Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Good viewing: animated shows on DVD

Within the lifetime of most college students, television has expanded from three major networks to six. One would be correct to complain that there is little more quality programming to show for this massive increase in air time.

However, in television’s dreary skull-and-tumbleweed landscape, most of the past two decades’ memorable programs have found life outside the old triumvirate. “The X-Files” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” are two golden examples of (at times) brilliant shows that would never have made the cut at ABC, NBC or CBS.

But what the newer networks (Fox, in particular) can most be proud of is their role in establishing this era we now enjoy, the Golden Age of the Animated Sitcom.

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The standard, live-action situation comedy is an increasingly mundane investigation of relationships between living, breathing stereotypes. Every offering is parenthetically described as either “family-oriented” or “edgy,” but never accurately as “clever” or “funny.”

Animated series have provided relief. At the forefront, of course, we find “The Simpsons.”

Its preposterously long run (now in season 15) is a testament to the long-unfulfilled public need for good satire on a weekly basis. The popularity of animated programs in general can be traced undeniably to the Simpsons Boom of the early ’90s.

Now, as the DVD age becomes entrenched, we can thank “The Simpsons” again for reminding us that we don’t have to be slaves to the commercial break and the harsh, mindless editing of money-grubbing syndicators.

Thus far, seasons 1, 2 and 3 have found their way to DVD in beautifully packaged boxed sets, including occasional extra tidbits and commentary tracks for each episode. There is hope that later seasons will arrive with increased rapidity, but currently there is a 10-month delay expected between releases, placing the fourth-season release sometime this summer.

With the prime seasons (3 through 7 or so, depending on whom you ask) just seeing the light of day, the releases can’t come fast enough. But what we have right now is entertaining and valuable.

Over the first three seasons, a viewer may observe a tremendous evolution has taken place.

The first season’s DVD set is like an old photo album, featuring many an acne-laden portrait with ill-fitting collared shirts and embarrassing bang-style haircuts. But there are plenty of hints of what the mature entity will become, like in Bart’s French adventure in “The Crepes of Wrath.”

“So basically I met one nice French person,” the iconic miscreant offhandedly mentions near the episode’s conclusion.

More intriguing are the glimpses of the creative process — particularly in the audio commentary tracks, in which creator Matt Groening and others reveal that they had almost no idea what they were doing.

Season 2 begins to demonstrate some of the show’s most important characteristics: a blatant disregard for continuity, and a penchant for introducing recurring characters at a pace no live-action show could hope to emulate.

The season’s most important landmark may be the first “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween episode. Like many of the early shows, it doesn’t quite stand up to the finest episodes that would follow. But it demonstrates the “anything goes” quality of cartoons that the show’s creators were just starting to fully grasp.

Episodes like “Flaming Moe’s” in Season 3 confirm that “The Simpsons,” as a phenomenon, had arrived. Celebrity guest voices (in this case, Aerosmith) became standard, and perfect satire (an introduction to “Flaming Moe’s” as a less-friendly “Cheers”) was the norm.

There are weaker episodes (the season premiere, “Stark Raving Dad,” loses its luster halfway through), and there are more landmarks (“Black Widower” presents Kelsey Grammar’s “Sideshow Bob” as Bart’s recurring nemesis). Most profoundly, the focus in Season 3 begins to shift from Bart (“This Century’s Dennis the Menace”) to Homer, the archetypal stupid, fat, lazy, incompetent American father.

Viewing a show like “The Simpsons” on DVD with perfect sound and picture (never available to us non-cable viewers of Fox’s early affiliates), scenes cut for syndication now restored, and without the annoyance of commercial interruption gives a glimpse of a beautiful world beyond ad-based programming.

If they can increase the rate of release so that a new season is available every few months, many of us need never watch network television again.

Now we know why releases are scheduled so far apart.

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