THE WONDER YEARS (Consolidated Thread; No New Ones, Please!) - Page 4

My name isn't Gord, but I'll give this a try.

You're making a mistake if you think that because music for Happy Days was cleared, that it will be easy or cost effective for Wonder Years music to be cleared and that is simply not correct.

The music is likely not controlled by the same people for both shows, and the cost of clearing it might be higher. There is no standard for music clearance for older TV shows, so because Happy Days has all of its music that does not mean that it would be just as easy or just as expensive for Fox to clear all the music rights to the Wonder Years.

If they can pay I million dollars for the music rights to Freaks and Geeks, why can't they pay alittle more for a show that was not only on longer but did better in the ratings?

It all depends on how much money the company thinks they can make. WONDER YEARS is quite a few years old and isn't shown in syndication very often, therefore it is not in recent memory of many people. If the company that has the rights to the show thinks it would cost $1M to have all of original music they may not think they would make enough on the DVDs to recover that cost.

Obviously the people that released FREAKS & GEEKS did think they could recover the costs. Whether they actually did or not is another question.

Again, what would make you think that it would only be just a little bit more? Rights issues are tricky, if the song in question is owned by more than one person and not all parties sign off on the deal then the song can't be used. There are several instances where this is ture, and not just for home video clearance. Did you know for instance that Sunny Bono once wanted to use a song that he had written on a TV show he was starring in, but he couldn't use it because a deal could not be struck with the other rights holder on the song, the producer IIRC.

You can't just say well, they didn't have any problem with Freaks and Geeks so why not the Wonder Years? The cost is not going to be the same across the board, and one person can stall one negotiation and one absent song might be enough to stall a DVD release.

Music licensing is not an easy thing, and different songs cost different amounts of money. I spoke to a nameless studio exec that told me they spent $700,000 to clear the theme song for a show, for ONE season. That's not to say that every song is $700,000, but it can show you how expensive clearing music can get. If they sold 100,000 copies of that set then the theme song is adding $7 PER set to the cost. YIKES!

Chris, I was just trying to illustrate that new shows and old shows are very different, since you compared The Wonder Years to American Dreams. Every property will have challenges, but newer shows will have fewer because the companies are clearing music for home video at the same time as they're clearing it for broadcast.

Gord

Well, now ain't this a pickle... I can't see Wonder Years ever coming to DVD now!

*sigh*

I really want Wonder Years on DVD, but it looks like the chances of it ever happening are slim to none...

Didn't they play at least three songs per episode?

FWIW, the german FOX TV-DVD site is having a Poll about which shows to release on DVD. WONDER YEARS is listed among six other titles. (All US btw., as far as I can tell).

Not that it matters much, but it does mean that they at least haven't given up completely on releasing this show.

http://www.foxtv.de/content/

So get there and vote.

Assuming that "MEINE WUNDERBAREN JAHRE" is the German name for the show, it has only had 203 votes - that's 0.12% of the votes cast so far.

The poll's results:

* REMINGTON STEELE - 3150 votes 1.83 %
* MEINE WUNDERBAREN JAHRE - 203 votes 0.12 %
* CHICAGO HOPE - 135 votes 0.08 %
* DENVER CLAN - 80124 votes 46.46 %
* LOU GRANT - 17 votes 0.01 %
* PRETENDER - 74490 votes 43.19 %
* EIN COLT FUER ALLE FAELLE - 14333 votes 8.31 %

(Personally, I never watched it when it was on, and so wouldn't buy it - but I might rent it, and then buy it if I like it - but my brother called me a couple of weeks ago out of the blue to ask me whether it was on DVD, and I had to explain the music rights issue to him. So I cast a vote on his behalf.)

Yes that's the title of the show. The shows in the poll are: Remington Steele, The Wonder Years, Chicago Hope, Dynasty, Lou Grant, The Pretender, The Fall Guy.

The low vote count could partly be due to the fact, that they used the wrong title for the show. It actually was called "Wunderbare Jahre" for most of it's run. That might confuse people. I already alerted them to that fact.

Yeah, kinda sad that Fox Germany doesn't even seem to know the titles of their own property. Then again, nothing surprise me as far as Fox Germany is concerned. They even managed to misspell the German title of Star Wars Episode 2 on the spine (just one of many screw-ups.)

Chris

Seems to me that Dynasty is winning.

There's no hope for The Wonder Years. Trust me.

Martin - Thaniks for that. I was wondering what Denver Clan and Ein Colt Fuer Alle Faelle were, and you just explained it.

The Wonder Years: Complete First Season

I was surfing the message board of Sitcoms Online when I discovered, in the Wonder Years board, someone posted this comment.


and then on a post further down...



Quoted above me, these statements were posted just a few days ago.

Yes, I saw that. The person still didn't state the source.

The source could've asked to remain confidential until they release it publicly.

