Info:
DVD Release Date: November 22, 2005 (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Color
MSRP: $39.99
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 25 (counting an double length
episode as two episodes)
Running Time: 614 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 26 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English
subtitles; closed-captioned
Special Features: Golden Girls Moments (2:32); "Golden
Girls' Scrapbook" (approximately 23 minutes total)
Introduction:
Get out the support hoses and Metamucil! America's
favorite girls (or the more appropriate term would be
senior citizens) are back for their 3rd season on
DVD! The third season continues the trend set in
previous seasons of the show (in other words, the
overall plot stays consistent, which is pretty rare
for a sitcom), and during the original run, earned
three Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe. But who cares
about what awards it won? It is just a great season of
one of the greatest sitcoms of all time!
The three-disc DVD set (available on DVD on 11/22/05
from Buena Vista Home Entertainment) includes three
discs with all 25 episodes from the third season and
is… well it wouldn't be honest to say "loaded," but it
has a few special features. But most importantly, just
as with the first two releases, it is full of the
versions of The Golden Girls that most fans crave: the
unedited versions!
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The third season of the show kicks off with "Old
Friends," where Sophia becomes friends a man that she
meets on the boardwalk. But when he begins to
demonstrate some bizarre behavior, Sophia learns that
he has a disease that can never be cured. Parley Baer
(who has appeared as a guest in so many shows, yet you
probably have no clue who he is) makes a guest
appearance as Rose is left with custody of a "baby" in
"Bringing Up Baby," but there is more to this baby
than the girls expected! All of the girls have to get
over their fears on a plane ride to a funeral in
"Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself." Rose writes a
letter to Gorbachev on behalf of her cadet troop in
"Letter to Gorbachev," except Rose is not the person
that they believe wrote the letter! McLean Stevenson
plays Stan's brother Ted, and perhaps Dorothy's new
love interest, in "Brotherly Love." In "Three on a
Couch," the girls learn the hard truth from a
psychologist—they were not meant to live together—but
is he just a quack? Dorothy becomes friends with a
novelist (and the girls become jealous) in "Dorothy's
New Friend." The girls get a chance to go on a game
show in "Grab That Dough," but end up competing
against each other rather than with each other!
Sophia's newest boyfriend (played by Mickey Rooney) is
a mobster in "Larceny and Old Lace." In "Mixed
Blessing," Michael comes home with big news—that he is
getting married—to an older woman. But there's more,
it is an older black woman! Finally, the season ends
with "Mother's Day," where each girl remembers a
special Mother's Day from the past (don't worry this
is NOT a clip show!)…look for Alice Ghostley playing
Stan's mother!
Packaging:
Consistency is always a good thing, and every season
of The Golden Girls is pretty much consistent with
regards to the way episodes are written and produced.
But not only are the episodes consistent… so far, the
packaging for each DVD release has also been
consistent, and the third season is no exception. We
begin with the packaging: season one had a golden
color scheme, season two had a blue color scheme, and
this time, we have a pink color scheme. The cover art
contains individual photos of each of the girls in a
diamond, which for some reason, I kind of think it
looks nice. Inside, we have a digipak that has three
panels, with the first panel containing a list of the
episodes, the second panel containing Discs 1 and 2,
and the third panel containing Disc 3. All of this is
exactly the same as the first two releases. Each disc
is pink, and Disc 1 has a picture of Rose, Disc 2 has
a picture of Sophia and Dorothy, and Disc 3 has a
picture of Blanche. The only thing I really don't like
about the packaging is the overlapping of disc 1 and
2, but since three seasons have been released this
way, I suppose it is better to be consistent and keep
things this way for the remainder of the series. The
episode breakdown is as follows: episodes 1-8 on Disc
1, 9-17 on Disc 2, and 18-25 on Disc 3 (or episodes
18-24 if you count 18 and 19 as one episode).
Menu Design and Navigation:
Well, here we go again with consistency… the menus are
virtually the same once again (although we have a pink
color scheme this time). But just as a recap for those
that have forgotten (or those that never purchased
season 1 or 2), when you load each disc (and wait for
all of the filler, such as FBI warnings and Buena
Vista logos), you are greeted with a main menu (the
closing music plays in the background) that has
options of Play All, Episode Selection, Sneak Peeks
(Disc 1 only), Setup, Golden Girl Moments (Disc 1
only), and The Golden Girls Scrapbook (Disc 3 only).
