3/5 And So It Begins! Too Bad About the Picture Quality Though!
  by Frederick Baptist (Singapore)
Some of the best ever episodes of "The Simpsons" are included here as the reason this entire franchise has been so successful is for me because of the intelligent script and the genius of James L Brooks. The drawings of the characters are naturally raw as they are not the finished product that we have become used to over the years but this is alright given the quality of the gags and the great story-telling. These episodes though have been transferred from a poor videotape master as we frequently get the shimmering, crooked lines that you get on a bad video when the tape sticks to the playing magnetic head of the player and this is very evident in every episode which took away a great deal from my overall enjoyment of the dvds. I don't remember seeing these when they were screened on tv and so it's unfortunate that for a "Collector's Edition" that we should get such poor dvd picture quality transfer although I have to say the sound quality on Dolby 5.1 surround is pretty good.

Overall, great episodes, sound quality but poor picture quality transfer from what appears to be a videotape with all its inherent limitations.

5/5 What a difference a decade makes...
  by Giuseppe Pantaleo
Here's a flashback worth reliving! I, like many of my early Gen Y counterparts, had the privilege of being exposed to the very first episodes of The Simpsons as a child and was able to matured as the series developed.
Looking back at these episodes at 25 years of age really reveals the depth of writing and quality of smooth and fluid hand-drawn animation that went over my head at that young age.
This season is the closest to really reflecting Matt Groening's counter cultural angst as depicted in his earlier comic strip, Life In Hell. The Simpsons are a symbol of complicated familial dysfunction and much of the show's focus is on the anarchistic Bart before the writers realised that the success of the show relied on dumbing down Homer.
At this point of television history, the series appropriated SOME of the moralistic elements of family sitcoms like Family Ties, so there is a moment of pathos in each episode where each character comes together and show that deep down they all love each other... and it is moving without losing its nineties edge. There's No Disgrace Like Home and Moaning Lisa are two standout episodes that mix lots of visual laughs with very complicated family issues.
In terms of pure comedy - the season finale, Some Enchanted Evening, is definitely the strongest and my favourite laugh out loud episode from this year - with The Call of The Simpsons following a close second.
An issue I would have with this season is that the episodes here are so iconic that they outweigh my ability to laugh during the episodes - it's like watching Psycho and not finding it scary because it wrote all the rules for slasher films that have been used to death, but still finding it really entertaining.
This is particularly true of The Telltale Head, Bart the General and Bart the Genius where you can observe a prototype for what the tone and style and characters and structure of the series would take and improve on in later seasons as it shifted its focus from appealing to children and parents to attracting the college crowd.
The special features on the DVDs are amazing and it is really impressive to see the hard work and lengths the crew had gone to in order to satisfy the fans with goodies. I can't give this anything other than five stars.

3/5 Simpsons sure have changed
  by D. Sun (Vallejo, CA United States)
Bought this for a kick of nostalgia. It's funny to look at the first season and see the change in the looks of all the characters and the evolution of the show. A classic TV staple that helped turn Fox into a viable network against what was once the big 3 networks.

2/5 This is one of the worst dvd realeses from the simpsons
  by F. Harb (Anaheim,California)
I love the simpsons but i regret big time for paying over $30 for this item like 6 years ago it was the worst only 13 episodes the character were funny looking jokes were sooooooooooo outdated not funny and the extras were so cheap ill still accept it because its simpsons.:)

3/5 Meh...
  by Anthony D. West (georgetown,TX)
I got it, it was cheap, but every one of the DVDs from CD Warehouse (I assume this was the place that peddled it to me through Amazon because of the sticker on the inside) was scratched. I have not gone through every DVD, but so far have not noticed any skips or loss of quality, but it still is not so great to have a bunch of DVDs that are hazy from light scratches.