"Obviously we would have preferred to include all the original music in ‘The Fugitive’ second season DVD release, but unlike season one, there were a large number of cues, the current ownership of which was not clear. We didn’t want to disappoint fans by significantly delaying the release of the second season so we chose to replace the music. We kept the original theme song, but decided it would be better to rescore full episodes to give viewers a seamless, consistent experience throughout. Taking everything into consideration, we thought this was the best solution. We hope our track record on previous releases shows that we truly care about classic TV and its fans." -- Spokesperson from CBS Home Entertainment *
* =
Courtesy of TVShowsOnDVD.com
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CBS said:
"We didn’t want to disappoint fans by significantly delaying the release of the second season so we chose to replace the music."
A really,
really poor decision, CBS. I think almost every true fan of "The Fugitive" would have accepted a delay (even a very "significant" one) in the S.2 release if it meant tracking down (and acquiring) the proper rights for the original music.
And we must remember that there was only a 3.5-month gap between the release dates for S1,V2 and S2,V1. That's certainly not a long time at all (especially considering how long it took to get the Fuge DVD ball rolling in the first place).
I, for one, think this excuse given by CBS --
"We didn’t want to disappoint fans by significantly delaying the release of the second season so we chose to replace the music" -- is a very weak excuse....and it flies in the face of their so-called motto from one of their
DVD ads, wherein CBS/Paramount claimed they propped Classic TV up "on a pedestal".
If they truly took their "on a pedestal" mantra to heart, a "significant delay" in the release of
"THE FUGITIVE: S.2, V1" would have not only been the best possible move (in order to secure the music rights)....it would have been
mandatory.
REPRISE (as I try to let the idiocy of this CBS policy sink into my cranium):
"We didn’t want to disappoint fans by significantly delaying the release of the second season so we chose to replace the music."
So, CBS is, in effect, saying that it's
better to scrap all of the original, integrated Fugitive music just in order to put out an inferior product
FASTER. Ridiculous.
Plus, CBS also seems to be hinting in that full blurb above (although it's not specifically spelled out this way) that
some of the original Fugitive background music
could have been placed on the S2,V1 DVD release...but instead of putting some of it on there, they thought it would be better to completely strip the whole half-season set of all of the original music,
even the stuff that apparently IS bought and paid for by CBS DVD!
I'm really boiling mad now.
Although, as a footnote (which reduces my "boiling" point a great deal as I think about future Fuge releases), I think the press release by CBS (coupled with the large amount of negative reviews placed on the Internet about this music-substitution debacle) should probably bode
well for getting the remaining episodes of "The Fugitive" released with the proper, original music attached to them. Because surely CBS (if they have anyone scouting the Internet and looking at the horrid reviews that the S2 release has received) won't fumble the ball a second time. Would they?