Play All does its obvious function. Episode Selection
takes you to a basic (but adequate) menu that allows
you to, well, select which episode you want to watch.
Setup allows you to turn on English subtitles and
gives you information on how to register your DVD set.
The other menu options take you to their respective
special features.
There is no scene selection menu, but the good news is
that the chapters are back for this season. They were
present on the first season, but mysteriously
disappeared for the second season, but now they have
returned for the third season. I'm not sure what
happened with the second season, but regardless, it is
good to see that these are back, with chapters placed
at every place where a commercial break would be
placed.
Video and Audio Quality:
Having been the reviewer for every release of the show
thus far, I've noticed some improvement in these sets
in regards to audio and video quality. The video is a
little bit blurry, but it is nothing to be overly
concerned with. The audio (which is presented in Dolby
Digital Stereo) is nicer this season as well, with the
annoying "tin can" effect seemingly gone this time
around. The volume level is still a little low, but it
is not as significant as it is in some DVD sets. The
hearing-impaired will have no trouble with the set,
since it is closed-captioned and includes English
subtitles. And finally, yes, the episodes are uncut.
What would be the point in purchasing these DVDs if
they weren't? Most episodes run at roughly 24:40,
although a few run at 24:10. Still, I'd assume these
are unedited.
Special Features:
The special features get more and more disappointing
with each and every season that is released
unfortunately. Well, technically, special features
have never been good on these DVD sets, but honestly,
I feel like this one is even worse than the first two.
On Disc 1, we have Golden Girls Moments (2:32), which
is nothing more than a bunch of clips from the third
season of the show with a little background music.
There is a Golden Girls' Scrapbook on Disc 3, which
is, once again, just a bunch of clips that are about
each character. For Dorothy, we have "Down on Dating
(3:33) and "If Wit Could Kill" (3:12); for Rose, we
have "Blissful Ignorance" (2:37) and "What Was I
Saying?" (3:06); for Blanche, we have "Blanche's Come
Ons" (2:42) and "Pillow Talk" (3:35); and finally, for
Sophia, we have "The Joke's On…"(2:41) and "Sassy
Sophia" (2:45). The creative folks at Buena Vista have
decided to consider the unedited version of the
"Golden Moments" episode a special feature as well,
but that is just absurd, the only special thing about
it on this DVD set besides the fact that it is
unedited is that it is being presented in the original
format (as one continuous episode).
So there you have it—bonus features that are nothing
more than clips. I'm not sure why anybody would buy a
DVD set just so that they can see a rehashing of
episodes that can be seen in their complete form on
the DVD set anyway, so why are they even bothering
with special features like these? Give us what we
want—bloopers, commentaries, or interviews would be a
nice start (and please, please, we beg of you, NO MORE
FASHION COMMENTARY BY JOAN AND MELISSA RIVERS!).
There are some sneak peeks available on Disc 1, for
"The Shaggy Dog," "Home Improvement Season Four," "TV
on DVD" (just a general BV TV-on-DVD promo), "Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition," "The Golden Girls," and
"Desperate Housewives." But that isn't all… read this
carefully… there is also a sneak peek for "The Golden
Girls 4th Season."
Final Comments:
Three down, four more to go—and if you carefully read
above (like I told you to), you'd know that one of the
"four more to go" is on the way! No date is available
yet for this, but I'd imagine it would be within a few
months. I believe that these DVD sets are a worthwhile
investment for any fan of The Golden Girls, mainly
because it presents the show in a way that seems much
different than the form seen on Lifetime (which makes
many edits to the show that are obvious even to those
that may have never even seen the original unedited
versions). But the only thing fans want (and are being
denied) is worthwhile special features! The only thing
(and it is a big thing) that is keeping this from
being the perfect set is the lack thereof—but even if
the set isn't perfect, it is more than worth it just
for the episodes.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 1/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 11/07/2005.
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