Posted: 01/23/2010

The Simpsons - 20 Years - The Complete Twentieth Season

by Elaine Hegwood Bowen

That loony Springfield family that’s managed to invade televisions sets all across the world is celebrating 20 years of slap-stick comedy. The Simpsons has a great DVD compilation that holds more than 20 episodes of common situations that are blessed with that Simpson twist.
Ok, first let’s name the family members: There’s Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie.

In Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes, Homer is sent to prison after a brawl at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, while Marge unknowingly takes a job at an erotic bakery. In Double Double Boy in Trouble, Bart causes Homer to miss out on the winning lottery ticket, and his neighbor wins, throwing a huge party for the townspeople.

In No Loan Again Naturally, Homer and Marge spend way too much money, misunderstanding just what a home equity loan is all about. Homer figures that the house would take care of any money he borrowed, since it’s a home equity loan. They visit the bank, only to lose their home. But Ned Flanders buys the house and rents it out to them. This is just up Homer’s alley, because now he can have his neighbor repair everything that he and Marge had previously neglected.

In Mypods and Boomsticks, Lisa gets a “mypod” but is unaware just how much the music she is downloading actually costs. Bart befriends a Muslim boy, whom Homer comes to suspect hails from a family of terrorists. Again, it’s all just one, or two or three, misunderstandings.

In Lost Verizon, Marge figures out how to trace Bart’s whereabouts. When he discovers, what she’s up to, Bart attaches the tracking chip to a bird, who leads the family on a wild goose chase to Machu Picchu.

The Simpsons is great family fun, even though some of the scenarios and lines might not be politically correct. The mispronunciations, trading popular lyrics for their own spin on songs, and the dumb situations into which Homer and the entire family allows themselves to fall all add up to great entertainment.
The Simpsons stars Dan Castellaneta as Homer; Julie Kavner as Marge; Nancy Cartwright as Bart; Yeardley Smith as Lisa; Harry Shearer as Ned Flanders; Hank Azaria as Chief Wiggum and Pamela Hayden as Milhouse Van Houten.

The Simpsons - 20 Years - The Complete Twentieth Season is available on DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Visit Web site at www.thesimpsons.com.

Elaine Hegwood Bowen is an editor, writer and film critic in Chicago.

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