Boy Meets World - The Complete Fourth Season DVD Review

[TJ]

We’re back to Philadelphia! After a LONG wait, Boy Meets World - The Complete Fourth Season has FINALLY arrived on DVD after a wait of over 5 long years since we got season three! Cory and his friends try to make the most of their time together this season because who knows what the future holds as they near the end of their lives in high school. We get all 22 episodes of this fourth season on a 3-disc set from Lionsgate who licensed the series from ABC Studios to continue this series on DVD!

The season four cast features Ben Savage as Cory Matthews, Rider Strong as Shawn Patrick Hunter, Danielle Fishel as Topanga Lawrence, Will Friedle as Eric Matthews, Betsy Randle as Amy Matthews, Lindsay Ridgeway as Morgan Matthews, Anthony Tyler Quinn as Mr. Turner, with William Daniels as Mr. Feeny and William Russ as Alan Matthews.

Read our review by Pavan here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boymeet...dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

[bigoranget]

Looking at the run times in your review, I would tend to think that the episodes are more likely syndicated versions rather then the original network versions. The run times seem a bit short for 1996. I know that run times continued to drop off in the 1990s but other popular shows on ABC such as Home Improvement and Roseanne were still running at 22-22:30 minutes in 1996.

[Pavan]

I was afraid of that, but I had no proof. I need hard evidence, though, as runtimes from other shows that era is not good enough to call Lionsgate out (unless they were 20 minutes or lower). Anyone have ABC airings to check from season four?

[bigoranget]

I don't have any hard evidence but I do have the recordings that aired on Disney Channel (US), Family Channel (CAD) and ABC Family (US).

Here are the run times. I have indicated where the broadcast was recorded from. The Family Channel (CAD) ones are identical to the DVD run times, however several from ABC Family run shorter. I don't know if this will be enough to make a call. I believe Family Channel gets their prints from Disney Channel and I'm pretty sure Disney Channel typically used syndicated prints for off network sitcoms.



Disc 1
1. “You Can Go Home Again” 21:31 (Family Channel Canada)
2. “Hair Today, Goon Tomorrow” 21:31 (Family Channel Canada)
3. “I Ain't Gonna Spray Lettuce No More” 21:04 (Family Channel Canada)
4. “Fishing for Virna” 21:39 (ABC Family)
5. “Shallow Boy” 21:43 (ABC Family)
6. “Janitor Dad” 21:43 (ABC Family)
7. “Singled Out” 20:21 (ABC Family)
8. “Dangerous Secret” 21:43 (ABC Family)

Disc 2
9. “Sixteen Candles and Four-Hundred-Pound Men” 21:42 (ABC Family)
10. “Turkey Day” 21:41 (ABC Family)
11. “An Affair to Forget” 21:31 (ABC Family)
12. “East Street” 21:32 (ABC Family)
13. “B & B's B 'N' B" 21:22 (ABC Family)
14. “Wheels” 21:43 (ABC Family)
15. “Chick Like Me” 21:39 (ABC Family)

Disc 3
16. “A Long Walk to Pittsburgh, Part 1” 21:33 (ABC Family)
17. “A Long Walk to Pittsburgh, Part 2” 21:42 (ABC Family)
18. “Uncle Daddy” 21:54 (ABC Family)
19. “Quiz Show” 21:44 (ABC Family)
20. “Security Guy” 21:43 (ABC Family)
21. “Cult Fiction” 21:42 (ABC Family)
22. “Learning to Fly” 21:45 (ABC Family)

[Pavan]

Thanks. That is good to compare. It should be longer on DVD than that. I will ask Lionsgate.

[Pavan]

We have a contest up for the DVD:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boymeet...n4contest.html

[jaime_weinman]

As I recall, Family Channel would show uncut episodes of Disney-owned sitcoms, even where the Disney Channel cut them. Canadian networks used to be much more likely than U.S. networks to show uncut reruns.

By 1996 some shows were already running under 22 minutes and some might even run shorter than that (if the episode came up short and they couldn't fill it out). Some were longer, but some weren't. I doubt they're cut if they're the same length as Family Channel.

[spunkygirl]

They better BE uncut, or Lionsgate will be hearing from ALOT of angry BMW fans

[DSfan]

Originally Posted by Dragonflies

They better BE uncut, or Lionsgate will be hearing from ALOT of angry BMW fans

Interesting comparison there. I remember watching Boy Meets World on Family Channel, in Canada, in 2003 and 2004 and I can confirm that they didn't air any commercials throughout the episodes. However, that obviously doesn't mean they weren't edited but I'd say, with 95 percent certainty, that they were unedited. There were no signs of strange cuts and the episodes always ran smoothly and tended to end, since it would begin at 8PM, around 822.

Strange that the ABC Family runtimes were only a difference of 10-20 seconds on many of those episodes. Very odd. You'd think ABC Family would have done more editing than just that. But, yeah, I think we need confirmation from Lionsgate that they are not unedited. In my opinion, though, it seems as though they ARE UNEDITED given that Family Channel had similar airtimes and those episodes appeared to be unedited and because they aren't overly short and as others said, sitcoms were starting to go from 24 to 22 or 21 minutes around those times.

[bigoranget]

Family Channel typically aired syndicated cuts of network TV shows. Bloosem, ALF and Dinosaurs are all examples of this. I can't think of any other examples of off network syndication on this channel other then 8 simple rules which probably wasn't edited due to the fact that the run times were typically 20-21 minutes in length when they aired on ABC.

[zypherix]

It's not like Lionsgate ever messed up DVDs before... like ALF and Will & Grace...

[spunkygirl]

^ Yeah that's why I did NOT want them getting the rights to BMW