Paramount & Music Clearances

Stephen Wight · 04-01-2008, 06:28 PM

Paramount seems to be getting a lot of love,on these boards,as of late,despite one of their most glaring weaknesses - they are one of the worst studios,if not the worst,when it comes to clearing music.This had led me to wonder if they try to clear the music but are unsuccessful in doing so, or if they have a standard company practice of editing out the music of a show before they release them.Given that every show they release(no matter how minimal the amount of music used) has the dreaded disclaimer "Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions.Music has been changes for this home entertainment version." leads me to believe it's the former,rather than the latter.Does anybody happen to know which is the case for Paramount?

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MatthewA · 04-01-2008, 08:44 PM

I don't believe they try. They probably just decide to save the money ahead of time.

Meanwhile, the region 2 release of Happy Days season 2 supposedly has no music substitutions and has the original Paramount logos. Keep in mind the laws are different there.

Jeff*H · 04-01-2008, 09:00 PM

Yes, they do seem to cut music here and there, but they also clear a lot. Happy Days season 1 and season 3 have several numbers by the original artists. Hawaii Five-0 season 3 has several songs by Nancy Wilson featured in one episode. Family Ties and Love Boat have their original theme songs which some studios replace on other shows (I'm looking at you Sony).
Fox has gone so far as to blur out performers and replace music critical to episodes (Fall Guy, WKRP).
So in my opinion, this is one of CBS Paramount's weaknesses among many strengths, whereas many other studios doing this do not have many strengths to fall back on.

Jeff Adkins · 04-01-2008, 11:13 PM

Well, at least they restored an original song to the Star Trek episode "City On The Edge Of Forever" that had been changed on the VHS and LD versions.

Larry.P · 04-02-2008, 12:02 AM

I spoke to a friend of mine who has worked on some Paramount releases in the past, and he thinks that the notation "Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions" may be on all the Paramount boxes as of late just to cover themselves. He said that someone had written a very angry letter over literally 1 frame of footage missing from an episode before going to a commercial break on one of their releases. The thing that sucks about this is that unless you really know the show, it's hard to know whether you are getting complete episodes or not. I'd be curious if someone in the know could verify this. I know this notation shows up on "Happy Days", "Laverne & Shirley", "Mork & Mindy", "The Untouchables", "Gomer Pyle", "The Odd Couple", "Love American Style", "The Love Boat", and probably many more.
The music issue I definitely agree on. Paramount has too many releases (including most of the above listed) that say "music has been changed for this home entertainment version". Unfortunately, those of us who haven't seen the shows in years or never saw the original network runs may have a hard time verifying what is and isn't missing.

wh5916 · 04-02-2008, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry.P

I spoke to a friend of mine who has worked on some Paramount releases in the past, and he thinks that the notation "Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions" may be on all the Paramount boxes as of late just to cover themselves. He said that someone had written a very angry letter over literally 1 frame of footage missing from an episode before going to a commercial break on one of their releases. The thing that sucks about this is that unless you really know the show, it's hard to know whether you are getting complete episodes or not. I'd be curious if someone in the know could verify this. I know this notation shows up on "Happy Days", "Laverne & Shirley", "Mork & Mindy", "The Untouchables", "Gomer Pyle", "The Odd Couple", "Love American Style", "The Love Boat", and probably many more.
The music issue I definitely agree on. Paramount has too many releases (including most of the above listed) that say "music has been changed for this home entertainment version". Unfortunately, those of us who haven't seen the shows in years or never saw the original network runs may have a hard time verifying what is and isn't missing.

Paramount butchered the second season of Happy Days, removing the original "Rock Around the Clock" theme and virtually every musical number heard during the episodes. The "Recording Artists Contributing to this Series" credit was also removed at the end of each episode.

From everything I've read, they've treated "Gomer Pyle" in a similar fashion. Unforunately, that series frequently relies heavily on music. I'd love to know what they're doing with the episodes featuring Gomer's girl friend, who starts off in the series as a nightclub singer who is unable to sing a note on key. I'm not willing to take a chance on the purchase given Paramount's track record though.

Corey3rd · 04-02-2008, 08:00 AM

as I've written before, the folks who control the U.S. publishing on Rock Around the Clock are evil. They wouldn't cut a deal for using the song in a Bill Haley documentary that involved his family and the Comets. Sure it stinks, but what can you do? It's not like this show sells Seinfeld numbers.

Elena S · 04-02-2008, 11:29 AM

The laws need to be changed. The UK apparently has much more reasonable laws concerning music clearance. Why can't the US adopt those instead of fostering greed within the industry?

Jeff Willis · 04-02-2008, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elena S

The laws need to be changed. The UK apparently has much more reasonable laws concerning music clearance. Why can't the US adopt those instead of fostering greed within the industry?

Isn't that the truth? It's rediculous what goes on stateside where most of these shows were created.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew

Meanwhile, the region 2 release of Happy Days season 2 supposedly has no music substitutions and has the original Paramount logos. Keep in mind the laws are different there.

That's another reason I went "Region-Free" back in '05

Jay_B! · 04-02-2008, 01:06 PM

the reason Paramount gets raves is because they're literally the only company that seems to be releasing more than one or two sets a quarter at this day and age. I agree they can be really cheap, but at least they haven't left 70% of what they start in mid-air and unfinished like other companies we know

Hank E · 04-03-2008, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewA

Meanwhile, the region 2 release of Happy Days season 2 supposedly has no music substitutions and has the original Paramount logos. Keep in mind the laws are different there.

I didn't know this about season 2. Is there a list anywhere of shows available in other regions that haven't changed the music? I remember reading that Northern Exposure and Quantum Leap still have their original music in region 2 and I'm curious to know what else is out there uncut.

george kaplan · 04-03-2008, 09:13 AM

I don't buy region 2 dvds because of PAL speedup. But if a show like WKRP could get released unedited in region 2, I'd probably buy it, pal speedup be damned.

RoyM · 04-04-2008, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by george kaplan

I don't buy region 2 dvds because of PAL speedup. But if a show like WKRP could get released unedited in region 2, I'd probably buy it, pal speedup be damned.

I'm of the same mind. I'm completely resistant to going multi-regional, even for films that I love and that aren't available here, for the PAL and other issues. But if it was a certitude that I could get my favorite shows (such as Northern Exposure) with complete original music intact, I would jump in without hesitation.

And just to correct the poster above, actually Northern Exposure was also released with music changes in R2, so that particular example won't work.