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Married with Children S3 Won't Have "Love & Marriage" Theme Song! (Rights Issues) (1 Viewer)

John*P

Second Unit
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May 27, 2004
Messages
417
You know, when recently watching my MWC S2 DVD, I was wondering how easy/difficult it was to include "Love and Marriage" on the first two sets. I guess this answers my question...

I'm still buying season 3 and all future sets whether they have the theme intact or not. There are many shades of gray in this situation, and I've made my decision. I'm one of the people who fast-forward the themes anyway, and I really doubt the average MWC fan will be deterred from buying the set because of this. I bet we'll still see seasons 4, 5, 6 etc released.

I didn't know Dawson's Creek had an altered theme on DVD? What did they replace the Paula Cole song with?
 

John McM

Second Unit
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Oct 26, 2004
Messages
352
the Paula Cole song was replaced by a song by Jann Arden (who had a huge hit with the song "Insensitive" a number of years back)
 

John McM

Second Unit
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Oct 26, 2004
Messages
352
well, I am curious.

If MWC fans had to choose. Which scenario would you honestly like better?
1. Theme song entact, syndicated reruns (21-22 minutes, think ALF or Too Close For Comfort)
2. Uncut episodes like they haven't been aired in 15 years, but however the theme song is replaced because the company wanted too much money

Sorry, but 2 wins over 1 in any situation
 

Jay Pennington

Screenwriter
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Apr 18, 2003
Messages
1,189
Well, to make the best of the situation, perhaps they could use the piece from the FirstCom library that was always used for radio and TV promos during the show's run. That, at least, is tangentially related to the program.
 

Magnus_M

Stunt Coordinator
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Jan 9, 2002
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82
Why not throw the whole thing right back in the face of the greedy little bastards?

1. Take some of the "savings" from the projected winnings and earmark these for points 2-5.

2. Add a booklet (or add pages to the existing booklet).

3. Give a detailed explanation (in the booklet) as to why the music has been replaced, this explanation should include as many examples as possible as to why the musicrights can add a significant cost to the production.

Also make sure to have comparisons to other shows as well as comparing the original amount paid when:
a) Producing the show for TV.
b) Producing the show for DVD.
Show the buyers what the added costs would convert to when relasing (ie a $10 increase on the SRP) if keeping the original music.

4. Add this information to the DVD itself as a short infomercial, this could be added to other tv show releases as well to explain in advance what could happen with the music in the following seasons.

5. Make the information/infomercials avaivible online, this would be useful when fans want to know what was replaced in the show and what shows that are likely to be concerned in the future.

6. Make sure to list the person/company who owns the musicrights and their adress, letting the fans voice their opinion right in their faces.

But I guess that something like this would be hard to do for a few reasons.
Either there is a non disclosure agreement hindering them from giving that information, or perhaps a fear of problems securing future music would make them choose the "easy way out"?

Just my 2 cents.
 

Rob Gardiner

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Feb 15, 2002
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I'll be buying this on release day for the following reasons:

1. The shows themselves are complete and uncut.

2. If the set sells well without the original music, the rightsholder's bluff will have been called and they may be inclined to lower their price for subsequent season sets.
 

Chris Bergmann

Second Unit
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Sep 27, 2004
Messages
288


Sorry, but if the set sells well then some CT executive will say "Look, I told you they didn't care - let's replace all the music on all our boxsets from now on."
 

David Lambert

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Here is a related story involving Tour of Duty - Season 2.



Randy Salas, thank you for your education on these matters; you'll see I put some of it to use in this write-up. Hopefully we (Gord and I) can help to educate more of our readers about how these issues work.
 

Chris Bergmann

Second Unit
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Sep 27, 2004
Messages
288
At least it's just Columbia Tristar - Universal will release Miami Vice with all the original music (and has done so for Magnum and Quantum Leap in the past).

In their press release for Miami Vice they even make a big fuss about having the original music - it's nice to see that some studios actually care about their customers.
 

JonZ

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Wouldnt that be different Chris.

Were not talking about Phils Tonight Tonight not being in the episode, but the beginning credits
Out of all the stuff Ive watching on DVD, MWC,Millennium,X-Files, etc Ive never watched the credits on a TVshow on DVD.

Id rather own it without the credits than wait 3 more years for season 3. They take long enough between seasons without legal holdups.
 

Christian Preischl

Screenwriter
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Oct 11, 2001
Messages
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Real Name
Christian Preischl
For what it's worth, the episode "Married... without children" from season 1 had all the Beastie Boys music replaced, so music changes within the episodes have already happened.

It was not marked on the packaging, by the way.



Chris
 

Tony S

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Nov 9, 2004
Messages
210
Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have to say that I agree with CTHV's decision to release MWC season 3 without the theme song. I am glad that they didn't give in to this extortion.

I think CTHV should do some extortion of their own. I'm sure that Sony must own several radio stations across the country. Maybe they should tell the song owners that if they don't come down on their price they will ask these stations (the ones who play that type of music) not to play that song for awhile. I'm sure that there are a lot of dj's that are fans of MWC and would support this. They could also find out what if any other songs that these people own, and do the same with those songs. Hit them where it hurts!! I wonder how much that song would be de-valued if suddenly a lot of radio stations stopped playing it, or at least limited it's play.

I'm not sure if they get royalties from each time the song is played during re-runs, but if they do, Sony could have it pulled from those as well. Just doing it for a while could have a big impact on revenues.
 

MatthewA

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Pop music that predates rock-n-roll is seldom heard on commercial radio anymore, so I don't think that's too feasible.

We had an AM station in Chapel Hill that had a mixed 50s and 60s rock and pop with so-called "easy listening," (IMO a vague term) including some Sinatra, but now it's mainly sports, talk, and local affairs. I don't know of any other radio stations in the Triangle area of NC that play this style of music (jazz stations don't play it because it doesn't quite fit the criteria).

If the music publishing companies doom their songs to oblivion, they will have themselves to thank for this.
 

David Lambert

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Tony S, welcome to posting!

I don't know if your plan is workable or not; Randy Salas would be the best one I know to comment on that. MatthewA is correct that not too many stations play "Love & Marriage" anymore, but there ought to be other properties owned by the same property-holder that could be affected by a boycott.

Your comments show the innovative thinking that is needed to find ways to bust through this stalemate. Good idea!
 

Joe Karlosi

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I can't stand MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, but just the same I would be able to relate to this if it concerned a show I liked.

I'm one of those purists who watches the complete episode every time I watch any show - the theme song, credits and all - and it doesn't matter whether I am watching 1 episode or 10 in one shot. It's all part of the whole experience to me.

But having said this, if push came to shove, and if it meant losing the theme for the chance of having the entire contents of the episode itself full and unedited, I'd have to concede the loss. In the case of MARRIED, the idea of putting an instrumental of the song for the credits sequence doesn't sound like a bad idea. It's a shame to lose anything, but I still cannot understand settling for nothing over accepting all the shows, sans theme.
 

Casey Trowbridg

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I agree with David, welcome to posting Tony, and what a unique idea. This type of thing might not be workable for other studios but Sony is the one I'd think it would work the most for, also pulling the theme from sindication is an interesting idea I'm not sure what kind of impact that might have, perhaps Randy Salas or someone who knows more than I do (hey that could be almost anyone) can speak to that.

A friend of mine suggested they use "Bad to the Bone" because it aside from the theme is probably the most frequently used song in the series...unfortunately, I don't really think it fits all that well...or at least as much as love and marriage.
 

Chris Bergmann

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Messages
288
I don't understand how so many people can just accept this.

Just look at 'Tour of Duty' - for the first season they dropped the opening theme and because too many people bought the set anyway they've dropped ALL original music for the second season.

If this goes on you can kiss all original music on all (older) TV shows goodbye.

If they start believing that people don't care then why should they spend a single dollar on the music?

Universal is still on the right track - but once they see that Columbia Tristar can maximize their profits on TV shows by dropping the music they'll probably start doing it too.
 

Michael Elliott

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I'm not speaking for anyone else but for me personally, I love this show for the show and not the opening music. I've got a CD with the song on there that I could listen to or sync up with the episode if need be but as a fan, I'll take whatever I can get. Of course I'd like to have the song on there but what's the options? No future seasons? That's something I could not live with while I can live with a missing song.
 

WillG

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Jan 30, 2003
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This is the next scare with this series. I can live without the theme music, but if they have to replace "Bad to the Bone" it will ruin many episodes.
 

Bill>Moore

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 28, 2003
Messages
366
I definitely understand both sides on this, but I always end up skipping the credits anyway. So having a changed theme won't prevent me from buying the set. I wouldn't be all that pleased to see Columbia cave and pay some outrageous fees just to get the theme song. I wish it was uncut, but we are getting season 3, we are getting the uncut eps and I can live with the loss of the theme song. Doesn't mean I don't hope they solve this issue for season 4.
 

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