American Idol - The Best of Seasons 1 - 4 Reviews

• Missing top notch performances!

  
  By A1YAFLTYMGX4SQ on 2005-12-15
  This DVD is good yet disappointing at the same time. This should have been nothing but the best of the best performances. Simply put, there are not enough of them here. Those that are included are true showstoppers, especially those by Clay and Bo, but too many have been left out including Clay's amazing rendition of Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire" which prompted the singer/songwriter Sedaka to say he would love to write and produce Clay's first CD. There are other omissions on this DVD from other finalists but the most serious and blatantly obvious omission is Tamyra Gray's beautiful, moving and haunting performance of "A House Is Not A Home." I'd like to know who the idiot is who chose not to put this on the DVD. I'll never forget a tearful Paula Abdul giving a standing ovation for that one. Did the people who put this DVD together not realize we would like to see more of the actual musical performances. I would have liked to see not only more of the performances by talents such as Clay, Kelly and Bo, but some of the other talented finalists as well including Kimberly Locke and George Huff. At least they were smart enough to put LaToya's amazing "Don't Rain On My Parade" in this collection. But, there should have been so much more. This DVD is a must for American Idol fans but it could have been so much better. That is my biggest complaint: There should have been many more performances and less of the forgettable nonsense.
  
  

• Five Star review from the Washington Post?

  
  By A3ATDMNMOEJQ6Q on 2005-11-21
  The following is a review from the Washington Post that someone posted on the Fox American Idol site. I am posting it for people that want to know more about what's on the DVD's.
  
  
  High and low notes of `Idol'
  
  New DVD set explores popular show's first four seasons
  
  By Curt Fields
  
  Washington Post
  
  
  Fans of TV's insanely popular "American Idol" fall into one of two camps. They watch because they enjoy rooting for the occasional discovery of genuinely talented performers, or they enjoy the train wreck of seeing people who have no business being near a microphone destroying a song and acting amazed when they're told they stink.
  
  Whatever your motivation for watching, Tuesday's upcoming DVD releases should tide you over until the show returns in January as "The Best of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98), "The Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98) and, combining the two and tossing in a bonus disc, "The Best & Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($34.98) hit the market.
  
  "The Best Of" disc contains some of the show's more memorable moments, including Fantasia Barrino's "Summertime," Kelly Clarkson's "Respect" and Bo Bice's a cappella "In a Dream." It focuses primarily on the top two finalists from each season, so there's lots of Clarkson (the most successful post-"Idol" performer so far), Justin Guarini, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Fantasia (she's dropped the Barrino since winning in Season 3), Diana DeGarmo, Bice and Carrie Underwood.
  
  A few other contestants are represented. Season 1's Tamyra Gray sings "Feel the Fire" and reminds you what a joke it was that Guarini made it to the final two that year.
  
  A collection of season recaps is a fun bit of nostalgia for fans, as is seeing the full-length auditions of the winners and runners-up and watching them evolve musically and stylistically. (Watching Aiken's look steadily transform from geek to pop singer in the photo album feature is a testament to the power of stylists everywhere.) Even the most devoted fans will learn new tidbits. For example, Underwood was flirty and animated at her audition, much more so than during the rest of the season. Who knew she had a personality?
  
  There is a certain amount of filler. I, for one, need never see the skit of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul on a "romantic date" ever again. The photo gallery is a bit boring because there's no sound with it, but it is fun to see how many contestants you can still name.
  
  "The Worst Of" features all the note-cracking, tuneless delusional favorites from the audition shows. The guy who did "Like a Virgin"? Yep, he's on it. The crazy blonde chick? Yep. The guy who needed subtitles? Yep. And many more abysmally bad singers, a large number of whom felt compelled to argue with the judges about their abilities. And, of course, breakout success William "She Bangs" Hung is featured.
  
  If you get the combined package, there's a bonus disc with lots of interviews of various Season 4 contestants, extended footage of Underwood and Bice on their "hometown trips" and an "exclusive" Abdul interview.
  
  
  
  

• DVDs are defective!

  
  By A39NQ7J8C659A9 on 2006-01-26
  My daughter is an American Idol fanatic, so I ordered her this DVD for Christmas. The DVD I received wouldn't play anything past the "Season Reviews." Amazon.com sent me a replacement DVD, which had the same problem. So I sent the replacement DVD back to Amazon.com. I don't think it would be worth trying to get yet another replacement.
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• Great DVD, but annoying techno glitch

  
  By A2Z7PDLAVBOG2F on 2006-02-25
  If you like American Idol, you will love this DVD, especially if you were not tuned in to the early seasons. You get the highlights without being dragged through the debacles, and there is a minimum of filler. There is a manufacturing glitch in the current version however, which makes 3 out of 4 of the season reviews (I'm guessing about 25% of the content) unwatchable. A replacement disk had the same problem, and on different DVD players. The good news is that Amazon.com was fantastic in their response (replacement and eventual refund).
  
