The Simpsons - Season 5 - Side Show Bob Launched a New Plan
Written: Sep 08 '07 (Updated Sep 03 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: All twenty-two uncut episodes.
Cons: Not many extras for the set
The Bottom Line: The Simpsons - Season 5 was another highly entertaining season of the show. The DVD set is worth owning for people who enjoy the show.
I was quickly hooked on The Simpsons once I started watching it. I've been picking up the DVD sets over the last few years and I've been watching the sets recently. I just finished watching The Simpsons - Season 5.
The Simpsons were created by Matt Groening for short sketches that would fill in between segments on The Tracey Ullman Show. The characters became popular enough to receive their own animated show in 1989. The show quickly became a hit and aired the 400th episode in May of 2007. The Simpsons Movie, the first full length movie to feature the characters, was finally released on July 27, 2007 and the DVD sets continue to be released. Groening also created another animated show, Futurama, that began airing in 1999.
The show has revolved around the adventures of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson. Homer and Bart have received more attention than Marge, Lisa, or Maggie though the females did receive attention as well. The family isn’t exactly typical or normal and they have ended up in some very unique situations. Those situations did add a lot of the humor to the episodes. Some of the things done for humor were a little silly, which might bother some viewers. I thought the silliness worked for the show. Several of the characters said or did things that made me laugh.
The episodes in the fourth season had plots that were resolved by the end of each episode and didn’t carry into any others for the season. One of them, Cape Feare, did continue Side Show Bob’s obsession with killing Bart that had been established in earlier seasons and would continue in future seasons as well. That was my favorite episode of the season. There is just something about Side Show Bob that I like even though he isn’t a nice character. I always look forward to when he returns. For most of the episodes, there were a few plots that didn’t seem to be connected in any way that were woven together. For some episodes, they would start off seeming to be about one thing before going off in a totally different direction. I think that worked well.
Homer’s Barbershop Quartet and Homer Goes to College shared more information about Homer’s past. Rosebud did the same for Mr. Burns. I thought the episodes were interesting and helped to further develop the characters. Mr. Burns also turned up a bit more in Lady Bouvier’s Lover when he and Grandpa were dating Marge’s mother. Apu played a larger part in Homer and Apu. A song sung by Apu, Who Need the Kwik-E-Mart? was nominated for an Emmy. Ned popped up briefly in several episodes and was featured more in the episode Homer Loves Flanders. Principal Skinner made several small appearances throughout the season and had a bigger part in Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Badasssss Song. Several other minor characters like Grounds keeper Willie, Mrs. Krabappel, Patty, Selma, Smithers, Milhouse, Moe, Barney, Krusty the Clown, Carl, and Lenny turned up briefly in several episodes throughout the season.
The fourth Halloween episode, Treehouse of Horror IV aired during this season. The episode continued with the format established in previous seasons of featuring three spooky stories. One of them spoofed Dracula with Mr. Burns in the title role. I’ve been watching the episodes in syndication for several years now, but I still haven’t seen all of them. I don’t remember seeing Bart’s Inner Child, $pringfield, Homer the Vigilante, or Bart Gets Famous before watching this DVD set. The season did feature more well known episodes like Marge on the Lam, Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy, and Deep Space Homer. I really enjoyed all the episodes in this season.
The same group of actors continued to provide the voices for the main characters as well as some of the minor ones. Yeardly Smith only did the voice for Lisa. Marcia Wallace also regularly only voiced Edna Krabappel. Julie Kavner provided the voice for Marge as well as her two sisters and her mother. The rest of the regular voice actors provided voices for several characters, a mix of regular and minor characters.
Phil Hartman once again provided voices for characters, including Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz. Those two characters turned up at least briefly fairly often throughout the fifth season. Kelsey Grammar returned to voice Side Show Bob. Other guest voice actors for the season included the members of the band The Ramones, Pamela Reed, James Brown, Ernest Borgnine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Goulet, Sam Neill, Conan O’Brien, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Buzz Aldrin, and James Taylor. Some of them provided voices for new characters and others were featured as themselves.
The animation looked the same as it has in the previous season, using bright and vibrant colors for the characters and locations. I thought the animation was well done even though it didn’t have the same look as what was being done in animated movies at that point in time. The animation might have been cleaned up a bit for this DVD set.
DVD Information
The Simpsons - Season 5 contained the twenty-two episodes from the fifth season on four DVDs. The case for the set is the same type of unfolding case that was used for the first four seasons. Another message from Matt Groening was included. Groening talked about the extras for this set, and mentioning some of the more popular episodes and guest stars.
The short booklet continued with the same new format from the fourth season that listed which extras were connected to each episode along with the short episode summaries. It was also mentioned when a guest star made an appearance in an episode and the original air dates were provided as well. The first page of the booklet listed the episodes and which disc they were on. The principal cast, a breakdown of which extras were on which disc and an icon key for the extras were also on the first page.
The main menu on each disc featured a different animated sequence that was connected to the episodes on the disc. If a selection wasn’t made fast enough, something else happened with the animation. Once again there was the option to play all the episodes or select them individually. Commentaries were done for every episode by Groening and other people connected to the making of the show. Some of the episodes included deleted scenes, animatics, animations showcase, audio outtakes, or illustrated commentaries. There was something called A Look Back With James L. Brooks on the fourth disc.
Episode List
Homer’s Barbershop Quartet Cape Feare Homer Goes to College Rosebud Treehouse of Horror IV Marge on the Lam Bart’s Inner Child Boy-Scoutz ‘n the Hood The Last Temptation of Homer $pringfield Homer the Vigilante Bart Gets Famous Homer and Apu Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy Deep Space Homer Homer Loves Flanders Bart Gets an Elephant Burns’ Heir Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Badasssss Song The Boy Who Knew Too Much Lady Bouvier’s Lover Secrets of a Successful Marriage
The Simpsons - Season 5 contained very entertaining episodes, some of which are now considered some of the best of the series. There weren’t a lot of interesting extras, but the DVD set is worth getting for fans of the show.
Fox s ever-popular slacker family from the fictional town of Springfield continue their antics in the fifth season of the animated series. Clever, dry...More at Buy.com
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