Rating: 
Summary: The Simpsons' Odyssey
Review: The rough animation and slower humor of the first season is in sharp contrast to the caustic satire of politics and the American lifestyle the writers would adopt for later seasons of the Simpsons. The show also relies heavily on the antics of the "bad-boy" behavior of Bart, evidenced by the prank phone calls and generally sub-par intellect of Bart that would be phased out by the third season, moving more to the socially relevant scripts.
In December 1989, America got it's first glimpse at the Simpsons in it's half hour format, with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which we see an early critique through the Simpson writers of the prototypical American family. Being the first produced half hour episode of the historic franchise, the Simpsons' wily dog Santa's Little Helper is absent in "Bart the Genious", which showcases the underachieving intellect of Bart that would be symbollic of the show in it's earlier years.
The show in it's first season borrows much of the personalities from it's time as crude filler material on The Tracey Ullman Show, taking another season to evolve to what the show would become for the next 6 years. Also, in the 13 episodes, the writers were very eclectic in the selection of characters as the center of each episode.
The season should be an eye opener to people as to how shows evolve over the course of years. The Simpsons in it's incipient stages on DVD is a must have for any fan.
Rating: 
Summary: A Gem
Review: This is a must buy for sure. The episodes may look badly animated, and they may not be as funny as the newer episodes, but I still laughed and laughed as the Simpsons crawled their way to fame. The Simpsons is the funniest tv show out there along side Family Guy. As for the episodes in this collection
well I can't complain. They are a very good start. There is only one episode in this season I didn't like and that was Moaning Lisa. I'll rate each episode out of 10.Simpsons Roating On An Open Fire....7/10 Bart The Genius....7/10 Homers Odyssey....6/10 There's No Disgrace Like Home....8/10 Bart The General....8/10 Moaning Lisa....5/10 (The only episode I didn't really care for) Call Of The Simpsons....8/10 The Telltale Head....7/10 Life On The Fast Lane....7/10 Homer's Night Out....6/10 The Crepes Of Wrath....9/10 (My favorite episode of the season) Krusty Gets Busted....8/10 Some Enchanted Evening....7/10 So, I really recommend this set because you get to see the Simpsons back when they first came out. And soon we should have all the 15 seasons on dvd.
Rating:
Summary: hilarity ensues somehow in ever episode
Review: hilarious from first to 13th episode
I remember when I first got into this show
age 14 or 15. laughed at every episode
quite an interesting family the simpsons are
homer: the complete idiot sometimes, moron donut loving father trys to be good to his kid when he doesn't strangle bart almost alot in some episodes
Bart: the smart ass son of homer who sometimes gets away with things he shouldn't
Lisa: the genious sister of Bart
Maggie or Maggy: the quiet "sucking sound on nutcher" baby who sometimes adds comedy with just the sucking of her pacifier
Marge: the loving try not to fight mother who won't let her son bart get out of hand
Grandpa Simpson: the slightly forgetful, loving grandpa to the simpson kids
glad I got this on dvd
Patty and Selma simpson: (marge's 2 sisters: sarcaastic one liners sometimes, smoke alot.
Rating:
Summary: Most. Underrated. Season. Ever
Review: Altough I can realise why some people who dislike plots and seeing different sides of the characters will not like the first season, I loved it. The animation isn't quite up to today's standards (okay, it looks like crap), but I stopped noticing that after a couple of episodes. It lacks the satirical edge of the later seasons, but makes up for it with some incredibly entertaining storylines ("Bart the General" are among my all - time favorite episodes). Overall, I'd give this three stars if it weren't for the fantastic storylines.
Rating:
Summary: Great start to a Great sitcom
Review: Ok, it is very well known that the first(and maybe even the second) season of "The Simpsons" are not the best....BUT, that is only when comparing them to the rest of the sitcom's seasons.
