“So, Patty, you’re a woman who likes women. I guess that fear I always had of you stealing Homer away is unfounded.”
“Marge, I’d be a lot more worried about me leaving you for a sausage patty than your sister, Patty.”

The sixteenth season of The Simpsons aired between November 2004 and May 2005, and during this period, the series hit a milestone 350th episode. These episode feature some amazing guest stars, including James Caan, Thomas Pynchon, Kim Cattrall, Eric Idle, Tom Brady, LeBron James, Michelle Kwan, Yao Ming, Warren Sapp, 50 Cent, Gary Busey, Jane Kaczmarek, Lucy Liu, Robert Wager, Frank Gehry, Joe Mantegna, Charles Napier, Amy Poehler, John DiMaggio, Stephen Hawking, Fantasia Barrino, Jason Bateman, Liam Neeson, and Albert Brooks.

The 21 episodes that make up the sixteenth season are as follows:

• “Treehouse of Horror XV” – A trilogy of tales including Ned having the ability to foresee people’s deaths, a Sherlock Holmes style murder mystery and a Fantastic Voyage parody.
• “All’s Fair in Oven War” – Marge enters a bakeoff competition but lets the pressure of winning get to her. Meanwhile Bart and Milhouse find some old PlayDude magazines and decide to convert their treehouse into the PlayDude Treehouse.
• “Sleeping with the Enemy” – Lisa worries the Simpson genes have made her too fat. Meanwhile Marge thinks her children no longer appreciate her and starts acting as a surrogate mother to Nelson.
• “She Used to Be My Girl” – When the press flock to Springfield to cover a Mayoral sex scandal, Marge reunites with an old classmate—now a successful journalist—and rethinks the path her life has taken.
• “Fat Man and Little Boy” – After losing his last baby tooth, Bart is afraid he’s becoming an adult, and designs a line of snarky t-shirts. Meanwhile Homer steals some plutonium from work to help Lisa with her science project.
• “Midnight Rx” – When Mr. Burns cancels the employee prescription drug program, other businesses follow suit. So Homer and Abe become drug mules, smuggling prescription drugs back from Canada to supply the residents of Springfield.
• “Mommie Beerest” – When the Health Department shuts down Moe’s, Homer mortgages the house to help save it. Marge takes over to protect their investment, reinventing Moe’s as an English Pub
• “Homer and Ned’s Hail Mary Pass” – Homer’s embarrassing dancing goes viral and soon he has professional athletes contacting him to choreograph their victory dancing. Meanwhile, Ned doesn’t like the quality of programming on TV and decides to film his own recreations of of biblical stories.
• “Pranksta Rap” – Bark sneaks out of the house to see a rap concert but to avoid getting punished, he pretends to be kidnapped, and lets Mr. Van Houten take the fall.
• “There’s Something About Marrying” – Springfield legalizes gay marriage in order increase tourism, so Homer becomes a minister in order to take advantage of the situation. Meanwhile, Marge has a hard time accepting that her sister Patty wants to marry a woman.
• “On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister” – Lisa takes out restraining order on Bart, leaving Bart to adapt to living in the wild. Meanwhile, Homer works as Walmart greeter after an accident leaves Abe unable to fulfill his duties.
• “Goo Goo Gai Pan” – Selma is facing menopause and wants to adopt a child, so she and the rest of the Simpsons head to China.
• “Mobile Homer” – Homer buys an RV and turns the backyard into an RV park.
• “The Seven-Beer Snitch” – When the Springfieldians realize they are looked at as uncultured hicks, they hire an architect to build a concert hall. Meanwhile, Homer goes to jail and becomes a prison snitch.
• “Future-Drama” (the 350th episode) – Professor Frink gives Bart and Lisa a glimpse at their lives 8 years in the future.
• “Don’t Fear the Roofer” – When the roof starts leaking, Homer makes friends with a contractor, but the family thinks Homer is crazy and has invented this imaginary friend.
• “The Heartbroke Kid” – Bart needs to go to fat camp after the school vending machines are replaced with unhealthy snacks. Meanwhile, Homer takes in foreign backpackers in order to pay for the camp.
• “A Star Is Torn” – Lisa enters a televised singing competition with Homer as her manager and songwriter.
• “Thank God, It’s Doomsday” – Homer fears the rapture is at hand.
• “Home Away from Homer” – Ned takes on some boarders, but when he discovers they are running a pornographic web site from his home he decides to leave Springfield.
• “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star” – Bart is sent to a Catholic school after being unjustly blamed for an incident at Springfield Elementary’s Medieval Festival.

I hadn’t seen these episodes since they originally aired, so rewatching them now was like seeing 21 brand new episodes. Save for the occasional “current” event or celebrity in the news at the time, the episodes felt just as fresh and relevant today. The writing is great, with so many layers of jokes that provide the viewer with new things to discover on repeat viewings. There are some really hilarious moments in these episodes—two of my favorites are Robert Wagner’s PSA about menopause, and the Fat Bart version of the opening title sequence.

The Simpsons didn’t go high-def until the middle of its 20th season, so the episodes here were originally aired in full screen format, 480i resolution. For this Blu-ray release the episodes are still in their original full-screen format but have been upscaled to 1080p resolution, and they look better than ever! While there is the occasional drawing that looks a little rough upscaled to HD, for the most part the picture is great. The sound has also been upgraded from the original Dolby Surround 2.0 to a DTS-MA 5.1 audio track. While the episodes sound good, I didn’t really notice any use of the surround channel.

