Info:
DVD Release Date: February 13, 2007 (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Color/1991-1992
MSRP: $39.99
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 26
Running Time: 625 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English,
English subtitles; Closed-Captioned.
Special Features: Thank You For Being a Friend: A
Look Back With the Golden Girls
Introduction:
The girls are back—for the last time—in The Golden
Girls: The Complete Seventh and Final Season. This
three disc set contains the final 26 episodes of the
sitcom that made staying at home on Saturday nights in
the 80s and early 90s cooler than going to a party.
One can say that this is the "final piece of the
cheesecake" for your DVD collection, as now, for the
first time ever, you can (well, except for a few
problems on the fifth season DVD set) own every single
episode of this classic sitcom on DVD.
But unlike most shows, the final season is, once
again, a great season! Most shows have gone downhill
by the time that they get this far through the series,
but The Golden Girls is one of those few rare shows
that has great moments from the very first episode all
the way up through the final episode.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
There are too many good episodes to list—but I'll list
them all anyway. The season begins with “Hey, Look Me
Over,” where Rose develops an old roll of film with
Charlie, when he was in Florida on a business trip.
But how will Rose handle it when it appears that
Charlie did everything in Florida, including Blanche?
Blanche could be a murderer in “The Case of the
Libertine Belle.” Edie McClurg guest stars as Sophia's
nurse (who Sophia seems to like more than Dorothy) in
“Beauty and the Beast.” A city inspector says that
Blanche has too many renters in “That's For Me to
Know,” so who is going to go? Peter Graves plays a
news anchor that is torn between two women, Blanche
and his mother, in “Mother Load.” Steve Landesberg
makes his first appearance as Stan's psychiatrist in
this episode as well. The girls remember their worst
dates ever in “Dateline: Miami.” A hurricane is a
comin' and so is Dorothy's sister—and you'll never
guess who she sleeps with—in “The Monkey Show.”
Rose becomes concerned with how cheap Miles is in
“Ro$e Love$ Mile$.” In “Room 7,” Sophia dies—a little
bit, and comes back to life—and Blanche is determined
to save her grandmother's plantation. Blanche
encounters a man that she supposedly promised would be
her one and only in “From Here to the Pharmacy.”
Sophia accidentally takes the Pope's ring in “The
Pope's Ring.” Ken Berry and Betty Garrett guest star
in “Old Boyfriends,” where Sophia begins dating a...
couple... and Rose is confronted with an old boyfriend
that she doesn't even remember. Rose arranges for
Dorothy and Blanche to be on a talk show about women
that live and sleep together in “Goodbye, Mr. Gordon,”
but does Rose even know what is meant by women that
live and sleep together? Blanche is unable to get the
man she wants in “The Commitments.” Alex Trebek and
Merv Griffin guest star in “Questions and Answers,”
where Dorothy could possibly become the next
contestant on Jeopardy! Rose accidentally exposes
Dorothy and Stan as the slumlords they are in “Ebbtide
VI: The Wrath of Stan.”
Blanche gets jealous when Dorothy becomes the latest
hit at the Rusty Anchor in “Journey to the Center of
Attention.” Everything goes wrong during Blanche's
moonlight party in the two-part episode “A Midwinter
Night's Dream.” Rose poses for a naughty photo for a
birthday gift for Rose, which is fine until he decides
to open the gift in front of his friends, in “Rose:
Portrait of a Woman.” Rose has a heart attack in “Home
Again, Rose.” Finally, the series ends with the
episode “One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest,” where
Blanche sets up Dorothy with uncle (played by Leslie
Nielsen), but as a joke, the two decide to make
Blanche believe that the seriously are in love. But
all of this pretending could lead to something
bigger... something much bigger (I won't spoil it but
any fan knows how the series ends).
Packaging:
Seven seasons and they are all pretty much the same as
far as the packaging is concerned, which is a great
thing as far as consistency is concerned. This season
probably has the most elegant packaging of all of the
sets released so far, but only because of the color
scheme used in this set—the overall color scheme is
black (the previous sets have all used various pastel
colors). Aside from the color scheme, the cover art
should look very familiar—it is almost identical to
the first season artwork. The cover has four pictures
on it, one of each of the girls. They have updated the
photos for this set to how the girls all looked during
the final season. Inside, we have the same type of
digipak that has been used for every set, with Discs 1
and 2 in the middle panel and Disc 3 in the right hand
panel (the left hand panel contains episode listings
as well as a folder-type pocket to hold
something—except my set had nothing in there, I'm
guessing it would just be some sort of promotional
material that has nothing to do with the show). The
discs are not black, however, but instead they are of
a bronze color, with a photo of Rose on Disc 1,
Dorothy and Sophia on Disc 2, and Blanche on Disc 3.
Disc 1 contains episodes 1-9, Disc 2 contains
episodes 10-18, and Disc 3 contains episodes 19-26 as
well as the bonus feature.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are the same as they were in the previous
set, except of course they use a black color scheme
this time. The menu options are Play All, Episode
Selections, Set Up, Sneak Peeks (Disc 1), and the
bonus feature (Disc 3). The closing theme music plays
while you make your selection as it has in ever set so
far. The Play All, Episode Selections, and Sneak Peeks
options do exactly what one would think they do, and
the Set Up option allows you to turn on subtitles and
gives you information on how to register your DVDs. As
has been the case for all of these sets, there is no
scene selection menu, but chapters are placed at all
of the appropriate spots within the episode.
Video and Audio Quality:
There is SOME fluctuation when it comes to video and
audio quality from one season to the next, but it is
never all that significant. The main problem seems to
be with the sharpness of the picture quality, but
other than that, there is nothing significantly WRONG
with these sets. The audio is presented in Dolby
Digital Stereo sound, and while you won't find the
audio quality to be quite as good as the quality that
you may find in the latest Star Wars movie, you have
to keep in mind—this is “top of the line” for a
television show from 1991-1992 (which is kind a
reasonable expectation for television shows on DVD).
Closed-captioning and English subtitles are available
on the set.
These days, I am very hesitant to declare ANY DVD set
as being edited or unedited, due to little problems
some seemingly perfect sets have had lately. I do
believe that this set is unedited, however, as most of
the runtimes are fairly consistent. It should be noted
that some (though not all) of the episodes from this
season have scenes that run during the closing
credits. Although Lifetime did air these at one point
in time, ever since they have, in their infinite
wisdom, realized that closing credits aren't important
for us, these pretty much haven't been seen at all. It
is a shame too because some of these are pretty funny,
particularly the ones on “Goodbye, Mr. Gordon” and
“Rose: Portrait of a Woman.” This is one (of many)
good reasons to own the DVDs! The runtimes are as
follows:
Disc 1:
1. "Hey, Look Me Over" (23:44)
2. "The Case of the Libertine Bell" (23:26)
3. "Beauty and the Beast" (23:46)
4. "That's For Me to Know" (23:29)
5. "Where's Charlie?" (23:44)
6. "Mother Load" (23:45)
7. "Dateline: Miami" (23:44)
8/9. "The Monkey Show (Parts 1 and 2)" (45:22)
Disc 2:
10. "Ro$e Love$ Mile$" (23:39)
11. "Room 7" (23:43)
12. "From Here to the Pharmacy" (23:29)
13. "The Pope's Ring" (23:31)
14. "Old Boyfriends" (23:46)
15. "Goodbye, Mr. Gordon" (23:42)
16. "The Commitments" (23:45)
17. "Questions and Answers" (23:35)
18. "Ebbtide VI: The Wrath of Stan" (23:44)
Disc 3:
19. "Journey to the Center of Attention" (23:44)
20/21. "A Midwinter Night's Dream (Parts 1 and 2)"
(45:20)
22. "Rose: Portrait of a Woman" (23:46)
23. "Home Again Rose (Part 1)" (23:25)
24. "Home Again Rose (Part 2)" (23:43)
25/26. "One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest (Parts 1 and
2)" (46:25)
Special Features:
For the most part, Buena Vista has kind of screwed us
over again on the special features—kind of. Of course,
I'm not complaining about the special feature that is
on here, in fact, it is pretty good, but it just isn't
enough. “Thank You For Being a Friend: A Look Back
With the Golden Girls” (15:00) is a collection of
clips (from all seven seasons) combined with new
interviews from Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty
White. It is a nice featurette, but with 15 minutes,
they don't get nearly as in-depth as I would like for
them to get! Personally, I enjoyed the commentaries
that were on the fifth season set more than I enjoyed
this, but I'm glad this was included anyway.
The series is done as far as season sets are concerned
on DVD, and Buena Vista has really blown a “golden
opportunity” when it comes to giving us good special
features. Lets hope that whenever the series is
released on another format in the future (or if a
“complete series” collection is released), we will see
some more innovative special features, particularly
with the cast members involved in the special
features!
Final Comments:
This is the end of the series, and as much as I like
the show and would recommend that fans (no matter how
loyal) purchase this set as well as the previous six
sets, I have to say that I am SLIGHTLY disappointed in
the way that Buena Vista has handled this set as far
as the special features are concerned. This show had
so much potential for special features, yet Buena
Vista chose to release all of these sets with (at
most) one special feature per set. They should have
gone all out—commentaries, interviews, and bonus
footage—on EVERY season that was released.
Despite this (and the syndicated episodes problem on
the fifth season set), I have to say that I AM pleased
with the rate at which Buena Vista released these
sets, and about the fact that I was generally
satisfied with the video and audio quality of the
sets. Plus, it is great to just have this series
(which, although it is hard to say for sure, is
probably my favorite series of all time) complete on
DVD. Of course, there is still more work to do. Now,
it would be nice to see Buena Vista release the
spin-off of this show, The Golden Palace. Sure, it
wasn't quite the same show without Bea Arthur, but it
was still an enjoyable show to watch and fans would
love to see it on DVD. Also, what about the seemingly
forgotten spin-off, Empty Nest? That show lasted for
just as many years as The Golden Girls, yet it seems
to have been totally forgotten over the past 10 years.
Well, in any event, you'll want to get this set to
complete your collection!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4.5/5
Audio Quality: 5/5
Special Features: 1.5/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 02/07/07
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