Alternate versions

Due to music licensing issues, the opening theme song "Love and Marriage", sang by Frank Sinatra, is omitted from episodes released by Sony in North America beginning with the third season onward. A generic instrumental piece of music replaces it. In 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the DVD rights from Sony and beginning with season three, "Love and Marriage" has been restored to the opening and closing.

For the most part, the episodes on the North American DVD box sets are the unedited versions seen on the FOX network, however there are some instances where scenes have been cut or the syndicated version of an episode were placed on the DVD instead. This is most noticeable in Season 4, where 7 of the 22 episodes have some type of edit. The German region 2 Season 4 set uses non-syndicated versions of these episodes, although the Dutch and French sets have the syndicated versions. The DVD box sets from Season 3 onward do not feature the original "Love and Marriage" theme song in the opening sequence. This was done because Sony was unable to obtain the rights to the theme song. The replaced theme song was the cause of the syndicated versions of seven episodes in Season 4, as Sony falsely claimed did not have access to the original masters of these episodes, and had to use syndicated prints. This is proved wrong since they used the originals from Season 4 in "Most Outrageous" DVDs that contained some episodes. As the end credits had to be altered to credit the new theme song, certain scenes that originally ran during the end credits had to be replaced with a freeze frame. In most episodes affected, the original audio plays in the background while you see a freeze frame, however in a few cases a freeze frame is used, but the original audio is replaced with the theme song. The new releases by Mill Creek Entertainment have restored the episodes as they originally aired.

When aired in syndication, the intro is generally cut in half, generally omitting everything after the line "..and they will say it's elementary" in the theme song. This version of the credits ends with an alternative shot of the fountain seen at the beginning; it is pulled from the scene at the end of "A Dump of My Own" in which Al's toilet flush causes it to stop working. Luckily foreign channels usually do air the original complete opening song, although not always translated to their own language if the show is dubbed.

In some US airings of the episode where Al sells his Dodge, a scene of two Arabs with a bomb coming to the door telling Al to give them the keys and directions to the Sears tower was removed.

US syndicated prints use a shorter version of the opening credits on most episodes, omitting a gag showing Al handing out money to his family. Most episodes in syndication are also missing additional scenes in order to fit in more commercials, but these scenes are being restored for DVD release. The episode "I'll See You In Court" has never been shown in its complete form on US television. It was initially banned by Fox, and when it eventually turned up on the FX cable network, a scene was cut for commercial space. The 2002 R1 DVD release marked the first time Americans ever saw the complete episode.

In some US airings of the episode, "Get the Dodge Outta Hell", the scene inside the car wash of Al pointing to a car bra box and saying, "It's for your mother. See, it's even in her size: Astrovan" was removed. And, later on when Al looks at a picture of his family that he kept in the trunk, the words "For your Emmy consideration, thank you very much" that appeared on screen then were removed.

When aired in its original full-hour format, "It's A Bundyful Life" contains the following scenes not seen when it airs as a two part episode: Extra dialogue; a scene of Bud making snow cones with mouth wash and real snow; Peggy telling Kelly to put on a good dress for their Christmas feast at Denny's; A drunk Marcy talks with Al as he tries to put up the lights; Extra dialogue between the angel and Al. But the following scenes were edited from the same version: Al confronts a mall Santa and some kids; When Al is at the shoe store trying to get to the bank, he is delayed by two elderly women; So it just cuts to Al arriving at the bank.