Info:
Release: August 2, 2005 (UrbanWorks Entertainment)
Color/1984-85
MSRP: $49.99
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 24
Running Time: 528 Minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 1 hour 30
minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English
Audio; Closed Captioned.
Special Features:
• “The Cosby Show: A Look Back” (NBC 2002)
• Extended Preview Trailer for Cosby Show spin-off “A
Different World: Season 1”
Introduction:
The Cosby Show appeared on NBC from 1984 to 1992,
becoming one of the most popular programs in the
history of television. The series depicted a
close-knit and prosperous African-American family (The
Huxtables) that dwelled in New York City. Dr.
Heathcliff Huxtable , OB-GYN (Bill Cosby), and his
wife Claire, a prominent NYC attorney (Phylicia
Rashad), a happily married, dual-profession couple had
aspirations of raising their five children Sondra
[Sabrina LeBeauf], Denise [Lisa Bonet], Theo
[Malcolm-Jamal Warner], Vanessa [Tempestt Bledsoe],
and Rudy [Keshia Knight-Pulliam] in an uplifting,
positive environment. The Huxtables were truly a
groundbreaking family for television.
The Cosby show was an instant smash hit, holding TV’s
#1 slot for a record 5 consecutive years, from
1985-1990, remaining in the top 20 for all 8 seasons
of its run on NBC. The Cosby Show’s popularity was so
intense that it’s carried over into the 21st century,
and in 2005 the show is as relevant as ever. The
Huxtables are adored around the world.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
First of all, before you consider watching any other
episodes, watch the pilot. This is how one of the
most watched and remembered series of all time
began--with Dr. Clifford Huxtable, and only 4 children
(they even specifically joke about having 4 children
because they didn’t want 5). The episode’s a great
introduction to, well, most of the kids – with Theo
getting a bad report card, Dennis going on a date with
an older former Marine, and the tension caused by a
little sister are illustrated, and when Rudy keeps
Vanessa up, claiming that the Wolfman is in her
closed. This is classic television at its finest.
Episode two is another fine episode, with the
memorable “funeral” for Rudy’s deceased goldfish.
Episode number Nine (OAD: 11/8/1984), “Play it Again,
Vanessa” isn’t really one of my favorite episodes, but
it does feature the first of many notable guest stars
in the shows run – legendary musician Dizzy Gillespie
guests as himself.
The prerequisite “sitcom teen gets caught with
marijuana” episode occurs in show 17, in which – yes –
Theo gets caught with a joint in his book, but claims
it’s not his. Show #20, “Back to the Track, Jack,”
is the well-remembered “race” episode of the series,
in which Cliff and his old teammates from the Hillman
track team face off in a grudge match against Norton
University…and Cliff is 25 years out-of-shape. In the
next episode, “The Younger Woman,” Terry Farrell
(Known to millions of Star Trek fans everywhere as
Jadzia Dax, from Deep Space Nine; as well as Reggie on
the TV series “Becker”) plays the MUCH younger (same
age as Sondra) woman, the new love interest of Cliff’s
old widower friend. Show #22, The Slumber Party, is a
rather crazy episode, in which Rudy has a slumber
party with her various friends…and all insanity breaks
loose. The 23rd show is a “different” episode, as
it is set nearly entirely at the Community Center.
Theo finds a young boy at the playground of the Comm.
Center, and takes him to the director of the center,
guest star Tony Orlando (playing Tony Castillo). Theo
and Tony try to help the boy but get no response.
Tony, however, is determined to win over the kid.
Finally, the season finale – featuring guest star Lena
Horne – is based around Cliff’s birthday. The family
arranges for the family to go see Lena Horne, while
Cliff continually sneaks around the house trying to
find his “special birthday surprise.”
Packaging:
If you guessed the Cosby Show S1 packaging would be
Digipak…how did you know (Aside from the fact 90% of
3+ Disc sets use them)? The outer box has a shot of
Cliff and Claire in the bottom right corner, with
various stills of them faded along the left side. The
stills are partially translucent against the black
reflective background. The Cosby Show logo is raised
off the box surface, creating a nice effect. The five
kids of the Huxtable family adorn the top of the box,
above the Season 1 bar. The back cover has various
still shots, and a cast photo of the gang.
The inner box is where it gets fun. Behind the four
discs (more on them in a second) are various B&W
stills fused together in a collage. The collage spans
the entire inside cover. The outside cover if the
inner box is quite nice too. The center panel is the
same as the front cover of the outer box; however,
they expand it from there. To the two panels to the
right of the center are still photos from the show in
the top, followed by a continuation of the bronze bar,
then a quote from a cast member, and then a picture of
certain cast members at the bottom. From Left to
right: Panel 1: Cliff/Sondra, Panel 2: The entire
family, Panel 3 is the front cover, Panel 4 is Denise
and Theo, and the last panel is Rudy and Cliff.
