DVD Set Review: "The Cosby Show": Season One

Rated: Not Rated
Starring: Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina La Beauf, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe, and Keshia Knight Pullam
Released: 1984 - 1985 (TV premieres) / 2005 (DVD)

Synopsis
The show that changed the face of television all started here.  Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable (Bill Cosby) is an accomplished gynecologist; his wife, Clair (Phylicia Rashad), is a lawyer.  They and their five children--Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy--are a typical family...with plenty of love and laughter! You'll laugh as Clair and the kids go out of their way to prevent Cliff from discovering his birthday gift, Cliff teaches Theo a lesson about money, Clair desires to have one more child, and much more!

The Good
Since this show is one of the landmarks of television, most of you reading this are probably already at least somewhat familiar with it.  If you're not, though, here's the rundown of what's great about it: Not only is the content clean--well, mostly--but it features parents who are intelligent, instead of kids who rule the roost while their parental units sit around wondering.  The positive moral elements within this first season are too many to list.  The bonus disc features a retrospective documentary with the show's stars and other celebrities--Oprah Winfrey, Adam Sandler, P. Diddy, etc.--talking about how influential the show was during its run.

The Bad
There was a bit of sexual dialogue, and a couple of profanities, but, those all stayed within "PG" territory; the real problems with this set are from a technical aspect.  If you rely on closed captions, be warned: a weird glitch caused all of the episodes on the second disc to have the wrong captions, and the bonus documentary has no captions, even though they were likely on the original broadcast.  Even if you aren't hard of hearing, all of the episodes are the syndicated versions, which means they're the kind you can watch on TV Land for free--and that have missing scenes--instead of the original broadcast episodes.  Also, one of the episodes had some rather annoying music.

Conclusion
Though The Cosby Show is a classic, this DVD set could have been much better produced.  I'd give the show a four, but the set itself a two for poor production values.  If you're a die-hard fan of the series, you'll probably be pleased with it nonetheless, but others might opt to get the re-release that contained the full broadcast episodes.

Score: 3/5