Customer Reviews

All in the Family: Complete Fourth Season

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This fourth "All in the Family" DVD will cover the 1973-74 season, including the following episodes:

* "Archie the Gambler" (Edith demands that Archie stop gambling)

* "Henry's Farewell" (Henry Jefferson is moving. Neither Henry nor Archie wants to have an integrated farewell party at his house)

* "We're Having a Heat Wave" (A two-parter that introduced the Lorenzos to AiTF).

* "Edith Finds an Old Man" (Edith brings home a nursing-home runaway)

* "Archie and the Kiss" (Archie against the Rodin statue)

* "Archie and the Computer" (Archie learns his lesson about computer errors)

* "The Games Bunkers Play" (Mike doesn't like hearing how his friends perceive him)

* "Edith's Conversion" (Horse-meat and Catholicism make Archie angry)

* "Archie in the Cellar" (Archie gets locked in the cellar)

* "Black is the Color of My True Love's Wig" (Gloria's new wig creates strife in her relationship with Mike)

* "Second Honeymoon" (Archie and Edith go to Atlantic City for their 25th anniversary)

* "The Taxi Caper" (Archie agrees to drop charges when he is mugged by the son of a city politician)

* "Archie is Cursed" (Archie and Irene Lorenzo argue over men and women in sports)

* "Edith's Christmas Story" (Edith gets some bad news)

* "Mike and Gloria Mix It Up" (Mike and Gloria fight)

* "Archie Feels Left Out" (Archie has a half-century crisis)

* "Et Tu, Archie" (Job insecurity)

* "Gloria's Boyfriend" (A man with Down's Syndrome has a crush on Gloria)

* "Lionel's Engagement" (A surprise awaits George Jefferson about Lionel's fiancee)

* "Archie Eats and Runs" (Archie and mushrooms)

* "Gloria Sings the Blues" (Gloria has issues with her marriage)

* "Mike's Graduation" (Mike graduates from college... or does he?)

* "Pay the Twenty Dollars" (A dispute over possibly counterfit money)

It's bad that the season does not have subtitles, when is so important when you have deaf problems.
Should not this subtitles be a part of the standard procedures for the realeases ?

Thks

FINALLY, season 4 of All In The Family has been released! I don't understand why Columbia Home Video is waiting so long to get these out. Season 4 contains some of the best episodes yet. The antics of the Bunker household continue as Archie, Edith, Gloria and Mike bring taboo subjects and everyday issues into our homes. We also see the addition of three new characters, Betty Garret (Irene Lorenzo) Vincent Gardenia (Frank Lorenzo) and Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson. Combined with the cast regulars, Season 4 makes for a huge non-stop laughfest. One of my favorite episodes is when Archie accidently locks himself in the cellar and gets smashed on Polish Vodka. In Archie's haste to make a will, he is so wasted that he thinks he's dying, and therefore believes that God is coming for him, which really turns out to be the oil delivery man--who is black! Plenty of other goodies in season 4 too. I'm finally glad to see these videos coming out on DVD. My old VHS copies are so worn out they barely play anymore. Thank you Columbia Home Video, but please don't wait so long getting these titles out. Thank-YOU to the cast of AITF for the many laughs and all the memories.

In the reality-based TV era, it's nice to be able to watch the classics on DVD. AITF took sitcoms to another level by using controversy, politics, and Americana and wrapping them in a funny package. AITF helps us to laugh and cry, but probably most importantly it helps us to reflect upon ourselves through real-life issues. Thanks again Columbia Tri-Star for putting this landmark series out on DVD. They are worth the wait!!!

Transfer is not great, but this series is a classic. Despite the lack of special features, this set is a must-have. Being able to watch the series develop from beginning to end is essential. The strength of AITF is in it's humorous spin on political and moral issues. The only reason I give this 4 stars instead of 5 is because of lack of attention to detail. The stories themselves sell this DVD box set. Personally, I can live without a bunch of extras as long as I get the uncut eps as they were aired. The Bunkers rule!!!

Yep the discs are complete. The person who posted his message warning that the last disc only had 6 episodes either dosen't know about the 3rd episode menu screen with epsidoes 23 & 24 or maybe he did get a bum set after all.

And yes the picture quality on this set is lousy. Disc 1 is the worst. My brother had VHS copies of this series that he made when the show was rerunning on cable and I keep telling him not to throw them out just because these DVDs are getting released. His tapes are just as good -- if not better sometimes -- than what Columbia House is selling us here.

