At the 9th annual Television Critics Association Awards, the fourth season of the show was nominated for 'Outstanding Achievement in Comedy' but lost to "Seinfeld." Additionally, it was nominated for 'Program of the Year,' losing to "Barbarians at the Gate." Bart buys an extravagant belt on a trip to the mall, but the school bullies beats him up and steal it. When Homer goes to confront the parents of the boys in Moe's Tavern, he promptly receives a beating on his own. During the beating, Homer seems to be completely unfazed by the incident, causing Moe into seeing this and influences Homer into proposing his abilities in boxing. This leads to a match between Homer and a powerful boxing champion. Chernoff, Scott (July 24, 2007). "I Bent My Wookiee! Celebrating the Star Wars/Simpsons Connection". No Homers Club. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011 . Retrieved January 15, 2021.

Prologue: The Simpson family and several local children in their costumes gather in the Simpsons' living room for a Halloween party. Lisa, Grampa, and Bart each tell a scary story. The DVD boxset for season four was released by 20th Century Fox in the United States and Canada on June 15, 2004, eleven years after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as every episode from the season, the DVD release features bonus material including deleted scenes, Animatics, and commentaries for every episode. The menus are a different format than the previous seasons. [47] The Complete Fourth Season For an April Fool's Day prank on Homer, Bart shakes a can of Duff Beer in a paint shaker, then leaves the beer in the refrigerator for Homer to find. When Homer opens the beer, the resulting explosion blows the roof off the house and puts Homer into a coma. During his coma, the family reminisce by way of clips from previous episodes. Homer shows some signs of life during the stories, but when Bart confesses to the shaken beer prank, Homer immediately wakes up and begins strangling Bart. The rest of the family are glad to see that Homer has recovered. Troy McClure presents three Simpsons spin-off spoofs: In "Chief Wiggum, P.I.", Chief Wiggum becomes a detective and moves to New Orleans with Principal Skinner as his assistant. Next, Grampa Simpson's soul is trapped inside Moe's Love tester machine in " The Love-Matic Grampa". Finally, the Simpson family host a '70ish variety show in " The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour".Legacy: 21st Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1993)". Annie Awardsorg. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008 . Retrieved January 22, 2008. Milhouse's parents, Kirk and Luann Van Houten's heated marriage, ends when Luann demands a divorce and soon, Kirk becomes upset about this after the divorce and with the Simpsons' help, he makes an attempt to remarry her. The longest-running primetime scripted show in television history, “The Simpsons” exploded into popular culture in 1989 and has remained one of the most groundbreaking and innovative entertainment franchises, recognizable throughout the world. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are instantly identifiable television icons. In the premiere, Homer is desperate to prove he’s not dumb and sets out to solve the case of the tortoise missing from the zoo. Season 34 also features a double dose of “Treehouse of Horror” episodes, marking the first time in the show’s history there have been two “Treehouse”-branded episodes in a single Halloween. Bradley, Laura (February 22, 2018). "A Brief History of Ted Cruz's One-Sided Obsession with The Simpsons". Vanity Fair . Retrieved April 29, 2022. While watching an installment of the McBain movie series, Bart expresses amazement at how evil the main antagonist is, only for Homer to point out that "there’s nobody that evil in real life". However, he failed to account for Mr. Burns, who's sitting in his office, laughing evilly at a window cleaner hanging on for dear life after the platform snapped in half. Burns then closes the blinds (a scream is heard outside) and telephones Smithers to find out why the workers' union leader is still absent from a meeting to discuss the proposed union contract. Smithers informs his boss that the Union President hasn't been seen since he promised to clean up the union (it's implied that he was killed in the effort when a football player trips over the spot where the union buried him in a stadium). Looking over the contract, Burns is disgusted with the demands and reminisces about simpler times when he observed his grandfather treating his workers very badly, however he ignored their warnings about unionizing. As such, Burns chooses to take on the greedy union by revoking their dental plan.

