Info:
DVD Release Date: February 14, 2006 (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Color
MSRP: $39.99
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 22 half hour episodes; 2 two-part
episodes
Running Time: 624 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 12 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English
subtitles; closed-captioned
Special Features: Top Ten Guest Stars of Season Four
Introduction:
Miami’s hottest senior citizens are back in action
again! Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and of course Sophia
are back for the fourth season of the show that was
THE excuse for staying home on Saturday nights in the
80s, back when networks weren’t afraid to air new
episodes of hit shows on Saturday nights.
The fourth season is the middle of the series, which
is often when a series is at its best. Of course, The
Golden Girls managed to maintain a consistency
throughout all seven seasons that make almost any
episode from one particular season as good as any
other episode from another season. With that being
said, the fourth season contains many great episodes
of the show, and is one of the seven “greatest”
seasons of the show (which only lasted seven seasons
to begin with).
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The fourth season begins with “Yes, We Have No
Havanas,” where Blanche discovers that her newest
boyfriend, Fidel, has been seeing another woman on the
side—Sophia! Dorothy and Blanche will resort to
anything for Rose to allow her to win the title of St.
Olaf's Woman of the Year in "Yokel Hero." Sophia gets
married to a man that she spent most of her life
despising in the two-parter "Sophia's Wedding." Other
Disc 1 episodes include “The Days and Nights of Sophia
Petrillo,” “The One That Got Away,” “Bang the Drum,
Stanley,” and “Brother, Can You Spare that Jacket?”
Blanche's brother Clayton is in town and he has a
surprise about his sexuality that Blanche just can't
handle in "Scared Straight." Elinor Donahue plays
Stan's third wife in "Stan Takes a Wife." Blanche has
a new boyfriend that is unable to appreciate her for
the one thing that she has always used as her strong
point--how she looks--in "Blind Date." Rose's newest
boyfriend has some performance problems in "The
Impotence of Being Ernest." John Fielder plays
Dorothy's newest boyfriend (that was set up by Sophia)
in "Love Me Tender." Julio Iglesias plays Sophia's
date for Valentine's Day on "Valentine's Day." Dorothy
wants to spend quality time with Sophia (which Sophia
isn't all so thrilled about) at Disney World in "Two
Rode Together." Bob Hope appears as himself in "You
Gotta Have Hope." “The Auction” is also included on
Disc 2.
Dorothy's prankster friend Trudy makes a visit in
"Till Death Do We Volley," but then Trudy suddenly
dies--or does she? Rose is forced to deal with her
addiction to pain pills from a farming accident
several years ago in "High Anxiety." Sophia decides to
save her friend Lillian from a bad nursing home by
kidnapping her from the home in "Sophia's Choice."
Sophia's friends from Italy are visiting Miami, to
claim their long-lost daughter--Dorothy--in "Foreign
Exchange." Finally, the fourth season ends with the
two-parter "We're Out of Here" where Blanche receives
a very attractive offer to purchase the house, and
must decide whether or not to sell. Other Disc 3
episodes include “Fiddler on the Ropes,” “Little
Sister,” and “Rites of Spring.”
Packaging:
Same packaging as before—nothing really changes much
with this show on DVD, and having the same packaging
is good (hopefully the last three seasons will have
similar packaging too). Basically, the three panel
digipak is back, this time with a green color scheme.
The packaging seems to be very appropriate for St.
Patrick’s Day, as there is so much green and the front
of the box has the girls’ pictures in what appears to
be a four-leaf clover. Inside, the digipak has a
listing of the episodes for each disc on the left-hand
panel, Discs 1 and 2 in the middle panel
(unfortunately they overlap, but most fans have gotten
used to that by now) and Disc 3 in the right-hand
panel. Disc 1 contains episodes 1-8 (6 and 7 are
presented as one episode), Disc 2 contains episodes
9-17, and Disc 3 contains episodes 18-26 (25 and 26
are presented as one episode). The discs themselves
are in the same green color scheme, with Blanche on
Disc 1, Dorothy and Sophia on Disc 2, and Rose on Disc
3.
Menu Design and Navigation:
These sets have been more consistent as far as menus
than almost any other set I’ve seen. The menus on this
set are exactly the same as the ones that were used in
all of the first three seasons, except of course the
video clips on the main screen are different and the
background is in a green color scheme. The main menu
also has the closing theme music playing in the
background once again, as do all of the other menus in
the set. The menu options on the main menu are Play
All, Episode Selection, and Set Up. Play All plays
every episode on the disc, Episode Selection takes you
to a menu where you choose the episodes, and Set Up
allows you to turn on English subtitles and gives
information on how to register the DVD set. In
addition, Disc 1 has an option for the special feature
on that disc. And while there are no scene selection
menus, there are chapters, which are placed very
appropriately throughout the episodes at the
commercial breaks.
Video and Audio Quality:
This is very good this time… it seems to improve with
each and every season. In fact, there wasn’t anything
I could find to nitpick on this time, which is a good
sign (although I’m sure some others could find
problems with it). The audio is presented in Dolby
Digital Stereo, with closed-captioning and English
subtitles available for those that require that.
Once again, the episodes seem to be completely uncut,
which is always a good sign. Some episodes ran as
short as 23:30 and others as long as 24:30. Usually,
edited vs. unedited, although it is annoying to have
something edited, doesn’t affect a show too much, but
believe me, for The Golden Girls, you can tell a HUGE
difference… and the unedited versions are MUCH better.
Special Features:
Once again, the special features on this set are a
disappointment. There was some effort made in regards
to special features, but it really isn’t enough. The
special feature that is included is “The Top Ten Guest
Stars of Season 4” (11:46) on Disc 1. Basically, it is
just like it sounds… a top 10 countdown of what the
DVD producers consider the best guest stars of the
fourth season. I don’t think too many people would
agree with the rankings… in fact, there were a few
people in this that I had never even heard of outside
of The Golden Girls, and when I searched for
information about them on Google, I still didn’t find
out anything about them. And then they also included
guest stars like Richard Mulligan, who wasn’t really a
special guest star for the show. The #1 choice was
rather obvious and made a lot of sense, I just had
trouble with most of 2-9.
In addition to this special feature, there are tons
(and I mean WAY too many) previews on Disc 1.
They really need to do better with these special
features on these sets. The rumor is that Betty White
will be providing commentaries on the fifth season
when that is released, so that will be a little bit
better, assuming it is true. But for now, you’ll have
to settle for limited special features.
Final Comments:
I can’t complain too much, because again, Buena Vista
has made an effort to present a DVD set that is
complete with every single episode in the original
unedited format. But where are the special features???
Something seriously needs to be done about this! This
is one of the most popular shows out there, and these
DVDs are being presented as barebones sets… and that
just isn’t right. By no means would I suggest that
anybody pass up this set—it is a must own set, because
it is such a great show and the episodes are uncut
unlike the heavily edited versions that are aired on
Lifetime. It is just that special features aren’t
there, when they really should be. It is really
unfortunate that the best special feature on these
Golden Girls sets so far has been the trivia game from
The Complete Second Season. Still, though, this is a
great show and a set that every fan MUST own.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 5/5
Audio Quality: 5/5
Special Features: 1/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 02/06/06
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