The Simpsons: The Complete Eighth Season
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: B Episodes: B
Yes, I
admit I am not as big a fan of The
Simpsons as its biggest followers, but even I have to admit that The Complete Eighth Season is one of
their best. It was one of the last with
the late, great Phil Hartman. It had a
cross-over with The X-Files and its
original stars, David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson. Johnny Cash made an unbelievable appearance
that is one of his last for TV and only in animation. Paul Winfield, Rodney Dangerfield, Jon
Lovitz, Leonard Nimoy, Jack Lemmon, Joe Montegna, Marcia Wallace, Alex Rocco,
John Waters, Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, Dave Thomas and Tim Conway.
The 1996
– 1997 season also is the one where the show finally passed the original Flintstones as the longest running
prime-time animated series of all time and the show is still on the air 10
years later. Shows of interest include
the oddball one where Homer finds is face on Japanese laundry detergent, gets a
new job, lands up in a St. Patrick’s Day fiasco and we have more supernatural
happenings than usual. After this season
and loss of Hartman (which is unrelated to the complaint), the show started to
hit rough waters with some fans, but it held its original sense of self
together this long and was in exceptional form here, making this one of their
best seasons to date. Fans will be
particularly happy with this DVD.
The 1.33
X 1 image has some detail limits and color is sometimes inconsistent, but it
looks good otherwise. The sound is
upgraded to Dolby Digital 5.1, but you can hear in each show that this was not
as thought out as you might expect to this point, but the audio is still
good. Extras include a bunch of Easter
Eggs, nicely illustrated episode guide booklet, creator Matt Groening
introduction, audio commentaries on every show with Groening & much of the
crew and cast, multi-angle animation, animator’s illustrated commentaries,
promo spots, a bunch of deleted scenes, original sketches and a Simpsons
House featurette. It is more
massive than it reads, which is good, because you sure get your money’s worth.
- Nicholas Sheffo
