Product Details

• Actors: Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe
• Directors: Jay Sandrich, Nancy Stern
• Writers: Bill Cosby, Carmen Finestra, Earl Pomerantz, Ed. Weinberger, Elliot Shoenman
• Format: Subtitled, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Urban Works
• DVD Release Date: August 2, 2005
• Run Time: 575 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (132 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007ZSHR6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,130 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Cosby Show - Season 1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 08/02/2005 Run time: 575 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

176 of 186 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "The Cosby Show" deserves better treatment than this., July 30, 2005

By 

Brad Preston (Spokane, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cosby Show - Season 1 (DVD)

Over the years, television commercial breaks have lengthened, and older series in syndication have suffered for it. When you watch a rerun of your favorite TV show, it can have anywhere from two to four minutes edited out to make room for more commercials, depending on the show's age.

"The Cosby Show" is no exception to this rule. During the 1984-1985 season (when the show debuted), the average length of a half-hour show was twenty-four minutes with about six minutes allotted for commercials. In 2005, the average length of a half hour show is twenty-one minutes. So the versions we see umpteen times a day on TBS, WGN, Nick At Nite and various local stations have more than two minutes cut out of them.

But that's okay, because the upcoming release of "The Cosby Show's" inaugural season will include all the footage from the NBC airings we haven't seen in over twenty years, right?

Wrong.

In their infinite wisdom, Carsey Werner and UrbanWorks have decided to allow consumers to plop down a good portion of their hard-earned cash for the syndication edits of one of the most beloved sitcoms of the 1980s, without any warning on the packaging that these are, in fact, not the full-length episodes (even lying to us by stating in the original press release for the set that they were using "all original NBC network versions, including the pilot episode, which are approximately two minutes longer than the syndicated versions").

Part of the appeal of TV shows on DVD is the fact that we get to see our favorite shows uncut for the first time in years. That's why I've gladly shelled out money to add shows such as "Cheers," "M*A*S*H," "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons" and "Taxi" to my DVD collection. I was looking forward to adding "The Cosby Show" to that list, until I found out the versions included on this four-disc set are, in fact, versions I can watch for free multiple times a day on cable.

Would you pay money for a book with pages missing? A movie with scenes cut? An album with verses missing from songs?

Why, then, would you buy this? There are two minutes missing from every episode! That's 48 minutes from the whole season - enough missing time for two episodes of "The Cosby Show."

Please don't buy this. Send the message to Carsey Werner (the show's owner) and UrbanWorks (the distributor of this botched effort) that "The Cosby Show" deserves better treatment on DVD.

190 of 211 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Keep you're Columbia House copys!, July 29, 2005

By 

M. J Krankka "Whovian" (New London,MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cosby Show - Season 1 (DVD)

Well I was getting ready to sell off my Columbia House copys of The Cosby Show to buy the new season 1 set,but then I read the reviews and nearly passed out when I read the news about the episodes on the upcoming box set being the cut versions.The episodes on the upcoming set are about 22:00 minutes in link.After I read this I popped in one of my Columbia House copys watched "Goodbye, Mr.Fish" on the Columbia House version the episode was 24:07 minutes in link.If you bought the Columbia House DVD's keep them as the are the orginal network versions.I cant believe they are going to release The Cosby Show this way,this show is an American Classic and it should not be release this way!Thumbs down to this release! Thumbs up to Columbia House for doing Cosby right!Columbia House are best of set,but atleast the episodes are uncut.
Update-Well I read the news about the rest of the series being released uncut,Urbanworks heard the complaints and season 1 has not sold very well,so season 2 and on will get the uncut treatment,I'll beleive it when I see it?remember they promised everybody that season 1 was going to be uncut and it turn out to be a big lie! If 2 is going to be uncut I think they should rerelease seaon 1 also!

221 of 248 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid this set...shows are EDITED! Not worth your $$$, July 26, 2005

By 

S. Phillips (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cosby Show - Season 1 (DVD)

All the episodes are EDITED! These are not the versions run by NBC. Save your money; you can see these truncated versions in syndication.

This is especially horrible as the company put out press releases a few months ago stating these were to be uncut, and now they release edited versions? I think they should be reported to the FTC and product should be recalled so it can be properly labeled with a disclaimer stating that the shows are CUT.