Customer Reviews

The Simpsons - The Complete Seventh Season

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Full episode lists are available in several reviews here already, so I'll just say that The Simpsons was at its peak of creativity around this time (Season's 6 and 8 are also terrific) and there are some very fine, hilarious, and joke-dense episodes on this set. Treehouse Of Horror VI, King Size Homer, The Simpson's 138th Show Spectacular, Team Homer, Bart Sells His Soul, and 22 Short Films About Springfield are just some of the 25 terrific episodes on this set. Extra features, including the commentary, have been funny and informative on recent sets and add new dimensions of appreciation to the humor in these shows. All Simpsons fans will want to own this set. By the way, Fox Video, some of us would like a FULL SET of the shorts from the Tracy Ullman show on one of these sets.

I think each season of the Simpsons got better and then peeked with season 7. When you think of classic episodes most of them are here in this season. Some episodes include Who Shot Mr. Burns (part 2), the Radio Active Man movie,the episode where President Bush moves in across the street (Two Bad Neighbors), Bart Sells his Soul, and my personal favorite: King-Size Homer. Homer wearing a moo-moo for the entire episode was hilarious.

If you buy only one season of the Simpsons, this is the one to get.

There are probably reviewers who celebrate every Simpsons season as their "favorite." Season 7 is MY favorite! Really, it is. I do not claim that distinction on any other season. Season 7 is jammed with many of my favorite Simpsons eps ever (Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part 2), Radioactive Man, Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily, Bart Sells His Soul, Mother Simpson, Lisa the Iconoclast, The Curse of the Flying Hellfish, Much Apu About Nothing, etc.). In fact, the only episode in this season I do not care for is Bad Neighbors which, I think goes waaay over-the-top like many of the Simpsons eps in later seasons. This season also has my favorite Treehouse of Horror ep. But, the main reason Season 7 is my favorite is that it includes my all-time #1 Simpsons episode: KING-SIZE HOMER! If you have not seen this episode, buy this now!!! The DVD set is available in the stores in both the box case (with a camera window instead of a television set), or the head-shaped Marge Simpson limited edition case (I'm not sure if Amazon offers both). The box case has a picture of Marge's head on the inside. I favor the box case, as it is easier to use, in my opinion. It has the plastic flip holders for the DVDs which I didn't like on the Season Six set but they seem a lot sturdier in this set (it keeps moving around on my Season 6 set). The booklet is very cute. It is in the style of a newspaper with ads like "Casting Call" for Radioactive Man and Moe's Method Acting Academy. Like all Simpsons sets, it is packed with extras (deleted scenes, commentaries, "Homer in the Third Dimension" featurette, etc.).

Disc 1:
Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two): The classic ending to the two-parter. With all that Simpsons DNA evidence, it's obvious who did it, right?
Radioactive Man: A Radioactive Man movie is being filmed in Springfield. Bart lost out to Milhouse for the role of Fallout Boy but he'll make do with sucking up to him "like religious people suck up to God." Micky Rooney appears who was Best Child actor spanning two decades (1939-40).
Bart Sells His Soul: One of my favorites. Bart doesn't believe there is such things as souls so he sells his to Milhouse. He soon regrets this decision when strange things start happening to him. Moe also opens a family restaurant.
Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily: Definitely in my Top Ten all-time list. The county deems Marge and Homer unfit parents and sends them to parenting school while the Simpson kids are sent to a foster home with "the Flandersesssss!" So many great scenes here: "And throw your garbage in a garbage can people, I can't stress that enough," "The only thing I'm high on is Love, love for my son and daughters. Yes, a little LSD is all I need," Ned Flanders blowing the hallelujah horn. One of the funniest ever!
Lisa the Vegetarian: Lisa develops a self-righteous disdain for meat right before Homer's barbecue. Paul and the late Linda McCartney appear.
Treehouse of Horror VI: Very cool one where Groundskeeper Willie kills kids in their dreams, advertising signs wreak havoc, and Homer finds himself trapped in another dimension (3D). My favorite Treehouse of Horror.