You must realize that season 1 is what started it all. I remember when the show started. Everyone loved it...Everyone watched it and everyone talked about it. Today, "The Simpsons" have become so big and sooooooo hilarious, that we look back on the first season and say "Yuck"
Well, I challenge you hard-core fans to pick this DVD up and watch it and remember how ground-breaking that season was. Watch it and feel a sense of nostalgia when Homer goes to the track on Christmas. Watch it with the audio commentary playing, to hear what the writers were thinking and what inspired these timeless characters. Watch it and foreshadow how events happening in season 1 will effect what our characters say and do in following seasons.
Sure, season 1 is not nearly as funny as the rest, but it is still a DVD well worth purchasing and watching.
I have it and would not get rid of it for anything!!!!!
Long live "The Simpsons"!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Simpsons - The Complete First Season
Review: The first year the Simpsons were out. Such good story lines and such good quotes. The Simpsons have made their benchmark and they will keep on going until the world is gone! Here are the episodes of the first season.
17-Dec-1989 The Simpson's Christmas Special: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
14-Jan-1990 Bart the Genius
21-Jan-1990 Homer's Odyssey
28-Jan-1990 There's No Disgrace Like Home
04-Feb-1990 Bart the General
11-Feb-1990 Moaning Lisa
18-Feb-1990 The Call of the Simpsons
25-Feb-1990 The Telltale Head
18-Mar-1990 Life on the Fast Lane (a.k.a. Jacques to Be Wild)
25-Mar-1990 Homer's Night Out
15-Apr-1990 The Crepes of Wrath
29-Apr-1990 Krusty Gets Busted
13-May-1990 Some Enchanted Evening
Rating:
Summary: Look at it with fresh eyes!
Review: Wow. I didn't expect the reviews of Season 1 to be so overwhelmingly negative.
I've discovered something interesting. "The Simpsons" is like politics. Two people look at the very same thing, but come to incredibly different conclusions that seem to directly contradict each other. I'm beginning to understand why Washington is so bitterly partisan. But I digress!
I'll come out and say it: I love these thirteen quirky little films. I know many people have been denouncing them as unfunny, poorly animated, awkward-looking, and slowly-paced. You can make a case for all these arguments---humor is always subjective---but it's important to view things in context. The causually negative reviews seem like an odd case of amnesia. As awful as you might think these are, just 15 short years ago they had critics and audiences alike rolling on the floor. They were, to put it bluntly, groundbreakers. Things have caught up, as they always do, and have made the innovators look old-fashioned.
People begin a television series knowing full well that if they get to make more seasons, the show will inevitably change. Things develop, characters are fleshed out, awkward ideas are dropped, the internal logic works itself out.
What if "The Simpsons" had been a ratings failure, loved by critics and audiences but cancelled after just one or two seasons? This first season would be a cult classic today, and there would have been mounds of unfulfilled potential, something that pervades any first season of any show. Homer can't go into space yet--we've got to get to know him first!
What one thinks of this first season (and what what thinks of the current seasons) depends on what they like about the show to begin with. It seems that those who just love the comedy element, the razor-sharp timing, breakneck jokes and topical jabs, and goofy characters doing crazy things, are in love with the modern show and scratch their heads over this disk. Others love the comedy too, but they also love the show as the story of these characters, this goofy family that wormed its way into our hearts, corny as that sounds. They feel that comedy is even better with a little dramatic backdrop to give it some urgency. They don't just laugh at the characters, they feel for them a little, too. The slower pace of these early stories and the more character-oriented dialogue fit right in with that sensibility.
