Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you waited until now to purchase any of the Andy Griffith Show season sets, this is a decent deal. For those who already have one or more seasons, the new extras in this new all-season set are no big whoop and in my opinion is not worth purchasing. The pilot episode included in this set is a syndicated version which is edited by about 2 and a half minutes. This is the same version already available on the Make Room For Daddy - The Complete Fifth Season DVD set. The full length pilot had been released on VHS, but has been out-of-print for a few years now. Why couldn't Paramount include the full length version? We know it exists. The two edited episodes in Season 3 remain edited. "The Darlings Are Coming" is the heavily cut syndicated version. "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" is still missing its epilogue. Source material does exist that would restore these episodes. The episodes on discs 1 and 2 of Season 4 that were missing the laugh tracks have been corrected (with the odd exception of the last few minutes of "A Black Day For Mayberry" and "The Sermon For Today", where the laughter has still not been re-inserted), but this was done way before this new box set was ever announced. If you have these discs without the laugh tracks, I believe Paramount is still replacing them with the corrected ones. See my review of Season 4 for more details. The "Opie Joins The Marines" episode of Gomer Pyle, USMC has been included. However, this will be released anyway when Season 2 of that series rolls around in a few months. The TV movie, "Return To Mayberry" finally makes it's way to DVD as a bonus feature in this set. It is uncut and presented just as originally broadcast in 1986. Hopefully it will be released as a separate disc for those who already have some or all of this series. Without even going into the packaging issues, this new box set is already somewhat of a disappointment. If you can afford it, stick with the individually released seasons.