Cheers - The Complete Seasons Box Set [DVD] [1982]

Beacon Street, Boston, c.1982. Sumner Sloane walks into a bar with Diane Chambers. Little did they realise that this visit would end up changing both of their lives. Sumner decides to go back to his ex-wife, leaving Diane alone and jobless. Well, she didn't look like a waitress (apparently!) but she ended up getting a job as one in the little sports bar; Cheers. My partner suggested watching Cheers, and given that I had only ever caught the tail-end of episodes while waiting for re-runs of Dallas to start on CBS Drama, I was incredibly excited to start watching the show in full. Seasons one through five focus mainly on the on again – off again relationship between Diane and Sam Malone, the owner of Cheers and former Red Sox relief pitcher. Aside from the main cast of Diane, Sam, Carla, Norm, Cliff and The Coach, the first few seasons also introduced characters like; Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), a love interest for Diane and a psychiatrist, who was only supposed to be in the show for a few episodes but ended up being so popular with fans that he had his own spin-off; Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson), an innocent farm boy from Hanover, Indiana who fills the shoes left by the passing of The Coach at the end of season three; and Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth), another psychiatrist and wife of Frasier. At the end of season five Shelley Long's contract was up and, as such, Diane was written out of the show. This left room for the writers and producers to make a decision about the direction of the show. They introduced Kirstie Alley as the business-not-so-savvy, Rebecca Howe. Sam takes to her immediately and persistently fails to seduce her, but the two form a powerful bond of friendship as the series goes on. The end of the series was bittersweet. I had grown to love the guys at Cheers. It's going to sound cheesy saying this but every evening when I would come home from work, we would watch Cheers and it felt like I was coming home to friends. The final episode closed the book on the story of the little bar in Boston, even Sam's final line made my eyes a little misty. From start to finish I must say that, in all honesty, every single episode was a pleasure to watch. The show has a strong cast and beautifully written characters with human strengths and flaws. I would suggest making time to watch such a fantastic series. You'll spot many familiar faces like Emma Thompson, Roger Rees, to name but a few famous guest stars. Cheers lays the foundations for many of the successful sitcoms of the '90s and beyond, and I am very much looking forward to watching the spin-off show, Frasier. TL; DR, fantastic from start to finish. A must see for any fan of great comedies.

I felt the need to buy this set for nostalgic reasons. I’d recently been out the Boston and had paid several visits to the Cheers Bar on Beacon Hill and thought I’d actually give it a go watching the whole series through properly. A now fairly dated but great series with brilliant characters…. My personal fav being Norm Peterson (George Wendt). Apparently he still occasionally pays a visit to the Cheers Bar though not often as he lives in Chicago.

Just brilliant comedy

Great value for money for a series of classic American bar humour episodes. Relaxing and devoid of any explicit language.

Whilst words such as 'classic' and 'great' are frequently used in reviews, there are only a small number of TV shows that deserve to be given that type of status and Cheers is one of that special breed. A TV sitcom that maintained a high quality of scripts and performances throughout eleven seasons and even spawned a spin off TV show called 'Frasier' that also managed to enter the Pantheon of comedy greats. To be honest, whilst I'm a fan of Frasier, by its eleventh and final season, it was running out of gas...and gags. In contrast, Cheers ended it's long run on a high note. In my humble opinion, that is just one of the many indicators of the show's comedy greatness. The eleven seasons of Cheers were originally broadcast between 1982 and 1993. Although the earlier seasons have been available on DVD for several years, it is only now, twenty years after the last episode was broadcast, that all episodes have finally been released in the UK. If you are already a fan of the show, this review is pointless as you will wish to purchase the show regardless of what I say. If you haven't seen the show before but are considering taking a leap into the dark, trust me, you won't be disappointed. Regardless of whoever you are, I would offer some words of advice. The eleven season DVD box set was released in November 2012. I happily purchased it from Amazon in early December for forty three pounds (Cheaper than anywhere else). This was during a short period of two or three days when the price had dropped from nearly ninety pounds. Within a few days they were out of stock and then a couple of days after that, the price was up again...this time to ninety three. You may wish to bear that in mind before handing over your hard earned cash. If you can wait, I would suggest you hold back until the price is more realistic...around forty or less. Compare this item with an eleven season Frasier box set Frasier: the Complete Seasons 1-11 [DVD ] and you will see what I mean. The price will come down. Whilst ninety three pounds is cheaper than buying each season individually, you are still paying about fifty pounds more for this box set than it will cost in a matter of weeks. By the way, the 43 discs come in two rather clever plastic boxes that don't take up much space on a shelf. On the downside, you won't have any booklets containing episode names / details, in order to find a favourite episode etc. However, thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can Google that information in a matter of seconds. Cheers!

As always, my review here is of the quality of the presentation and not about the actual sitcom which we all know and love. On the whole, the picture and sound quality is astounding and there is even an attempt at crude surround sound on all episodes. However, it misses 5 stars for me because there are some episodes in the later seasons where the video quality of some camera angles is very poor. They are only short in duration but it is distracting. Also, in one episode where the jukebox is featured, the song "I Broke the Law and the Law Won" is replaced by another nondescript song. I can only speculate that the publisher of the song wouldn't licence it for the DVD but its absence completely ruins the joke. If you like Cheers then you'll love this boxed set, but it's not without its flaws.

funny and good to watch

One great laugh after another great relaxation time

Perfect. Good to remember the 80s with this fantastic american serie.

If you live in the USA do not buy this, it is not rated to play in our DVD players. I had to return it

the movie collection i ordered came in like new state and also within a week which was when the shipper said it would come