Happy Days - future releases may be too musical

Hank Dearborn · 02-18-2008, 10:05 AM

I don't know about season 4, which has yet to be announced but I'm in the midst of transferring to DVD the 5th season from off-network records and I have to say there is so much music in there that I can't see how Paramount could possibly put this out. The episodes where Suzi Quatro guest stars are filled with songs. There would be about 12 minutes left once they took the music out. Right now I'm doing the Valentine's Day episode and the whole show is love songs. It's one thing for them to eliminate the little 5 second snippets of music for transition scenes but this season's shows are full of music. Again, I don't have season four but if it's anything like season five then I think this series may be done.

Matt.Koz · 02-18-2008, 03:27 PM

Somewhat OT, but I just ordered Happy Days Season 2, R2, and am curious to see if any of the music cuts survived - knowing that there are different rules governing the use of music in the UK (hence shows like Ally McBeal seeing release in R2). I won't hold my breath but I will keep my fingers crossed.

Mark Talmadge · 02-18-2008, 04:43 PM

I would hazard a guess to say that they would actually delete that episode right off the set.

silverking · 02-19-2008, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt.Koz

Somewhat OT, but I just ordered Happy Days Season 2, R2, and am curious to see if any of the music cuts survived - knowing that there are different rules governing the use of music in the UK (hence shows like Ally McBeal seeing release in R2). I won't hold my breath but I will keep my fingers crossed.

Perhaps you would be kind enough to post once & let us know when you have the set.

My guess would be they just used the American prints but if not then I may double dip as I find the changes disconcerting.

Matt.Koz · 02-19-2008, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverking

My guess would be they just used the American prints but if not then I may double dip as I find the changes disconcerting.

I suspect you are right but I'll definitely post my findings once I receive...hopefully later this week.

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Hank Dearborn · 02-20-2008, 02:20 AM

It also seems around this time Anson Williams sings a song every episode.

Matt.Koz · 02-25-2008, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverking

Perhaps you would be kind enough to post once & let us know when you have the set.

My guess would be they just used the American prints but if not then I may double dip as I find the changes disconcerting.

I received today. The box art still retains the music substitution warning of the r1 version but I haven't watched yet to confirm. The art looks identical to the r1 version so I'm still holding out hope. I'll be watching this later so I'll let y'all know what I find.

Matt.Koz · 02-25-2008, 01:15 PM

I quickly scanned some of the episodes and here's what I found:

1. Transfers look to be the same as r1.
2. Like r1 release, themesong is not Rock Around the Clock, but rather the season 3+ Happy Days theme with season 2 opening visuals.
3. Good news: from the handful of episodes I scanned, it appears that the original music is intact...and on the 1 episode's closing credits I watched, the card with the "contributing artists" is intact as well (unlike the r1 release where it was dropped).

So, aside from the themesong, it looks like this is as close to the original broadcasts as we have on DVD currently. I'm going to start watching the complete episodes tonight so I'll see if there appears to be anything missing. This may be worth a double dip for some of you HD fans.

Mark Talmadge · 02-25-2008, 04:42 PM

Yeap, and those songs were recorded previously by many recording artists during the 50's and 60's.

Demis G · 02-26-2008, 12:52 AM

Great news Matt!!
Do you also happen to know if the Roseanne sets are also uncut in the R2 region