I agree with the reviewer who said that these shows seem to be less out-and-out comedies than funny family sitcoms with a dramatic tinge. From what the commentaries suggest, it seems it was largely the influence of James L. Brooks that gave it that element. I miss it a lot. As the show got funnier and funnier, it gradually lost the warmth. (These days, as someone else pointed out, it's also lost a lot of maturity.) The best balance between humor and warmth was achieved, I think, in seasons 2 through 4. After that the show was incredibly funny, but it rarely ever had the sincerity that seems to color this first, half-season. Don't forget, they were in uncharted waters. It was very unlikely in anyone's mind that the show would take off the way it did. Matt Groening was right when he referred to season one as "a series of wild experiments that succeeded beyond our dreams". They were appealing to anyone out there who would tune in and give the show a chance. Kids were a bonus, but it was the adults who mattered.
What I regret is how "The Simpsons" seems to have been taken over by a "Comic-Book Guy" mentality, only speaking to people who have seen every episode, memorize lines, and know a lot of trivia. What about outsiders? This DVD represents the sweat and blood of people who believed enough in this premise to put it out there before the prime-time audiences of America and see what would happen.
Do yourself a favor. Forget everything. Forget "Simpsons-mania". Forget Emmy awards. Forget "fans". Forget "DVD extras". Forget phrases like "worst episode ever!" This is just a show on television. You're flipping the channels and you come across this weird cartoon family misbehaving in an opera balcony. What the hell is this? Is this about a yellow bug family or something?
You're curious, and you put down the remote. You view all of this with fresh eyes. See it for the first time. ("What's the name of the mom, again? That weird old guy the father works for is funny. Hey, that principal kinda reminds me of my uncle. Omigod, Bart is just like my cousin! Say, what state do they live in?")
If you simply don't like these episodes, even in that context, then that's that. Again, everything's subjective. But if you can view these films on their own terms, blotting out what would come later, you may find it's like being reintroduced to some old friends.
The animation is crude and quirky, but if you know a little about how television animation is produced, you'll know that it's a system where you don't always know who in Asia will be working on what, whether you've got an A crew or a B crew, or how closely the final thing will reflect your carefully made plans. The overseas system, thankfully, has gotten much better in the last fifteen years, thus so has quality-control.
Besides, I think it's fun to see the familiar characters moving in fluid, rubbery ways and occasionally distorting into weird shapes. As for the voices, while some of them have changed drastically over time, the performances themselves are mostly as good as they ever were. At times I do find some of Harry Shearer's (Skinner, Smithers, Flanders) performances a little flat, but he settled in very quickly.
(side note: I don't buy the "Bart-centric" myth at all. If you actually look at these (and season 2)one by one, there are less Bart-centered stories versus ones built around Homer and others. Bart was certainly the one who was merchandised to death early on and was the talk of parents and teachers, but it was totally overblown. Remove all that and he's just one main character out of four. Okay, five.)
To conclude, this DVD contains a very different animal than the one that's on today, and even the classic seasons that followed it. But it's a show that was raw, honest, and for the time, edgy. Watching it, you'll see that it could have developed in several different directions than the one it did. This makes it historically interesting to fans, but forget about us. Casual buyers who never really got into the show should pick this up to see what all the shouting was about fifteen years ago. I dare 'em not to at least grin.
Rating:
Summary: "Simpson, Eh? I Shall Remember That Name!"
Review: All of the many complete-season, multi-disc DVD Collector's Sets of "The Simpsons" are first-rate products, IMO. Including this fine first-season 3-Disc collection, which was originally released by 20th-Century Fox on September 25, 2001. This set includes the first 13 episodes of this now-infamous animated TV program, which stars the most likeable dysfunctional family you'll ever encounter -- along with many other assorted quirky friends, relatives, neighbors, teachers, book-store operators, bartenders, and nuclear power plant employees.
Each of the now-several DVD sets of "The Simpsons" includes abundant Special Bonus Features -- extra footage, commercials, Audio Commentaries for each and every episode, and lots more. Plus very nice video and audio quality as well. In addition, each "Simpsons" DVD collection includes a very nicely-done and handy multi-page booklet, which gives a wealth of information about the programs in that season set.
