DVD Release Date: November 23, 2004 (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
color, approx. 617 minutes
MSRP: $49.99
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 25
Language and Subtitles: English, English subtitles, Closed Captioned
Special Features: Fashion Commentary by Joan and Melissa Rivers
Review (out of 5 stars):
Video Quality: 4.5/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 3/5
Menu Navigation: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
Thoughts:
After all of these years of waiting, you can finally
thank Buena Vista Home Entertainment for being a
friend for releasing one of the most anticipated
TV-on-DVD products of the year: The Golden Girls! The
Complete First Season is a three-disc set that
includes all 25 UNEDITED episodes from the first
season. For those that have been watching the
(heavily) edited episodes of The Golden Girls on
Lifetime for the past several years, this set is
exactly what you have been waiting for!
It is very difficult to make just a short list of
great episodes of The Golden Girls from any season, as
almost every one of them is a great episode in its own
unique way. However, some of my favorites from the
first season include "Transplant," "The Competition,"
"Break-In," "Heart Attack," "Adult Education," and
"Blind Ambitions." But besides those episodes, one of
the best episodes of perhaps the entire series is
included on this set--"A Little Romance." That was the
Emmy Award winning episode where Rose dates a
psychologist that is... well... "height challenged."
If you haven't seen the episode, it is one that you
must see.
The packaging for this set wasn't the greatest, but it
was acceptable. Inside the box, there is a digipak
that holds the discs. Disc One has its own panel and
is easy to remove from the package. However, in order
to get Disc Two out of the case, you have to first
remove Disc Three. On the left-hand panel of the
digipak, there is a list that explains which episodes
are on which disc. It also includes writing and
directing credits for each episode. I was kind of
hoping for a booklet with descriptions of the
episodes, but unfortunately, there wasn't one.
The episodes are presented on each disc in the order
in which they originally aired on NBC. Episodes 1-8
are on Disc One, episodes 9-17 are on Disc Two, and
episodes 18-25 and the special featurette are on Disc
Three. With 25 episodes, it would have made more sense
to do a four disc set. Unfortunately, Buena Vista
chose to do just three. Disc One also has trailers on
it (for the first season of Home Improvement, Princess
Diaries II, and the 40th Anniversary Edition of Mary
Poppins). Unfortunately, they are forced trailers, so
once you put the DVD in, the trailers begin playing.
You can, however, skip past the trailers by using the
Menu button on the remote.
The options on the main menu on each disc include Play
All, Episode Selection, and Setup. The first two are
pretty much self-explanatory, but the third one is a
menu that allows you to turn subtitles on or off, and
gives you information about registering the DVD on the
internet. I honestly do not know anything about the
registration process, but it says that if you
register, then you are eligible for the Disc
Replacement Program, DVD technical support, and
notification of special offers. Maybe it is a good
idea to register if you think that it would be a
useful thing to do. There is no scene selection option
in this set; however, there are several chapter stops
on each episode. Disc One also has an option to view
the trailers (the ones that you are already forced to
watch when you insert the disc) and Disc Three has an
option for the special featurette. Also, on all three
discs, the closing credits music from the show plays.
The video quality of the episodes is fairly good. The
series is, of course, almost 20 years old, but the
video quality doesn't look that old. The quality isn't
perfect, but there aren't any major issues with the
video quality either. The audio quality is also fairly
good. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital Surround
Sound. The audio did seem a bit muffled from time to
time (particularly on the opening credits), but it was
not a very serious problem.
The only REAL complaint I have about the set is the
special features that are included. An attempt at
special features was made, but the only real special
feature is a 10 minute featurette on Disc Three with
Joan and Melissa Rivers critiquing the fashion of the
ladies on The Golden Girls. It really isn't all that
entertaining though in my opinion. Basically it is
just Joan and Melissa talking about how "tacky" they
think the clothing worn on The Golden Girls is. This
was obviously just included for the sake of comedy,
since Joan and Melissa keep making fun of how weird
and how "1980ish" the ladies clothes are, but it
really wasn't too funny or entertaining. At least an
effort was made in regards to special features... it
is just too bad they couldn't have commentaries on the
episodes or some special features that involve the
cast members of The Golden Girls. The fashion
commentary is very odd and out of place for this set.
By the way, for those who are wondering about the
opening credits situation, the opening credits that
are included is similar the longer one that is
sometimes aired on Lifetime (not the VERY long one,
but the moderately long one). I can not positively
confirm whether or not these are the original opening
credits since I do not have access to original airings
from 1985, but there are a few differences from the
Lifetime version of the opening credits. For instance,
the background on the Golden Girls logo at the
beginning of the credits is different, and when Rue
McClanahan is credited, a different clip of her is
shown from the one on Lifetime. Everything else in the
opening credits is the same, however.
This set (like almost every set) isn't perfect, but if
you are only going to collect a few TV-on-DVD products
in your lifetime, this is the one that you want to
collect! This is one of the greatest sitcoms ever, and
one of the very few shows where every season is
equally as good as another. Hopefully, Buena Vista
will release every season as soon as possible. In
fact, according to promotional material that is
included inside of the set, Season 2 of The Golden
Girls is already scheduled to be released in spring
2005 (along with Home Improvement Season 2 and Boy
Meets World Season 3)! So make sure that you go out
and buy this set, even if you don't want it
personally. Everybody knows some Golden Girls fan, and
this set is being released just in time for the
holiday season. It makes a perfect holiday gift!
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 11/10/04
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