The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season
November 2005 Reviewed by: Roger Kanno Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Even though it is in its 17th year of production, The Simpsons continues to maintain its high quality. For the many fans of the show, The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season will join the boxed sets of the fourth and fifth seasons as some of the funniest episodic television comedy available on DVD.

Arguably, the best episodes of the series were produced in the mid ‘90s, and many of those are included here. The sixth season is remembered mostly for its season-ending "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" episode, but there are many classic moments spread throughout. From the surreal silliness of the "Tree House of Horrors V" Halloween special to a look into the future in "Lisa’s Wedding," nearly every episode will bring a few belly laughs and a lot of smiles and chuckles to fans. If The Simpsons has a weakness, it is that it relies heavily on Homer’s character to provide most of the big laughs. If you don’t find Homer’s immature behavior and general foolishness amusing, then you probably won’t enjoy any Simpsons DVDs.

The picture quality is more than adequate for a television series of this age. The colors are bright and nicely saturated, and they help improve upon the quality of previous Simpsons DVD releases. The picture is a little soft, and there appears to be some edge enhancement when compared to the similar but much sharper and higher-quality video of the more recent Futurama series on DVD. As with many made-for-television cartoons, the audio consists mainly of dialogue, occasional Foley effects, and some brief music passages. Even though the soundtrack is recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1, the surround channels are rarely used and the monophonic dialogue is often limited to the center channel, with very little happening in even the left and right front channels.

Extras consist of storyboards, "Animatics," deleted scenes, commercials, a "Springfield’s Most Wanted" spoof starring John Walsh, and comprehensive commentary tracks for every episode. Except for the commentary track for the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" episode, most of the extras will be of interest only to devoted Simpsons fans and provide only mildly interesting trivia and little real insight into the show. The outer packaging for this boxed set is a replica of Homer’s head that is eye-catching but rather flimsy. For long-term usability or for those who simply prefer the traditional cardboard packaging used for previous Simpsons boxed sets, alternate packaging is available for a minimal shipping and handling charge at www.simpsonsbox.com. Kudos to Fox for offering this choice and setting up an amusing website to handle the replacement-packaging program.

There are a lot of television series being released on DVD these days, but few are worthy of repeat viewing and deserve to be added to your video collection. The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season is one of the only television releases on DVD with broad appeal, and it is worth the relatively high price commanded by multi-disc boxed sets.

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