  

• Synopsis?

  
  By A3TYNXVGJB6GDO on 2005-11-12
  This item is not released yet, so I don't know whether it is good or not (although I am really looking forward to it), but can someone do something about the Plot Synopsis?
  
  This is some stuff that doesn't make sense.
  
  1 - American Idol is not really a "Star Search' clone, but ok I can live with that one.
  2 - People do not have to use AT&T wireless cell phones too vote, that option was introduced during the second season for text message voting.
  3 - The judges are not a part of the voting, and do not decide who goes home
  4 - The prize is not a recording contract AND a million dollars, it is a one million dollar recording contract. two very different things
  5 - Finally, not all the other contestants get recording contracts.
  
  
• I am a Idol fan, but this was not very good...
  By A2CWS755D9HGNY on 2006-03-17
  sorry I don't recommend it..
  
  
• Disappointing!
  By A1IQNOWPS7DUJX on 2005-11-30
  This disc is disappointing. I wanted to re-watch season one to see the making of Kelly Clarkson into someone whom I recalled was a dark horse into the winner and star. I feel ripped off; and you may agree. If you watched season one, you may remember that the judges were pushing Tamara Gray to win. She lost fairly early. We see NONE, ZERO, ZIP of the judging comments. We see only TWO songs by Kelly! The A Moment Like This finale, and R-E-S-P-E-C-T. NONE, of the other songs are shown; none of the comments. They didn't show Kelly's song to get nominated in the top 2 in her group; they didnt show any of the actual competition. I presume that it didnt paint Simon or Kelly in a very faltering light (did Simon diss Kelly? We may never know). Well, the disk is manipulation of what THEY want us to see, not what WE want to see. Most of the disk is about auditions of nobodies (e.g bad singers) if you can believe it. They show some auditions of 1 and 2 place finishers, but not the shows we wanted to re-watch. Boooo Hiss!
  
  
• Some great things
  By A3JSQQVMPWFB54 on 2005-12-04
  This DVD earns an extra star above three because of great footage of the top two (plus Kimberly Locke and some others) from the 4 seasons. It earns a star less than three because of the junk filler between the good parts.
  The auditions of the winners were good. I wish there was more of the Hollywood auditions to showcase improvement from the beginning to the finales. The auditions and shots of the masses was not entertaining. "Simon and Paula" should have been left out.
  The season four footage was the best - perhaps because both the finalists were terrific and were entertaining both in performance and in the auditions. Carrie was really cute and Bo seemed to be genuine and real.
  There should be much more singing on this. Perhaps if the producers put out DVDs of whole seasons they could please everyone by viewers a chance to skip the parts they don't like while rewatching their favorites, including performances by "losers" like Jennifer Hudson, George Huff and Josh Gracin.
  So, this DVD is better than nothing. There are great performances here, just not enough of them. Thank goodness for the skip buttons on DVD players.
  
  
• Bad Disks Again?
  By AP9BCMMGECVI2 on 2005-12-13
  I got this DVD as a gift for my husband as we both enjoyed the show so much. The first DVD I got wouldnt let me view anything from the season reviews on. I figured it was just a bad disk and got a replacement DVD. Same problem. I was really happy with the content overall up to this point with the DVD. I think they picked some great performances and it was nice to see all 4 seasons on 1 disk. I'm not sure that its worth getting a second replacement DVD.
  
  
• Got defective DVD on first order
  By A4X41PQF1SFGS on 2006-01-20
  I bought this for my sister and it was defective. Some of the DVD played fine, while the bonus features were totally screwed up. I got it replaced for free by Amazon.com and the new one works fine. My sister liked it. It is a good overview of the show's first 4 seasons with several extras. Main complaint: The company making the DVDs should have better quality control, so no more defective disks slip by.
  
  
• American Idols DVD
  By ALR64J3N5MYGM on 2006-02-25
  I've enjoyed watching this DVD, it sure brings back great memories of the first 4 seasons of American Idol. I would reccomend it to anyone who follows the show regularly.
  
  
• American Idol - The Best of Seasons 1 - 4
  By A2NXPDMO710RWY on 2006-04-07
  A great way to refresh your memory of the great performances. You get to the see the process behind the scenes. Very informative with interviews and more. And most of all... fun!
  
  
  
• American Idol VS Kelly Clarkson
  By ANEKONASIERTN on 2005-12-04
  I'm going to make this short. I don't care to see ALL the stuff from American Idol. I'm waiting for them to make a DVD of all the performances from Kelly Clarkson. Don't know if that will happen. But I'm waiting.
  
  
• "Worst of" segment is a huge disappointment
  By A3MWTXECMYURQS on 2005-12-27
  Best of is what one would expect, but the "worst of" was a big reason I purchased this DVD. First off, they do have an option to view apporximately 10-12 extended versions of the worst auditions, including W. Hung and Keith the Virgin, but the main piece of the worst of disc is a major letdown. They show bits and pieces, usually very small pieces of bad auditions for the first half this disc while focusing mostly on the judges inclination to laugh at and put down the Idol wannabes. They pretty much don't show any bad audiotions on the latter half of this disc, i.e. they just show the judges tearing down people.
  
