Product Review

The brilliance of The Simpsons is in the way it draws a fine line between tribute and complete mockery. This three-volume set, The Simpsons Go Hollywood, collects some of the series' finest moments of homage and irreverence. Volume 1 contains two of the series' comedic highlights, "A Streetcar Named Marge" and "Marge vs. the Monorail." The former has the lovely blue-haired missus playing Blanche to Ned Flander's Stanley in the musical Oh Streetcar!. Director Llewelyn Sinclair (Jon Lovitz) is a flamboyant tyrant; Maggie is foisted off to day care, the Ayn Rand School for Tots; and Homer and Marge have domestic strife. The second episode features Phil Hartman as a shyster who sells Springfield on a monorail. Leonard Nimoy guest stars as himself.

The second volume has the infamous two-part "Who Shot Mr. Burns." Mimicking the famed shooting of J.R. in Dallas, Mr. Burns is shot at the end of the first episode, a season finale. Audiences had to wait an entire summer to learn who pulled the trigger. Tito Puente guest stars. "Bart Gets Famous" and "Krusty Gets Kancelled" grace volume 3. Bart takes an after-school job as Krusty the Klown's assistant in the tape's first episode. As a last-minute replacement on air, Bart becomes famous as the "I didn't do it" kid. The second episode is a star-studded event as celebrities come out to do an extravaganza to save Krusty after his program is cancelled. Johnny Carson, Hugh Hefner, Bette Midler, Luke Perry, Barry White, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are guest voices. --Jenny Brown