Disc 2:
King-Size Homer: #1 on my personal Top Ten All-Time Simpsons Episode list! The funniest of all! If you haven't seen it (it's not shown in syndication much), it is worth the price of this DVD set alone! The premise: Homer wants to gain over 60 pounds to go on disability and live the good life. This is one goal where Homer succeeds Big-Time! Bart dreams of being lardo on workman's comp, "just like dad.": "I wash myself with a rag on a stick."
Mother Simpson: Homer always thought his mother died when he was a child, but she suddenly returns (Glenn Close) still on the lamb after destroying Mr. Burns' germ lab in the 1960s.
Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming: Sideshow Bob wants Springfield to give up TV or he will detonate a nuclear weapon. He ends up taking Bart hostage in the Wright Brothers' plane and trying to kill Krusty. The plane turns out not to be the best of weapons.
The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular: Celebrating a common milestone (yeah, right). Troy McClure hosts a show with clips never before seen. I love the one where Homer's head is used as a bowling ball and it breaks open with a note "I owe you one brain-Signed, God."
Marge Be Not Proud: I play this every Christmas. Bart really wants a violent video game "Bonestorm" but his mom thinks it costs too much. Bart tries to steal it but is caught by security. When Marge finds out, she decides she should stop babying Bart and Bart thinks his mom has stopped loving him. Has that sweet quality of earlier Simpsons episodes.
Team Homer: Homer is a member of a bowling team, to be known as the "Pin Pals," which has been unknowingly financed by Mr. Burns. When Burns discovers the team, he decides to join and Homer is afraid to tell him he's not good enough.
Two Bad Neighbors: The only episode here I do not like. Former President George Bush becomes Homer's neighbor and they don't get along well. Over-the-top.

Disc 3:
Scenes From the Class Struggle in Springfield: Marge's discounted Chanel suit catches the eye of a local socialite and Marge sets out to impress the stuck-up snobs so her family can join an exclusive country club.
Bart the Fink: Bart inadvertently exposes Krusty the Clown as a tax cheat. Krusty fakes his death to avoid the IRS. Bart and Lisa do not believe Krusty is dead and set out to track him down and convince him to return to his adoring fans. Bob Newhart gives a very Newhartian short speech at Krusty's memorial.
Lisa the Iconoclast: Another of my favorites! Lisa finds out the beloved town founder Jebediah Springfield was a traitorous pirate. She must decide whether to publish the truth or allowing the myth to continue.
Homer the Smithers: Forced to go on vacation, Smithers appoints Homer as his replacement to care for Mr. Burns. Burns pushes Homer over the edge and Homer hits him. Firing his replacement assistant, Burns realizes he can do things for himself and doesn't need Smithers. When Smithers returns, he and Homer try to devise a plan so Smithers can get his job back.
A Fish Called Selma: Actor Troy McClure must improve his public image to get film roles so he marries Selma.
The Day the Violence Died: An old hobo (voiced by Kirk Douglas) claims to have invented Itchy. He wins his case and, due to the settlement, the studio cannot afford to put out Itchy and Scratchy cartoons. Can Bart and Lisa save the violence? I love the "Amendment to Be" Schoolhouse Rock song.
Bart on the Road: Bart gets a fake ID and uses it to rent a car and take Milhouse, Nelson, and Martin to Knoxville to a World's Fair that was held 14 years earlier.

Disc 4:
22 Short Films About Springfield: Segments on Apu; Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers; Homer and Maggie; Bumblebee Man; Lisa and Marge; Milhouse, his dad, Police Chief Wiggum, and Snake in Herman's Military Antiques store; and Nelson getting his comeuppance.
Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish": During WWII, Grandpa Simpson entered into a contract with his platoon buddies whereby the last surviving member gets the Nazi treasure they recovered. It is now down to Grandpa and Mr. Burns and Burns would like to speed up Mother Nature. The attempts to kill Grandpa are hilarious.
Much Apu About Nothing: Proposition 24 (to deport all illegal aliens from Springfield) is on the ballot and Apu must become a U.S. citizen before it passes.
Homerpalooza: To prove to his kids that he's still cool, Homer obtains tickets to a popular music festival. He moves back into the "uncool" category when he joins a freak show at the event.
Summer of 4 Ft. 2: at Flander's beachhouse, Lisa meets some new kids who are unaware of her nerdish leanings. Lisa hopes to start anew with these kids and make friends, but Bart has other plans.

If you've looked through the reviews for Season Six, you'd find a lot of complaints about the box design. On the plus side, it was innovative, on the minus side...it wasn't very practical. They've gone ahead and remedied this by releasing the set in both styles.

Wanting to be able to stack my boxes, or at the very least, line them up on a shelf, I opted for the plain box. If you got the alternate box for Season Six, Season Seven's box follows suit in design, with a hole cut out for an eye to peek through (in this case, Marge).

A lot has improved. The case's style is better, and is less prone to loose DVDs like Seasons 1-5. The booklet now sports scenes from the actual episodes, as opposed to just a character shot or two. Very easy to just glance through the booklet, and know what episodes are there.

As far as the DVDs interface is concerned, it's nice. When you select an episode, and the menu comes up, a scene plays in the background. Nice touch. Special features aren't as plentiful as previous seasons, though that's not really terrible, just not as much as before. I really enjoyed the animatics from previous seasons, and I was a bit disappointed to not find one here. Commentary is great.

Episode-wise, this has some gems. King Sized Homer, where homer purposely gains 61 pounds to get on disability for obesity, the conclusion to Who Shot Mr. Burns, which has some great commentary on what happened with the contest. My favorite episode, 22 Short Films About Springfield, is also here, and the 138th episode spectacular, which is a great clip show (not many series can even boast a good clip show) It's got quite a few classics.

You really will enjoy this if you're a Simpsons fan. If you haven't been watching the series since season 1, and this may be your first time viewing season 7 material unedited, do pick this up. It's a great showing of the Simpsons at its prime

Best episode on this season is...

"King-Size Homer"
707 3F05
Original Airdate: 11/05/95

Sick of the workaday grind at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer comes up with a scheme to gain enough weight to be classified as disabled, thereby earning the right to work from home. With a target weight of 300 pounds in mind, he eats everything in site, including Maggie's Play-Doh. Fat as a tick, Homer is granted his wish to work from home, but it's not all he thought it would be when he finds that he's too fat to stop an imminent disaster in the plant's reactor core. The only thing big enough to stop the explosion is Homer's enormous body, which he manages to wedge into an exploding tank. Having saved the plant and the town, he is rewarded for his efforts with a free liposuction courtesy of Mr. Burns.

The Simpsons is one of the funniest TV shows ever made!! I'm an avid fan and have seen every single episode. When the Simpson's seventh season came out I bought it instantly. It is one of the best seasons by far. My favorite episode in this season is "Two Bad Neighbors." In this episode, former President Bush moves in next door to the Simpsons, and he gets into a feud with Homer. The famous "Who Shot Mr. Burns Part 2" is also on this set (Part 1 is in season 6). This is a great show and a great box set, so I hope you enjoy it as much as i do!! :-D

Starting off with the conclusion to the cliffhanger episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", the seventh season of The Simpsons continues to impress. The answer to the summer of 1995's biggest question surprised everyone by being both implausible and hilarious. From there, the episodes were consistently funny. With inclusions such as "Lisa the Vegetarian", which was alluded to in the previous season when we saw Lisa's future, "Radioactive Man", with great a great parody of the 1960s Batman series starring Adam West, the "Treehouse of Horror VI" which had the state-of-the-art 3D segment, "Bart on the Road" with the Knoxville World's Fair, and finally, "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", hosted by Troy McClure (Phil Hartman) and featuring deleted scenes and alternate endings to the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" mystery.
Season 7 occurred during the golden age of the show, when the writers' wit was at its sharpest. I can't think of a bad episode in the whole season, and many memorable lines came from this year, including Chief Wiggum's response to Homer in WSMB: "That's what they all say. They all say 'D'oh!'". Also, it's amazing how much stuff is cut out for syndication. Even if you've seen every episode on TV, it's worth it to buy this set to see what was cut.
So far, I've only listened to one commentary, the one on "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" (as you can see, I am a big fan of those two episodes). While the commentary for part one was amazing, and this one was still good, it wasn't as good as I was hoping. Still, it was fun to hear about how they had to declare a winner to the contest (you'll know what I'm talking about if you listen to the commentary in both episodes) even though no one got the answer right.
This is another great Simpsons set that every fan should own.

