The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season

MOVIE
VIDEO
AUDIO
EXTRAS
OVERALL

Four Discs
1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
English & French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
English Closed Captions
English & Spanish Subtitles
Commentary on All Episodes
Interviews
2 Music Videos
Featurette
Emmy Awards Presentation
3 Butterfinger Commercials
Still Gallery

MOVIE Overall Season Score
The Simpsons was huge. Based on those initial thirteen episodes, the nation went nuts for that oddly skinned family. The second season. After a LONG summer hiatus in which those same thirteen episodes were endlessly recycled, Simpsons popularity was reaching a pinnacle. I was twelve when season 2 begin. It was up against Cosby on Thursdays suddenly, a fact that caused my family and perhaps many others, to stop watching. The show dropped from being in the top ten, which was astounding for a Fox network show, down to high for Fox, but low in general. The household was divided. While the family watched the Cos upstairs in the family room, I huddled in our unfinished basement with a small black and white TV, watching every week of this show that had gained a subversive edge. The T-Shirts were banned at school. Bart Simpson had become the banner child for what's wrong with kids today. Many felt that The Simpsons were going to follow the Roller Coaster that was Twin Peaks, a brilliant beginning, huge ratings for the first abbreviated season, then disaster with a day and time move and eventually cancellation. (Twin Peaks was cancelled just before the end of its second season, which then aired in quick succession) The Simpsons shocked them all, though and came back strong, maintaining. So, at the height of their popularity, that Christmas, they released an album, The Simpsons Sing The Blues, Simpsons characters singing classic blues songs. There was an odd shift occurring, slowly the focus was turning from Bart to Homer. Homer's character was evolving too, from the mean spirited and fairly intelligent father with the vaguely Walter Matthau voice, in season two he became dimwitted and lovable, friendlier, more accessible. Homer brought the Simpsons to greatness. Like the last season's review, what follows is an episode by episode commentary.

Bart Gets An F
First shot out of the box. A classic. Bart is told that if he fails one more test he'll be held back and have to repeat the forth grade. This episode made the dream sequence not only commonplace, but proved it to be a source of fantastic laughs. "Look, John Hancock is writing his name in the snow!" It allowed the show to be much stranger than it was in that first season and paved the way for the episodes that followed.

Simpson and Delilah
Homer deals with his baldness by using his medical insurance to get a new hair treatment called Demoxinil and thus, grows a full head of hair, gets a promotion and a helpful secretary named Karl (voiced by Harvey Fierstein.) This episode is hilarious and touching and went leaps and bounds to expand the character of Homer, making him more well rounded.

Treehouse Of Horror
The first of what would become an annual tradition. Bart and Lisa tell scary stories. Hungry Are The Damned is a twist on an old Twilight Zone episode, is told well and introduced us to Kang and Kodos, the two aliens that we'll see again and again. Bad Dream House is okay as the Simpsons move into a spooky haunted old mansion. The pinnacle of the episode, though is a visual interpretation of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe starring Homer, with Bart as the Raven and chillingly narrated by James Earl Jones.

Two Cars In Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish
The episode that began The Simpsons homages to Citizen Kane. Mr. Burns runs for governor against a party that Marge backs. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa catch a three eyed fish, a side effect of the power plant. Good, but not great.

Dancin' Homer
This episode, told inexplicably in flashbacks has the first Simpsons song, Capital City, sung by Tony Bennet. The episode unfolds slowly as Homer becomes first a local team mascot and then rises in the ranks to a mascot in Capital City, the big leagues. The pacing is off in the episode and that hurts it, I think.

Dead Putting Society
Another great episode sets the tone for Homer's relationship with neighbor Ned Flanders for years to come. Homer and Ned have a feud that culminates with Homer forcing Bart to competed against Todd in a miniature golf tournament. Homer's fury and mood swings give us visions of future seasons. So much fun.

Bart VS Thanksgiving
A fairly preachy episode deals with Bart destroying a centerpiece that Lisa worked very hard on, thus ruining Thanksgiving and running away. It does allow the relationship between Lisa and Bart to grow and introduces us to Marge's mother, but still runs fairly slow. The highlight is the football game's halftime show: Hooray For Everything!

