The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season DVD
June 11, 2004
For seven and a half months from fall ’92, through spring ’93, “The Simpsons” was unquestionably the funniest show on television. It was no surprise, really, how good the year was, considering the strength of its initial three seasons-the rough edged first season, the charmingly grounded second season, and the brilliant junior year of ’91-’92, but it seemed, in its fourth season, week after week the producers could do no wrong. This was the year we heard (primarily in flashbacks) Bart, Lisa, and Maggie’s first words, the year Marge starred in a musical as Blanche Dubois, and went to prison for stealing bourbon, the year Homer bought a plow, had numerous heart attacks, and gave up drinking (for a month, anyway), the year the nuclear power plant went on strike, and the year a smooth talking con artist named Lyle Lanley sold the rubes of Springfield on an idea to construct an ill-gotten monorail; it was a memorable 22 episode span of comedy, both satirical and heartfelt.
It was a turning point; what “Rubber Soul” was to The Beatles’ transition into master musicians and songwriters, season four of “The Simpsons” was to the general notion that the show, a misfit cartoon written by pranksters, yet executed like the finest Shakespeare, is, indeed, the greatest comedy series of all time. Now, finally out on DVD (what a long wait it has been), with hilarious commentary tracks, and all golden 22 episodes in their entirety, season four is an essential for fans, and a godsend for fanatics who think Homer Simpson, in all his sweet natured, idiotic glory, is some kind of working class prophet.
In contemporary television comedy, perhaps no other show besides “Seinfeld” has ever presented so many story lines about utter failure and pulled them off with such bitter, and often loving humor. You can track the progress of failure throughout season four, right from the beginning, in “Kamp Krusty”, where Bart and Lisa attend the God-awful worst summer camp in the history of summer recreation programs, to the end, where, in “Krusty gets Kancelled”, Springfield’s resident clown falls out of favor, and loses his cushy job, in lieu of a wise-cracking ventriloquist dummy named Gabbo. The misfortunes go beyond the Krusty brand seal of approval: in “Mr. Plow”, Homer’s successful snow removal business is derailed when a vengeful God brings upon an unusually early summer, leaving the loveable doofus with only a jacket and a jingle, as the repo-men haul away his truck. In the wonderful pageant satire, “Lisa the Beauty Queen”, Lisa’s stint as Little Miss Springfield (made possible when the real winner is struck down by lightning) is thwarted when she rails against the corrupt Mayor Quimby and Laramie Cigarettes. Other prime examples: the shoddy monorail (conducted by Homer, ridden by the likes of Krusty the clown and Leonard Nimoy) in “Marge vs. the Monorail”, Bart’s broken heart when he falls for the older next door neighbor in “New Kid on the Block”, and Ralph Wiggum’s similar heartbreak in “I Love Lisa”; it seemed like a particularly difficult year to be a resident of Springfield, USA.
But for all of the misfortunes, each episode usually always ends with a thoroughly happy, if decidedly ironic resolution. Lisa’s beauty pageant debacle showed her how much her father really cares for her (a recurring theme throughout the first five seasons), while the survivors of Kamp Krusty are treated to a weekend in Tijuana, replete with cock-fighting and a drunken Krusty, who, by the way, wins out in the season ender, getting his job back after Gabbo inadvertently badmouths the kids of Springfield, on air. In “Whacking Day”, Lisa, Bart, and Barry White save thousands of doomed snakes from a most certain death, in “Homer’s Triple Bypass”, Homer’s constant heart attack’s ends with a successful surgery by Dr. Nick Riviera (perhaps his one and only successful operation), and in “Last Exit to Springfield”, union kingpin Homer ends a brutal workers revolt when Mr. Burns gives into his demand for a better dental plan, if, and here’s the kicker, Simpson resigns as union president. Only on “The Simpsons” could the dumbest man in town stare down the richest and most powerful, at risk of permanent unemployment, and win because his opponent thinks he’s a brilliant strategist, when really he just didn’t want to pay full price for his daughters braces. In the end, the good guys usually come out on top, but when they don’t (Mr. Plow, the monorail disaster, Homer’s futile attempt to be a Big Brother in “Brother From the Same Planet”, Lisa’s hamster experiment in “Duffless”), it’s not for lack of care, just slight indifference in the face of overwhelming circumstances.
