The Simpsons Seventh Season DVD
No matter what the box looks like, however, you can’t go wrong. The Seventh Season may not qualify as the best episode in Simpsons history, but even a less-than-great Simpsons season is better that the peak of most other shows.
The seventh season of the show is probably most famous among non-fanatics for kicking off with the second part of the Who Shot. Mr. Burns cliffhanger. In keeping with that motif, the DVD menus revolve around the concept of a police lineup. The Simpsons Seventh Season DVD contains an entertaining insert that has the look of a Variety newspaper offering up information on the episodes.
In addition to information on what is contained on the discs, the insert is also entertainingly in its presentation. Each episode has a large headline ala Variety, features a color image from the episode and lists who takes part in the episode commentaries.
If you’ve ever been disappointed with DVD commentaries, you’ve never heard a Simpsons commentary. Typically, the commentary involves writers, directors, actors, producers and even guest stars like Jon Lovitz. Sounding more like a party than a commentary, often these guys get so caught up in fascinating stories that they often forget to actually comment on what’s taking place on-screen.
You won’t mind when that happens, because these are all funny, intelligent people. And when they do comment on the show, it’s also entertaining anecdotes and behind-the-scenes information rather than the “this shot was done with a wide-angle lens at three in the morning” type stuff that you normally get. And unlike many other TV shows, every single episode features commentary.
Sometimes there are more than one; often Simpsons DVDs contain an easter egg that is an additional commentary by someone who couldn’t make it for the official one. Especially interesting is the commentary for the Treehouse of Horror episode. In case you don’t remember, this is the one where Homer is rendered in 3-D animation and the commentary unveils some of the secret gags and meanings that appear in the animation of the 3-D section.
Speaking of extras, The Simpsons Seventh Season DVD features them aplenty. The highlights are the deleted scenes which can be viewed either separately or placed within the episode at the point where they would occur. An icon pops up that tells you when to push a button your remote to bring up the deleted scene. That way if you don’t want to break the flow of the episode you can bypass it. Other special features include animation showcases where you can view the episode in various states of animation.
Of course, The Simpsons is one of the few DVDs that you don’t buy for the special features; the show itself is more than worth it. While season seven of The Simpsons provided us with the worst episode ever of the Simpsons-Two Bad Neighbors, in which Bart is reduced to a Dennis the Menace clone and the episode goes straight downhill as with the appearance of former President George H.W. Bush (no coincidence there!)-there are still more than a few gems included.
Among the classic Simpsons episode included on this collection: the one where Bart sells his soul to Milhouse, the Marxist critique “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”, the revelation that Springfield town founder Jebediah Springfield is not the classic American historical icon he appears to be, Troy McClure’s marriage to Marge’s sister Selma (and subsequent appearance in the role he was born to play baby, the human in Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off!), and the episode that manages to work in almost every major supporting character on the show to date: 22 Short Films About Springfield.
The Simpsons Seventh Season DVD begins with a murder mystery and ends with Homer’s cry of “Sweet merciful crap, my car!” and in between features some of the greatest episodes in series history along with two of the worst. (I’m not a big fan of the one where we learn what happened to Homer’s mother, either.)