I was going to get the Jeffersons season 3 that also came out the same day but maybe I won't now.

NBC loves to hang the moniker "greatest ____ ever" on its TV shows as if saying so makes it so. First, The Cosby Show was the greatest sitcom ever, then Seinfeld, then Friends. Of course, according to NBC, ER is the greatest program in the history of television, so we all have to discuss comedy programs in and of themselves. If NBC spent nearly as much time creating good new shows as it does in shamelessly overhyping their old shows, they probably would still be ahead of CBS in the ratings.

For my money, no sitcom will ever top the great All in the Family in any respect -- acting, writing and overall influence. To get an idea of what dire straits TV comedy was in before All in the Family, take a look at an episode of one of the other sitcoms that was on the air at the time: Family Affair, The Brady Bunch, the last, sad days of Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies. The country had grown up, but television sitcoms had stayed rooted in the same dated themes of the 1950's and 1960's: either sterilized white bread families or gimmicky hocus pocus that took the place of the quality writing of classics like I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Subjects like Vietnam, flower children, drugs, poverty, racism, homosexuality and rape were taboos.

Enter Archie, Edith, Mike and Gloria who dealt with all those issues and more head on in every episode. While Carol Brady scolded her children for saying the word "stinker," Archie Bunker held a lengthy dissertation on the phrase "god damn it." While Samantha Stevens was still dealing with her wacky witch and morlock relatives, the Bunkers were coming face to face with a transsexual. While the perpetually backwards residents of The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres discussed barn dances and pig raising, the Bunkers talked about the bombing of Cambodia and Watergate.

To be sure, Archie Bunker was a caricature -- a personification of all the old time, outdated prejudiced values that were so out of step in the early 70's. Creator Norman Lear's political perspective is cleary on the side of Mike and Gloria Stivic rather than Archie or Edith. However, Lear, who modeled the character of Archie on his father, wisely gave Archie Bunker a good soul. It's clear that deep down, Archie is a good person who can't deal with the changes in his life and the country without lashing out angrily at them.

The supreme achievement of All in the Family is that it takes all that anger and controversy and makes them funny. In the episode where the Jeffersons move into the neighborhood, for example, Archie's bigoted opposition to letting a black family could have made the situation ugly and very, very unfunny. However, Archie's opposition and fear is lampooned, making the point that discriminating on the basis of race is ridiculous. It's certainly deeper and more meaningful than Soup Nazis or finding out which two members of the Friends ensemble will sleep with each other next.

In addition, the cast is probably the best ever assembled for sitcom with the possible exceptions of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Carroll O'Connor as Archie, Jean Stapleton as Edith, Rob Reiner as Mike Stivic and Sally Struthers as Gloria are absolute magic together and still manage to convey how much they love each other even while they argue about and disagree about everything. In addition, the supporting cast would later include so many great actors and actresses as so many great characters that All in the Family would spawn five spinoffs. A true measure of how much the characters come to mean to the audience is in the episode "Gloria's Pregnancy." When Gloria miscarries, Archie goes to comfort her. Even though he can't find the right words to say, the look that passes between Archie and Gloria is extremely moving and touching. The characters yell and scream the most horrible things at each other, but when push comes to shove, they are a real, loving family.

No matter how much NBC and other networks may hype their sitcoms as being the best ever, All in the Family will always be king. The show made television grow up and meet the issues of the day head on while still making the audience laugh and care.

Season #4 of "All In The Family" includes many more memorable (and very funny) moments at the Bunker household. This three-disc DVD collection holds all 24 episodes from the fourth AITF season (1973-1974). There are eight shows on each of the three discs.

The season begins with Episode #62, "We're Having A Heat Wave", and continues through Episode 85, "Mike's Graduation" (which turns out to be a not-so-happy day after all for Archie). During the course of this fourth year of the popular sitcom, we get our first look at a new batch of Archie's neighbors -- George Jefferson and The Lorenzos (Irene and Frank) -- who prove to be worthy foes for the outspoken Archibald Bunker.

Other 4th-season highlights include: "Edith's Conversation", "Pay The Twenty Dollars", "Archie And The Computer", "Archie Eats And Runs", "The Games Bunkers Play", and "Second Honeymoon".

There's also Episode #71, "Archie In The Cellar" (aired November 17, 1973), which has a tipsy Archie Bunker confronting "God" in one of the most hilarious scenes in the show's long history -- "Forgive me Lord, the Jeffersons was right!" (LOL!)

