"Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet, they're about to announce the lottery numbers." - Homer Simpson in "Kamp Krusty"
The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
The Simpsons, America's favorite animated series featuring a yellow-tinged family, began its fourth season on Fox on September 24, 1992. (Ah, memories! Only twelve short years ago the fall TV season actually started in late September. How quaint! These days, the first new Simpsons episode to run each season is usually the Halloween "Treehouse of Horror" special, and it is usually aired AFTER the holiday has passed.) Year in and year out, the creative team behind The Simpsons have proven to be remarkably consistent in crafting memorable episodes, but in season four they were responsible for an unusually high number of episodes that would go on to be considered classics in the Simpsons canon.
The season starts off on one such high note as Lisa (voiced by Yeardley Smith) and Bart (Nancy Cartwright) long to attend "Kamp Krusty" for the summer. Tantalizing commercials for the camp picture an idyllic summer getaway hosted by their kid-vid hero, Krusty (Dan Castellaneta). The camp turns out to be less than expected when the kids discover that its facilities are dilapidated, the counselors are bullies, and Krusty is affiliated with the camp in name only. As Lisa notes, "I no longer fear hell, because I've been to Kamp Krusty." Bart and Lisa's travails at camp are funny and imaginative ("arts and crafts" consists of making counterfeit Gucci wallets in a sweatshop), while Homer (Castellaneta) and Marge's (Julie Kavner) sex-filled summer of love in their empty house is equally inspired.
Through the years, the creative team of The Simpsons has excelled at using musical numbers and song parodies to great comedic effect. A fine example of this is "A Streetcar Named Marge," the season's second episode. In this episode's commentary track, it is revealed that the episode's writer, Jeff Martin, originally pitched an idea about Homer getting a part in a play. Executive Producer James L. Brooks liked the basic idea, but argued that Marge should be the budding actor, and that she should appear in A Streetcar Named Desire. A script was developed, but the estate of Tennessee Williams would not allow the show to use excerpts from Williams' play. The show's legal department came up with a unique solution - Martin could parody the play by turning it into a musical. Thus Oh! Streetcar! was born, an outrageously funny send-up of the play, musicals, and community theatre, all rolled into one. The Streetcar sequence paints such a profane, fetid portrait of its New Orleans setting ("If you wanna go to hell you should take that trip/to the Sodom and Gomorrah on the Mississipp'/NEW ORLEANS!") that it sparked a massive outcry from residents of the City That Care Forgot. (The outrage ignored the fact that A Streetcar Named Desire itself does not exactly present a picture-postcard version of the city, although in his defense, Williams did not use the terms "stinking," "rotten," "vomity," "vile," "putrid," "maggoty," and "foul" in describing his adopted home.)
The Streetcar parody (which, as most Louisianians are likely to admit is merely guilty of exaggeration, not slander) is outrageously funny. The controversy, however, helped to overshadow the fact that this particular episode is also incredibly touching. Marge seeks out a part in the show because she feels unfulfilled and taken for granted at home. Homer practically ignores her, answering "sounds interesting" by rote to anything she says to him. Marge channels her anger at Homer into her role. At the opening of the musical, Marge is convinced that Homer fell asleep, but it turns out that he had his head down because he was moved by the show and by her performance.
Another musical highlight is "Marge vs. the Monorail," an affectionate tribute to The Music Man in which smooth talking Lyle Lanley (the late Phil Hartman) cons Springfield into spending three million dollars on an unneeded, unsafe monorail system. From the delightful musical number that introduces Lanley to the family of possums that live in the monorail's fire extinguisher compartment ("I call the big one Bitey!"), this episode is filled with memorable bits.
In this season, the writers seem to be making an effort to strike a balance between tenderness and violence. "I Love Lisa" centers on the sweet story of the incredibly stupid Ralph Wiggum falling in love with Lisa after she gives him a Valentine card out of pity. In "Lisa the Beauty Queen," Homer sells his dream ride on the Duff Beer Blimp in a well-meaning attempt to lift Lisa's spirits after a caricature artist depicts her as an ugly troll. Homer has several moments like this throughout the season, yet he still finds ample time to strangle his son.
When The Simpsons first hit the air, the series was derided by parents groups, the clergy, and even the President of the United States. This was during the "family values" debate in which families that did not look, sound, or behave like those who use terms like "family values" were deemed to be inferior, and thus open to criticism. What is interesting is that through the years The Simpsons has remained the same, but the debate has changed slightly, and the show is now warmly embraced by some religious leaders as a positive learning tool. This change in view is a relatively recent one, but season four's "Homer the Heretic," in which Homer gives up church so that he can stay in his warm home on Sunday mornings and do things like eat a concoction of waffle mix, caramels, and liquid smoke wrapped around a stick of butter, proves that the series was adept at being reverently irreverent even in its early years. The episode gently mocks religion (God cuts a conversation short because he has to appear on a tortilla in Mexico) while also validating religious beliefs (Homer ultimately learns his lesson and rejoins the church).
Those shows barely touch the surface of this season's memorable episodes. Other highlights include "Treehouse of Horror III" (with a killer Krusty doll, a King Kong-like Homer, and a plague of zombies), "Marge Gets a Job" (smitten Mr. Burns kidnaps Welsh crooner Tom Jones to impress Marge), "Lisa's First Word" (a sweet episode in which we actually hear Maggie's first word, voiced by Liz Taylor), "Homer's Triple Bypass" (with the hysterically cut-rate Dr. Nick Riviera, voiced by Hank Azaria), "Selma's Choice" (Selma considers having children.until she takes her niece and nephew to Duff Gardens), "Last Exit to Springfield" (Lisa needs braces), "The Front" (Bart and Lisa submit a wonderfully perverse Itchy and Scratchy script in Grandpa's name), and "Krusty Gets Kancelled" (the laugh-a-second season ender in which Krusty faces stiff competition from a ventriloquist's dummy named Gabbo).
Season four's motley group of guest stars include Jon Lovitz (who later teamed with the producers of The Simpsons on his own animated series, The Critic), comedian Bob Hope, Roseanne's Sara Gilbert, Batman's Adam West, chanteuse Linda Ronstadt, Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Brooke Shields, soul star Barry White, singer David Crosby, talk show host Johnny Carson, Playboy playboy Hugh Hefner, singer Bette Midler, Beverly Hills 90210's Luke Perry and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The twenty-two episodes that make up season four are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in a cleverly designed foldout digipak. The digipak features a four panel mural of Simpsons characters. The discs overlay the mural, and the disc labels complete the picture that it creates. Removing the discs reveals alternate versions of mural images (i.e. while Sideshow Bob holds a pie on disc one, he throws the pie on the image hidden under the disc). A folder panel holds a booklet which provides a pretty comprehensive listing of the disc contents. Also included are booklets detailing Simpsons merchandise and other Fox TV DVD offerings. The digipak slides into an equally clever cardboard sleeve. Overall, the packing is imaginative, colorful, and sure to please fans.
The menus are needlessly complicated - so complicated that they are impossible to describe here. The producers of the Simpsons DVDs should take a close look at how they can make the menus on future sets more intuitive.
