dragonfire88's Full Review: Simpsons - The Complete First Season
I remember hearing things about the cartoon The Simpsons when it first started to air on FOX. At that time, I didn’t get that station, so I couldn't watch it. I had managed to hear enough about the show to know some of the basics about it and the main characters. Years later, I started to watch the cartoon and was quickly hooked on it. I picked up The Simpsons - Complete First Season DVD set when it was released.
Matt Groening created The Simpsons to be shown between sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Two years later in 1989, The Simpsons began to air on Fox. The show went on to become extremely popular. The show is still on the air now and a major movie will be released in July of 2007. Groening said that he based the characters on members of his family, including using their actual names. He also created another animated show, Futurama, that began airing in 1999.
The Simpsons was mostly about the Simpsons family though some other characters turned up more often as the series progressed. The show mainly showed the family’s everyday life which wasn’t always normal. Homer and Bart especially ended up in some unique situations. Many of the episodes revolved around Bart in some way with the other characters, especially Marge and Lisa, taking a backseat. Homer did end up with a bit more to do in some of the episodes. Every episode in the first season had a different unique plot that wasn’t connected to any of the other episodes. Events from previous episodes weren’t mention in later episodes either, so they were all self-contained.
Homer and Marge Simpson had a mostly happy marriage when the series began. Homer did irritate and annoy Marge at times even though she did love him. Homer wasn’t the brightest guy around and he could be insensitive at times. He had a job at the nuclear power plant that he hated. Bart, their oldest child, had a tendency of getting into trouble frequently at school. Lisa did very well in school and was better behaved than her brother most of the time. Maggie was a baby who wasn’t talking yet. Several other characters who would become series regulars were introduced over the course of the season. There were also a few characters introduced, like Side Show Bob, who would return in future episodes without really being a regular character on the show.
I first saw the episodes from the first season when I started watching the reruns in syndication. The animation was cruder with paler colors and some of the characters had strange looks. For the first season DVD set, the animation was cleaned up and the colors were much brighter like are used in the newer episodes. The animation does look much better on this set than when the episodes air on television. Some of the characters still kept their slightly different or even odd looks. The appearance of some of the characters, like Barney and Smithers, changed over the course of the season. The inside of Moe’s bar looked different as well. It is a bit strange to see some of the characters or settings looking different from what I’m more use to seeing. A few things in the opening sequence for the show looked a bit different as well.
A group of voice actors provide the voices for the main characters on The Simpsons. Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardly Smith have provided the voices for The Simpsons since Groening started doing the short bits for the Tracey Ullman show. Most of them have also gone on to do voices for several other characters. The voices for some of the characters, like Homer, do sound a little different during the first season than they would in the later seasons. During the first season, there were also a few guest stars who provided voices like Kelsey Grammer and Penny Marshall.
DVD Information
The Simpsons - Complete First Season DVD set includes the first thirteen episodes of the series on three discs. The case unfolds and there is one disc per panel. One of the panels did include a message from creator Matt Groening. He talked about some of the moments he remembered from these episodes while acknowledging that the animation wasn’t that great. There was also a booklet included that listed the episodes and gave a brief summary. It was mentioned when some characters, like Grandpa Simpson, made their first appearance and when certain actors made guest appearances.
Each disc had a different graphic on the menu screen. There was no option to play all of the episodes like there has been with some other DVD sets. Groening did commentary for all the episodes. There were a few alternate versions for some scenes in one episode. One of the original shorts that aired on The Tracey Ullman Show was also included. The characters looked very different and the animation was extremely crude. It was interesting to see an early version of the characters. There was a short featurette on the making of the cartoon. Groening and other people involved in making the show talked about how it started as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show and then evolved into a separate show. The featurette was short but very interesting.
Episode List
Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire Bart The Genius Homer’s Odyssey There’s No Disgrace Like Home Bart The General Moaning Lisa Call Of The Simpsons The Telltale Head Life On The Fast Lane Homer’s Night Out Some Enchanted Evening
The Simpsons - Complete First Season DVD set is a good DVD set for fans of the series. The set really didn’t have many extras, but the ones that were included were interesting.
What we have here are thirteen crudely animated episodes, first aired in 1989 and 1990, all spiffed up, cleaned off, and augmented with bells and whis...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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