a b Wolff, Josephine (March 14, 2008). "Have your pi and eat it too". The Daily Princetonian. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013 . Retrieved January 16, 2022.Watt, Gary (June 23, 2006). "The Soul of Legal Education". Web Journal of Current Legal Issues. webjcli.ncl.ac.uk (3). Archived from the original on March 13, 2009 . Retrieved September 3, 2008. Kettlewell, Spence (September 9, 2004). "DVD review Simpsons, S4 Simpsons S4 is best box yet". The Toronto Star. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. p.P12. Jim Reardon. After its initial airing on Fox, the episode was later included as part of a 1997 video release titled The Simpsons: Crime and Punishment. It was released again on the 2005 edition of the same set. The episode is included on The Simpsons– The Complete Fourth Season DVD box set released on June 15, 2004. Lisa has a dentist appointment where her dentist, Dr. Wolfe, informs the family that Lisa needs braces. Homer tells a worried Marge that the dental plan the union won during a strike at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant will cover the cost. Later, at a union meeting, Carl announces that the newest contract requires them to give up their dental plan in exchange for a free keg of beer at union meetings. Homer slowly realizes that giving up their dental plan would require him to pay for Lisa's braces and jumps into action, reminding everyone how their dental plan has helped them all. After encouragement from Carl, Homer is promptly elected the new union president.

After their role as showrunners of The Simpsons ended in Season 4, Jean and Reiss left to produce their own animated series, The Critic. Director Rich Moore also left to work on Jean and Reiss' show. The former Simpsons staff eventually returned to work on The Simpsons after the failure of The Critic. Jean and Reiss returned to write more Simpsons episodes, with the former becoming showrunner since Season 13. [2] And Moore returning years later to assist the animation of The Simpsons Movie [3] George Meyer and John Swartzwelder remained while Conan O'Brien, Frank Mula and future show runners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein received their first writing credits. One-time writers for the season include Adam I. Lapidus, Gary Apple and Michael Carrington, the latter who returned to voice characters in " Simpson Tide" and " Million-Dollar Abie". [4] After Otto gets high on acid brownies, the students of Springfield Elementary are forced to walk to school under the supervision of the crossing guards alongside Homer, who accidentally ends up joining when a parent volunteer is needed. Things seem bleak at first, but when Homer saves Ralph Wiggum's life, the crossing guards become a town-renowned association that progressively eats up Springfield's funding. Homer also begins to think a bit too highly of himself. Moran, Michael (January 14, 2010). "The 10 best Simpsons episodes ever". The Times . Retrieved January 15, 2022. Ditum, Nathan (March 29, 2009). "The 20 Best Simpsons Movie-Star Guest Spots". Total Film. GamesRadar . Retrieved January 15, 2022. a b Groening, Matt (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.

This was the final season that had episodes animated by Klasky Csupo, where the studio also animated The Simpsons shorts and the first three seasons of the show, including the two hold-over episodes of Season 4, " Kamp Krusty" and " A Streetcar Named Marge". The Simpsons would then be animated by Film Roman to this day. The producers originally asked Anthony Hopkins and Clint Eastwood to provide the voice of the dentist, Dr. Wolfe, but they both turned the role down. [5] Anthony Perkins was eventually cast in the role, but died before his recording session. In the end, the role went to Simpsons regular Hank Azaria. As well, the original panelist on Smartline was supposed to be O. J. Simpson, but he turned it down, much to the relief of the writers when Simpson was later tried for murder. [5] He was replaced by Dr. Joyce Brothers. The season was executive produced by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who had also run the previous season. Several of the show's original writers who had been with the show since the first season left following the completion of the season's production run. " Cape Feare", which was the final episode to be produced by the "original team", [2] aired during season five as a holdover. [2] Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky and Jeff Martin wrote their final episodes for the season four production run. David M. Stern and Jon Vitti also left but returned to write episodes for later seasons. Reiss and Jean left to produce their own series, The Critic, but later returned to produce several more The Simpsons episodes, and Jean again became the showrunner starting with season thirteen. [3] Rich Moore, one of the show's original directors, also left to work on The Critic, [3] but returned years later to assist with animation on The Simpsons Movie. [4] George Meyer and John Swartzwelder stayed on, while Conan O'Brien, Frank Mula and future show runners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein received their first writing credits. One-time writers for the season include Adam I. Lapidus and the team of Gary Apple and Michael Carrington, although Carrington later returned to voice characters in " Simpson Tide" and " Million Dollar Abie". [5]