The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season DVD

[coltonwiggum]

After they release the Bart and the Lisa head... does anyone know what the DVD cases will be? I remember awhile ago reading on this site someone mentioned buiuldings of Springifeld, but do we have any solid information? I can't wait for this season. It might not be as good as previous seasons, but I feel it is excellent.

[Charlie]

The "buildings of Springfield" thing, I'm pretty sure, was just an idea for a theme that a member came up with. I think it was in the S8 thread.

[film_girl]

I say after the OFF heads, they should just revert to the regular boxes, period. I like the special heads, but they ARE sort of cumbersome. I'd imagine, if they continue past Lisa/Bart, that they would probably just go for favorite characters, like Apu, Burns, etc.

[Greased Scotsman]

I'm gonna get S9, plus every single season after that. Mainly because I'm a die-hard fan, but I really like most of the episodes in the Scully era, some as much as eps from S1-8.

I would happily watch half of S9's episodes over "My Sister, My Sitter" any day.

Also, bit of trivia: this will be the first DVD set to feature commentaries from showrunners from three separate eras (Scully, Jean & Reiss, Oakley & Weinstein, as they all showran episodes in this season).

[42 Is The Answer]

The reason that this season is special to me is that it marks the last appearance of the greatest guest star ever- Phil Hartman. That alone makes this season worth buying.

Also, as long as there's speculation on what other 'head' boxes there could be, a Sideshow Bob one would be awesome.

[grissom]

The reason that this season is special to me is that it marks the last appearance of the greatest guest star ever- Phil Hartman. That alone makes this season worth buying.

Actually Phil's last appearance is in season 10, in Bart The Mother.

[Billy]

Dammit, you're all talking about Series 9 already? The UK doesn't even have the Series 8 DVD yet!

Series 9's pretty good, although it was aired about a million times by Sky One in the late 90s, and about a million more times in the last year or two. It actually contains my favourite Simpsons episode ever, Simpson Tide.

Regarding the New York one...no, I'm pretty much certain they won't touch it. I've actually got most of the uncut version on tape from a September 2000 Sky One showing, but it'll be good to have it in full. The Cartridge Family, on the other hand, is my least seen Series 9 episode - it didn't air here until October 2001, and Sky One didn't air it until last September. Million to one shot, but I wonder if they'll mention that in the commentaries - it got mentioned in the SNPP capsule, anyway.

It's so weird that I remember watching these episodes when they were just a few months old, and now, they're basically halfway through the entire run of the show.

[Charlie]

Regarding the New York one...no, I'm pretty much certain they won't touch it. I've actually got most of the uncut version on tape from a September 2000 Sky One showing, but it'll be good to have it in full.

I have a few copies of it on tape, mainly because when it aired a few times last year I wasn't certain if I already had a copy of it or not . Not long ago I actually went through my tapes to watch a lot of season 9 episodes, and I have to say, it's an impressive season, even though there's a few episodes I don't like (such as The Trouble With Trillions). It also has a lot of episodes I haven't yet seen, like THOH 8, Dummbell Indemnity, and The Last Temptation of Krust.

EDIT: Reading through the capsule for "Trash of the Titans", I found in the comments section several articles that show how evident the decline was in season nine:

CAPSULE HERE

If you don't feel like having a look, here's the "highlights":

>> Local nut at it again

The newspaper headline could possibly be a jab at capsule lovin' folk such
as ourselves. Internet fans have been complaining recently that all the
new episodes are not decent family-based episodes, but whacky Homer
adventures.

IMO, there wasn't many wacky Homer adventures in Season 9. Season 10 and 11 were A LOT worse, with almost every episode being a Homer one. But still, at least the viewers knew something wasn't right back then.

>> What's with the animation?

At the time of the airing, various people complained that the animation on
this episode was below standard. Ben Collins explains why this could be:
The Korean production company Anivision (the clowns behind "The Cartridge
Family," "Lisa the Skeptic," "The Joy of Sect," and other badly-animated
Season 9 episodes) may have had something to do with this episode's poor
animation quality. There are obvious differences among Korean houses.
Akom's work tends to be clean, slick, and professional. Rough Draft is
somewhat less refined but well-angled and focused, with the best color
choices. Anivision specializes in lousy colors, misshapen figures
(especially the eyes), and generally unfinished-looking, sloppy work.

I know they are solely talking about Anivision's crappy animation, but I thought I would point out, Season 9 did have a few terribly animated episodes. One, The Trouble With Trillions (which I think was pretty terrible story and animation-wise) was by Akom. Once again, though, this problem was more evident in Season 10 -- the three S10 Anivision episodes had godawful animation, and even Akom ones (like "Homer To The Max") had characters looking horribly off-model.

And finally, a review of this episode that stuck out to me:

Executive Producer Mike Scully has a very Fox-like idea of how
a Simpsons episode should work. "Let's put in big-name special guest
voices (no matter how useless their roles are), create a musical number
(no matter how dumb), base it around any plot (no matter how retarded) and
the Poochie fans in South Park Land will love it. Oh yeah, and it doesn't
matter who or what writes it; just because we found Ian Maxtone-Graham at
a 'Write a Simpsons Episode' contest doesn't mean he can ruin THIS kewl
combination." Mike Scully has no idea what he's talking about.