By the seventh series the Simpsons was established as one of the greatest programes of all time - including live action! They had done the impossible; They took a show about an average joe family, painted them yellow and made it both clever and funny at the same time. By the time this aired for the first time, those of us who had sky one settled down at six o'clock on a sunday evening to watch a never before episode, hoping that this one would be as good as the one last week. Well I was never dissapointed. Here is my personal quick rating to each episode.
1. Who Shot Mr Burns? (Part 2) - Always over-rated in my eyes 3/5
2. Radioactive Man - A nice episode 4/5
3. Home Sweet Home-Dum-Diddly-Doodly - Average 3/5
4. Bart Sells His Soul - The first classic episode 5/5
5. Lisa The Vegetarian - Above Average 4/5
6. Treehouse Of Horror VI - Always superb 5/5
7. King-Size Homer - Very funny. 4/5
8. Mother Simpson - Not one of my faves 2/5
9. Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming - Average 3/5
10. The Simpsons' 138th Show Spectacular - Different but good 4/5
11. Marge Be Not Proud - One of the most underrated ever 5/5
12. Team Homer - One of the funniest for sure 4/5
13. Two Bad Neighbours - Looks a bit dated now but ok 3/5
14. Scenes From A Class Struggle In Springfield - Above ave 4/5
15. Bart The Fink - Average 3/5
16. Lisa The Iconoclast - Above average 4/5
17. Homer The Smithers - V. Funny episode 4/5
18. The Day The Violence Died - Classic Itchy and Scratchy 4/5
19. A Fish Called Selma - Great episode 4/5
20. Bart On The Road - One of the best 5/5
21. 22 Short Films About Springfield - v. good 4/5
22. Raging Abe Simpson And His Grumbling Grandson In "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish" - Far-fetched but ok 3/5
23. Much Apu About Nothing - Above average 4/5
24. Homerpalooza - Over-rated episode 3/5
25. Summer Of 4'2" - The best episode of the season and in the top 10 episodes of all time 5/5

I,like many others, am a big fan of the Simpsons. Beeing unable to whatch the series on national TV I have to buy the episodes as they are released on DVD. I have all the compilations so far. The seventh season are not unlike the previous six. A nice pacage of all the episodes, interresting commentaries and some (not too much) extras. If you liked the previous six compilations, this one will not let you down. As expected, houres of fun and thought, and as always; lots of BIG stars playing as themselves in various episodes. Amusing.

The early part of the Simpsons usually revolved around Bart and his antics since he was deemed the "mascot" of the show. Then the show hit its stride, arguably starting during season 4 and became a clever satirical show that was funny and many inside jokes. While I wouldn't call recent seasons awful, the over-reliance on guest stars and zany plots made you appreciate the older episodes more so while season 7 isn't really the best season, it's certainly episode by episode one of the more stronger and consistent seasons. These are some highlights from each disc.

The season starts with part II of Who Shot Mr Burns which was kind of disappointing. While the resolution is fine, the awesomeness of Part I is kind of missing. Lisa the Vegetarian finds Lisa trying to do away with meat, only everyone's not into it. Rather unnecessary appearance by another Beatle, Paul McCartney and his wife at the time, Linda. In a nice change, Bart sells his soul for 5$ thinking it's for suckers only realizing he really did(in the episode titled, what else, Bart Sells His Soul.

Mother Simpson has Glenn Close appearing as Homer's thought-to-be-dead mother. Very funny and a quite touching ending. The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular has Troy hosting a special on the Simpsons with deleted scenes, footage from the Tracey Ullman shorts and alternate Who Shot Mr Burns animation. Favorite line: "now, here's what we all came to see: hardcore nudity!" Marge Be Not Proud finds Bart caught when he shoplifts and his mom doesn't act motherly anymore. Another sweet ending.

Lisa the Iconoclast has her uncovering a secret that completely can change Springfield's vision of their founder Jebediah Springfield. Normally Lisa episodes aren't very funny but this made me laugh at times. Homer the Smithers finds Homer having to care for Burns when Smithers leaves which you think would be easy. The Day the Violence Died has a bum claiming he was the creator of Itchy and Scratchy. Has a very weird but really cool ending.

22 Short Films about Springfield is a cool idea where events intersect in various ways. Much Apu about Nothing suddenly finds Apu in danger of being deported unless he can get his citizenship test aced, with Homer as his teacher. Season finale Summer of 4 Ft. 2 finds the family at Ned's summer house where Lisa tries to make new friends by being someone else.

By this time, a lot of the episodes were usually not classics but they were funny regardless. Even bad episodes had some funny moments. From Homer's fight with President Bush(the old one) to a flying barbecue pig to the Planet of the Apes parody, it's a pretty solid season. Only problem with the season is that the Simpson best episodes aren't as apparent. Besides select ones like 22 Short Films, Mother Simpson or King-Size Homer, most of them fall in that great but not awesome group but still that's pretty good.

Available in Marge shaped head packaging and standard packaging, it's funny nice to be given a chance but one weird thing: there's one slip case then a normal case, then the actual case that carries the discs. It's nothing much, it's just odd. However, it's still a solid season you should pick up.