Season 5

The fifth season of The Simpsons originally aired from September 30, 1993, to May 19, 1994.

Highlights
Season 5 began on September 30, 1993 with the first episode, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", and ended on May 19, 1994 with "Secrets of a Successful Marriage". David Mirkin was the show runner through most of the season's episodes. Al Jean and Mike Reiss were show runners of two episodes, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" and "Cape Feare", which had been produced for the previous season. Consequently, they have Season 4's production code, 9FXX, rather than Season 5's, with 1FXX.

"Cape Feare" was the final episode written by the "original team", who wrote the first four seasons of The Simpsons. The episodes was considered to be "cartoonish" compared to their previous efforts, due to the fact that the writers became careless before their departure.

"Deep Space Homer" stirred up some controversy as some deemed the episode to be too "large" of an idea. Matt Groening encouraged the writers to produce the episode as they had "nowhere [else] to go". As a result, every aspect of the show was worked on to make the concept work. The writers focused more upon the relationship between Homer and his family and Homer's attempts to be a hero.

"Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" was the 100th Simpsons episode broadcasted (with Season 6's "Lisa's Rival" being the 100th produced). "Baadasssss" was intentionally made the show's 100th episode because it heavily featured Bart who was the most popular Simpsons character at the time. "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" was promoted as "Bart's biggest prank ever", even though Bart did not actually pull any pranks in the episode; Cletus Spuckler and the Rich Texan were the only recurring characters to be introduced this season, first appearing in "Bart Gets an Elephant" and "$pringfield" respectively. Other minor characters who first appeared this season were Luigi Risotto and Baby Gerald.

Production of the fifth season ended abruptly when the Northridge earthquake affected the Film Roman building where Simpsons writers and animators were working in, forcing them to move temporarily while producing "Bart of Darkness" and "Lisa's Rival". Both episodes aired early in the following season as the staff of the show were given an extra month to complete them. The only staff members that came in expecting to work were future show runners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein.

The season received eight awards nominations. It won an Annie Award for "Best Animated Television Production", an Environmental Media Award for "Best Television Episodic Comedy" for "Bart Gets an Elephant" and a Genesis Award}} for "Best Television Comedy Series". David Silverman earned a nomination for "Best Individual Achievement for Creative Supervision in the Field of Animation", Alf Clausen and Greg Daniels received a nomination in the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" category for the song "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?", a song from "Homer and Apu". Clausen had another nomination for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" for the episode "Cape Feare" and the series was nominated for a Saturn Award for "Best Genre Television Series". The producers again tried to submit episodes for "Outstanding Comedy Series" category rather than "Outstanding Animated Program" as they had previously done, but were still not nominated.

All 22 episodes of Season 5 including extras were released on DVD on December 21, 2004 in Region 1, March 21, 2005 in Region 2 and March 23, 2005 in Region 4.

DVD Release
Season 5 was released on DVD in its entirety as The Complete Fifth Season on December 21, 2004 in Region 1, March 21, 2005 in Region 2 and March 23, 2005 in Region by 20th Century Fox. While primarily containing the original 22 episodes, the boxset also consists on bonus features such as storyboards.

Awards
The season received eight awards nominations. It won an Annie Award for "Best Animated Television Production", an Environmental Media Award for "Best Television Episodic Comedy" for "Bart Gets an Elephant," a Genesis Award for "Best Television Comedy Series". David Silverman earned a nomination for "Best Individual Achievement for Creative Supervision in the Field of Animation", Alf Clausen and Greg Daniels received a nomination in the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" category for the song "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?" from "Homer and Apu." Clausen had another nomination for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" for the episode "Cape Feare" and the series was nominated for a Saturn Award for "Best Genre Television Series." The producers again tried to submit episodes for "Outstanding Comedy Series" rather than "Outstanding Animated Program" as they had previously done, but were still not nominated.