The bits in bold are the bits that reminded me a lot of the Scully bashing we see here at NHC.

I really do like this season, but it does have it's faults, and I thought it would be interesting to point out what people thought of Season 9 when it originally aired.

[Adam R]

The Cartridge Family, on the other hand, is my least seen Series 9 episode - it didn't air here until October 2001, and Sky One didn't air it until last September.

We did get it on Too Hot For TV though, I rented that not long after it came out. Also, it will be weird to have these on DVD because of how good memory of have of seeing some of them new, as you said Billy. Season 11 will be when it starts getting weird for me, I started finding out about what the episode was going to be about and titles before it aired from there onwards.

[Charlie]

*shudder* I got Too Hot For TV on DVD last year. Now, I'm over those 4 episode ompilations, however it does sometimes make for an interesting watch, especially for those episodes I don't have on the other DVD sets (eg: Cartridge Family, Das Bus)

[Drunk Barney]

I'll look forward to Season 9, and will certianly buy it. Infact I don't think its a massive drop from Season 8. There's plenty of classic material and episodes left and the humour is much better than anything produced from 10 to current. The commentries with Scully will be a bit more intresting I think. And we still have Bill&Josh, Mirkin, Jean and Jean&Reiss to intresting things further.

[Charlie]

Also, bit of trivia: this will be the first DVD set to feature commentaries from showrunners from three separate eras (Scully, Jean & Reiss, Oakley & Weinstein, as they all showran episodes in this season).

Actually it's only the first to feature episodes by three different showrunners. Season 6 had FOUR different showrunners on it (even though there were only two different showrunner's episodes in that season. They were Mirkin, Jean & Reiss, Oakley & Weinstein, and Scully)

[Postmaster]

^
The best way to put it is, it'll be the only set to feature episodes executive produced by 4 different showrunners. Mike Scully doesn't count on 6,7&8 because he didn't showrun the episodes, He's just along with an EP.

[garret]

Even if Scully wont talk about fan hatred of episodes, it'll be interesting to hear his twisted reasoning for things (pandarapelolz). And I seriously doubt that they'll post pone the DVD because of the twin towers content. The reason it was pulled from so many places in the first place was out of respect, they weren't forced into it. It was a choice. As grissom said, there's nothing offensive about the twin towers. They shouldn't always be remembered as burning dust piles...

[AngryDad33]

1. The City of New York v.s. Homer Simpson will not be edited

2. What's all this crap about "well this is the last good season of The Simpsons that's why I'm not going to by the other seasons" First of all if you think season 9 was the last good season there was then stop watching the newer episodes and then coming on here to rant about how bad the episode was. second of all I'm not saying these upcoming seasons after season 9 are the best but wouldn't you at least like to hear why they had a panda rape Homer and about other scenes you don't like.

3. Well I'm going all I have left to say is I can't wait to own this season.

[grissom]

2. What's all this crap about "well this is the last good season of The Simpsons that's why I'm not going to by the other seasons" First of all if you think season 9 was the last good season there was then stop watching the newer episodes and then coming on here to rant about how bad the episode was. second of all I'm not saying these upcoming seasons after season 9 are the best but wouldn't you at least like to hear why they had a panda rape Homer and about other scenes you don't like.

We're saying it's the last classic season, not the last season that was any good at all.

[garret]

And the whole "If you don't like it don't watch it" arguement is tired and annoying. A lot of people do still like it generally, they just don't think it's living up to it's full potential.

[poochied-d]

you know whats worst then watching simpsons episodes and then ranting about them on the internet? watching the simpsons going on the internet and making fun of people for doing it.

[hobojoejunkpan]

I haven't been on this thread. I too think that after the heads, they will go back to regular boxes. Lisa should be the next head box.
I'd like to see the Season 9 DVD release date be announced in October. I think it's usualy two months between the announcement and the release (which I hope is 12/12).

[Simpsons Forever!]

We did get it on Too Hot For TV though, I rented that not long after it came out. Also, it will be weird to have these on DVD because of how good memory of have of seeing some of them new, as you said Billy. Season 11 will be when it starts getting weird for me, I started finding out about what the episode was going to be about and titles before it aired from there onwards.

That is strange. I'm amazed how quickly these episodes seem to be coming out now. I started to become much more interested in The Simpsons at the time of Season 9, but I only started to know upcoming titles at the start of Season 12, which is a while away yet. And once this season is released, I'll own half of The Simpsons on DVD, which is also a weird thought.

[42 Is The Answer]

You'll own half of the Simpsons that have been produced thus far. Who knows how many DVD sets you'll have to buy to own half of the entire series, once it's finished.
I hope that they're able to get guest stars to sit in on the commentaries more often. Kelsey Grammer and Jeff Goldblum made for a refreshing change.

[AngryDad33]

And the whole "If you don't like it don't watch it" arguement is tired and annoying. A lot of people do still like it generally, they just don't think it's living up to it's full potential.

No No that's not what I'm saying I was just talking about the really negative people who talk about how the show should be cancelled. Obviously the show isn't as good as it was back in it's prime or maybe it's just the fact that my first episode of The Simpsons is Dumbbell Indemnity which means I started off with the Mike Scully seasons and I thought those were the best seasons at first. Now I like all of the seasons. But sorry for my first rant about some fans of the show.

[Ramier Wolfcastle]