Bart The Daredevil
The family goes to see a monster truck rally and, at the rally, Lance Murdock, a daredevil in the style of Evel Knievel performs, prompting Bart to want to be a daredevil himself. This has the feel of a message episode, but the feeling is faint. Another good, but not great episode.

Itchy & Scratchy & Marge
A message show that hit its tone right has Marge railing against Itchy & Scratchy after Maggie imitated the show, hitting Homer on the head with a mallet in a spot on Psycho parody. Marge starts a campaign to change the show that probably mirrors a similar campaign against The Simpsons itself for it's irreverent attitude. What's really great about this episode is the fact that no side is taken. Marge's point of view is nullified, but the cartoon makers aren't shown to be right either.

Bart Gets Hit By a Car
In this episode, Bart gets hit by a car driven by Mr. Burns. This causes the Simpson family to sue at the advice of Lionel Hutz (voiced by Phil Hartman.) It turns into a courtroom battle influenced by To Kill A Mockingbird and shines in its two versions of what happened, first Bart's, then Mr Burns'.

One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish
A tremendous episode that had me in tears the first time I saw it. In retrospect, that's foolish. The episode involves Homer eating some poisonous sushi and being told he has 24 hours to live. So, Homer wasn't going to die, early in the season, early in the run. But the episodes true greatness is the fact that, for a moment, you think there's the possibility that he might, and, somehow, that touches you.

The Way We Was
The first of many flashback episodes. This one introduces a high school aged Homer and Marge as Homer tries to win Marge over and take her to prom against an adversary vying for her affection as well, Artie Ziff (voiced by Jon Lovitz.) This episode is a high water mark where it could be placed anywhere in the series run without a major difference in quality, voice acting or story flow. Wonderful.

Homer VS Lisa and the 8th Commandment
Another message episode that, while it may lay it on too thick at times, works because of its breakneck speed, flinging parodies and jokes left and right. The Simpsons get cable illegally because Homer pays off a corrupt cable installer. All deal with it differently (though it effects Marge very little actually) Homer is glued to the TV almost day and night, forming a permanent grove in the couch, Bart stays up late watching Top Hat Entertainment, the Springfield equivalent of the Spice Channel and Lisa gets concerned by the fact that they're stealing cable and stealing is wrong.

Principal Charming
Homer takes it upon himself to find a mate for Selma, Marge's long suffering sister. He settles upon Principal Skinner who, horrifying to Homer, promptly falls in love with Patty, Marge's other sister. The episode fleshes out Skinner's character, he still isn't the Norman Bates momma's boy he'd become later, but it proves he can carry an episode by himself.

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
Danny DeVito guest stars as Homer's long lost brother Herb Powell from an affair his father had long ago. Herb is a prominent car designer who invites Homer to work with him, ending in disaster, of course. What has always been great about The Simpsons is the fact that it can make us believe the absurd, this episode is direct proof of that.

Bart's Dog Gets an F
Santa's Little Helper, the family dog, is having obedience troubles. Bart is given the option of taking him to obedience school or losing him. The plot is basically a recycled version of the first episode on the disc with the dog instead of Bart. There are some pretty funny moments, but they're all a bit too broad instead of understated.

Old Money
The first episode to revolve around Abe Simpson is about him falling in love with another resident at the Springfield Retirement Castle, Bea Simmons (voiced by Audrey Meadows) and subsequently losing her because of Homer's insistence that Abe made her up. She dies, and in her will leaves Abe a large sum of money. A message episode about the lack of dignity seniors are often given. Plays fairly well, with a great beginning, but falls ultimately short.

Brush With Greatness
The first guest appearance of a Beatle on the Simpsons. Ringo Starr plays himself. Marge takes a painting class and, through a course of events, is hired to paint a portrait of Mr. Burns who reveals his evil and hateful tendencies to her. Burns' interaction at home with the family is priceless.

Lisa's Substitute
An uncredited Dustin Hoffman guest stars as Mr Bergstrom, Lisa's substitute teacher. Mr. Bergstrom teaches Lisa that she is not a strange gawky girl, but an intelligent young woman. This is the first of a handful of good, sometimes great episodes about the relationship between two very different people, Lisa and Homer. "She called me a baboon, Marge! The ugliest, dumbest ape of them all!"

