I think I started watched The Simpsons during either the tenth or eleventh season. Once I started watching the new episodes, I also started watching the older ones that were being rerun in syndication. I have been getting the DVD sets as they have been released and I now have the first ten seasons on DVD. I think the eleventh season will be released sometime in 2008. I just finished watching The Simpsons - Season 10.
Matt Groening came up with the characters of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie for short segments to fill in between sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show. There wasn't a lot of character development and the animation was crude, but the foundations for the characters were there. Once they became popular, FOX decided to put The Simpsons on the air in a half-hour cartoon in 1989. The show has been airing constantly ever since. The 400th episode aired in May 2007 and The Simpsons Movie, a full length feature movie, was released on July 27, 2007. Groening also created another animated show, Futurama, that began airing in 1999.
Throughout the run of The Simpsons, the majority of the episodes have focused on the members of the Simpsons family with Bart and Homer receiving a bit more attention. I believe that once again Homer received more attention than any of the others. His bumbling antics were still entertaining to me and did cause him to end up in some interesting situations. Lisa and Marge each were the main focus of a few episodes, so they weren’t ignored though they did receive less attention than Bart and Homer. I think it would have been nice if Marge had played a bigger role more often.
The other members of the family, like Marge’s sisters Patty and Selma show up a few times without having any episodes focused specifically on them like has happened in previous seasons. Homer’s dad Abe played a bigger part in Homer Simpson in “Kidney Trouble”. Several different supporting characters had been introduced over the course of the first nine seasons. Most of those characters did make at least a brief appearance in an episode with some of them, like Mr. Skinner and Mr. Burns, turning up a bit more often. The episode I’m With Cupid focused in on Apu and his wife. Ned Flanders, the neighbor that irritates Homer to no end, had a bigger part in Viva Ned Flanders while also turning up briefly in some of the other episodes. Several other characters like Moe, Groundskeeper Willie, Lenny, Carl, Krusty the Clown, and Barney showed up every so often without having episodes focused in on them specifically.
Almost every episode of The Simpsons has had a plot that was fully resolved. Every so often, a character would make a reference back to something that happened in a previous episode without it being a major influence on the current episode. The episodes that have included Sideshow Bob have brought things he did when he showed up before. The only time an episode wasn’t fully resolved was in Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One) in season six. There weren’t any unresolved plots in season ten. A few things that came up this season would be brought up again in later seasons. Several of the episodes did start off seeming to be about one thing before going off in a different direction for the majority of the episode.
Eight of the first nine seasons contained a special Halloween episode. That tradition was continued with Treehouse of Horror IX. Once again, the episode featured three short segments that told spooky, Halloween type stories. I thought all the stories were very entertaining and I enjoyed the episode like I have all the previous ones. There was no Christmas episode in the tenth season. Instead, there was a Super Bowl, a Valentine’s Day, and an Easter episode. The Easter episode featured three Bible related stories and was the first time that format was used for anything other than the Halloween episodes. I did enjoy most of the episodes in this season though I didn’t really care for When You Dish Upon a Star.
The Simpsons were not a normal, typical, or average family in any way. They ended up in some rather unique situations, like having to take part in a crazy game show while on vacation in Japan, because of that. Several of those situations did add humor to the show. There was a bit of slapstick type humor used, usually involving Bart and Homer in some way. There was also a bit of silly humor used as well. Certain things might be too silly for some viewers. Some of the episodes did included one or two things that were slightly more adult in nature, so parents will probably want to watch the episodes before letting their children see them.
All the main characters as well as several of the returning supporting characters have been voiced by the same group of voice actors, with most of them doing voices for multiple characters. Julie Kavner usually only did the voice for Marge. She also did the voices for Marge’s sisters and mother when they turned up. Yeardly Smith, the voice of Lisa, is the only regular cast member who only voices one character. Even though Edna Krabappel is a somewhat regular character, Marcia Wallace is listed as a guest actor when the character turns up.
