Married With Children: The Complete Tenth Season (Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B-
Well, Married with Children is coming in for
the home stretch now that Married With
Children: The Complete Tenth Season has been released on DVD. The series that originally aired as a spring
replacement managed to pull a historic feat when it lasted 11 seasons. Granted the series went on a few seasons too
long; the series did manage to capture America’s hearts and be instilled as a
piece of television pop culture for all time.
Married with Children reintroduced
people to Ed O’Neill and made Katy Sagal, Christina Applegate, and David
Faustino household names. Their careers
have all gone in very different directions after Married With Children ended; with Sagal getting involved in the now
classic Futurama, Applegate becoming
a huge television and movie star, and David Faustino now stars in an edgy
internet series entitled Star-Ving
on crackle.com with Corin Nemec of Parker
Lewis Can’t Lose. If nothing else
the series gave us many memorable moments and whereas by the time Season 10 rolled around the jokes had
become stale and repetitive there were still some shining moments that will
remain classics in the television universe.
Towards
the end of the series more and more guest stars were arriving on set such as
Ben Stein, Alan Thicke, Shannon Tweed, Traci Bingham, Terry Bradshaw, Michael
Clarke Duncan, Tim Conway, Pat Morita, Nicole Eggert and many more. It was almost like they were trying to see
how many guest stars and new characters they could fit in before the end, which
was at the time noticeably approaching fast. The 26 episodes feature more
madness from the NO MA’AM club, the Bundy’s trip to Spring Break, Bud’s big
move to the basement, Peg’s mom moves in with earthquake-like consequences, and
sadly Buck died…but was quickly reincarnated as the Bundy’s new dog,
Lucky. This season hosted just as many
classic moments as it did stinkers, but it was a fun ride on the couch
nevertheless.
The
technical features of Married with Children return on this DVD set as lax and uninspiring, but even though
they are not the greatest they slide by as adequate. The picture once
again has crispness and color issues in its 1.33 X 1 Full Screen format (shot
on professional NTSC analog tape). The sound is presented in a Dolby
Digital 2.0 stereo that often times sounds very distant and/or muffled; needing
(like the picture) a major restoration. The extras are nonexistent, which
will be quite disappointing for fans of the sitcom who want cast commentaries,
and behind the scenes footage.
I think
the set is less than it could/should be, but never the less if you have loved
the series for this long, now is not the time stop buying or watching.
Can I get
a Bundy Wo?
- Michael P. Dougherty II
