Cheap All in the Family - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD) (Carroll O'Connor) Price

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Customer Reviews of All in the Family - The Complete Fourth Season

Yeah, picture quality is not great, but still a must-have!!!
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!!!

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Still in full swing
Some people have noted that the decline starts with season 4. Everyone has different tastes, but to my mind, the show didn't 'jump the shark' until season 6 (and was pretty much unwatchable by season 9). <
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>But (IMO) in season 4 the show still had legs. As one commentator complains, Mike's character changes. I, for one, welcome the 'change' since it simply (finally) sees that 'liberal' ideas can be just as closed minded and simple as the 'conservative' ideas Archie represents. The show used Mike and Gloria to expound on the writer's/creator's viewpoints, which always seemed too pat and self satisfied. I've always felt that after a few years they saw what they were peddling and took stock in what they were doing and pulled back a bit. Mike (and Gloria) became more individual and rounded and less as mouthpieces of a generation. <
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>It was a refreshing turnabout in my opinion. Of course later in the series, the fatal late 70's, early 80's liberal pap took hold (just as it did with MASH) and became a hollow version of itself. Gone were the days of skewering social satire that was fun to watch even if I didn't fully buy into the anti-Archie side either. Just like with Alan Alda's hair, the more silver/white Archie's hair became, the less vital the comedy and commentary. You can pretty much tell the quality of the episode based on that indicator alone. <
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>But, again, this is season 4, and there are plenty of good episodes "Archie in the Cellar", "Archie Eats and Runs", "Archie and the Computer", and "Mike's Graduation". There are some clinkers, "Gloria's Boyfriend" (painful to watch, overly simple tripe) "Gloria Sings the Blues" - basically anything with Gloria as the main focus, I guess. But all of the episodes still have the main ingredient of Archie going off. Still vital, and still funny. <
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Archie Meets His Maker (Twice) (Sort Of) In Season Four :-)
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. <
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>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. <
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>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". <
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>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!) <
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>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. <
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>There are no Special Features included here (except for some "Previews" for other Columbia/Sony TV-on-DVD products). <
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>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. <
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>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). <
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>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. <
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>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. :-) <
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>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. <
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>Other information about this set...................... <
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>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. <
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>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.