During the first nine seasons, Phil Hartman voiced several characters. Two of them, Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, became somewhat regular characters in my opinion since they frequently turned up. In May of 1998, Hartman was murdered by his wife who then killed herself. After his death, only one more episode, Bart the Mother, featured Hartman’s work. After that, his characters of Lionel and Troy were no longer used though sometimes they can still be spotted in crowd scenes. When that happens, they do not speak. It was kind of odd for his characters not to be turning up like they had been.
In addition to the regular cast of characters, a new character would be introduced every so often. Some of them were only around in one episode and every so often one of them would return in future seasons. Those characters were voiced by special guest stars. A few of the semi-regular characters, like Sideshow Bob, are also voiced by special guest stars. Every so often, the guest stars appear as themselves instead of a character created just for the show. The guest stars for season ten included Lisa Kudrow, Robert Englund, Ed McMahon, Jerry Springer, Kathie Lee Gifford, Regis Philbin, Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, George Carlin, Martin Mull, Mark Hamill, Joe Mantegna, the members of The Moody Blues, Cyndi Lauper, Troy Aikman, John Madden, Dan Marino, Rupert Murdoch, Rosey Grier, Dolly Parton, Pat Summerall, Fred Willard, Ed Begley, Jr., Jan Hooks, Elton John, Hank Williams, Jr., Isabella Rossellini, Jack LaLanne, Michael McKean, Stephen Hawking, and George Takei.
The episodes in season ten continued to use the same style of animation that had been used for most of the previous nine seasons. The first season especially had cruder looking animation. That did carry into the second season a bit as well, though it did look better. Most of the seasons had a crisp, clean look and featured vibrant, bright colors that gave the characters their unique looks. The animation was well done even though it wasn’t as advanced looking as computer animation. The opening stayed the same except for changes in what Bart would write on the chalkboard and how the family arrived on the couch in the last shot. I think that a few episodes reused shots from previous seasons for that last shot.
DVD information
The Simpsons - Season 10 was the fifth Simpson DVD set to have two different case options. One case is the more traditional looking unfolding case and the other option is shaped like Bart’s head. I have the more traditional looking case. I do have the special case shaped like Homer’s head for season six and I found it a little harder to get open and get to the different discs. The twenty-three episodes are on four discs. Each disc is on a different plastic holder that could be flipped like the page of a book to get to the other discs.
Once again, the set contained a booklet that included information about the episodes. For this season, the booklet was made to look like it was a brochure for a studio tour. The third page included a list of the episodes, divided by which disc they were on. The fourth page listed what special features were on each disc. There was also an icon key that would be used throughout the rest of the booklet to show what type of extras were connected to each episode. The rest of the booklet included information about each episode, including short plot summaries, original air dates, guest cast, and extras.
There were commentaries by different people connected to the making of the show for every episode. Many of the episodes also included deleted scenes. There were animation showcases and special language features for some of the episodes. The fourth disc also included some television commercials, original sketches, and a sneak peek into the DVD for The Simpsons Movie. There were also some hidden Easter Eggs throughout the set. I did enjoy the extras I checked out, but it would have been nice if there had been something else connected to the making of the show in some way.
Episode List
Lard of the Dance The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace Bart the Mother Treehouse of Horror IX When You Dish Upon a Star D’OH-IN’ In the Wind Lisa Gets an “A” Homer Simpson in “Kidney Trouble” Mayored to the Mob Viva Ned Flanders Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken Sunday, Cruddy Sunday Homer to the Max I’m With Cupid Marge Simpson in “Screaming Yellow Honkers” Make Room for Lisa Maximum Homerdrive Simpsons Bible Stories Mom and Pop Art The Old Man and the “C” Student Monty Can’t Buy Me Love They Saved Lisa’s Brain Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo
With the exception of a couple of episodes, I really enjoyed The Simpsons - Season 10. I’m glad that I have it and plan to continue to pick up the seasons as they are released on DVD. Fans of the show may enjoy this DVD set even though some fans of the show didn’t care for this season as much.
Welcome to Season Ten of The Simpsons on DVD -- twenty-three jam-packed episodes of malicious cartoon frivolity that helped make 1998 and 1999 such en...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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