All In the Family: The Complete Ninth Season

Released By: Shout! Factory
Released On: 05/17/2011
Cast: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, Danielle Brisebois

The Show:

When a release comes around like Shout! Factory's All In the Family: The Complete Ninth Season, I get a warm, sunny feeling inside. In case you weren't aware, Sony previously had the rights to the series, but dropped it after releasing the sixth season, because the sales figures didn't match their expectations. Can you imagine the disappointment? You love a television show, you find out that it's being released, you buy six entire seasons on DVD, and then the company tells you that they're not releasing any more, three seasons before you've got the complete run. There's something wrong with that, for sure.

Thankfully, Shout! Factory picked up the ball and ran with it, and May 17th sees the release of the final season of this beloved, classic show. If you're not familiar with All In The Family, step away from the computer screen and go watch any one season. You will, more than likely, want to watch the rest of them immediately after. If you're still here and want to know more, the focus of the show is the Bunker family, who are situated in Queens, New York. Archie (Carroll O'Connor), the head of the family, is a loveable, more-than-slightly-prejudiced, blue-collar worker, whose intolerance for just about everyone and everything outside of his narrow viewpoint makes for some pretty comedic moments; while his wife, Edith (Jean Stapleton) is his somewhat dim-witted anchor to reality, affectionately known as, “Dingbat”.

Earlier seasons saw the characters grow with their daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and her husband Mike (Rob Reiner), but with Gloria and Mike now living in faraway California, the writers have added the character of Stephanie (Danielle Brisebois), Edith's niece, to the mix. Interesting thing about these “new” characters; it's a technique that's been used on many shows, most notably sitcoms and it rarely, if ever, works out well. Fortunately, the writers of All In The Family, who kept the series fresh and provocative for the majority of the run, didn't cop out with a montage of cutesy scenes. Instead, Stephanie becomes a welcome addition to the show and allows Archie's more human side, the side that critics always seemed to overlook when trashing the show for being racist and blasphemous, to emerge. These are the same calibre of writers who make the final season, when television shows are usually crapping all over themselves on their way out the door, so compelling.

Dealing with topics such as alcoholism, race, sexism, terminal illness, extramarital affairs, and religion, nobody can claim that All In The Family had lost it's edge. With so many great episodes, including the 200th episode retrospective hosted by Norman Lear, and the two-part episode which sees the Bunkers visiting Gloria and Mike in California, All In The Family: The Complete Ninth Season is a worthwhile purchase and a fitting end to a great television series.

Video/Audio/Extras:

All In The Family: The Complete Ninth Season is spread out over three discs and the quality is as good as one can expect for a television show from the 70's. You shouldn't expect anything that will show off the features of your HD setup, but the quality of the 1.33:1 transfer is good with very minimal artifacting issues. The audio is also more than suitable, with dialogue coming through crisply and coherently.

The inclusion of the 200th episode special, filmed live in Los Angeles and hosted by Norman Lear was the subject of some curiosity before this release, but I'm happy to report that it is included here, the moment when Rob Reiner attacked the sandwich tray in his tuxedo while Penny Marshall looked on preserved for an eternity. Though it's certainly not an extra feature, per se, the folks at Shout! should be commended for being so thorough in their work.

The Final Word:

Odds are, if you're thinking about picking this set up, you've already got the first eight and are maybe even anxiously awaiting the first season of Archie Bunker's place; regardless, All in The Family: The Complete Ninth Season is a great release with a more than reasonable MSRP, and a worthwhile addition to any collection.