Discs are well-done, and consistent with the box art,
but their character choices for featuring on each disc
are slightly puzzling. Disc 1, containing episodes
1-8 has Cliff on it. Disc 2, containing episodes
9-18, has Rudy. Disc 3 has Vanessa on the cover, and
contains episodes 19-24. The fourth disc, which
contains the 2002 Special and A Different World
trailer, has Claire on the cover. One small thing did
cross my mind about this - why was Vanessa given a
disc cover, but not the vastly-more-popular Theo, who
was just as important as Vanessa, even in season one,
not?
The booklet, something I don’t normally talk about, is
fairly well-done. There are a few words from Bill
Cosby in the beginning, followed by liner notes on the
series. The liner notes include the events leading
up to the Cosby show, the show’s debut, and the
aftermath of the show. Also included is a “Dates to
Remember” timeline, with the dates of important
milestones of the first season. Following that are
biographies of the cast, and finally the requisite
episode information section.
Menu Design and Navigation:
Menus are amazingly well-done, and are one of the
highlights of the set. The set starts with a clip of
Bill from an episode, and then the animated logo flies
in, leading to the main menu. At the main menu,
various clips from the first season play in a
half-circle in the right side of the screen. Two
clips play side-by-side in a long, horizontal strip
extending out from the half-circle. The logo sits
atop this strip. Below the strip are the Play All
and Episode selection options. The gray/black
background stays animated the entire time, while the
main theme plays. Choosing Play All will cause one
of the catchy transition music pieces from the show to
play, while the show logo flies out, and your episodes
start.
Choosing the selection menu (ex: “Episodes 1-8”),
causes a different transition piece to play, and the
episode selection menu to fly in. A circle with clips
from the episode, with Play Episode text, adorns each
selection menu. Extending from the circle is a bronze
bar with the episode number and title, as well as a
rarity among TV DVD releases, the option to choose
which act of the episode you want to start at
(Opening, Act 1, Act 2, or Credits…I kid you not, you
can choose to view nothing more than a show’s end
credits). The scene selection is a rare treat for
TV DVD releases, and is greatly appreciated.
Video and Audio Quality:
I’d like to quote a line from the press release in my
hand right now. Had I a scanner, I would scan a copy
of this and place an image for your viewing, however,
that’s not possible. Anyway, it states: "The discs
will feature all original NBC network versions,
including the pilot episode, which are approximately
two minutes longer than the syndicated versions."
Sounds great – with many releases swapping the
original airings for edited syndicated versions, it’s
great to see a production company outright mentioning
that their airings were the original, as-intended,
versions.
Unfortunately, there appears to have been a
miscommunication/change of plans/deception that
occurred between the writers of the press release and
the people in charge of the set itself. You see,
upon opening the set and playing an episode, to my
great surprise, the episode – as well as every
subsequent one on the disc, ran between 21:50 and
22:00. Seemed a bit short for “original NBC network
versions,” so I timed several season 1 reruns that
have been airing on TBS in order to compare runtimes
(hence the delay in the review). The runtimes turned
out to be the exact same – the DVD version matches,
frame by frame, the TBS airing – which use the
syndicated prints. In a subsequent e-mail to
SitcomsOnline.com DVD Review Director pavanbadal,
UrbanWorks DID confirm that the episodes were
syndicated prints; however, no explanation was given
as of the time this review was posted.
Sets with syndication cuts bother me even more than
episodes with music replacements. At least with
music replacement, the episode is still there, it just
sounds different. With edited episodes, entire
sections of episode are lopped off, occasionally
causing awkward cuts and strange gaps in the
continuity of the episode. However, had UrbanWorks
marked the box saying that the episodes were edits,
which would have been fine? Wouldn’t have been
happy, but it was fine.
What gets my goat – what REALLY gets my goat – is the
fact that the press release sent with the set went so
far as to promote “original NBC network versions…which
are approximately two minutes longer than the
syndicated versions,” and then they INCLUDE THE
SYNDICATED VERSIONS. It’s not just that the episodes
were edited – that’s bad enough. But – for the
release sent to all parties connected to the set,
including promotion outlets for the set – to say that
the episodes were something they obviously aren’t…its
outright deception and the person who made the
judgment call – on whichever end the problem occurred
on – should be ashamed.
The lie aside, syndicated episodes are incomplete, and
are amazingly disliked by the entire TV DVD community.
While it’s nice to get good-quality, commercial-free,
bug-free versions of our favorite shows – fans want
their favorite shows COMPLETE. It gets even stranger
when you take in to account the set running time
published in all reports about the set – 575 minutes.
A quick bit of math gets you ~24 minutes (give or take
a few seconds). 22 minutes [the runtime of the
episodes] times 24 episodes gets you the runtime you
see at the top of the review. I thought that,
perhaps, the reunion was factored in, however, that
gives you 615 minutes.
Slicing and dicing (no Julian fries, unfortunately)
aside, the set looks decent, and sounds NICE.
There’s some minor compression artifacting in the
video, and I’ve seen many sets whose colors are more
vivid. Still, there’s no grain, and the video is
neither too sharp nor too fuzzy. The set sounds
good – there’s no detectable hiss, the volume is nice
and loud, though there’s only a marginal distinction
between the left and right audio tracks. There IS a
closed captioning track, but no subtitles – in any
language. Also, English is the only audio track.
Chapter stops are placed at each fade-to-black. A
neat feature is the aforementioned scene selection
which allows you to start at the start of a chapter.
Special Features:
The special feature – yes, singular – is the Cosby
Show: A Look Back special that aired on NBC in May
2002 sweeps. Interestingly, the box manages to
promote the one feature – the special – as several
features including deleted scenes, bloopers, audition
footage, and cast retrospectives. All those features
are staples of TV DVD special features, however, not
as they exist - in a prepackaged special made FOR AIR.
The retrospective itself is good stuff, though most
fans of the show probably already remember that from
its NBC broadcast. Nonetheless, it should be a
treat, regardless of whether you’ve seen it or not.
The feature runs one hour and twenty-six minutes.
Also on the special features disc (disc four) is an
extended trailer for the eventual (no date given)
release of A Different World. It was nice to see some
classic clips from the show, but I wish the trailer
had mentioned the release date (November 8, 2005 for
those of you not keeping score at home).
Final Comments:
I don’t know what happened along the way to cause the
syndicated episodes to be used, but the fans of this
show – many whom have already pre-ordered the set –
would appreciate some sort of official explanation (or
at least a plausible rationalization). The press
release, as well as the published runtime, both at
retailers AND ON THE BOX, indicate that the episodes
will be NBC airings (the PR directly, the retailers
and box based on the runtime and simple math). In
addition, the “special features” consists of nothing
more than the Cosby retrospective that aired on NBC in
2002, and a trailer for future release of the
spin-off. There’s really no content available on the
set that’s not available in syndication (the episodes)
and eBay or tape trading (the retrospective). So,
to market a set with those contents for $50 MSRP is
just….sad.
For all the complaints about the set, there were some
high spots. Aside from the shows themselves, the sets
looked and sounded pretty good. The menus were
impeccable, and the packaging (Theo snub aside) was
quite well done. UrbanWorks has the foundation for
quality releases down the pipe, and I hope they
realize that potential, and put more effort into
future release of both The Cosby Show and A Different
World. Season 2 is probably an inevitability – and
with that inevitability I hope there’s change. Fans
of the show want NBC episodes, and are far more likely
to buy the show if they’re complete. However, if some
issue or reluctance is going to stop you from using
the original masters of the show, at least pepper the
set with more special features. There are quite a few
more bloopers, outtakes, and various materials that
weren’t even scratched in the reunion special…use
those. Something a recent set I reviewed did that I
loved was to include the original NBC preview for each
episode as a selectable option in the episode
selection menus – to make it feel as if you were
watching the show on it’s original network again.
Also, based on the love that most of the actors have
for the show, it shouldn’t be hard to get them, or the
crew, to come in for commentary. Things like this are
what viewers want to see.
I love The Cosby show, and I’d very much like to see a
2nd season. However, I, and all the other millions
of fans of the show, would prefer to see the set done
*right*. NBC airings at their 24-minute glory…special
features high in quantity that they justify an extra
disc...the actors doing commentary…these are what
viewers want. I hope, I genuinely hope, that future
sets will be up to the standards of a legendary show
like The Cosby Show.
I’d love to recommend the set, but it feels
incomplete. The episodes can be seen, as they exist
on the discs, in syndication, and the reunion special
can be found on eBay usually. Really, you’re paying
$40-$50 for packaging and really nice menus.
However, if you still want the on-demand availability
that comes with DVD sets, get this set. If you’re
looking to see the episodes in their full glory, or
looking for features that enhance the experience of
the show, then sorry this is not for you.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Special Features: 2/5
Overall: 3/5 *
* Final Score was docked one full point, as the entire
set features syndication edits with 2 minutes less of
material than the show originally aired with.
-- Reviewed by Seth Thrasher on 07/15/05.
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