This Blu-ray set contains an excellent, high-quality, fully-illustrated, full-color booklet that serves as a guide to the season. For each episode it provides a synopsis, a screenshot, chapter titles, guest cast listing, and information about the episodic bonus features. Speaking of bonus features, this set is loaded with them—audio commentaries on every episode, deleted scenes, production artwork, a table read, multi-angle and multi-language featurettes, 3 bonus episodes from other seasons and more.

This set comes highly recommended for fans of the franchise as well as those just looking to check out the series.

What’s Included on the Blu-ray:

Episodes: (460min)

• All 21 episodes of Season 16 (2004-2005):
  Disc 1: “Treehouse Of Horror XV”, “All’s Fair In Oven War”, “Sleeping With The Enemy”, “She Used To Be My Girl”, “Fat Man And Little Boy”, “Midnight Rx”, “Mommie Beerest”
  Disc 2: “Homer and Ned’s Hail Mary Pass”, “Pranksta Rap”, “There’s Something About Marrying”, “On A Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister”, “Goo Goo Gai Pan”, “Mobile Homer”, “The Seven-Beer Snitch”
  Disc 3: “Future-Drama”, “Don’t Fear The Roofer”, “The Heartbroke Kid”, “A Star Is Torn”, “Thanks God It’s Doomsday”, “Home Away From Homer”, “The Father, The Son And The Holy Guest Star”
• Fullscreen 1.33:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1, French DD 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Extras:

• Greeting, Junior Scienteers! (2:35)
  Matt Groening gives a welcome, provides an overview of the season and talks about the bonus features viewers will find on the Blu-ray.
• Audio Commentary on Every Episode with Writers, Actors and Directors
  It is wonderful that the creators and cast have taken the time to record audio commentaries for every one of these episodes, even though they are 8-9 years old. There is a great mix of cast, crew and guest stars on the commentaries. Sometimes they get a bit off topic, talking about other animation projects they’ve worked on in since these episodes, but the commentaries still remain entertaining and interesting.
• Sketch Galleries
  Montages of character sketches set to music. Each gallery contains images related to the episodes on that disc.
  • Sketch Gallery I (2:41)
  • Sketch Gallery II (2:35)
• Bonus Episodes
  Collection of episodes that give glimpses of the Simpson family in the future. There is one bonus episode on each disc in the box set.
  • Lisa’s Wedding (Season 6) (22:34)
    Lisa visits a fortune teller at a carnival, who tells her about how she meets her true love.
  • Bart To The Future (Season 11) (22:28)
    Bart sneaks into an Indian Casino, but the manager catches him and gives him a look at his future as a washed-up rock star, while Lisa has become the President of the United States.
  • Holidays of Future Passed (Season 13) (21:41)
    A look at Christmas time for the Simpson family 30 years in the future. This episode is presented in widescreen format, and looks even more amazing than the others!
• Special language Feature (22:10)
  Using the audio button on the remote, the viewer can switch between several languages (Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Hungarian) while watching the “Pranksta Rap” episode. While interesting, it would be nice if they also let you access the English subtitles and/or audio track while watching the episode.
• Living in the Moment (3:38)
  Play All or select from:
  • “The Longest Daycare”
    Montage of promotional photos for the Oscar-nominated short.
  • “Tapped Out”
    Ads for the game as well as a montage of promotional photos.
• Deleted Scenes with Commentary (11:08)
  A fun collection of deleted scenes, some of which are presented in black and white. Al Jean provides an optional commentary on why the scenes had to be cut. It’s nice that they have included all of these in one place so that the viewer doesn’t have to look for prompts to click while watching the episodes.
• Animation Showcase – “Future-Drama” (7:47)
  Using the angle button on the remote, the viewer can switch between storyboard and animatic views while watching a sequence from the “Future-Drama” episode. The final version of the scene is displayed in the corner of the screen during playback.
• Live! It’s The Simpsons (36:00)
  Audio from the cast table read of “Thank God It’s Doomsday” plays while the script scrolls on the screen.
• Easter Eggs
  • Letter to Matt Groening, asking him to participate in the DVD commentaries (:11)
    Press left on the main menu of Disc 1 until a green dot appears.
  • Montage of Simpsons 16th Season Premiere party and 350th Episode Block Party invitations (:42)
    Press right on the main menu of Disc 1 until a green dot appears.
  • Didn’t Make The Cut – Deleted Scenes for the DVD menus! (4:56)
    Press left on the main menu of Disc 3 until a green dot appears.
  • Deleted/Extended Scenes: episode 1 (:16), episode 2 (:12), episode 9 (:18), episode 12 (:22), episode 14 (:11), episode 16 (:34), episode 17 (:28), episode 18 (:36), episode 19 (:26)
    Press left on the episode selection menu page for the episode and a green dot appears.

Final Thoughts:

The Simpsons Sixteenth Season is another fun collection of episodes from the series, and the episodes look better than ever upscaled on this Blu-ray release. The set contains loads of extras including an audio commentary on every episode, over 11 minutes of deleted scenes, a cast table read, as well as some production photos, multi-angle and multi-language featurettes. Overall, this is a great release for an entertaining show that has a high rewatchability factor.