The Simpsons (season 14)


The Simpsons fourteenth season was originally broadcast on the Fox network in the United States between November 3, 2002 and May 18, 2003. The show runner for the fourteenth production season was Al Jean, who executive produced 21 of 22 episodes. The other episode, "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", was run by Mike Scully. The season contains five hold-overs from the previous season's production run. The fourteenth season has met with mostly positive reviews and won two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program, four Annie Awards and a Writers Guild of America Award. This season contains the show's 300th episode, "The Strong Arms of the Ma".
Writers credited with episodes in the fourteenth season included J. Stewart Burns, Kevin Curran, John Frink & Don Payne, Dana Gould, Dan Greaney, Brian Kelley, Tim Long, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Carolyn Omine, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder, Matt Warburton and Marc Wilmore. Freelance writers included Brian Pollack & Mert Rich, Sam O'Neal & Neal Boushall, Dennis Snee and Allen Glazier. Animation directors included Bob Anderson, Mike B. Anderson, Chris Clements, Mark Kirkland, Lance Kramer, Nancy Kruse, Lauren MacMullan, Pete Michels, Steven Dean Moore, Matthew Nastuk, Michael Polcino, Jim Reardon and David Silverman. The main cast consisted of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer. Other cast members included Marcia Wallace, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor and Karl Wiedergott. This season also saw the return of voice actress Maggie Roswell, who had left the show during season 11 because of a contract dispute.
"Barting Over", which aired February 16, 2003, was promoted as the show's milestone 300th episode. However, "The Strong Arms of the Ma" was the 300th episode to be broadcast. According to Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star, "It's very difficult to find a straight answer why milestone status has been bestowed on . Some rationalize that the 300 figure doesn't account for two early holiday specials, Fox maintains that there was some discrepancy between the original, scheduled broadcast date- deep in the heart of the ratings-mad February sweeps- and the number of episodes that were eventually aired leading up to it." "Barting Over" refers to the error when Marge tells Lisa "I can't count the number of times has done something crazy like this." Lisa responds that it is 300, to which Marge replies that she "could have sworn it's been 302".

Reception

Season 14 received generally positive reviews. High-Def Digest was positive recommending the set and writing "The show has numerous moments that make you laugh." and gave it 3.5/5 stars. Blu-ray.com also gave season 14 3.5/5 stars who thought "After rewatching all of it for the first time since this batch of episodes originally aired, I have to say—season fourteen has a pretty good laugh-per- minute ratio." Casey Broadwater also felt it was an improvement over the Scully seasons and season 13. Collider gave the season a B-. The reviewer thought "As far as the overall quality of the season, it isn't as consistently good as some earlier seasons but in the evolution of the show and the characters, it's solid.". Jackson Cresswell thought "C.E.D'oh" was the best of the season along with "Pray Anything" and "Brake My Wife, Please" while citing "Three Gays of the Condo", "Large Marge", and "Helter Shelter" as the worst. Ryan Keefer of DVD Talk gave it a 4/5 calling it "a good spot to start brushing up on things".

Awards

Episodes of the fourteenth season won several awards, including two Primetime Emmy Awards. "Three Gays of the Condo" became the eighth episode of the series to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. Hank Azaria won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing various characters in the episode "Moe Baby Blues". It was Azaria's third Emmy in that category. The song "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders" from "Dude, Where's My Ranch?" received a nomination for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics.
The show also won four Annie Awards, including its 12th consecutive in the Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production category. The other awards won were Best Directing in an Animated Television Production, Best Music in an Animated Television Production and Best Writing in an Animated Television Production. "The Dad Who Knew Too Little" won a Writers Guild of America Award in 2004 in the animation category. "Moe Baby Blues", written by J. Stewart Burns, was also nominated in the category.
The series was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Musical or Comedy Series in 2003. It was the first time The Simpsons had been nominated for the award. The episode "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky", nominated for an Environmental Media Award for Best Television Episodic Comedy. Chris Ledesma was nominated for the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Television Animation – Music for his work on "Large Marge".

Episodes

Blu-ray and DVD release

The DVD and Blu-ray boxset for season fourteen was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in the United States and Canada on Tuesday, December 6, 2011, eight years after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as every episode from the season, the Blu-ray and DVD releases feature bonus material including deleted scenes, animatics, and commentaries for every episode. The boxart features Kang, and a special limited edition "embossed head case" package was also released.