Tweet
Released by: Fox
Released on: 8/26/2003
Director: Various
Cast: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardly Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Marcia Wallace
Year: 1991 - 1992
Purchase From Amazon
The Series:
Fox continues it's stellar release of complete seasons of the world's longest running sitcom with The Simpsons - Season 3, and I have to say, it's the best of the series' release so far.
While the first two seasons were great in that the were constantly introducing us to new characters, running jokes, and locations The Simpsons really came into it's own in it's third season, which ran from September of 1991 through May of 1992. This was when The Simpsons made the jump from oddball cartoon to pop culture phenomena as Simpsonsmania swept the world with massive merchandising blitzes; guest appearances and what have you.
Included in this release are the following episodes: Stark Raving Dad (9/19/91), Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington (9/26/91), When Flanders Failed (10/3/91), Bart the Murderer (10/10/91), Homer Defined (10/17/91), Like Father, Like Clown (10/24/91), Treehouse of Horror II (10/31/91), Lisa's Pony (11/7/91), Saturdays of Thunder (11/14/91), Flaming Moe's (11/21/91), Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk (12/5/91), I Married Marge (12/26/91), Radio Bart (1/9/92), Lisa the Greek (1/23/92), Homer Alone (2/6/92), Bart the Lover (2/13/92), Homer at the Bat (2/20/92), Separate Vocations (2/27/92), Dog of Death (3/12/92), Colonel Homer (3/26/92), Black Widower (4/09/92), The Otto Show (4/23/92), Bart's Friend Falls in Love (5/7/92), and Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? (8/27/92).
Each of the episodes is given a brief outline in the 10-page set of liner notes that are contained within the packaging, and these also make note of any pertinent guest appearances as well (for example, Aerosmith, Spinal Tap, and a few voice overs from the late, great Phil Hartman). There is also an interesting little note from Matt Groening, the creator of the series, included in the packaging as well, that laments about the way that the reruns of the series have been cut up for syndication as to allow more room for commercials. Groening makes a good point and luckily for fans, all of the episodes in this collection, much like the two sets that came before it, are complete and uncut.
With a mammoth running time of 551 minutes, it would be impossible to give you all the highlights of such a massive release, but let it suffice to say that there are quite a few episodes that definitely qualify for 'Classic Simpsons' status. Homer in the land of chocolate, Spinal Tap starting a riot, Homer reuniting with his long lost brother, Milhouse falling in love… too many hilarious moments to even attempt to condense.
The show's been running long enough now that you know if you're a fan or not, and if you are, you owe it to yourself to add this set to your library. While a lot of people have mixed feelings about the first two seasons, the third is when the show really hit it's stride and ran at quite a pace for many years to come, and continues to, to this day and for a while to come I'm sure.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The video is the weakest part of the presentation, but don't let that put you off. The problem is in the source material, it's ten year old hand drawn animation that we're dealing with here and it won't ever have the clarity of say, something like Toy Story 2 or Lilo And Stitch, which are all done digitally. There aren't any compression problems or edge enhancement issues brought out by the DVD transfer, there are just a few episodes that look a bit muddy. Colors for the most part are vibrant and bright, especially the flesh tones, err…. I mean yellows. It's not perfect but it looks just as good as it ever has on TV, if not a bit better. The video is presented in a fullframe 1.33.1 transfer, which as everyone knows, is it's correct aspect ratio.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track isn't overly aggressive but it gets the job done just fine. Dialogue is nice and clear and while the majority of the sound action takes place in the front center channel, there are definitely some nice moments of channel definition happening in the fronts and the rears. Levels are balanced nicely and once again, the opening theme sounds great on each episode as Danny Elfman's familiar music swirls around you from all directions.
Lots of quality supplements here. First up are five of the long running Butterfinger commercials that feature Bart and some of the other characters. I was actually happy to see these included, not because I'm a sucker for commercials but because they're actually kind of funny and for completists, it's nice to have them here. There is also footage from the 65th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when it featured a massive Bart Simpson float cruising through downtown New York City back in 1991. Fox has included some scene specific sketches for a couple of episodes as well as a set of Matt Groening's storyboards for an episode. These are pretty interesting as it gives you a rough idea of the kind of planning and design work that goes into putting an episode of the show together. The episode entitled Colonel Homer have a 'Pop Up Simpsons' option that allows you to watch the entire episode with 'Pop Up Video' style bubbles coming up at opportune moments to barrage you with interesting trivia. Again, it's a lot of fun and fans are sure to enjoy it and I hope to see Fox revisit this idea in the future. The Colonel Homer episode also features some promo footage used for the commercial to advertise the episode back when it was new that wasn't included in the actual episode itself.
And then there are the commentaries. My God, the commentaries. There are commentaries provided for each and every episode on this set and it's quite exhaustive to get through them all, but if you're a Simpson's junkie, you're going to want to suffer through whatever it takes to listen to them all, especially if you're overly familiar with the episodes themselves (as so many of us, who have been watching the show for so long are). Groening takes part in every commentary and is at times joined by various cast and crewmembers. A lot of great information is here if you're willing to sit through it all and you really get a good sense of how much fun these guys and girls have with their work.
Finally, there is a 14 track Simpson's Jukebox feature that features the following songs from Season 3, Ben, Happy Birthday Lisa, Lotsa Fun, Walk This Way, Flaming Moe's, We're Sending Our Love Down the Well, Talkin' Softball, Bagged Me a Homer, Bunk With Me Tonight, Break Like The Wind, Spanish Flea, Hail to the Bus Driver and We Like Rockin.
The Final Word:
If you're a fan of The Simpsons, you've probably already got this set, if not, do it now. It's well worth full MSRP and has a lot of replay value, making this purchase a no-brainer.