In the first season, Bart was the series' breakout star, but in the second, The Simpsons established itself as a true ensemble series. Each character came into their own with career-best episodes. Marge, the family's long-suffering voice of reason, crusades against cartoon violence in Itchy & Scratchy & Marge. Lisa, the heart and tortured soul of the series, develops an ill-fated crush on her new teacher in Lisa's Substitute. Bart desperately tries to raise the money to buy Radioactive Man No. 1 in Three Men and a Comic Book. Homer's stock rises when he grows hair in Simpson and Delilah. Joining the Simpsons roster of scene-stealing supporting characters are Dr. Hibbert (Bart the Daredevil), shyster lawyer Lionel Hutz (voiced by the late, great Phil Hartman in Bart Gets Hit by a Car), the Ahnold-esque action hero McBain (The Way We Was), slobbering aliens Kang and Kodos (Treehouse of Horror), and nutty professor Frink (Old Money). This essential, extras-laden DVD set is illustrative of why The Simpsons is, in the parlance of Comic Book Guy, funniest show ever.
America's first family of dysfunction, the Simpsons, appear in all their depraved glory in this wonderful DVD compilation of their show's premiere season. Fans accustomed to the slick appearance of the later episodes will be delighted by the rougher nature of these earlier episodes, when the characters weren't as well defined (Homer isn't quite as dumb as he is in later seasons) and the animation was still evolving. This only adds to the charm of these 13 episodes, which begin with Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, the December 1989 Christmas special in which a down-and-out Simpson family adopt Santa's Little Helper. Throughout the season, familiar faces are introduced, as we catch first glimpses of Smithers, Mr. Burns, the Flanderses, and Patty and Selma. Highlights of the season include The Crepes of Wrath, in which Bart is sent to France as an exchange student (Don't mess up France the way you messed up your room); Bart the Genius, in which Bart ends up in a school for the gifted; and Krusty Gets Busted, in which Bart's lifelong animosity with Sideshow Bob begins.