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The Simpsons - The Complete Fifth Season Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 16 Reviews)

The start of the greatest show of all time
In my opinion, this season along with season 4 are the start of when their funding for the show increased and they had some of the best writers and freshest ideas. This is definitely a dvd set you will not regret buying, you'll get many good laughs. I can't wait for the next seasons to come out, they get better and better until about season 12.

"Principal Skinner? I got carsick in your office." -Ralph
I was especially excited about season 5 coming out on DVD. The David Mirkin era (seasons 5 and 6) is my personal favorite among the show's history, although I know not all fans agree with me. The series changed in tone during this time, largely due to show-runner Mirkin's personality and writing style. When Al Jean and Mike Reiss ran seasons 3 and 4, they produced high quality stories that were relatively plausible and down-to-earth. Mirkin was (and still is) respectful of what had been established during those seasons, but he took the show to a new level by exploring the characters more deeply and by not shying away from broader stories and wackier jokes. Mirkin also has a very sarcastic and cynical sense of humor, which is apparent in the episodes he worked on, as well as in the commentaries. Season 5 contains some of the jokiest episodes that push boundaries that hadn't been pushed before that point, and many of them are my personal favorites in the series for that reason. These include "$pringfield", "Homer Goes To College", "Boy Scoutz 'N the Hood", "The Last Temptation of Homer", "Homer and Apu", "Deep Space Homer", "Burns' Heir", and "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song". Actually, I love all the episodes on this DVD, but those are some of the more memorable ones for me.

The DVD presentation is excellent, with clever animated menus, Easter eggs, and an improved collection of Bonus Extras. Each disk contains an animatic, and two of them feature a highly entertaining "illustrated commentary" by Wes Archer and David Silverman (the other two have regular commentaries by Silverman and some animators). There are lots of deleted scenes included on the DVD, which can be played within the episodes, or back-to-back as a separate feature on disk 4.

The commentaries are fun, as unsual, with Matt Groening, David Silverman, and David Mirkin on almost all of them, along with writers, directors, a few of the actors, and Jim Brooks on some of them. I was disappointed that a few directors (particularly Jeff Lynch and Jim Reardon) and some writers were unavailable to do commentaries this year, but the rest of the commentators picked up the slack well. Mirkin has a tendency to over-explain things, but at least he has a pleasant speaking voice and he's a funny guy. Also, this DVD features Conan O'Brien's final commentaries, and he is always a delight.

Overall, this DVD set is a gem. My one minor complaint is that turning on the subtitles was a bit more cumbersome than on previous DVD sets. Other than that, the season 5 DVD set is the best yet. Bring on season 6!

Unrivaled by its animated peers...
Originally a spin-off from a one-minute segment of The Tracy Ullman Show, The Simpsons morphed into the then-burgeoning FOX network's most successful program. As the longest running animated television show in history, and the longest running prime show of any type, The Simpsons is an American treasure - a combination of humor, wit, and satire that examines not just the lives of its eccentric characters, but also the society, culture, and world in which we live. Fun for adults and children alike, The Simpsons is a cutting edge television comedy that, like Seinfeld, changed the television landscape in the 1990's by creating a new genre of TV fun - spawning large network investments in new series such as King of the Hill, Futurama, and The Family Guy.

Like all new things which smash the paradigm of life, The Simpsons is unrivaled by its knockoffs, and the show doesn't show signs of slowing down. If you haven't yet visited Springfield, then I definitely recommend that you pick up The Simpsons DVD (Season 1) to catch a glimpse for yourself. You have no idea what you've been missing...

The Simpsons (Season 5) DVD offers a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" in which Homer tells Bart and Lisa the story of his early brush with fame as a member of "The Be Sharps" - a barbershop quartet composed of Homer, Principal Skinner, Apu, and Barney (who replaced Chief Wiggum at the request of a music rep). The Be Sharps take the world by storm, performing for President Reagan and Johnny Carson. Eventually, the band is destroyed by Homer's bad song writing and Barney's new Asian girlfriend... Other notable episodes from Season 5 include "Rosebud" (a satire of Citizen Kane, but with Mr. Burns in the starring role) and "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" in which Lisa protests the stereotypical and sexists remarks made by a talking Malibu Stacy doll (her efforts eventually lead to a new product design which bombs in the marketplace)...

Below is a list of episodes included on The Simpsons (Season 5) DVD:

Episode 82 (Homer's Barbershop Quartet)
Episode 83 (Cape Feare)
Episode 84 (Homer Goes to College)
Episode 85 (Rosebud)
Episode 86 (Treehouse of Horror 4)
Episode 87 (Marge on the Lam)
Episode 88 (Bart's Inner Child)
Episode 89 (Boy Scoutz N' the Hood)
Episode 90 (The Last Temptation of Homer)
Episode 91 ($pringfield)
Episode 92 (Homer the Vigilante)
Episode 93 (Bart Gets Famous)
Episode 94 (Homer and Apu)
Episode 95 (Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy)
Episode 96 (Deep Space Homer)
Episode 97 (Homer Loves Flanders)
Episode 98 (Bart Gets an Elephant)
Episode 99 (Burns' Heir)
Episode 100 (Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song)
Episode 101 (The Boy Who Knew Too Much)
Episode 102 (Lady Bouvier's Lover)
Episode 103 (Secrets of a Successful Marriage)

The DVD Report

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