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All in the Family - The Complete First Season

All in the Family - The Complete First Season

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EXCELLENT, But release them FASTER !!!!!
Review: This compilation is absolutely flawless. I just wish they would release the other seasons faster. I would buy them all at once. Having this classic sitcom on DVD is a must have for any collection. I would also buy "I Love Lucy", "Maude", "Golden Girls", "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Everybody Loves Raymond". Just get them OUT !!!!!!

This All In The Family sets the stage for one of the best on screen teams ever. This is a multi-time view for sure.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TELEVISION SHOWS AND DVD DO NOT MIX.
Review: I WAS QUITE SURPRISED BY THE POOR VIDEO TRANSFER QUALITY ON THESE ALL IN THE FAMILY DVD DISKS. THE SHOWS LOOK LIKE THEY WERE TAKEN FROM POOR VIDEO PRINTS AND WERE NOT ENHANCED OR REMASTERED. AS A RESULT, THESE SHOWS DO NOT LOOK VERY GOOD IN SO FAR AS PICTURE AND SOUND QUALITY GO. THEY ARE SHOWN IN THEIR ORIGINAL, UNCUT VERSIONS AS THEY FIRST APPEARED ON CBS AND THIS IS GOOD, BUT THAT HARDLY CAN JUSTIFY THE POOR VIDEO TRANSFER THAT OCCURED WHEN THEY PLACED THE SHOWS ON DVD. DVDS WERE MENT FOR MOVIES, NOT TELEVISION PROGRAMS.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worth Every Cent..........Despite Lack Of The Pilot
Review: I must say that this DVD set is a great buy for any "All In The Family" fan. I never really watched the show until last year and now I never miss it. It's absolutely hilarious. Carroll O'Connor was (in my humble opinion) a comic genius in his own right.

For the record, two pilot episodes were created for "All In The Family". The first pilot from 1968 was entitled "And Justice For All" which was rejected by ABC. This pilot episode is considered LOST, therefore it is understandable why it is not on the set.

However, in 1971 creator Norman Lear created a 2nd pilot for the show which was originally titled "Those Were The Days" which was produced in 1969. Up until the early '90s, this pilot episode was lost, and apparently now is aired on TV Land.

What I don't understand is why they couldn't include this pilot episode on the set. It makes no sense to me. This reason, and this reason only is why I will not purchase the set. Nowadays with television series' being released on DVD, 9 times out of 10, the pilot IS included. So the "All In The Family" set will always feel somewhat incomplete as far as I'm concerned.

But still, if you're a fan of the show, you really can't go wrong, as long as you're willing to forgive this little misconception on the part of Columbia/Tri Star home video.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "You Meathead, you!"
Review: ...All in the Family has the original thirteen episodes with no extras. It does have episdoe selections and subtitles, but that's it and that's okay. If you have been watching DVD'S for a while you expect extras, but what extras can they put for a sitcom that first aired in the seventies. The fact that this classic is being released entirely on DVD should be enough on its own. All the episodes included are very funny and are essential to anyone who is a fan of the show.

The following episodes are included:
DISC ONE
Meet the Bunkers
In this pilot episode, it is Archie and Edith's 22nd wedding anniversary, and Mike and Gloria decide to throw a suprise brunch to celebrate the ocassion. However, a heated dicussion follows, that leads to the question of whether or not Archie is prejudice.

Writting the President
Mike decides to write President Nixon but when Archie finds out he decides to write to President Nixon himself-telling him what's right.

Oh, My Aching Back
When Archie finds out how much money George and Louise Jefferson got for being hit by a bus, he decides to sue a woman who he got into a fender-bender with, until the "token gentile" shows up at the Bunkers.

Judging Books By Covers
Archie thinks that Gloria and Mike's friend Roger is gay but it turns out Archie's beer buddy Steve is the one that's [gay].

DISC TWO
Archie Gives Blood
Archie and Mike go to the blood bank to give blood but a dicussion about the difference between white blood and black blood follows.

Gloria's Pregnancy
Gloria becomes pregnant but looses the baby just when Archie gets used to the idea of a grandchild.

Mike's Hippy Friends Visit
Mike and Gloria's hippie friend visit but Archie wants them out, bad.

Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood
The Jeffersons buy a house in the Bunker's neighborhood, promting racist Archie to try to get them out by getting Lionel to tell them to leave, only to find out that Lionel is the one moving in.

DISC THREE
Edith Has Jury Duty
Edith is chosen for jury duty in an important case but Archie doesn't like her being away from home. And when Edith's lone not guilty vote delays the trial, there's no telling when the ding bat will be back.

Archie is Worried About His Job
Archie is afraid he may loose his job at the loading dock sohe stays up all night waiting for his spy on the inside, an eighty year old security guard, to find out if Archie is fired or not.

