DVD Release Date: March 8, 2005 (Warner Bros.)
Color/MSRP: $44.95
Number of discs: 4
Number of episodes: 24 half hours
Running Time: 620 minutes
Languages and Subtitles: English Stereo;
English/French/Spanish subtitles; Closed Captioned.
Special Features: Total run time - approx. 30 minutes
(not counting commentary)
• Producers commentary on 3 episodes
• "Behind the Style: The Look of Friends"
• The Flaming Lips: Phoebe Battles the Pink Robots"
music video
• Gag reel
• "Who's Your Best Friend?" tivia challenge
• "Gunther Spills The Beans" about the final season
Introduction:
The show about six thirty-something friends living in
New York complaining about everything from their jobs
to their love-lives, or lack thereof continues is back
in the ninth season DVD release! This season kicks off
with the conclusion of Rachel becoming engaged to Joey
instead of Ross and the aftermath of Emma's birth. The
season continues with Ross and Rachel's parenting of
Emma, as well as Monica and Chandler's efforts to
finally have a baby of their own and even Phoebe gets
her own love triangle! During the course of the ninth
season, we get many memorable guest stars, such as
Christina Applegate (“Married…With Children”) as
Rachel's self-absorbed sister Amy, Hank Azaria (“The
Simpsons”) and Paul Rudd as Phoebe's love interests to
Aisha Tyler recurring as a love-interest for Ross.
Also making appearances is film-star Dermot Mulroney
as Rachel's foe/love interest Gavin as well as Freddie
Prinze Jr. as a male nanny for baby Emma. Also making
appearances are movie stars Selma Blair, Jon Lovitz,
Jeff Goldblum and television star John Stamos (“Jake
in Progress”).
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
For a show like Friends, it's difficult to single out
just a few episodes that are considered "memorable"
because to its fans, every episode has that one moment
that just makes you laugh out loud or tugs at your
heart-strings. Some episodes that pop into my mind as
memorable are "The One Where No One Proposes" in which
Rachel accidentally becomes engaged to Joey instead of
Ross. "The One With The Pediatrician" in which it is
revealed Ross still goes to his childhood
pediatrician. "The One With The Male Nanny" in which
Ross makes fun of an oversensitive male nanny. "The
One With Rachel's Other Sister" in which Rachel's
self-centered sister Amy ruins everyone's holiday
dinner with her uncensored observations. "The One With
Rachel's Dream" in which Rachel has a surprising dream
about Joey after helping him rehearse an upcoming love
scene. "The One With the Soap Opera Party" in which
Joey attends a DAYS OF OUR LIVES party. "The One With
The Donor" in which Monica and Chandler learn they
cannot conceive naturally and finally "The One In
Barbados" in which the gang travels to Barbados.
Packaging:
The package is a digipak in which you pull out another
box and open it to reveal the four discs. There are
four discs in total and contain 23 episodes (really 24
but "The One in Barbados" is considered an hour on
this set and so it's number 23). Disc one has the
FRIENDS logo with a shot of the entire cast in a photo
that represents their looks in the ninth year. Disc 2
features dual shots of Monica & Chandler. Disc 3 is
the same design and showcases Joey and Phoebe. Disc 4
features the same design with Ross and Rachel. The
color is different on each disc (Disc One is purple;
Disc Two is green; Disc Three is a dark pink; Disc
Four is an olive color). It's a nice design--simple
and easy. The box itself is yellow overall in color
and has the same type of design as the season’s 1-8
releases.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The main menu has the FRIENDS theme playing, but with
no vocals. There is a PLAY selection, EPISODES
selection that leads to a new menu listing the
episodes to choose from; a SPECIAL FEATURES selection
which takes you to a new listing where you can choose
the special features located on the disc; and finally
a LANGUAGES selection where you can choose whether you
want subtitles or not in English, French or Spanish.
It's a nice layout and easy to use.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video quality was fantastic. I saw no glitches or
anything. The color was great and it was as good as I
expected. The audio was pretty good as well. It wasn't
too low like a lot of releases have been that I've
done, but this season is not old at all. Each episode
usually runs like 23-24 minutes but several episodes
are exceptions to that (due to the fact that NBC aired
“super-size” extended episodes, so some actually run
around 34 minutes). And like every Warner TV-DVD
sets, there are no chapters or scene selections.
Someone needs to tell Warner to add chapters to all
TV-DVD sets at least!
Special Features:
There were several great special features. Discs 1, 2
and 4 have Audio Commentary by Executive Producers
Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane on
select episodes. Disc 4 contains the bulk of the
features. "Behind The Style: The Look of Friends" in
which costume designer Debra McGuire, Hair Stylists
Chris McMillan and Jonathan Hanousek and Makeup artist
Robin Siegel offer an inside look at FRIENDS, Fashion,
Hair and Makeup over the years. It runs approx. 19
minutes. "The Flaming Lips: Phoebe Battles the Pink
Robots" music video featuring Lisa Kudrow and Directed
by Kevin S. Bright runs approx. 2 minutes. The gag
reel features numerous outtakes from the course of the
ninth season and runs approx. 6 minutes. "Who's Your
Best Friend?" trivia challenge tests your knowledge of
Season 9. And finally, "Gunther Spills the Beans about
Next Season" in which the character Gunther previews
what you can expect to see on the season 10 DVD (it's
just a montage of scenes from Season 10) which runs
approx. 3 minutes.
Final Comments:
Overall, I think this set is great. The trivia game is
always fun to play. The commentary is always great and
interesting to listen to. Overall, Warner did another
great job with the special features and the layout of
the discs. Everything about it is great. I can't think
of a thing I would change or expect on future
releases. But I do think original promos before the
episode would be a neat feature but it’s probably not
likely. One more season to go before we can finally
complete our Friends DVD set!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Video Quality: 5/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 5/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed Shawn Eaton (TVJunkie101) on 03/24/05
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