Married with Children: Complete Series

This review will not focus on the merits of this classic TV show since anyone visiting this page already likes it enough to possibly buy the entire series on DVD. Rather, this review will hopefully clear up the confusion regarding exactly what is being offered with this Complete Series collection. Sony originally released the individual seasons on DVD from 2003 to 2009. This 2010 Complete Series collection simply repackages the exact same DVDs from the individual seasons. There are 32 discs in all spanning the entire 11 seasons for a total of 261 episodes. Unfortunately, there is no episode list included showing what episodes are on each disc. The bonus content is slim and includes:

Season 1- 42 minute 2003 reunion special with all of the principal cast members.
Season 2- 13 hidden "Easter Eggs" featuring short interview clips with the cast.
Season 3- 10 hidden "Easter Eggs" of cast interview clips + the unaired "I'll See You in Court" episode.
Seasons 4 to 11- No series related extras.

It should be noted that the opening theme has been replaced with generic music starting with season 3 due to music licensing issues. Also, season 4 has 7 episodes that are the syndicated versions, meaning each is missing about a minute of footage from the original broadcast versions. All other seasons appear to have the original, uncut episodes. The video is presented in its original full frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio and the audio is in 2.0 Dolby digital stereo. Neither the picture nor sound quality shows any noticeable signs of remastering but are still generally good considering the age of the series. The packaging is also worth mentioning as it is very different than the individual season sets. The discs are housed inside a cardboard box measuring approximately 7.5"H x 5"W x 5.5"D. Inside the box, there is a fold-out digi-pack with 9 clear plastic trays stacked on top of one other on either side, holding 2 overlapping discs per tray, with 4 trays holding 1 disc each. Only time will tell just how well this case keeps its contents secure, but in terms of being a space-saver, this excels over other complete series DVD sets. In 2011, Sony re-released another Married...With Children: The Complete Series DVD set but with much cheaper packaging comprised of discs stacked on top of one another in two separate spindles. The re-packaged version is clearly the better option for those on a tight budget, but the original digi-pack release is superior in terms of its convenience and better protection of discs. Over all, despite some of the aforementioned drawbacks, there are still enough positives with the Complete Series collection to entice fans who do not already own the individual season releases.

My husband and I are fans of the show and this was exactly what we were looking for. we have some of the regular box sets and the discs in this set are the exact same. I love the packaging all the discs are in one place, organized and take little space considering it contains 11 seasons. Awesome price as well considering we have 4 seasons already that were 25-30 each and we got all 11 for 57 all inclusive. As always with Amazon great shipping, received my order in 3 business days!

If you've come across this, you're obviously a fan of the TV show, and have seen most if not all of the episodes. But do yourself a favour; open a new tab in your browser and search Married With Children again on Amazon. Now look at how much it would cost you to buy all of the seasons individually, and then come back here to this $50 complete series set. This is a ridiculous price, for a great item and you would be crazy not to hop on it while you can. I already had 7 seasons of this show on my shelf when I ordered this, but it would cost me more to buy the remaining seasons than it would to buy this complete series set. No brainer.

The packaging isn't the best. Inside you get flimsy plastic that's not held all that well together and you've got to be very careful when handling it. If you have the chance to buy this from a store at the same price instead of Amazon, I would recommend doing so. That's not a knock on Amazon, but if you're receiving your package through the mail, Canada Post can be pretty brutal sometimes just tossing your packages around and what not, and your set may come out looking different than when it was shipped, if you get my drift. All in all, this is seriously an incredible buy at this price either way. Do not let it pass you by if you're a fan of the show. 4 stars for a great price, but less than stellar packaging.