When The Simpsons debuted in 1989, it ushered in a new era of prime-time animation. What does that mean? That means that a lot of copy-cats came along. Each of the networks tried their hand at animated series, and one-by-one, they fell by the wayside. For some reason, only Fox was able to find any lasting success with these show and King of the Hill and Family Guy soon joined Fox's animated line-up, with American Dad and Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show following. However, there were some mis-cues over the years, such as Sit Down, Shut Up and Allen Gregory. I'll be honest, when Bob's Burgers came along, I thought that it would be another Fox failed experiment. However, this show quickly proved that it has a brand of quirk all its own.

Bob's Burgers is set in the titular restaurant in an unidentified coastal town. Bob (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin) runs the place along with his wife, Linda (voiced by John Roberts). The restaurant doesn't do very well, and Bob is usually worried about money and the business. Linda, however, is a romantic optimist and often tries to see the bright side of things. Bob and Linda have three children. Tina (voiced by Dan Mintz) speaks very slowly and is very aware of how her teenaged body is changing and she likes to tell everyone about it. Gene (voiced by Eugene Mirman) is a wannabe musician who, like most boys, loves gross things. Louise (voiced by Kristen Schaal) is a brat who has no respect for authority and loves to stir things up. Together, this rag-tag family somehow manages to keep Bob's Burgers open, despite the competition from the Italian restaurant across the street.

It takes a special show to be plopped down between The Simpsons and Family Guy and create its own niche, but Bob's Burgers was able to do it. While The Simpsons and Family Guy are about human beings who appear to live in our world, they often take certain liberties with reality (especially Family Guy) which push man episodes into the realm of what could be called realistic fantasy. (Did I just make up that term?)

Bob's Burgers, on the other hand typically deals with very realistic everyday topics to which the audience can relate. Bob dreads that Linda's parents are coming to visit. Tina gets a crush on her martial arts instructor. Bob's hero comes to play for the local minor league baseball team. Many of the storylines are related directly to the restaurant, such as when Linda convinces Bob to do dinner theater or when Bob must stop his landlord from selling his restaurant.

These all sound like pretty normal, realistic topics, don't they? They sound like the kind of thing which we would see on any sitcom. The great thing about Bob's Burgers is that they take these ideas and go to very strange places with them, mostly due to the odd personalities of the characters. Tina, Gene, and Louise are three of the most unique characters which you will see on TV and they rarely fall into any stereotype. Between Louise's ability to ruin any situation and Tina's budding libido and her love for dancing, the kids often take a seemingly sedate topic and make it very weird. Throw in Gene's love for playing the triangle (which then acting out the sound of a triangle) and you've got an odd combination.

The show rarely gets off-color or blue, it simply gets very weird at times and the characters will say things which catch us totally off-guard. This most likely stems from the actors themselves, led by veteran voice actor H. Jon Benjamin (Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Archer, Family Guy), who certainly has a knack for ad-libbing. While I'm sure that the show is tightly scripted, some lines have a spur of the moment feel and this leads to reactions from the actors which feel genuine. One also can't ignore the fact that two female characters on the show are voiced by men, turning the tables on a long-time animation trend. John Roberts really sells it as Linda, and while her voice is grating, you find yourself repeating her trademark, "Allright!". The animation in Bob's Burgers is often quite crude and the characters sort of look like earthworms who happened to grow limbs, but their words often ring true even when they are being incredibly strange, and this leads to a lot of laughs.

Bob's Burgers: The Complete 1st Season questions the definition of autism on DVD courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The two-disc set contains all 13 episodes from the show's first season. The episodes have been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no grain or defects from the source material. The colors look very good, although they aren't overly festive, and the image is never overly dark or bright. The image is fairly stable and we only get a few incidents of stuttering or jagged lines. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are moderately strong as they sometimes communicate sounds happening off-screen. A few episodes offered a smattering of surround sound effects, but they were never constant.

The Bob's Burgers: The Complete 1st Season DVD contains a few extras. Each episode on both DVDs contains an audio commentary with series creator Loren Bouchard and various other speakers. Disc 1 kicks off with "Audio Outtakes for 'Bed & Breakfast' and 'Sexy Dance Fighting'" (7 minutes) is simply deleted scenes but with audio only. We hear the dialogue while seeing stills from the show and photos of the cast. This is interesting, but it's also very much like radio. We get MUSIC VIDEO for "Lifting Up the Skirt of the Night" (2 minutes) from the episode "Sheesh Cab Bob". Disc 2 offers the must-see "Bob's Burgers Original Demo with Introduction with Loren Bouchard". This fascinating 21-minute piece shows us the evolution of the show using concept drawings and crude animation. We learn that the original concept from very close to the show that we got, save that the gender of one character was different and the food served in the restaurant was very, very different. This is a great example of a show idea having once concept too many. "Louise and the Chalkboard" is a 2-minute short in which Louise makes up several different weird burger names.