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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 6588
Released: October 28, 2003 |
| Our Price: $13.97 |
| Used Price: $11.71 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The dysfunctional fun continues with the complete first season of "Married…with Children," the off-beat comedy that changed the face of TV family sitcoms forever, available on DVD for the first time! Nominated for 7 Golden Globe Awards between 1991 and 1994. 2-disc set with all 13 episodes.
Description of Married with Children - The Complete First Season:
When Married... with Children debuted on Fox TV on April 5, 1987 (followed by The Tracey Ullman Show a half-hour later), the grungy sitcom became an instant flagship for Rupert Murdoch's upstart network. The program's much-publicized working title, Not the Cosbys (a dismissive reference to the cheerful vitality of Bill Cosby's hugely popular television clan on NBC's The Cosby Show) was a dead giveaway. Married... with Children was going to be a trashier, raunchier, and far more cynical view of the American nuclear family. But it turned out the series actually fell into other caustic-domestic entertainment traditions, notably the Don Ameche and Frances Langford radio comedy series from the 1940s, The Bickersons, and Jackie Gleason's TV classic, The Honeymooners.
The jokes were savage, key relationships were marked by ennui and indifference, and the Bundy family name couldn't help but make one think of America's most notorious, real-life serial killer at the time. Yet the show had a hint of Golden Age Hollywood gloss, a retro-screwball feel that one could detect in the snappy verbal warfare between husband Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) and wife Peggy (Katey Sagal). The characters, and the show, eschewed sentimentality, which certainly opened the floodgates to comic cynicism but also kept a door ajar for moments of genuine sweetness. A decade later, however, by the time Fox cancelled the increasingly expensive series, Married... with Children's first-season tone would be considerably different, replaced by a stronger reliance on running jokes and character stereotypes, particularly concerning Bundy children Kelly (Christina Applegate) and Bud (David Faustino).
That evolution makes watching Married... with Children's first 13 episodes, once again, quite instructive. Those programs are all on this two-disc set, including the startling pilot, in which Al and Peggy lock horns over marital politics and enlist naive new neighbors Steve (David Garrison) and Marcy (Amanda Bearse) in a battle of the sexes. There's also the classic "Whose Room Is It, Anyway," concerning the Bundys' competition to connive Steve and Marcy into building a recreation room, and "Thinnergy," a very funny piece about a diet that supposedly boosts sexual interest. --Tom Keogh
Married with Children - The Complete First Season Reviews:
Dysfunctional at its best. 
2009-07-01 - Married with Children - The Complete First Season is short because the show was a mid-season replacement. Season 1 is pretty good but not as funny as seasons 2 and 3. Kelly Bundy played brilliantly by Christina Applegate is more edgier in the first season, she didn't become a bimbo until the later seasons. Katey Sagel is the scene stealer, she owns the set. Good start but got better with age, check it out!
Married with Children - Season One 
2009-06-24 - This show isn't for everyone, but I find it very funny. In a way, I can identify with the situations shown in the program.
Married with Children First season 
2009-04-11 - I always enjoy a good comedy, this first season different from later years, still makes me laugh. The characters work well together and keep you laughing for hours. I will continue to watch the Married with Childred DVD's when ever I need a good laugh. I plan to buy all seasons as they are released, bob
Awesome! 
2009-02-17 - Anyone who is a die hard Married with Children fan definitely has to get this :)
Comedy must have 
2009-02-07 - I know of no person who isn't amused by the Bundy family. Great addition to the DVD collection