I think a lot of people who have purchased this first-season (1989-1990) DVD set might be saying (like I did): "Hey, that first year of the show wasn't so bad after all". In fact, I found most of these 13 programs very funny, indeed.
Sure, the voices sound slightly different than in subsequent seasons; but overall, Homer and his gang can still tickle your funny-bone more often than any other single TV program I can think of.
Each of "The Simpsons" DVD sets is (alone) worth purchasing for the hilariously-oddball antics of one Mr. C. Montgomery Burns. There are a boundless number of famous and smile-inducing "Monty-isms" contained within the many "Simpsons" full-season DVD boxed sets. Such as.........
>> "Well, that's odd -- I've just robbed a man of his livelihood, and yet I feel strangely empty. Tell you what, Smithers -- have him beaten to a pulp."
>> "I'm looking for something in an attack dog. One who likes the sweet gamey tang of human flesh. Hmmm, why here's the fellow ... wiry; fast; firm, proud buttocks. Reminds me of me."
>> "Look at them, Smithers! -- Goldbrickers! Layabouts! Slug-a-beds! Little do they realize their days of suckling at my teat are numbered!"
>> "I could crush him like an ant. But it would be too easy. No, revenge is a dish best served cold. I'll bide my time until ... Oh, what the hell; I'll just crush him like an ant."
ROFL!!
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So, kids of Springfield, if you know what's good for ya, pick up this inaugural-season Digital Disc set of "The Simpsons". *
* = And you'd better get all subsequent DVD season sets as well -- or else you just might find yourself face-to-hilarious-face with Montgomery Burns, with Monty uttering those four dreaded words that we all fear ..... "Smithers, release the hounds!" :)
Rating:
Summary: The beginning of an institution!
Review: ...Mental institution, that is! The Simpsons have been gradually getting funnier and better every season and this is where it all started. It seems kind of funny watching the somewhat crude animation and Homer's funny voice (not to mention Barney's yellow hair!), but this was pretty cutting edge in 1989, so to speak. Bart the General, Bart the Genius and Krusty gets Busted are among my favorites, although there aren't really bad episodes. Wether you're a Simpsons noob or have been watching the Simpsons BEFORE the Simpsons religiously (Tracey Ullman, Inside Herman's Head), this set should be a must for any TV fan, if not just a must period.
Rating:
Summary: Origin of Species
Review:
Here is where it all began. A lot of people complain about the relative shoddiness of these early episodes. It is true that the season is rather crude compared to the next two seasons, which in my opinion are the best Simpsons shows of all.
But it is necessary to distinguish ineptitude from primitiveness. When the show began in 1989-90, the Simpsons show was still being born. The show was initially a family sit com, aimed much more at people Bart Simpson's age; and Bart was considered to be the main character (remember those days?)
The crudity of all elements in this series is like seeing Predynastic Egyptian art, or Archaic Greek sculpture - it is weirdly fascinating. I love being able to see all the possibilities that existed, before the characters and style were formalised and standardised in Season Four. I like hearing Bart Simpson *first* saying "don't have a cow" - and sayiong lot of other things that seem totally out of place. I like seeing Lisa first showing signs of her later character, while basically being a female Bart.
Besides, these shows have heart. The home-made quality of Season One and Two is very appealing and warm, somehow, as if the writers actally cared about ther characters. The show was not a complete comedy at first - the writers could pull out the somber and unforgettale masterpiece "Moaning Lisa" with its classic jazz scene, and also the adultery-tale of "On the Fast Lane". These classic episodes are not *supposed* to be that funny. Many newer episodes totally sacrifice drama - they all sort of meld into each other as a random set of skits - while every single episode in Seasons One to Three has its own distinct style.
The classics "Krusty Gets Busted" and "Crepes of Wrath", moreover, point the way the show would go in future, with their cynicism and hilarious plots.
If you are at all interested in the more primitive and personable episodes that began the Simpsons boom, then buy this DVD set!!!
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