The video quality on this DVD set is about the same as the previous AITF full-season collections (to my eyes anyway) -- not very sharp, but watchable. The shows were done on "tape" (not film), which accounts for the less-than-stellar picture quality I think.

There are no Special Features included here (except for some "Previews" for other Columbia/Sony TV-on-DVD products).

I like the inner packaging of this set. It's designed exactly like that of the third-season AITF collection, with the discs popping off their respective "hubs" (holders) without a Herculean effort required to remove them.

I have a couple of very minor complaints regarding the packaging, though. The innards of the case are very hard to remove from the outer slipcase. It's way too tight of a fit (at least the copy I received is like this, with a series of vigorous and annoying "shakes" of the case needed to even begin to get that inner case separated from its slipcase).

What happened to the idea of the recessed "finger slots" that have been utilized on some previous DVD boxed-set packaging, including AITF Season #2? That AITF set has slots cut out of the slipcase box for easy removal of the case's innards. Those finger slots sure would have proved useful on this fourth-season box.

Another extremely nit-picky quibble is regarding the cover art used for this AITF set. The photo of Edith (Jean Stapleton) is just awful, IMHO. She wins the "goofy look of the year" award with that pose. I know she's supposed to be a "ding-bat" in the series, but I would think a more flattering picture would be available in the archives someplace. This retarded-looking image of Edith is also repeated on the Main Menu of each disc. Oh well ... as I said, it's just a minor complaint. :-)

Foul Language Warning -- A hunk of very foul language coming from the lips of Archie Bunker (which would normally not get past the TV censors, circa 1973) remains intact on the soundtrack of the first episode of this boxed set ("We're Having A Heat Wave"). Worse language than usual for Archie, that is. At about the 07:50 mark into that show, Archie screams one of the few taboo words that you still can't say on TV even nowadays. Hard to believe that this expletive (with the initials "G.D.") was actually allowed to be aired. But, evidently, it was permitted, for some reason.


Other information about this set......................

VIDEO -- Full Frame TV ratio (1.33:1). In color.
AUDIO -- 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono (English only).
SUBTITLES? -- No.
"PLAY ALL" FEATURE? -- Yes.
ANIMATED MENUS? -- No. The Menus are all "static" in nature. No music.
CHAPTER BREAKS INCLUDED? -- Yes.
CHAPTER BREAK IMMEDIATELY AFTER ANNOYING OPENING THEME SONG? -- Yes. (Thank the Maker.) :-)
PAPER INSERT INCLUDED? -- Yes. A fold-out type of booklet/episode guide.
DISC TYPE -- Single-sided / Dual-layered (with disc art adorning each platter).
PACKAGING TYPE -- 3-panel "Digipak" case, with outer cardboard box.

-------------------

Season Four of "All In The Family" provides another solid year of laughs (and a few teardrops along the way too). It doesn't rank quite as high on my "favorite years" list as some other seasons of the series, and the DVD picture quality here is certainly nothing to write home about, but it's still a good year's worth of episodes with Archie and family nevertheless.

All in the Family's fourth season certainly gave us terrific entertainment; and even though the quality of the transfer to DVD isn't perfect I still recommend this for anyone who enjoys high quality control comedy. These episodes may have been filmed way back when but they're still every bit as hilarious now as they were then. Yes, some of the most biting shock value is gone but the jokes remain fresh and the poignant scenes (of which there were many) still standout as great theater. The fourth season comes in a three DVD box set with a list of the episodes along with a couple of sentences that tell you in general what each episode is about.

Although all the episodes are really very funny and occasionally quite moving, there are a few episodes that stick out in my mind as being particularly well done.

"Henry's Farewell" Henry Jefferson is moving away from the neighborhood and neither George nor Archie is willing to host an integrated farewell party in their homes for Henry. When the party finally goes underway at Archie's house, look for great comedy and some very touching moments. An outstanding episode.

"We're Having a Heat Wave" This is a two part episode that shows just how frustrated The Bunkers and The Stivics can get with each other when "the heat is on." This two part episode also introduces Irene and Frank Lorenzo (Betty Garrett and Vincent Gardenia) to The Bunkers; The Lorenzos eventually take the place of The Jeffersons who will move out of the neighborhood (and onto their own spin-off show).

"Archie and the Computer" Archie learns that he is dead--because of a hole punched into a computer card. Archie tells them to fill in the hole!