Here now, in order to properly pay respect to this great batch of television history, I’ve devised a list of my personal favorite episodes, each one a testament to the shows sense of satire and disregard for everyday normalcy. In descending order, though they are all equally impressive:
10. The Front: A classic send up and self-parody of television animated writing, with Abe Simpson unwittingly winning an Emmy for writing an “Itchy & Scratchy” episode, without ever having seen it before. This one also features Homer’s high school reunion, where he wins an award for “Most Hair Lost”, amongst other dubious distinctions.
9. Kamp Krusty: The season premiere, written by David M. Stern, in his single best season as one of the shows featured writers. When Bart and his minions overthrow the poor camp and its nasty councilors, he assumes a Kurtzian stronghold, only relenting when Krusty personally flies in from Wimbledon to broker a negotiation.
8. Duffless: Also by Stern, the famous episode where Homer visits the Duff brewery and gets his license revoked for drunk driving. The final homage to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, with Homer and Marge riding double on a bicycle, singing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” is perfectly charming.
7. Homer the Heretic: One of the series’ very best religious satires; Homer gives up church because it’s boring, inconvenient, and, well, he’d rather loaf about in his robe, watching football and reading Playdude. “Don’t worry honey,” he says to a questioning Lisa, “if I’m wrong, I’ll recant on my deathbed.” Watch for the shower scene where Homer sings “Delilah” by Tom Jones, it’s a savvy precursor to Jones’ own guest appearance four episodes later in “Marge Gets a Job”.
6. Marge Vs. the Monorail: The first episode written by Conan O’Brien is a spoof on “The Music Man”, and features one of the funniest musical numbers in ‘Simpsons’ history, “The Monorail Song”, with Homer, as usual, badly out of synch.
5. Selma’s Choice: Once again, a great script by David M. Stern; a fantastic episode with Selma, Lisa and Bart enjoying a hectic trip to Duff Gardens, while Homer’s misadventures with a rancid 20-foot submarine sandwich leaves him pale and shivering.
4. Mr. Plow: More a story about the friendship between Homer and drunkard Barney Gumble than about the snow plow industry, this episode features the catchy jingle: “Call Mr. Plow, that’s my name, that name again is Mr. Plow!” How beautifully simplistic.
3. A Streetcar Named Marge: The second episode of the season is another superb musical as Mage gets the lead in a musical rendition of the famous Tennessee Williams play and realizes the parallels between Stanley and Homer are uncanny. The cinematic referencing, giving props to everything from “The Great Escape” to “The Birds” is unusually strong in this funny episode.
2. Last Exit to Springfield: Voted the best episode in the 15 year history of the series by Entertainment Weekly, this masterpiece, directed by the prolific Mark Kirkland, about labor negotiations, has plenty of highlights, including Lisa’s “Yellow Submarine” hallucination, Homer’s ridiculous victory floor walk, his painfully bad appearance on Kent Brockman’s “Smartline”, and Lisa’s wonderful protest song, “so we’ll march day and night, by the big cooling tower, they have the plant, but we have the power.” It doesn’t get much better.
1. Lisa’s First Word: The only reason I’d rank this higher than ‘Last Exit’ is because it’s probably the seasons best example of “The Simpsons” trademark mix of wit and heart. After telling Bart and Lisa the story of Lisa’s birth in 1983 (at the time, in his terrible two’s, Bart was a real terror, naturally), and the origin of her first word (it was “Bart”), he puts baby Maggie to sleep while the older kids fight downstairs. “You know Maggie,” he says, “the sooner kids talk, the sooner they talk back, I hope you never say a word.” But she does, one heartwarming utterance, unheard by its intended recipient: “Daddy”, and in that beautiful word, it’s as if all of the snarky jabs and the ironic ‘80’s discourse of the previous 22 minutes, including a running gag about Bart and Lisa’s inability to call Homer, “father”, washes away with a moment of pure familial love. Call me a sentimentalist if you will, but in a season filled with memorable moments, Maggie’s loving whisper is the icing on the cake.
by Adam Suraf