Fox Home Video has just released "The Simpsons Season Two DVD Collection." If you have not heard of the Simpsons, you have a little catching up to do.

Meet the Simpsons

Japan has its "anime," and the United States . . . well, the U.S. has "The Simpsons," a long-running cartoon series featuring simple art, razor-sharp humor, and the most accurate portrayal of middle-America allowed on television. The show follows the lives of the Homer J. Simpson family -- Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie.

Homer, the world's most mediocre man, is a bungling incompetent who works in a nuclear power plant where he sleeps on the job and scarfs down doughnuts. Homer is bald, but not completely bald; fat, but not the fattest man on the show; slow-witted, but not helpless; hated by his in-laws; and self-centered.

He is also unlucky: the kind of man who always picks the slowest line at the bank and whose luggage comes out last at the airport. He greets every catastrophe by slapping his hand to his forehead and yelling, "DOH!"

Above all else, Homer is uncomfortably close to a perfect portrayal of how many American men see themselves.

Then there is Marge Simpson -- tall, lumpy, gravelly voiced, and hair coiffed in a meter-tall bun. Marge is the yin to Homer's yan. She is honest, caring, and giving.

Homer's oldest child, Lisa, is a gifted elementary student who plays the saxophone and frets about the ills of the world. Her nemesis is her younger brother, Bart -- a chip off the old Homer block. Bart is the 10-year-old terror of Springfield Elementary School; smart-mouthed, mischievous, but with a good heart.

And finally, there is little Maggie -- a baby who sits around sucking a pacifier.

Four discs, lots of laughs

"The Simpsons Season Two DVD Collection" is a four-disc set that includes 22 half-hour episodes along with two music videos featuring Bart.

The nice thing about the second season of the Simpsons is that each member of the family, except Maggie, got a chance to be the star of at least one episode.

Here are a few standouts: In "One Fish, Two Fish, Blue Fish, Blow Fish" Homer eats fugu sashimi prepared by an unlicensed chef and is told he will die in 24 hours.

The first half of this episode is filled with purposely placed misinformation about Japan and Japanese culture, lampooning the way Americans see the rest of the world. Once Homer discovers he is dying, he tries to amend the many faults and foibles of his life in his final 24 hours. Of special note is the turmoil he goes through trying to patch things up with his father as quickly as possible so he still has time to drink beer at the local bar.

Marge also took center stage in a second season episode. In "Itchy, Scratchy, and Marge," Mrs. Simpson starts a mini renaissance when she protests violence and reprehensible material in television cartoons.

This episode lampooned middle-America itself. During the show's early years, parent groups complained that the show had a bad influence on America's youth.

In this episode, Marge forced television executives to take the offensive material out of cartoons, leading children to play and read instead of watch TV. She rethinks her position, however, when her supporters want her to ban the statue of David, by Michelangelo, because the subject is naked.

"The Simpsons" is American satire at its very finest, sometimes hitting perfectly, sometimes going too far.

Over the years, it grew into one of the most brilliant shows ever to make it on American television.

For most DVD owners, it will be the collection's many special features and promise of finding Easter eggs.

In addition to interviews with James L. Brooks and Matt Groening, you'll find: Bart on the American Music Awards (with commentary); "Do The Bartman" video (with optional commentary); "Deep, Deep Trouble" video (with optional commentary); David Silverman on the creation of an episode; licensing and merchandising review; Emmy Awards presentation; three Butterfinger commercials; still photos; and early drawings.