Just Got Wiseguy : Arc 2 (Kevin Spacey) Early! (1 Viewer)

[R. Kay]

These suckers have chapter stops & 'Play All' Function this time ...

Also, terrific interviews on Disc 4 with Kevin Spacey, Joan Severence, Stephen Cannell, David Burke (Writer), William Russ (LoCoco), and Vinnie's Mother (Oy! Who's idea was that?).

Spacey talks for 17 minutes. I'm impressed he talked for that long! Terrific anecdotes.

Burke's and Cannell's are good as well.

No Ken Wahl Video Interview, but I think we all know why.

Wahl does 1 Episode audio commentary track on Disc 1.

Video looks pretty good. Better than Arc 1.

Audio has original 2 channel & 5.1 (like the Arc 1). Decent quality. Slightly artificial 5.1.

For anyone who has never seen it, at least go out and rent it. Great television. Spacey & Russ are amazing. Writing's superb.

 

[Henry Gale]

Great! Been waiting for this one.

 

[Will_B]

Searched around but all I found was that he'd been in a couple motorcycle accidents - is that what you mean?

 

[R. Kay]

Ken Wahl has serious medical problems stemming from his motorcycle accidents. The guy broke his neck & can barely walk and just had more surgery to alleviate more pain.

 

[Dean L]

I'm lame.
Yet to pick up either the "steelgrave arc" or the "mel arc"

Probably my favorite TV series ever.
The cheap bastard in me is lookin' for a good deal now for buying both of them both together.

 

[george kaplan]

I skipped the first one since it didn't have the proper music. I'll buy this one, but only if the original music is there. Does anyone know?

 

[R. Kay]

George: Its a shame you passed up the Steelgrave arc.

The quality of the show should override the music issues.

Its not Cannell's fault that the Moody Blues were holding them up for major money.

 

[george kaplan]

I don't know whose fault it is, all I know is that I'm a stickler when it comes to OAR and uncut, uncensored. I've bypassed Wiseguy, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Man Show and will be bypassing Kung Fu.

I think very, very highly of Wiseguy, but original music and aspect ratio are essentially non-negotiable for me. I'll pay a lot more to get them, but I won't pay anything without them.

 

[Nicodemus]

There probably isn't subtitles on this set either?

 

[David Lambert]

And it's george kaplan's right to decide not to buy that set because Nights In White Satin is not on there. Ken Wahl never OUTRIGHT said it would cost them sales, but he clearly had thoughts that it might. Well, george is the living proof of that!

 

[R. Kay]

The song 'Good Lovin' was used in a scene immediately preceeding 'NIWS'.

If the Wiseguy producers were 'lazy' (not a quote, but an exageration to make a point), as some have implied, why did 'Good Lovin' make the cut and 'Nights' didnt?

 

[R. Kay]

It's Kaplan's right not to buy the sets. I just think its a shame that he missed out on a great set of shows.

 

[David Lambert]

I didn't use the word "lazy", nor did Randy. Please don't put words in our mouths.


Rather, my opinion was - and is - that they probably jumped to a conclusion. I've never seen Wiseguy, nor am I buying these DVD sets (I just can't afford them with everything else on my plate). So I have no idea what was and wasn't included song-wise.

But the supposition that I am making is that the DVD producers had reason to believe that "Good Lovin'" and other songs that made it onto the set could be cleared with very little fuss and cost. And that songs (or perhaps just one song (NIWS) in the end, I dunno) that did NOT make it onto the DVD were just ASSUMED to be difficult or costly.


Then again, that might not be it at all. You never know how these things get started. For all we know (and I'm just making up an example here, not trying to start any rumors), there could be a guy in charge of securing music for a DVD set, he is told to go get rights to a particular song, he finds out that the guy he has to deal with is someone he hates for some old reason, and so he decides not to deal with it at all. Or maybe he just forgot to pursue it until it was too late. When everyone asks him "where are the rights to that song?" he's gonna cover his ass, so he casually lies and says "Oh, I had to pass...too expensive; we'll have to work around it". Then the star of the show gets all worked up and goes off about why he thinks rights like that got to be expensive, when the reality is that noone was ever asked for a price.

Again, I'll emphasize that I'm just theorizing here. But in each of our jobs every day we see a guy covering up with a simple and believable excuse, but upon closer examination it just doesn't hold water. I don't think this practice is any different in Hollywood.


Whether someone was lying in the way of a CYA, or whether they made a bad assumption, or were lazy, or something else we can't imagine, I'm just bringing up the possibility that it might not really be that the music was too expensive.


Randy has reported that a source he trusts states that noone ever asked for those rights, and if someone had then this person would have known about it. Nothing's perfect, and maybe for some reason this guy didn't know about the rights having been asked for, and it got by him. But the additional evidence of the same song being licensed to three other releases, one of them at almost the exact same time, definately makes me believe that the disconnect was at the end of the DVD producers, rather than with the people who license this song out for these things. My point is that there's ALL KINDS of reasons as to how that might have happened.

 

[James_S]

I am just finished up with Arc 1 and have Arc 2 sitting right here ready to start, but I need to wait the wife wants to finish The Soprano's Season 3 first and than we will watch Arc 2 and the Soprano's season 4.




Buy.com has Get $20 Off Instantly! Purchase Wiseguy: Season 1 Part 1 and Wiseguy: Season 1 Part 2 and Get $20 Off Instantly! Offer valid from 12/5/2003 to 1/30/2004.
Total $93.36 shipped which is a couple of bucks cheaper the Best Buy.

 

[george kaplan]

David,

While I obviously can't recommend buying the dvds, I do have to say that as far as the show goes, you don't know what you're missing. This is (IMO) the best dramatic crime show ever made for television.

 

[Will_B]

 

[Tom De Rosa]

BestBuy will have them for $46.99 each, with $20 off if you buy both next week.

 

[R. Kay]

Also Includes 'Play All' function for each disc.

 

[R. Kay]

David : Regardless of the editing issues, you should rent it to see terrific television.