Simpsons Season 4

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lukpac
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Simpsons Season 4

Postby lukpac » Mon Jun 21, 2004 10:36 am

Picked this one up on Tuesday (Best Buy's 'Reward Zone' comes in handy). So far I'm about 2/3 of the way through watching the episodes with commentary. I've looked at a few of the extras, but not any of the deleted scenes yet.

The DVDs seem to be put together pretty well. The menus are pretty good, and there's an option on the main menu of each disc to play all episodes with or without commentary. The transfers seem pretty good as well. I remember season 1 (and maybe season 2 to an extent) had issues with MPEG compression noise, but everything here looks great to me. I've seen comments complaining that certain lines (usually in the background) aren't solid, but to me it just looks like how the shows were drawn/produced, rather than some issue with the DVDs.

The episodes are some of the show's best IMO, although I hesitate to say "best season ever". The next few seasons were great too, and I love 2 and 3 just as much as 4 (I've seen a lot of people more or less pan those two seasons, often citing the "crude" animation).

Funny note - the rotten sub sandwich from Selma's Choice was actually inspired by Al Jean. Apparently he actually had 3 feet of a leftover sub from a party that he kept eating and eating, until it made him sick. "Oh, how could I stay mad at you?"

One minor quibble, which applies to season 3 as well - on the commentary tracks the show dialog is almost impossible to hear whenever somebody is saying something for the commentary. I seem to remember being able to hear the show dialog better on the first two seasons. It was nice to be able to hear both at the same time and mentally filter what you wanted to pay attention to.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby lukpac » Mon Jun 21, 2004 10:48 am

I can't remember offhand who said it, but somebody cracked a good one on one of the commentary tracks. "Yeah, things were so different back then. A Bush in office, war in Iraq, depression..."
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Xenu » Mon Jun 21, 2004 11:46 am

Luke, did you take advantage of the FYE sale by any chance?
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Postby lukpac » Mon Jun 21, 2004 12:13 pm

Nope. I already have seasons 1-3, so I didn't really need to buy them again.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Patrick M » Mon Jun 21, 2004 1:35 pm

The FYE sale irked me so much that I didn't buy S4. (Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face?) I guess I'll wait till S5 comes out and they run some kind of bundle sale.

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Postby lukpac » Mon Jun 21, 2004 1:59 pm

I thought $31.99 at BB was pretty good.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Rspaight » Mon Jun 21, 2004 2:10 pm

It was $29.99 at BB down here. Nyaah.

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Postby lukpac » Mon Jun 21, 2004 2:57 pm

Yeah, well I only paid $1.99 anyway (RZ).
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD