I have always enjoyed the Cosby Show, because not only was the humor clean, but it was hilarious as well. I especially loved that the writers didn't focus on the family's race, the Huxtable's just lived a normal everyday life just like any other family. Bill Cosby (Heathcliff Huxtable) was just terrific, and really knows how to make people laugh without using ridiculous scenarios and slap-stick comedy. And I really liked that Phylicia Rashad (Clair Huxtable) wasn't just an ordinary TV wife, she has just a big a role as Bill did, and many times had entire scenes to herself. But I think the main reason this show was successful was because of the Huxtable kids. They were so normal, there wasn't a stupid older brother, or a smart-alecky sister, or a genius kid. And that's why I could relate to the Huxtable's, they were so believable. So this is why I was very excited to purchase season one, but I was unfortunately displeased with the DVD.

Urban Works released all twenty-four episodes BUT, (there always is a but isn't there) each episode has about one to two minutes cut off of it. Now most fans will be outraged as I about this DVD release and some might not even buy this set, but I would like to remind you there is some bonus material that's hard to find. There's a pretty interesting ninety minute special that aired on May 19, 2002 called "The Cosby Show: A Look Back which has interviews with the cast, bloopers, and auditions which makes this set worth the buy. And a nice addition to this set is a pamphlet which includes a word from Bill Cosby, season one's episode descriptions, the Nielsen Ratings for seasons one through seven and highlights from season one. So you have to decide, is it worth buying season one for the bonus material, or not. I really wanted the bonus material and it is nice to be able to watch episodes whenever you feel like so I decided to purchase it. There are many great episodes from season one and one of my favorites is "Back to the Track, Jack" when Cliff "Combustible" Huxtable runs a race against his rival Sanford B. "Tailwind" Turner. (Played by Josh Culbreath) But there are so many great ones, and if you would like to know some of the other episodes from season one here is an episode description.

Pilot - Airdate: 9/20/1984 - Cliff and Clair deal with the daily pressures of having children, Theo receives a bad report card, Denise goes out on a date and
Rudy is afraid to go back asleep because she thinks the wolf man is in her closet.

Goodbye Mr. Fish - Airdate: 9/27/1984 - Rudy's pet fish dies, and Cliff decides to have a funeral for Rudy's fish.

Bad Dreams - Airdate: 10/4/1984 - Vanessa has nightmares after watching a scary movie and Cliff and Clair try to help Vanessa overcome her fear.

Is That My Boy? - Airdate: 10/11/1984 - Theo joins the football team.

The Shirt Story - Airdate: 10/19/1964 - Theo wants to impress a girl by wearing an expensive shirt but since Cliff and Clair will not pay for it, Denise offers to make a copy of the shirt for him.

Breaking with Tradition - Airdate: 10/25/1984 - Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable, pays a visit and begins questioning Cliff about the kid's college choices.

One More Time - Airdate: 11/1/1984 - While Clair cares for a friend's baby, she begins to consider having another.

Play it Again, Vanessa - Airdate: 11/8/1984 - Vanessa is having a hard time practicing the Clarinet for her school concert.

How Ugly is He - Airdate: 11/15/1984 - Denise has a new boyfriend, but is reluctant to tell Cliff.

Bon Jour, Sondra - Airdate: 11/22/1984 - Sondra plans on going to Paris for the summer with her friends, and while Clair agrees to let her go, Sondra still needs Cliff's permission.

You're not a Mother Tonight - Airdate: 12/6/1984 - Clair is exhausted from constantly caring for the children so Cliff decides to take her out for a romantic evening and a stay at a fancy hotel.

Rudy's Sick - Airdate: 12/13/1984 - Rudy is sick, so Cliff takes care of her.

Father's Day - Airdate: Airdate: 12/20/1984 - Cliff complains about the poor quality of his annual Father's Day gifts and he challenges the children to find some better presents for father's day.

Independence Day - Airdate: 1/10/1985 - Theo gets his ear pierced and he doesn't want Cliff and Clair to find out.

Physician of the Year - Airdate: 1/17/1985 - Cliff is set to receive an important award, but a woman goes into labor right before the ceremony, and Theo is asked to give the speech.

Jitterbug Break - Airdate: 1/31/1985 - Cliff tries to impress Denise's friends by teaching them how to jitterbug.

Theo and the Joint - Airdate: 2/7/1985 - Cliff discovers a cigarette in Theo's school book.

Vanessa's New Class - Airdate: 2/14/1985 - Vanessa creates a model of the solar system for her science class, but is disappointed when she finds out how much better the other kids ones are.

Clair's Case - Airdate: 2/21/1984 - A sneaky mechanic tries to swindle Sondra, so Clair takes on the case.

Back to the Track, Jack - Airdate: 2/29/1985 - Cliff's college track coach contacts him and asks to run in a charity event between Hillman and its rival, Norton College.

The Younger Women - Airdate: 3/14/1985 - Cliff and Clair receive a visit from an old friend and when he arrives he is accompanied with a new girlfriend that is half his age.

Slumber Party - Airdate: 3/29/1985 - Rudy invites all of her friends over for a slumber party.

Mr. Quiet - Airdate: 5/2/1985 - Cliff, Clair and Theo volunteer at a local community center, while they're there, Theo notices a battered boy and tries to find help, and the owner does his best to lend assistance.

Cliff's Birthday - Airdate: 5/9/1985 - Cliff is turning 48, and as usual, he is trying to find out what his birthday present is ahead of time.

So you have to decide for yourself if this collection is worth buying, yes the edited episodes that are being included on this set is frustrating, but they're still being edited for syndication on television and they're only shown at a specific time. And if you own season one on DVD you can watch an episode whenever you feel like it, and be able to watch interesting bonus material, so this product is only mildly recommended.

Frankly, I'm just thankful that I've got easy access to the memories this season inspires without commercial interruptions. Not knowing how many networks air the show (and wondering how many show the full-length renditions), I say, "There's plenty of joy and soul in what's here for everyone!" This collection contains everything I've always enjoyed about the beginning of The Cosby Show, including some pieces I dudn't remember before I found this set. These include great episodes like "Bon Jour Sondra," "Kight to Night" and "One More Time."

I grew up with this show; the pilot first aired when I was four, and my whole family watched the show right until the finale of Season 8. And, Dr. Cosby (yes, he's a doctor of education) proved time and again throughout the series that education is as important to everyone as entertainment.

Of most significance to me in the here-and-now (2008) is the hour-and-a-half documentary from 2005, The Cosby Show: A Look Back. (Even without Lisa Bonet, that special is just that, special.) That DVD, combined with all the memories of the regular series kept me captivated when I first happend onto it. My copy arrived March 11, 2008, and I watched it at least a little bit every day for eight days afterwards. It won't grow old anytime soon.

Also, as a musician, I have a great appreciation for the series score, including all the neat Stu Gardner tidbits with the saxophones and phase-shifted Rhodes piano. If I've got any real interest in Jazz, it largely stems from the music of this show.

[One thing I didn't realize during the series run is how much Dr. Huxtable's job seemed to be a kind of sideshow, in which all these silly characters materialized. This element appeared in episodes like the pilot, "Rudy's Sick," "Theo and the Joint," "Father's Day" and "Physician of the Year," along with multiple episodes from following seasons.]

Someday, I'll get the coveted Columbia House set. For now, I'm sticking with these. (It would be nice to know if the full-length cut of the pilot includes an example of Dr. Cosby's macho breathing taken (like much of the pilot material) from the HBO special, Bill Cosby Himself.)

Putting aside the legal issues of the star, I had thought it was family show. However, I now see the sarcasm and disrespect prevalent in the show that the kids showed the parents and now see how it has created issues for this generation in today's world

It's 1984 and the NBC Network is at something of a low by insisting one of their bread and butter the family sitcom is "dead". Well along comes Bill Cosby with a fresh idea involving a fictional family from Brooklyn Heights named the Huxtables who mimicked to a degree with he and wife Camille's real life family. The father's a doctor,the moms a lawyer and we have have five (well four in the pilot) children who would appeal to all age groups. The show skyrocketed NBC back to the top and was the #1 show in the country for five entire seasons. And it did so with an innovative concept that relied on comedy based on the real life serendipity of family life rather than shock and toilet humor. So it was a family friendly show that was funny to parents and children for different reasons and the characters were very relatible.

Honestly I DON'T CARE if these shows are edited. I'd have preferred to see the full shows but it's so good to see these shows together. We have three girls as the main characters this season: Denise is a free spirited high schooler with a unique dress sense,Vanessa (the middle child in the beginning) is entering her "tweens" and is very intelligent and insecure and there's her youngest sister Rudy,an adorable preschooler who provides a lot of laughs and general cuteness this season. There's also Theo,the only boy in the family with an easy going if mildly underachieving demeaner. Just about every episode this season is a classic but there are some sure fire stand outs. Two of my favorites involve Theo:in "The Shirt Story" he finds himself in the possition of Dennise making a replica of a $90 shirt he's forced to take back (or so he thinks) and the result is one of Theo's most comical moments in the series. Later on in "Theo And The Joint" he's forced to contend with a student planting a joint on him,which concerns Theo as much as his parents as he is NOT into drugs and makes it abundantly clear.

During this season the Huxtables are by and large a charming,engaging family unit. In later seasons the reality of life would harden some of the characters to some degree even if the show always remained family friendly. Even so this particular season has a special charm to me seeing these characters we lived with every Thursday night for eight seasons at such a young age,especially the first three episodes when Theo actually still sounded like a little boy when he talked-this is especially obvious in the pilot. So even if these are the syndicated versions of the shows it's worth having for the quality of what's year and the excellent bonus features,including a looking back-style documentary.

Airing from September 20, 1984 to May 9, 1985, The Cosby Show Season 1 was the beginning of one of the most groundbreaking sitcoms in television history. The first season of The Cosby Show starred Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, Phylicia Ayers-Allen as Clair Huxtable, Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore "Theo" Huxtable, Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, and Keshia Knight-Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable. Season 1 focused on doctor Cliff Huxtable and his attorney wife, Clair, raising their five (four in the first episode) children in Brooklyn. The children consisted of stylish, popular 16 year-old Denise, who seemingly had a different boyfriend every week and was very rebellious, 13 year-old (14 later in the season) lazy, only son Theo, nosy 10 year-old (11 later in the season) Vanessa, and the youngest, precocious, adorable little 5-year-old Rudy. In season one, the Huxtables dealt with a daughter dating an older man, a son struggling in school, a child crushed over the loss of a favorite pet and more. Later on the season in the episode "Bonjour Sondra," we were introduced to a fifth Huxtable child, 20 year-old oldest Sondra (played by Sabrina LeBeauf), who's off at Princeton. There were other characters this season, including Russell and Anna Huxtable (played by Earle Hyman and Clarice Taylor), Cliff's loving parents, and Peter (played by Peter Costa), Rudy's silent but lovable friend, known for running out of the house in times of trouble. The Huxtables went through many things, all while making the viewers laugh. On August 2, 2005, the Huxtables came to DVD for the first time with the Urban Works release of The Cosby Show Season 1, which included all 24 episodes of the first season and "The Cosby Show: A Look-Back," a 2002 special where the cast memebers of the series look. However, there was one problem, Urban Works released the first season with the episodes in their edited syndicated format instead of they way the were originally broadcast on NBC. Fans were understandably outraged, but fortunately, Urban Works corrected this with their 2006 release of The Cosby Show Season 2, which contained uncut episodes. Urban Works Entertainment was eventually taken over by First Look Studios, who took the distribution of The Cosby Show DVD releases and released the remaining six seasons in the span of a year, along with The Cosby Show 25th Anniversary Commemorative Edition, a complete series with new special features, including a 2-part interview with Bill Cosby, a 1990 bloopers special, and a digital photo gallery including pictures from all eight seasons of the series. Plus with the complete series release, Season 1 was uncut. However the set soon went out of print due to manufacturing errors. In 2011, Millennium Entertainment re-released the The Cosby Show Season 1 uncut with the original look-back special and with the special features from the out-of-print complete series set and that is the set I'm doing my review on. The menus are great. You get the option of playing them all or choosing the episodes individually. When you choose them individually, you can choose the acts. You get the options of Opening, Act I, Act II or Closing. Not only does this set contain uncut episodes and the look-back special, but it contains New Interview with Bill Cosby, a digital photo gallery, and "Outtakes From The Cosby Show," a 1990 blooper special. The 2-part interview is something nice as it shows Bill Cosby talking about the show, how it happened, how he felt about it, his favorite and least favorite things about the show and more. The photo gallery is great. It shows nice pictures of the cast as the kids grow up throughout the series. The Look-Back Special is wonderful. It shows 2002 retrospectives with cast members, who include Bill Cosby (Cliff), Phylicia Rashad (Clair), Sabrina LeBeauf (Sondra), Malcolm-Jamal Warner (Theo), Tempestt Bledsoe (Vanessa), Keshia Knight Pulliam (Rudy), Raven Symone (Olivia), Geoffrey Owens (Elvin), Deon Richmond (Kenny/Bud), Peter Costa (Peter), and Earle Hyman and Clarice Taylor (Grandma and Grandpa Huxtable). Noticeably absent was Lisa Bonet, who played Denise. The 1990 blooper special is hosted by Phylicia Rashad, Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam, and Raven-Symone and shows hilarious bloopers. Bill Cosby is hilarious. It's the set to buy, but you have to be careful when buying and you have to make that the copyright says 2011, because if it says 2005, you get the edited version and it only shows the Look-Back Special. The packaging is one of those Digipak cardboard foldout cases. There are quotes from Bill (Cliff) Cosby on the packaging. This set has 4 discs (but be careful with them, because they overlap), there's a character on each disc. Disc 1 contains episodes 1-8 and has Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable. Disc 2 contains episodes 9-16 and has Keshia Knight-Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable. Disc 3 contains episodes 17-24 and has Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable. Disc 4 contains the bonus material (including "A Look-Back" special) and has Phylicia Rashad as Clair Huxtable. Here is a list of the episodes on the set:

Disc 1
Pilot Presentation *
Goodbye, Mr. Fish
Bad Dreams * (episodes with * next to them are my favorites)
You're Not a Mother Night (aka) Knight to Night
Is That My Boy?
Breaking with Tradition
One More Time
A Shirt Story *

Disc 2
Play It Again, Vanessa *
How Ugly Is He? *
Bonjour Sondra
Father's Day *
Rudy's Sick
Independence Day *
Physician of the Year
Jitterbug Break *

Disc 3
Theo and the Joint *
Vanessa's New Class
Clair's Case
Back to the Track, Jack *
The Youngest Woman
The Slumber Party *
Mr. Quiet
Cliff's Birthday *

Disc 4
Bonus Material:
New Interview with Dr. Bill Cosby Part 1
New Interview with Dr. Bill Cosby Part 2
Digital Photo Gallery
Show Bloopers
The Cosby Show: A Look-Back

I recommend this DVD to anyone of literally all ages. Little girls and boys will relate to Rudy and Vanessa, and teens will relate to Theo and Denise. Adults will of course relate to Cliff and Clair.

It's becoming a horrible trend when even an innovative and entertaining sitcom like The Cosby Show has its DVD set full of syndicated episodes. However, if you're a generous buyer there's still a plethora of good content here. The episodes have held up very well, and even in this first season there's a lot of 'classic moments' such as; Rudy's dead goldfish, the Father's Day episode and a special guest appearance by Jazz legend, Dizzy Gillespie. It's just a lot of fun and what I really liked about the series is that whenever they ran out of ideas for an episode, instead of doing a clip show, they would just do an episode where everyone dances and we get a dance episode in this season. (Jitterbug Break) The 90 minute special that takes up the fourth disc was interesting to watch, it showed snippets from the entire series and we get hear from all the cast (except Lisa Bonet) as well as other celebrities about the impact of the show. Even though I'm disappointed about the edits, I got a lot of enjoyment from this boxset and I hope we can persuade Urbanworks to acknowledge and fix the problem.

Yes, these are the edited versions of "The Cosby Show Season 1". I am a loyal fan of the show and have all the ORIGINAL episodes on VHS. I didn't even make it past the 1st show when I realized I was ripped off. And it's not just a few seconds, it is entire scenes that are cut out. One scene that I was looking forward to seeing betewwn Cliff and Claire in the 1st episode was completely gone.The DVD will be returned tomorrow and I recommend that no one buy this junk! I thought I would share with you the 1 response I got from these people "We truly appreciate your enthusiasm regarding the Season One DVD release of THE COSBY SHOW, one of Carsey-Werner's most cherished projects. We sympathize with your concerns relating to the syndicated episode versions.

To provide some background for you, THE COSBY SHOW SEASON ONE DVD would not be a reality had the network versions of the show been used. The licensing fees for the music cues often add up to exorbitant dollar amounts thereby prohibiting the release. You will find that other studios and distribution companies exercise the same practice of using syndicated versions of a show, which include revised music cues.

Please be assured that the edits made to the show were done with the utmost of care and concern by the original producers. These changes were limited to transitions and in most cases did not include dialogue and/or important moments. Every precaution was made to ensure that the integrity of the show was not in any way compromised.

It should be noted that due to the passionate response we have received from collectors, we are seriously pursuing the possibility of using the network versions on ALL future releases.
Thank you for your concern and feedback.
Carsey-Werner Distribution
c/o The DuVernay Agency

Well that's sweet, but it doesn't change the fact that they falsely advertised their product and fool us into buying it. At least the producers of "Roswell" had the decency to tell us that they put new music in the DVD episodes and included with the DVD was a letter from the producers explaining. I did contact the head of the company I bought it from and she agreed to give me a gift certificate for the amount I paid for this FRAUD. (...)

And for those who are complaining about us, just go watch your edited Cosby show on Nickelodian, and leave this to the true collectors!

With all of the trash on TV as of late, we have cut the cable tie altogether, gone over the air and have begun purchasing our favorite old shows on DVD. This one immediately came to mind so when I saw how cheap these were going for, it was a no brainer.

Me and my family usually watch 2 to 3 episodes per night (we now own all the seasons) and laugh at every single show. We just finished watching "The Joint" from this season 1 set and couldn't have laughed harder but it also got a great message across.

Forget the editing nonsense mentioned here, this is a great family friendly TV show for all to enjoy.