Gloria Discovers Women Lib
Gloria reads up on women's lib and tries to convince Mike that they are equal partners but Mike won't hear of it.

Success Story
One of Archie's army buddies shows up who is now a wealthy man on the outside, but as Mike finds out, he is bankrupt when it comes to family.

The First And Last Supper
Edith invites the Jeffersons over for dinner but Archie and George don't want to be around each other, at all.

The set is great and stars Carrol O' Conner as Archie, Jean Stapelton as the Dingbat, Rob Reiner as Meathad, and Salley Struthers as Gloria. This is the best show to come out of the seventies and a one of the funniest DVD sets available. I reccomend it to anyone who is even remotly a fan of All in the Family.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great collection...but where's the pilot?
Review: This DVD set is a great collection of the All in the Family, although the pilot is not contained in the collection. The picture and sound quality are great on all three DVDs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The first--and best-- season of this amazing program
Review: When "All in the Family" premiered in 1971, it was like nothing else that had ever been on American television. Sure, America by then had seen "Laugh-In" and was used to nightly shots of the misery in Vietnam, but never before had a situation comedy been so incredibly *real*.

Most everyone knows the characters and story of "All in the Family" (it was, after all, the #1 program for much of the 1970s and it's still on Nick at Nite every night), so without spending time elaborating the who's-who of the series, I'll just say that this first season is, in my opinion, the very best of the nine seasons that were filmed.

Norman Lear was so smart to insist on a sitcom that showed people doing everyday things, and I'm convinced a reason the program became such a success is that viewers got to see these characters engaging in everyday activities, without the need for a punchline or improbable gag every minute (as an unfortunate number of sitcoms are like now, and were like for the decade before "AiTF"). The entire first half of the Blood Bank episode, for example, shows the Bunker family playing Monopoly together. Show me a sitcom that would dare to show something so simple for so long today-- and it worked brilliantly, thanks to Lear's team of amazing writers.

One more note about a specific episode: "Judging Books By Covers" was about 20 years ahead of its time. When you watch it, keep in mind that this program's depiction of a gay former football player was being broadcast in 1971--- if you know the chronology of the gay-rights movement, you'll realize how groundbreaking that episode was (and kudos to CBS for going with it, and the whole series. They were, after all, at the time the network of older-skewed programs like "Green Acres" and "The Beverly Hillbillies.")

AiTF is still the best sitcom ever created, in my opinion. I only wish today's network executives and writers and producers would take its lessons to heart, and create a show in its mold today. I am convinced that such a program would be a surefire #1.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All In The Family on DVD--what could be better
Review: I read the other reviews and I hear people complain about the sound not being digitally remastered or the lack of DVD "extras". And who cares about the number of discs? Actually having the entire first season on 3 discs is great because you can share one with friends and still have 2. I actually love the sound...since it is exactly like the sound when it was originally broadcast...very nostalgic.

Here are my comments...the picture is perfect and on DVD it should last almost forever. But All In The Family isn't about high tech extras. AITF is still about social issues and these episodes are just as important today as it was when it was first broadcast. Actually it is more important because sadly, while the show poked fun at bigots way back then, some people still haven't gotten the message. Some people could somehow laugh at Archie and his antics and yet not know they were exactly like Archie.

AITF is still ground breaking. If you loved AITF as a tv series, you will love this DVD...even without all the DVD extras.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great TV Returns to DVD
Review: I bought this DVD as I felt that this show was propably one of most ground breaking shows. You could not do this on TV today. But we all loved and enjoy Archie and the way he came across. This DVD is a must have as is the MASH first season. Good time TV returns. You gotta love it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: How could they mess up perfection?
Review: Let me say if I were to review the comedy alone contained within, this gets 6 stars, however this is a boxset and factoring that in, this is dismal. Every mistake in the book is here as far as how NOT to bring a classic series to dvd.

No Chapter Skips? Check.

No pilot? Check.

Poor transfer? Check.

Flimsy, awkward, (though nice looking) packaging? Check.

No remastered sound? Check.

No extras? Check.

I have a majority of these on the official Columbia House VHS series, and somehow the picture on those tends to be marginally better. Who woulda thought you could mess up perfection? The picture is sort of fuzzy, and every now and again you can see some digital imperfection. I am satisfied with the set because it is a space saver, but thats about it (other than the obvious quality of the perfomances). Why even take the time to bring these to dvd, then cut every corner in the book? Will I buy season 2? You betcha.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: disrespectful not to remaster the sound!
Review: This is one of the all-time classic shows and it should have a remastered picture & dolby sound, like they did for Star Trek. The fact that it's uncut is great but the sound is awful.


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