Full House-Complete First Season (1987)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary Informational Subtitles-House of Trivia On "The Miracle Of Thanksgiving" Audio Commentary-Jeff Franklin (Creator/Exec Prod) - "Mad Money" Audio Commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	1987
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (5)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	John Bowab Richard Correll Jack Shea Howard Storm
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	John Stamos Bob Saget Dave Coulier Candace Cameron Bure Jodie Sweetin Mary-Kate Olsen Ashley Olsen Andrea Barber Lori Loughlin Scott Weinger Daniel Renteria Kevin Renteria Blake Tuomy-Wilhoit
Case	?
RPI	$49.95	Music	Lanny Cordola Jeff Franklin Jesse Frederick

Full House was one of the biggest shows on TV from the late eighties until the mid nineties. Running for 8 seasons it was a sitcom with a lot of heart and pretty corny jokes. The show told the story of a dad and his three daughters who invite the dad's best friend and the girl's uncle to move in after the death of their mother. Imagine 'three men and a family' which I'm sure was the creator's pitch to the studio, after the theatrical success of Three Men and a Baby. Like many of the sitcoms of the period, there was a big focus on family friendly laughs and there was often a moral to the story. It was very wholesome and enjoyable family entertainment for the period.

The show's success was largely due to the cast.

Bob Saget may have been the Dad, but top billing went to John Stamos (he played the uncle) who was undoubtedly the reason many female viewers tuned into the show. Comic Dave Coulier (the best friend) rounded out the adult cast. If viewers liked the grown ups, they loved the kids. Candace Cameron (younger sister of Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron) played the eldest daughter DJ (in this case short for Donna Jane, not disc jockey.) Jodie Sweetin played middle child Stephanie, while the baby of the family was played by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.

The debut season's entire 22 episodes are on this 5 disc set.

Having seen this from time to time on its TV run, I thought I would've found it to be pretty cheesy comedy. Surprisingly I enjoyed watching this more than I thought I would, there a quite a few laughs per episode. Be prepared because it has dated a fair bit, after all this first season was 1988 so it's 20 years old.

A lot of fun for the family.

Video

The disc is PAL format, with an 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

The transfer can be soft in places but that's due to 20 year old video rather than the transfer. It really does look good for its age.

Shadow detail tends to be quite decent and varies with the episodes.

Colours are generally ok, but can be a little washed out. Skin tones look decent enough.

There were no MPEG artefacts seen.

English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

 The main track is English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kbps).

 The dialogue came through fine and there were no audio sync problems.

 There were no drop out problems.

 There was not much music in these episodes other than the opening theme song, but overall it sounded good..

 The surround and bass channels were not used, the only stereo components of the mix were the audience laughter track (which gets annoying) and the music.

 French, German and Hungarian tracks are also available.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Disc 1

Audio Commentary on Our Very First Show by Creator/Executive Producer/Writer Jeff Franklin

Interesting with a few amusing anecdotes, but it would've been great to have a few cast members involved.

Disc 2

House of Trivia on The Miracle of Thanksgiving (24:41)

Subtitled trivia about different aspects of the show appears across the bottom of the screen for the entire episode.

Disc 5

Audio Commentary on Mad Money by Creator/Executive Producer/Writer Jeff Franklin

Pretty interesting and gives you some good insights into the running and production of the show. Interesting discussion about how the network got them to change the opening of the show so that there was a teaser opening (to hook viewers in) and then the opening credits. Also elaborated how that has contributed to the death of the theme song in primetime shows. He spoke about the Olsen twins and the interesting dynamics it brought to the logistics of the show.

The R1 appears to be the way to go for fans.

There is another version of the pilot starring John Posey instead of Bob Saget.

Besides that they appear to be the same.

Overall, its a family friendly show.

The video is decent for a 20 year old show.

The audio does the job.

The special features are lacking, especially compared to R1.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall