The Simpsons: Season Five - 12/21 (1 Viewer)

[Jaime_Weinman]

Snpp.com has the complete special features for the set, including a list of the participants in all the commentaries.

This time Dan Castellanetta and Yeardley Smith will be around for some commentaries. John Swartzwelder, as always, is a no-show. And Conan O'Brien even sticks around to comment on an episode he didn't write but guest-voiced in ("Bart Gets Famous").

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Good to have him back...I think the season 3 commentaries were the best in some ways because of his partisipation.

I missed him in season 4...of course, Lovitz was great.

Swartzwelder, I don't expect will ever do a commentary.

After looking at the list, I notice that Groening will be absent from a couple commentaries this season, the one for Homer and Apu, and Secrets of a successful marriage.

It will be interesting to gage the quality of season 5's commentaries because of the absense of some of the people that have done many of the ones for the first 4 seasons including Jean and Reiss.

 

[Scott Temple]

Oh man, I love Treehouse of Horror IV.

From the segment "Terror at 6 1/2 feet." IIRC

Bart: "Otto, you've gotta do something! There's a gremlin on the side of the bus!"
Otto: "Hey, no problemo Bart dude. I'll get rid of him."
{Hans Moleman is driving a Gremlin along side the bus. Otto bashes him off the road.}
Hans: "Oh no. I just made my last payment."
{The Gremlin comes to a stop just barely touching a tree. BOOM!}

 

[WillG]

This is probably the reason that we are getting season 5 in a relatively quick timeframe.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

There's no probably about it, that's the reason. Most of the comentators on this set are not currently handling day to day opperations of the show, where as Al Jean is the show runner...and so he had to find time to fit these in with making sure the current season was running smoothly.
That was the speculation for awhile anyway that once you got to season 5 and beyond...up until I think 11 or 12, you'd see a speed up because of the availability factor.

I expect that the quality will remain pretty high, even if we've not heard some of these people do a commentary before.

 

[WillG]

I do regret that Al Jean only seems to be on two commentaries. He seems to be the anchor to the commentaries that we have heard so far and has usually given the most useful information. I'm sure they'll still be good though, they are stronger for their humor value than pure information.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

That's because Al Jean and Mike Reiss only executive-produced two episodes in season 5, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" and "Cape Feare" (both leftovers from season 4). For season 5, Jean and Reiss were working on The Critic, so David Mirkin -- creator of Get a Life and former showrunner of Newhart -- became executive producer of The Simpsons. Jean and Reiss were only involved as part-time consultants, so they wouldn't have a lot to say.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I agree, given all the Simpsons and Critic commentaries he's done, he's a veteran of the process which IMO makes the tracks better.

I hope that when they do the Simpsons/Critic crossover episode that they have a commentary with the creative heads behind both shows, including Jim Brooks since he oversaw both. We know Groening didn't like the idea behind the episode, but I want to hear what Brooks has to say. Of all the Simpsons episodes out there, that is the one where the commentary will interest me the most.

 

[MarkHastings]

I hate when the others make fun of him for trying his damndest to make the commentaries informative. Although, I do like the joking, I fear that without a commentary 'wrangler' like Al, it'll just be 22+ minutes of laughing on the commentary track. :frowning:

 

[WillG]

I do know this, but as Casey said, he knows the process. I think it also would be intersting to hear his comments on the episodes where he was not the show runner as well. I'd be intersted to hear his observations and contrasts. But perhaps that would infringe on Mirkin.

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

There's a thread in another part of the forum with news that FOX is going to start making DVDs with bilingual covers in Canada like certain other companies have been for awhile. Does anyone think this will affect the next Simpsons DVDs released in Canada?

 

[Seth--L]

I too will miss hearing Al Jean on the commentaries. Didn't he and Mike Reiss act as consultants in the mid 90s after "The Critic" was canned? Maybe they'll have him back as a guest commentator in a few seasons.

It's too bad that only now, after "The Critic" has been released on DVD, is Lovitz doing commentaries.



I would like to hear what Groening has to say in retrospect. It's a plotless episode, but filled with lots of great lines:

Burns: Listen, Spielbergo, Schindler and I are like peas in a pod: we're both factory owners, we both made shells for the Nazis, but mine worked, dammit!

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

It is my understanding, in fact they mention it on the commentaries...that Lovitz was busy filming a movie when they were recording the commentary tracks. Otherwise, I think he would've done it.

 

[Seth--L]

Reiss and Jean said on the tracks (and in interviews) the Lovitz didn't want to do it because of his ego.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I hadn't heard that, although I would suggest that there was a strong chance that they were joking...if you listen to the interplay between the 3 of them on that Simpsons commentary...they have a unique relationship.

 

[Seth--L]

I think it's a combination of joking and the truth.

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

I wonder if one reason they're stepping up Simpsons is that all the seasons of Futurama are out.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Doubtful, since the commentaries for Futurama were all finished being recorded even before the final episode of that show aired. So its not like the one was taking away time from doing the other.

Basically, in an interview with IGN after season 3 came out Al Jean stated that it was taking so long because it was hard to find time for some of the people that were involved in the show back then and are still involved now to do the commentaries. He himself, was the show runner back then and is the current show runner as well...and he said that the current episodes were a higher priority, so that's why it was taking so long to record the commentaries.

Season 5 was the first year of several where he was not show runner, and barely involved in the show, so he no longer has to set aside time to do commentaries.

So, I'm really not surprised by the fact that 5 is coming out so soon.

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

Good points but I was thinking from a marketing, not production schedule. Now that one Groening show is complete, is there a push by Fox to double the amount of the other?

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Its an interesting question, but I don't think Fox worried that the sales of 1 Groening show would hurt the other. In August 2003, Futurama Vol. 2, and Simpsons season 3, came out within a couple of weeks of each other.

Plus, if they had a choice, I'm sure that given how well the Simpsons does on DVD, that Fox would've chosen to release that one faster, and if that meant slowing down Futurama so be it. The thing that helped Futurama on DVD was that it was being released in region 2 well ahead of its region one release.
In fact, that might have resulted in delays for both sets if you think about it, if Groening and others had to juggle recording commentaries for Futurama and the Simpsons at the same time it could've meant even longer delays.