waste any money. Now to await the movie DVD and season 11. With all the anecdotes from the writers, animators and actors colored by years of hindsight, I’ve concluded time helps them out as it does for wine or cheese. As anxious as I am for the remaining seasons due to my completist nature, I think it would be better if Fox waits eight to ten years after each season airs before releasing them to DVD.