Married...With Children, Vol. 1: The Most Outrageous Episodes (1987)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Created by Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye
Starring Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, David Faustino, Christina Applegate, David Garrison and Amanda Bearce

Features:

• "Lost" episode
  
• Ad for Sinatra album
  

Released by: Columbia-Tristar
Rating: NR, suitable for 13+
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; episodes appear in their original 1.33:1 format

My Advice: Pass.

The Bundys are perhaps the stereotypical American family (sad as that may be). Husband in dead-end job, braindead wife that spends all his money, slut daughter and budding sexual predator son. Yippee. Now throw in some canned laughter, plots so low-brow the bowling alley seems high class by comparison, and lots of jokes about people on the toilet, and you have Married...with Children. I must confess (if you hadn't guessed) that I was never a huge fan of the show. It made Archie Bunker look like George Bernard Shaw for crying out loud, and there's just a point where one has to draw the line. But the show was one of the single biggest contributors (along with The Simpsons and now-defunct In Living Color) to the success of the budding fourth major network that was early Fox.

The set collects a few episodes from early in the show's run, dubbing them "Most Outrageous," but they really just seem like the same old stuff. The included episodes are: "A Dump of My Own", "You Better Shop Around Part 1", "You Better Shop Around Part 2", "No Chicken No Check", and "I'll See You In Court (The Lost Episode)". Now, in complete fairness, the "lost episode" has been playing in syndication for a little while now, so it's hardly groundbreaking to include it. Of the five, the two-part "You Better Shop Around" is at least mildly amusing, as the Bundys take up residence in a local supermarket during a summer heatwave, hoping to beat their heating bill by mooching from the store's cooling areas.

The DVD release is pretty subpar given the show's popularity. The episodes presented aren't in broadcast order (not even all from the same season), there are no interior chapter selections within episodes, and the ones chosen for the set seem to be drawn from a random hat. While not a big fan of the show (oh, did I already mention that?), I've seen funnier early episodes. Much funnier than what were included here, in fact. Why this show didn't simply follow the Simpsons model and release the show in season sets complete with features is beyond me, though so is why anybody would shell out serious cash for such a collection. It must be admitted, however, that the show has quite a following, and giving them a piece-meal shoddy "Best Of" collection isn't going to make them happy.

To features, there aren't any. The back of the case proclaims there is a "tribute to Sinatra," but this turns out to be an advertisement for a CD. Not sure if the person writing the case copy had bothered to look at what was actually on the disc, but it seems not. There's also a trailer for the second collection of "Most Outrageous" episodes, but other than that, the disc has no features of note. Again, given the show's popularity and the relative freedom the stars seem to have (where is David Faustino, anyway?), it's a bit surprising no more effort was made for this set than appears here.

If you liked the Bundys, this set is as likely to annoy you as it is to make you happy. Given that the show is pretty much in perpetual syndication somewhere, I can't imagine the point of owning five random episodes with no bonus features. One VHS tape and a preprogrammed record function, and you could match the quality in a week worth of syndicated late-night repeats. Save the cash.