"Black is the Color of My True Love's Wig" Gloria is incensed when she thinks Michael likes being alone with her only if she wears her new wig.

"Second Honeymoon" This is one of my very favorite episodes ever. Archie and Edith have a fight over what they're going to do for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Edith wins the fight and she decides how they'll spend their time alone together.

"Archie Feels Left Out" Archie has a mid-life crisis; he insists that his next birthday is number forty-nine, and not fifty.

"Lionel's Engagement" This is one of the funniest episodes of this season. Just wait until George Jefferson finds out that his future daughter-in-law has a white father and a black mother!

"Archie Eats and Runs" The Bunkers become hysterical when Edith thinks she may have accidentally bought poisonous mushrooms for Archie's dinner. What happens when they get to the hospital?

"Pay the Twenty Dollars" A fight erupts over some potentially counterfeit money. How will The Jeffersons and The Bunkers ever resolve their dispute?

All in all, this is one heck of a season of All in the Family. I highly recommend this three DVD set.

This season is the first of an overt change in the format. The prior 3 seasons dealt more with social issues. Season 4 seems to have a somewhat altered format; the social issues are still there but more neighbors are added in an attempt to liven things up while focusing inward on the characters' lives. Of course, all of the big social issues had already been tackled, and in season 4 the change is generally very effective. Reviving Archie's old gambling problem resurfaces in "Archie the Gambler" is an example of this new format, though not one of the better examples I could suggest. This new type of episode format ultimately became the de-facto standard for later seasons, but for now isn't so consistent.

Worse, Michael's character is starting to become weakened and even humiliated. The episode "The Games Bunkers Play" (which also features a cheap promotional tie-in advertizement of a (short-lived) board game; a sleazy tactic that would be repeated in a future season Christmas episode where Archie buys baby Joey a violent game) is a prime example of this. You'll also see why the board game was so short-lived; the aforementioned episode seems to accurately portray how people would react. I nearly gave up on the episode and struggled with the last 10 minutes of Mike acting so unusual, until the end of the episode where Edith explains Archie's attitude of Michael towards him. While that particular moment seems heartwarming on the surface, bearing some scrutiny on it causes it to fall apart. The last three seasons' worth of episodes clearly suggest Archie's dislike of Mike is hardly of jealousy for the latter's greater educational advancement but out of pure poltical disagreement/dislike. Mike being Polish doesn't help either. Obviously some behind-the-scenes trickery caused this change to happen. Which is sad as any show that dares to say something that doesn't appeal to the lowest common denominator is bound to generate flak. It's impossible to please everybody, and to make a fundamental program shift at the expense of the characters themselves is never a good move. Just as the cast of the original Star Trek regarding several episodes of its third season (1968-1969)!

Also, rehashing of already presented ideas is starting to happen - which clearly shows the series is starting to become stagnant. A prime example is "Archie Feels Left Out" where the topic of growing old is used - again.

Episodes worthy of the season include but are not limited to:
* Edith Finds an old Man
* Archie and the Kiss (non-political but hilarious)
* Archie and the Computer (possibly the best of the bunch)
* Edith's Conversion
* The Taxi Caper
* Edith's Christmas Story
* Gloria's Boyfriend (nice topic to use but some of the acting isn't all that good)
* Gloria Sings the Blues
* Pay the Twenty Dollars

All in all, there's a lot in this season that's still excellent and it is just about worth buying. But signs of decay are starting to creep in and Michael being diminished with feeble explanations thrown in is a definite slap in the face. Future seasons continue dwelling into the characters' lives and avoid the bigger social topics. To both good and bad effect.

And then there's the video quality that's worse than before; most of it being an issue of the DVD transfer and not the source material... while Columbia Tristar has a history of being cheap on transfers, AitF season 4 appears to be a new low.

The grain and MPEG artifacting definitely look worse; I say this one is actually sub-VHS in appearance as there are MANY scenes where I can see vertical artifacting and from a reasonable distance. While it's a 30 year old show, I've seen many others from the era that look far better and, again, transfer-related problems are different than source problems. (but then, Columbia also went out of its way to blame the problems of "Sanford and Son" season 4 on the "digital masters" by writing a disclaimer on the back of the box. Which is amusing; all videotape shows from the early 1970s were ANALOGUE. The only thing digital here is the TRANSFER.) While the episodes themselves are plain looking, that does not mean we should be subjected to releases that aren't given proper restoration work. That's sloppy and that's an insult to the people who spend lots of good money to buy these sets.