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The Simpsons - The Complete Fourth Season Customer Reviews (19 - 21 of 41 Reviews)
When The Simpsons really started getting good!
The Simpsons really hit its stride with the fourth season. Conan O'Brien was a producer and started writing episodes midway through the season. Brad Bird (of The Iron Giant fame) was a co-executive producer and several big time stars (Johnny Carson and Elizabeth Taylor) were convinced to lend their vocal talents on a number of episodes. The writing was a lot better and their pop culture parodies much funnier, varied and worked on several levels. The quality of the animation also improved greatly. Looking at the first couple of seasons it seems a bit crude but it is obvious that the show's budget had increased significantly by the fourth year.
"A Streetcar Named Marge" shows how strong the writing had become as it not only parodies Tennessee Williams' famous play, but transforms it into a local musical theatre production with an ego-maniacal director (voiced by Jon Lovitz no less) at the helm. There is also a spot-on satire of beauty pageants and a very funny literary gag as Marge drops Maggie off at the Ayn Rand day care center. Under all the gags lurks the serious issue of Marge trying to establish her own individual identity.
Every episode features an audio commentary introduced and moderated (sort of) by series creator, Matt Groening with the writers and director of that particular episode sitting in. While all of the commentaries are amusing and informative (as the writers point out all of the obscure and not so obscure pop culture references), the strongest track of the set is for the "A Streetcar Named Marge" episode. Included on this track is comedian Jon Lovitz and actor Hank Azaria who spend the entire time making fun of the writers and each other.
"The Cajun Controversy" is a brief featurette with writer Jeff Martin examining how a song he wrote for the "Streetcar" episode had to be cut because it playfully slammed the city of New Orleans.
"Bush vs. The Simpsons" is an amusing story told by producer James L. Brooks about how former First Lady Barbara Bush slammed The Simpsons in a People magazine interview and how he responded.
There are also deleted scenes for "Homer's Triple Bypass" and "The Front" with optional audio commentary. One can watch the scenes separately or along with the actual episode.
The Simpsons Season Four box set is crammed with an excellent collection of extras and features some of the strongest episodes of the show's lengthy run. In a nice touch, the various menus and sub-menus are animated with little bits by the characters from the show that differ slightly depending on what option you pick. This is a really nice touch. It is obvious that a lot of care and work went into this set and this results in a quality product.
The ceam has bid farewll to the chaff...
This is probably my favorite boxed set of the Simpsons so far. It has some of my favorite episodes of the series. In particular, the legendary Kamp Krusty which is probably my favorite of all time. Any show that opens with the destruction of a school to the soundtrack of school's out by Alice Cooper gets my seal of approval which, unlike Krusty, I do not freely give to every crappy product that comes my way. But, I digress, the rest of the shows are great too. I like I love lisa and it's sweet, yet funny story. I also enjoyed Selma's choice and the 'sandwich incident'. Not to mention the 'legend of the dog faced woman' and the seven duffs if if we only learn the names of four or so of them. To learn the identity of the others you will have to go elsewhere. I do believe you can unravel this mystery in the game, Simpsons Hit & Run; Moes Tavern, second level.
Anyway, this is a great collection and you would be crazy not to buy it. The Dvd has many cool features. Although if the shows weren't good the features wouldn't matter. Luckily in this case that is no worry. To paraprase Selma(or Patty) from Selma's Choice: Season Four: It's legend will live forever.
Better Menus, episodes. Better overall than the first 2 sets
I won't go into huge detail here, as others have fairly covered the set and done so well. I will reiterate, however, that if you own seasons one or two and were turned off because of the hard to navigate menus, the lack of a play all feature, and just taking too long to get to the shows - well that problem dissapeared with the last season. Although I don't find the menu transitions quite as funny as season 3, I do find the episodes even funnier, and the quality of the transfers seem even better. This, IMO, is the season the simpsons really hit their stride. and the Box art, and menus, are all excellenet as well.
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