The Simpsons season 6
The sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 4, 1994, and May 21, 1995, and consists of 25 episodes. The Simpsons is an animated series about a working class family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional city of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition.[1]
The Simpsons
The showrunner for the sixth production season was David Mirkin who executive-produced 23 episodes. Former showrunners Al Jean and Mike Reiss produced the remaining two; they produced the two episodes with the staff of The Critic, the show they left The Simpsons to create. This was done in order to relieve some of the stress The Simpsons' writing staff endured, as they felt that producing 25 episodes in one season was too much. The episode "A Star Is Burns" caused some controversy among the staff, with Matt Groening removing his name from the episode's credits, as he saw it as blatant advertising for The Critic, which Fox had picked up for a second season after being cancelled by ABC and with which Groening had no involvement. Fox moved The Simpsons back to its original Sunday night timeslot from season 1, having aired on Thursdays from season 2 through season 5. It has remained in this slot ever since. The sixth season won one Primetime Emmy Award (for the episode "Lisa's Wedding"), and received three additional nominations. It also won the Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production.
The Complete Sixth Season DVD was released in the United States on August 16, 2005, September 28, 2005, in Australia, and October 17, 2005, in the United Kingdom. The set featured a plastic "clam-shell" Homer-head design and received many complaints. In the United States, the set contained a slip of paper informing purchasers how to request alternate packaging — which consisted of a case-sleeve in a similar style to the standard box design — for only a shipping and handling fee.
Reception[edit]
The season was critically acclaimed and remains popular among the show's fans.[26] Reviews of the premiere "Bart of Darkness" in 1994 said the show was "just as strong and funny as it ever was,"[27] while the writing continued to be "crisp, hilarious and multi-layered."[28] On Rotten Tomatoes, the sixth season of The Simpsons has a 100% approval rating based on 7 critical reviews.[29] A 2010 appraisal of the show by IGN described the season as "hilarious", singling out the episodes "Treehouse of Horror V", "Itchy & Scratchy Land and "Bart vs. Australia" for praise.[30] Entertainment Weekly's 2003 list of the show's best 25 episodes included four from this season: "Itchy & Scratchy Land", "Treehouse of Horror V", "Homer Badman" and "Who Shot Mr. Burns?".[31]
Fox moved The Simpsons back to its original Sunday night time of 8 p.m., having aired it on Thursdays for the previous four seasons. It has remained in this slot ever since.[27][32] The Simpsons was the network's "most popular series" and was moved in conjunction with Fox's purchase of the rights to the National Football League's National Football Conference games, which it would be airing on Sundays and was hoping would boost its Sunday night programs' ratings. Having been against The Cosby Show on Thursdays, the show was now against Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (ABC), seaQuest DSV (NBC) and Murder, She Wrote (CBS).[33] "Bart of Darkness" finished 44th in the ratings for the week of August 29 to September 4, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 8.9 and an audience share of 17%. The episode was the third highest rated show on the Fox network that week.[34][35] This was down on the previous season's premiere "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" (12.7),[36] and its finale "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" (9.8).[37] The season finale "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" finished 51st with a rating of 8.7, the fifth highest rated Fox show of the week.[38]
The sixth season won one Primetime Emmy Award, and received three additional nominations. "Lisa's Wedding" won the Emmy for "Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or Less). Alf Clausen received a nomination in the category "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" for "Treehouse of Horror V", while he and John Swartzwelder were nominated for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" for the Stonecutters' song "We Do" in the episode "Homer the Great". Finally, "Bart vs. Australia" was nominated for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special".[39][40] For the previous two seasons, the producers had nominated the show for Outstanding Comedy Series, failing each time.[41][42] The show won the Annie Award for Best Animated Television Program in 1995 for season six, while Cartwright won the Annie for Voice Acting in the Field of Animation.[43] Season 6 attained the highest average approval rating from users on IMDb for any season of the series.[44]