  If you buy this disc looking for a quick review of the best Idol moments, you'll likely be satisfied, but if you're like me and wanted to kick back and watch some god awful/funny auditions, you won't be happy. It's incredibly annoying how much they steer clear of Actually SHOWING the worst singers and focus totally on the judges putdowns. Newsflash, it's the musically challenged people who are hellbent on embarrassing themselves for the cameras that are what makes the Idol auditions funny, not the condescending judges.
  
  If anything, the disc made me second guess my own devotion to this show because by denying the viewer the pleasure of witnessing the actual audition trainwrecks, the mean spiritedness of the judges is hard to fathom. In other words, show the purchaser of the disc the bad audition so they can understand why the judges are being so harsh.
  
  I should sue for false advertising. In a nutshell, don't buy this disc; it's all about what Randy, Paula and Simon have to SAY about bad auditions that they don't let you SEE.
  
  
• A painfull try for "The Best of AI Seasons 1-4 DVD"
  By AJZD4DX1S7IZU on 2006-11-10
  I'm a big fan of American Idol. I watch only the US American Idol( we also have a local AI "Ídolos" and Latin America Idols - which are a frustated try to make a similar show) and I confess that I was REALLY DISAPPOINTED with the DVD...
  I guess that whoever picked the performances as "The Best of AI-Seasons 1-4" got carried away about the actual level of expertise of the performers and forgot that most of the show's audience are more concerned about HAVING FUN instead of watching to MASTER PERFORMANCES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE SKIPPING TO THE NEXT ONE, OVER AND OVER...
  I expected to see more of the classic performances that, let's say, "the lay people" love.
  I thought that I'd see Bo Bice singing "Sweet Home Alabama" or Carrie Underwood singing anything the major audiences actually have heard before.
  The extra-sceenes which show some images of some of the show's final contestants passing the test to be in American Idol 4 is not bad... but... seriously... I guess that nobody bought the DVD to see the extras...!!
  
  Sorry, amigos, but I'm actually thinking about selling the DVD I bought to a cd & dvd 2nd hand store.
  
  
  
• GOOD - BUT WHERE'S RYAN!
  By A2VJUBBKFJNVMF on 2005-12-29
  Think it was essentially good, but think since Ryan is the official MC of the series, he should have been the narrator, not Paula. I adore Paula, don't get me wrong, but think Ryan shoulda been there. I also agree with other reviewers in that they should have had performances of the top 10 of each year, not just the top two.
  
  
• Great content, bad disc!
  By A1FL5CU3CF5LRS on 2006-01-09
  As an American Idol addict, I was loving this DVD. I loved rewatching the performances. It was great for giving me my American Idol fix as I wait for the season premiere in January. But then I got to the season reviews, and the disc crapped out on me. The picture was jumbled, so was the sound. It just wasn't worth it to watch the rest of it like that. And yes, the whole rest of the disc was like that. I bought another disc in hopes that the new one would work, and had the same problem. If you're only buying for the first half of the disc, by all means, buy it. But if you're excited to watch the entire disc, you're going to be disappointed if you end up with a bad disc like I did.
  
  
• Great DVD
  By A3QYRODX1ZVUEZ on 2007-06-16
  This DVD shows the performances and auditions from the top two of each season of American Idol (up through season 4). It's great for people who have just started to watch the show with season 5 and 6 to take a look back and see some highlights of what they have missed from previous seasons. Hoping there will be some highlights from future seasons of the show on DVD too.
  
  
• Disappointing
  By A16DQ459FWI5KK on 2007-07-13
  I bought this awhile ago but only watched a little bit. Tonight I watched it in full and have to say that the worst thing about it is that it was so poorly produced. The sound doesn't track to the video properly in much of the DVD. The sound levels are also all over the place in the audition parts. A big fat ZERO to whomever was the sound editor of this DVD and the producer who didn't catch the problem before it was released.
  
  This video has one really big redeeming quality that makes it an absolute must for American Idol fans - the entire performance of Bo Bice singing In A Dream a cappella. It was probably one of the most BRILLIANT moments the show will ever have and this is the only place to get it! Fortunately, this song does track properly. I do agree with other reviewers that there were some really stand out moments that were left out. Seriously, with the money this show has made they could afford to put together a well produced DVD for each season separately and not leave out many of the best bits.
  
  
• American Idol, Best of
  By A1AUM4JF74T4BT on 2007-11-13
  The "extras" portion of this video would not play. It was returned for another which was also defective. The main program was OK.
  
  

• American Idol - The Worst of Seasons 1-4
• American Idol - The Best & Worst of American Idol ( Limited Edition )
• American Idol: The Search for a Superstar
• American Idol Greatest Moments
• American Idol Season 4 - The Showstoppers