The War of the Simpsons
Still one of my favorite sequences of any Simpsons episode is, after getting drunk at a dinner party thrown by Marge, Homer recalls the evening as an event at a social club where he's being saluted by all those present in drawings inspired by Herschfield. After that, Homer and Marge go on a marriage retreat and Homer is forced to choose between Marge and General Sherman, the giant catfish living in the lake. This episode is wonderful because it solidifies their relationship, making them more real to us, and has some great stuff with the kids home with Grandpa. A strong A and B story works wonders.

Three Men and a Comic Book
Bart, Martin and Millhouse buy a copy of Radioactive Man #1 from Comic Book Dungeon. They then spend the night together, growing more and more paranoid, convinced that the others are trying to do them in to get the comic. Great for its introduction of Radioactive Man and for bring Martin back for a major episode.

Blood Feud
Mr. Burns is dying, and needs OO negative blood. The only one in town that has that bloodtype is Bart. Homer intices him to do so with the promise of lots of riches. When Burns sends them nothing more than a card, it infuriates Homer who risks his job and life by sending an angry letter back. This episode shows Homer at his dumbest. At the post office: Homer: "Hello, my name is Mister Burns, I believe you have a letter for me." Postal Worker: "Okay, Mr. Burns, what's your first name?" Homer: ". . .I don't know."

VIDEO QUALITY
The quality of the episodes increased in the second season, as did the quality of the animation and presumably the film. These episodes are a marked improvement over the first season. The colors are rich and only occasionally halo, obscuring the black outlines. The only caveat is the compression which, on my computer monitor became an issue. There's so much on these discs that the compression hurts it on very high quality monitors. On regular television, however, this is a non-issue. Each episode is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

AUDIO QUALITY
The audio for this season is much more encompassing than the first season and even the opening theme sounds richer. There still isn't much going on in the two rear surrounds, but it does happen. This season began the omniprescent humming sound that the power plant emits, coming from way down deep in your subwoofer. Again, a great improvement over the first season.

EXTRAS
First and foremost, as with the first season's release, we have full commentaries for each episode on the discs. The commentaries start out slightly dry on the first disc, but later they come up to speed and information. Once again, they point out the little details that you normally wouldn't notice such as the first appearance of characters, the evolution as the show progressed and, a trite detail that I can't get out of my head now, the fact that every time we see the exterior of the Nuclear Plant, we hear the sound of a crow caw. Next up we have two music videos, Do the Bartman and Deep Deep Trouble. Both are severely overrated videos, with the Bartman being right up there on the list of TV music non sensations such as Do The Urkel. The videos look good, and Deep Deep Trouble is a better video, very stylized with a decent song to go along with it, feeling a lot like a DJ Jazzy Jeff/Fresh Prince song. Both of the videos are better when watched with the audio commentaries, though. We find out that. . .Michael Jackson wrote Do the Bartman. In the commentary they say "Who but Michael Jackson would write a song where someone says they want to be 'Bad like Michael Jackson.'?" We have three of the MANY Butterfinger commercials that the Simpsons made. These offer a quick fun nostalgia that only an old commercial can offer. Fleeting, passes quickly, and we wonder where the rest of them are. Rounding out the set is a quick featurette on the creation of an episode, or in this case, a segment. Then we have The Simpsons presenting an Emmy, which is interesting and fun. We have a horrific segment of the American Music Awards with Nancy Cartwright dressed in an enormous Bart costume. While these are an improvement over the first season, the extras for these Simpsons discs still feel lacking. The commentaries repeatedly talk of the extra few minutes animated but not used. Why couldn';t these be put back into episodes as they did with the cut footage on the Friends DVDs? Or at least be somewhere. Oh well. Still a nice helping of extras that may get better. They have another 12 seasons or so to get it right, anyway.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
What a nice thing it is to have these episodes, the beginning of The Simpsons true brilliance as a show. This is where the show began to change, to learn what it could really do. Homer got stupid. Lisa and Marge gained depth. Background characters became important. And above all, the show learned that it could be strange, and surreal, an idea that culminated in The Mysterious Voyage of Homer many years later where Homer ate a hot chili pepper and hallucinated a talking wolf in a very strange world. This is the Simpsons hitting their stride and, with the exception of a handful of episodes, any one of these look like they're from season five, or season ten. And how glorious it is to have them in a pristine format. Oh happy day.

Read my review of The Simpsons: The Complete First Season.