The Simpsons-Too Hot for TV (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Trailer-The Simpsons Complete First And Second Seasons Trailer-The Simpsons Film Festival & Backstage Pass Trailer-The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror & Risky Business
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	87:20
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Neil Affleck Bob Anderson Mikel B. Anderson Wesley Archer
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Dan Castellaneta Julie Kavner Nancy Cartwright Yeardley Smith Hank Azaria Harry Shearer Marcia Wallace Phil Hartman Tress MacNeille Pamela Hayden Maggie Roswell Russi Taylor Doris Grau
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Alf Clausen Ray Colcord Danny Elfman

    The Simpsons Classics – Too Hot for TV is another collection of four risqué episodes supposedly too much for TV. While this may be a slight exaggeration, they are good examples of how funny The Simpsons can be when it gets into gutter humour for a while. In this release we have:

• Treehouse Of Horror IX (21:54) – Three hilarious horror send-ups. In Hell Toupe, Homer gets the hair of an executed public smoker. In The Terror of Tiny Toon, Bart and Lisa get sucked into the world of Itchy & Scratchy. And in Starship Poopers the Simpsons find out that Maggie is really the spawn of a communion between Marge and an alien.
• The Cartridge Family (21:52) – A soccer riot leads Homer into investing in some home security, but Marge is not pleased when Homer becomes a gun fanatic.
• Natural Born Kissers (21:55) – In order to spice up their dwindling sex life, Marge and Homer begin partaking in public acts of indecency.
• Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy (21:39) – Grampa Simpson’s magic tonic revitalises Homer’s libido, but forces the both of them to admit the strain in their father-son relationship.

    While these are undeniably great episodes from a hit series, I am still scratching my head as to why you would pick up just four episodes when you can pick up a box set of twenty-four. Although the box set releases are currently only up to Season 3 and some of the episodes here are a long way along the line, I think you are still better off renting this out than picking it up and biding your time for the inevitable release of the rest of the series. So, if you’re up for a chuckle and want some disposable TV to go with your pizza and some fans, give this a rent and try not to laugh with your mouth full ...

Video

    As with the other Simpsons Classics releases, these episodes are presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, which was the original broadcast aspect ratio. The picture quality here is better than the other Simpsons Classics DVDs, but still suffering from many of the same faults to a lesser degree.

    Colours are rich and well saturated and there is only some mild cross-colouration, generally limited to the background around closely grouped lines.

    The image is very well defined, the technology having come a long way since the first few seasons. There is no dirt.

    Significant MPEG artefacts are nowhere to be found. There is some minor aliasing in the background, but cross colouration often tends to give this effect and it is sometimes hard to tell which is which.

    Subtitles are available in English for the Hearing Impaired, regular English, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish. They appear as white with a grey/black border and are easy to read.

    The dual-layer pause is hidden in between the episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

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Shadow Detail
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Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in 2.0 Dolby Surround in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

    The mix is fairly front-driven, with minimal use of the surrounds, and only the occasional left-right directional cue.

    Dialogue was spot on and there were no audio sync issues. The music added a little life to the rears, and had a fairly decent range overall without being anything spectacular.

    Sadly, there is no subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame. They are static and silent.

Trailers

• The Simpsons – Complete First Season on DVD
• The Simpsons – Complete Second Season on DVD
• The Simpsons – Film Festival
• The Simpsons – Backstage Passes
• The Simpsons – Treehouse of Horror
• The Simpsons – Risky Business

    It does not appear as if this was released in R1 on DVD – the smart cookies decided to go straight for the complete season DVD releases.

    The Simpsons Classics – Too Hot For TV is a good collection of naughty episodes that definitely brought out the chuckles.

    The video image is the best of the Simpsons Classics DVDs that I have reviewed so far.

    This audio does the job without being anything spectacular.

    The extras are purely promotional.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall