I'm here....but somebody's going to need to help me pick my jaw up off of the floor. It's stuck there for good I think (and it hit the floor hard when I started reading this thread).
I haven't received my S.2 set yet (it should arrive tomorrow from Amazon). But this is simply....unbelievable. I can't think of a more apt word for it. To remove such an integral and mood-enhancing part of "The Fugitive" by ripping out its original music is akin to watching a talkie with the sound completely off.
I just cannot believe this was released like this -- ESPECIALLY from a studio (CBS/Paramount) that has been so very good at releasing (for the most part) uncut shows in pristine form.
We have the syndicated versions of many of these Season-Two episodes being available (in past years) in full, uncut form with the proper Pete Rugolo music and musical cues--such as the A&E broadcasts from the 1990s that I have on VHS, and every original musical cue is intact...plus the
NuVentures VHS videos and the
Republic VHS tapes, which have the original music intact (like
this Republic Video cassette)--but when we get to the DVDs, we have to endure this music-replacement torture?? I cannot fathom it.
And so many great S.2 episodes are in this S2/V1 set -- "World's End", "Man In A Chariot", and "Nemesis", to name but three. I cannot stand the thought of the fabulous original music being replaced by some other music for these shows. As Harry has said earlier, I think it might just be too painful to watch (knowing what SHOULD be there, but isn't).
Hopefully enough fans of this exquisite series known as "THE FUGITIVE" will make a big enough stink so that Paramount will feel compelled to right this atrocious wrong. They did fix a problem with some "Andy Griffith" laugh tracks a while back, remember. So they aren't totally unreasonable when it comes to responding to public opinion and/or outcries (and I can only assume that Paramount didn't fix those TAGS tracks on their own, sans any outside prodding from some angry consumers).
But this type of wholesale, across-all-episodes music changes to one of the best and highest-rated TV series in history--"The Fugitive"--is just too much to take lying down, IMO.
I can't even figure out
why Paramount would even bother releasing a set like this in
totally-edited form in the first place,
with every piece of music changed!
Wouldn't they assume that a large outcry and revolt from the many Fuge fans would be immediate and overwhelming?!
I'm not sure I can even stand to open the package when it comes tomorrow--or whenever it comes.
I've been a fan of this great David Janssen TV series for a long time, and have enjoyed each of the 30 first-season shows on DVD (the S.1 episodes are fabulous, with top-notch DVD quality from the same company that has ruined Season 2)....and I very rarely make any kind of a big deal out of a small edit here and there in DVD releases (e.g., the small "Mary Tyler Moore" musical edits that pop up in a couple of those DVD sets don't really bother me much at all)....
But when every episode has all of its music changed -- it's just too much. How could it
not be "too much" for a fan of this superior television series?
Paramount
must fix this.
Not fixing this appalling
hack job that has been done to one of the finest shows ever to grace the tube would be like leaving a bunch of graffiti all over the Mona Lisa and not caring about it at all.
Paramount's next brilliant move -- Replace Angie Dickinson in the Season-Two [Vol. 2] episode "Brass Ring" with a digitally-inserted Irene Ryan. Nobody'll give a damn. Nobody will probably even notice the difference between Angie and Granny.
(I'm going to take an aspirin...or two. I can't believe I had to write the post I just now wrote.)
~headache icon goes here~
Like Harry-N said, with all the people on the internet who make stuff up for no reason and that what you were saying seemed so unbelievable, I really doubted the validity of your info.
