Product Description
-------------------
DVD Special Features:
All 13 episodes
Ratio 1.33:1
Dolby 5.1 Surround
Subtitles: Spanish
Disc 1:
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
Bart the Genius
Homer's Odyssey
There's No Disgrace Like Home
Bart the General
Moaning Lisa
Bonus Features: Original scripts featuring notes by Matt
Groening for "Bart the Genius", "Bart the General" and "Moaning
Lisa". All episodes are accompanied by commentary.
Disc 2:
Call of the Simpsons
The Telltale Head
Life on the Fast Lane
Homer's Night Out
The Crepes of Wrath
Krusty Gets Busted
Bonus Features: All episodes are accompanied by commentary
Disc 3:
Some Enchanted Evening Bonus Features: Original script notes by
Matt Groening
Outtakes from un-aired version of an episode
Animatic of an episode with commentary by Matt Groening and
David Silverman
The Making of The Simpsons "America's First Family"
Easter Egg ABC News Special on a reported controversy
"Tracey Ullman Show" First ever Simpsons to air on Tracey Ullman
Show
Five Foreign Language Clips
Early Sketches Stills Gallery
Magazine Covers
.co.uk Review
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From practically the first episode, broadcast in 1989, The
Simpsons impacted on planet TV like a giant multi-coloured
meteor. With a cl to being the defining pop cultural
phenomenon of the 1990s--hip, fast, sharp and primary--there was
nothing even in rock & roll to match this. The Simpsons is
possibly the greatest sitcom ever made. Although the animation
was initially primitive, never before had cartoon characters been
so well drawn. There had been loveable middle-aged layabouts on
TV before, but Homer Simpson successfully stole their crown and
out-slobbed them all in every department ("The guys at the
are gonna have a field day with this," he grumbles in "Call of
The Simpsons" as he watches scientists on a TV news item who
can't decide whether he is incredibly dense or a brilliant
beast). However, in this first series he isn't quite yet the
bloated man-child he would become in later series; instead he's a
growling patriarch with a Walter Matthau-type voice. His sensible
half Marge's croak, meanwhile, has yet to settle down, while the
vast cast of minor Springfield characters have yet to find their
place. Bart, however, was a smash from the start: dumb as Homer
but spiky-haired and resourceful, he sets out his manifesto in
"Bart the Genius"; while "Moaning Lisa" spotlights his
over-achieving sister and is a good early example of the series'
clever handling of melancholy bass notes.
Throughout its life there's always been confusion as to whether
The Simpsons is a show for kids or adults, but with allusions in
these first 13 episodes to Kubrick, Diane Arbus, Citizen Kane and
(in a very satisfyingly anti-French episode) Manon des Sources,
it should already have been clear that this was a programme for
all ages and all IQs from 0 to 200. Dysfunctional they may have
been, but the Simpsons stuck together, and audiences stuck with
them into the 21st century. --David Stubbs
On the DVD: The packaging is good but the 13 episodes are spread
very thinly here, with just five each on discs one and two . The
commentary track is intermittently interesting though a tad
repetitive, as creator David Groening is joined by various other
members of the team. The third disc has some neat extra stuff,
including outtakes, the original Tracey Ullman Show shorts and a
five-minute BBC documentary, but is again fairly brief. The menu
interfaces are pretty clunky, annoyingly forcing you to watch
endless copyright warnings after each episode and with no
facility to "play all". The content is wonderful, of course, but
three discs looks like overkill. --Mark Walker