Where are Warner's very cool police detective TV series from the 60's (1 Viewer)

[GMBurns]

I'm skeptical as to why this "music rights issue" prevents any possible release of 77 Sunset Strip. I'm now well into Season Four out of Six (thank you MeTV) and besides the title song, which was written FOR the series, there are very occasional numbers performed at Dino's by the athletic Frank Ortega Trio. An original soundtrack WB record (and CD) have background score and a few jazzed up standards, all "Warren Barker" material (which includes a re-purposed version of Alex North's Stan from Streetcar Named Desire re-titled here as Late at Bailey's Pad). Wouldn't that score be owned by WB? There are rare occasional standards sung by actresses in a handful of nightclubs so far, dwarfing the each episode performances by Edie (Lola Albright) in the Peter Gunn series. Somehow Timeless Media can afford the overwhelming music situation there compared with the miniscule one I hear and see in 77 Sunset Strip. Seems like WB just doesn't want to bother, which probably has more to do with re-scanning the film elements than anything else (the MeTV stuff just ain't too sharp). This "music" excuse seems like a lot of bull to me.

Great point about Peter Gunn, a release I love and watch often. Edie is singing all over the joint in that series. And Timeless lived on a shoestring budget so how the heck did they release that series with so much uncut music?

Maybe it's a calculated part of Warner's plan. Make us moan and whine for a few years while they cry "music rights". Then they finally swoop in and release the beloved and longed-for 77 Sunset Strip and we are happy to pay ridiculous prices for half-season sets.

I doubt the first part (some weird conspiracy) but the second part is true, sadly. If they ever do release it, I will pay whatever they ask to have uncut episodes of Mr. Zimbalist and company. They had me at "hello".

 

[smithbrad]

Great point about Peter Gunn, a release I love and watch often. Edie is singing all over the joint in that series. And Timeless lived on a shoestring budget so how the heck did they release that series with so much uncut music?

Maybe it's a calculated part of Warner's plan. Make us moan and whine for a few years while they cry "music rights". Then they finally swoop in and release the beloved and longed-for 77 Sunset Strip and we are happy to pay ridiculous prices for half-season sets.

I doubt the first part (some weird conspiracy) but the second part is true, sadly. If they ever do release it, I will pay whatever they ask to have uncut episodes of Mr. Zimbalist and company. They had me at "hello".

My take is that the studio (WB in this case) owns the series and is going to want the rights cleared up for perpetuity, and is more conservative about law suits since they are such a large organization to be a target. Peter Gunn, on the other hand, was licensed by Timeless for a set period of time and appears to be owned by a small production company. They may just not be worried about potential lawsuits based on the music used like the big studios.

I'm guessing it is more the case where the smaller distributors are either just ignoring the potential issue all together or only licensing for a short period of time (at reduced costs), then being able to afford the music licensing costs for perpetuity.

 

[mark-edk]

I thought so too until I found out that all the music rights WB owned back then (and there were a lot of Cole Porter and other standards that played in the background at Dino's) were sold off at some point between than and now. So as I understand it there really IS a music licensing issue. I don't think it is insoluble and wish somebody would make a deal in the interest of preserving tv history and satisfying the fans.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

I'm guessing it is more the case where the smaller distributors are either just ignoring the potential issue all together or only licensing for a short period of time (at reduced costs), then being able to afford the music licensing costs for perpetuity.

Of course, if WB licensed the 77 Sunset Strip music stuff for a short period of time at a reduced cost or just for a limited number of single seasons or even a complete series set, I'd be happy as a clam to buy it (even at a "special" price). One can still buy the Peter Gunn set from Amazon, though, and I bought mine years ago, so they did something interesting with the rights at Timeless. Oh, and Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. fans might give his wonderful My Dinner of Herbs autobiography a read, it is a page turner.

 

[smithbrad]

Of course, if WB licensed the 77 Sunset Strip music stuff for a short period of time at a reduced cost or just for a limited number of single seasons or even a complete series set, I'd be happy as a clam to buy it (even at a "special" price). One can still buy the Peter Gunn set from Amazon, though, and I bought mine years ago, so they did something interesting with the rights at Timeless. Oh, and Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. fans might give his wonderful My Dinner of Herbs autobiography a read, it is a page turner.

I doubt the idea of licensing for a limited time DVD release is in their plans. I'm sure they would go for perpetuity to handle long term initiatives. Likely, Timeless or whomever they licensed from was never worried about music licensing and ignored the whole thing.

 

[MartinP.]

Timeless or whomever they licensed from was never worried about music licensing and ignored the whole thing.

It's my experience that "music licensing" is NEVER ignored. I mean, for example, youtube videos with music in the background are routinely removed from there because of music rights issues. I was watching a person's video blog last summer from Dodger Stadium where they were having fireworks afterwords and playing music in the background. That got removed because of "music rights", until the uploader fixed that. There are many examples of things being altered because of music rights. (Including something playing on the radio for a few seconds in Jaws, for example, and a snippet from two episodes of The Addams Family.)

Music rights, an industry unto itself) is akin to the Gestapo if you ask me.

Also, airing programs on television has some kind of different rules that home media releases do not. They were contracted for that at some time when home media wasn't yet thought of as an issue.

 

[smithbrad]

It's my experience that "music licensing" is NEVER ignored. I mean, for example, youtube videos with music in the background are routinely removed from there because of music rights issues. I was watching a person's video blog last summer from Dodger Stadium where they were having fireworks afterwords and playing music in the background. That got removed because of "music rights", until the uploader fixed that. There are many examples of things being altered because of music rights. (Including something playing on the radio for a few seconds in Jaws, for example, and a snippet from two episodes of The Addams Family.)

Music rights, an industry unto itself) is akin to the Gestapo if you ask me.

Also, airing programs on television has some kind of different rules that home media releases do not. They were contracted for that at some time when home media wasn't yet thought of as an issue.

I meant to add "probably" in there, but even then "ignored" wasn't the best choice of wording. My intent was to say that we don't know what Timeless did with respect to music licensing for the Peter Gunn release. It is possibly based on the age of the music and the songs included that they investigated it and decided the risk was low (or maybe the music was PD) and went ahead with the release. This may be an apple to oranges comparison with respect to WB and how they approach music licensing with the titles they own.

 

[Neil Brock]

Warner doesn't do incomplete season releases and if even one episode has clearance issues, they won't put the season out. An example of this is Cain's Hundred. Warner had the show up on their streaming site, minus the episode Blues for a Junkman, with Dorothy Dandridge singing, which was evidently a problem. With all of the night club scenes in every one of their detective shows, it doesn't take every episode having music to derail a release, only one episode per season. As for the two Dorothy Provine series, she's belting away songs all of the time, so forget those.

 

[dstrong]

I'd like to see the cop shows "N.Y.P.D." (1967-69) , as well as "The Felony Squad". "Hawk" starring Burt Reynolds is another good show from that era.

 

[Garysb]

I had never watched Hawaiian Eye before . I found it recently on ME TV +. I like seeing the guest stars early in their careers. Mary Tyler Moore, Adam West, Chad Everett, George Takei, and Gary Conway are some of the people I have seen on the show . Its fun because they usually don't list the cast until the end credits so you might not recognize someone you know. The show is dated and as it was filmed in Burbank, Ca. not very Hawaiian. Still its nice to see in HD in nicely restored prints.

 

[Desslar]

I'd like to see the cop shows "N.Y.P.D." (1967-69) , as well as "The Felony Squad". "Hawk" starring Burt Reynolds is another good show from that era.

Yeah, I'd be more interested in these shows, which have a bit of location shooting. And a toupee-less Burt Reynolds.

 

[Sky King]

Hi All,

I think Warner Bros. missed the boat on releasing their detective shows. Years ago they might have turned a profit releasing these shows to DVD. Unfortunately the audience for these shows is thinning out as time goes on and the return has diminished.
While its true some shows contain problematic music, I think much of the “music rights issue” excuse is a bunch of crap and is just an excuse used by Warners and others to justify not releasing a show to DVD. They are just too lazy to proceed with a release.
For the longest time CBS used that excuse for not releasing Ben Casey. Then as if by magic, the music rights issue preventing this shows release, just disappeared. This show was released unedited.

John

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Hawaiian Eye is on the DECADES schedule for a weekend binge starting on April 9!!!!

 

[LouA]

There are many of us on HTF , who grew up on these shows and would love to see them get proper releases on DVD. As some have pointed out, music clearance issues seem to be preventing that from happening. It’s been a sore point and a heated issue as long as I have been coming to this site!
I finally gave in a reached out to a fellow fan for a large set. Still, if WBA ever decided to release these shows,I’d be among the first to buy!

 

[Garysb]

I had never watched Hawaiian Eye before . I found it recently on ME TV +. I like seeing the guest stars early in their careers. Mary Tyler Moore, Adam West, Chad Everett, George Takei, and Gary Conway are some of the people I have seen on the show . Its fun because they usually don't list the cast until the end credits so you might not recognize someone you know. The show is dated and as it was filmed in Burbank, Ca. not very Hawaiian. Still its nice to see in HD in nicely restored prints.

I must have jinxed it. This week the local over the air station that carried ME TV + in the NYC metro area moved the programing from its regular channel to a sub channel. Verizon doesn't carry that subchannal so unless I can pick it up with an antenna I am out of luck for now. Really too much trouble switching back and forth to an antenna even if I can pick it up.

 

[The 1960's]

I must have jinxed it. This week the local over the air station that carried ME TV + in the NYC metro area moved the programing from its regular channel to a sub channel. Verizon doesn't carry that subchannal so unless I can pick it up with an antenna I am out of luck for now. Really too much trouble switching back and forth to an antenna even if I can pick it up.

Yup and it's unlikely it will be picked up by either Satellite service because it's no longer a primary channel. Perhaps not cable either though Fios usually adds new stuff after awhile. Optimum Cable once told me to rally all my friends and if they receive enough requests they'll add a service. I responded, "What is this, Kindergarten?" The folks in Bridgeport, CT. who receive WZME OTA must be really pissed off because this is the second time in I believe the past 3 years they're lost both METV's. You can read more about it here.

 

[Garysb]

The "Story" Channal mentioned in the link replaced ME TV + on the local channal. Nothing of interest to me on that station. The subchannel that now carries ME TV + broadcasts in SD 480i per the ME TV + website so would not look good on a modern TV even if Fios carried it. I hope whoever made the decision to downgrade ME TV+ is happy with the results. I wish they had dropped it altogether to give another station a chance to carry it in HD.

 

[The 1960's]

The "Story" Channal mentioned in the link replaced ME TV + on the local channal. Nothing of interest to me on that station. The subchannel that now carries ME TV + broadcasts in SD 480i per the ME TV + website so would not look good on a modern TV even if Fios carried it. I hope whoever made the decision to downgrade ME TV+ is happy with the results. I wish they had dropped it altogether to give another station a chance to carry it in HD.

It's particularly poor for a couple reasons. It's now on 33.8 and WJLP has close to 12 sub-channels and unlike METV+ was on WZME, WJLP is broadcasting the signal in fake HD*. So it's a double whammy. WJLP is the only one with the rights to broadcast METV+ in the Tri-State area so unless they bump it to 720p this is what we get. Anyhow sorry to take this thread off-topic. Nuff' said.

* Correction: WJLP 33.8 METV+ is not being broadcast in 16:9. It is true 4:3.