I'll believe it when I see it. Kind of a misleading subject line, by the way (since you don't have a question mark there or anything). Of course, two things caused me not to get my hopes up:

1.) The first season is so short, they would probably release the first TWO seasons at the same time. (Unless they were using a short and inexpensive release to guage sales)
2.) The person posting it.

Out!

Well, I have my speculations also. But.... I'm going to go talk about it on that message board.

Oh, and this is an invitation for everyone here who likes old and new tv shows to go to Sitcoms Online Message Board.

Dave, Gord, can you guys confirm if this is a joke or not?

I know Dave and Gord sometimes hold news items back for slow days, but I doubt something as anticipated as The Wonder Years would be held back.

We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

Noone's talked to me about Wonder Years...period. That's the kind of news I would not hold back for several days; I'd be all over it in about 5 seconds!!

And the reason any news is "held back" is simply because I have a full-time job that has nothing to do with DVDs, plus I have a family and a house to take care of. Plus every once in a while I like to watch DVDs instead of talk about them! So I post maybe 4-5 news items each day and save others for future days. If that helps fill in on a slow news day, then that's great so our readers aren't disappointed with a zero news day. I don't know about you, but I've always been bummed when I visit a site (DVD news or any other hobby) and see that they haven't updated for an entire day...or more!

David, I've caught a few times when days would go buy when there wasn't a news item.

You're so funny David.

So what does this mean? Does this mean the guy was lying through his teeth? Or does this mean that the production company handling the Wonder Years is slow to announce it to TVShowsonDVD?

if it's Pavan... trust his words. He is very inside, he announced 227 before Sony did, he also said Jeffersons s3 and AITF s4 were coming a week or two before Sony let it out, plus he also works with Anchor Bay on the Three's Company DVD's.

It was posted by some guy named PURE.

Here's the direct link to that stuff:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/...d.php?t=128861


PURE's post and follow-up (the latter mentions TSoD and Bits) are his/hers only two posts at the site. Pavan certainly is quick to let me know when he has info, and he hasn't talked about Wonder Years to me recently.

It could be that they guy is legit, and that they are simply assuming either us at TSoD or the guys at Bits will spot an announcement at a password-protected press site once it goes up.


Two responses directly to Chris:L...

1) I never said the guy was lying. I said I didn't know anything about it. Gord might know a ton of stuff about it and not have mentioned it to me. I doubt it, but anything's possible. Or, Gord may know nothing and this "PURE" person could still be on the up-and-up (see theory above).

2) October 11, 2003 was the last date in which TVShowsOnDVD failed to post a news story. Every day since then there has been at least one news story per day, consecutively. That means when I'm sick, when I have to work 12 hours at my paying job, whatever. Gord spots me if I can't do it, like when my father died a few weeks ago and I had to fly across the country to his funeral. Or else I do it anyway, like yesterday and today despite the flu and the death of my wife's father. Need proof? Click here and you'll be at the news listings for 10/2003. Use the RIGHT navigation arrow at either the top or bottom to scroll forward in time since then. If you find a day in which I've missed a news item after 10/11/2003, then I certainly owe you an apology.

David, you're cool with me. I wasn't trying to gang up on you. Sorry. I'm sorry to hear that your father died. My deepest condolences to your family.

I don't know if it's me or all of us but it's hard to imagine you guys have jobs. Sorry, if I'm making an incorrect assumption or that I'm naive at thinking that.

I'm dumb!

Dave, I'm sorry to hear of your Father's passing and the passing of your Father in Law. I can't imagine the pain your family is going through in such a short time. Prayers are with you and your family.

Steve

Yep, by day I'm a system analyst and data miner at a computer repair facility. I'll let Gord discuss his situation only if he wants to; it's not up to me to talk about someone else's private life. But yes, for the entire 3+ years that TSoD has been around, up through today, Gord and I both have held full-time 40+ hour a week jobs and just do TSoD in our "spare time".

Why do we have full time jobs? Because what little money is earned for TSoD goes to pay the hosting fee and odd other site-related expenses. I don't get paid for TSoD, and if Gord uses any money generated from TSoD for his personal expenses, then it's with my blessing because I know how little it would be. We don't do it for the money, we do it as a labor of love.

I'd love it for TSoD to be my full-time job, and Gord would love it too. On the other hand, we hate pop-up ads, java ads, ads that take up your screen when you click on a link and require you to watch them before continuing, and any similar ads. We hate it when we sign up at a site and our info gets sold as a mailing list to some mass-marketer, and we get e-mail spam. So we don't make a buck by inflicting those things on our readers.. I guess we're dummies in a way, because we know sites with less traffic than ours do those things and make a living off of the money generated. But we just haven't done that, and I don't think we ever will.

Steve...O (and Chris:L) - thanks for the thoughts, I appreciate it. There's no need to turn this thread into a sympathy-for-the-Lamberts situation (or even to continue the off-topic discussion of TVShowsOnDVD's inner workings). I do appreciate the chance to vent/share, and my wife appreciates the consideration as well. But let's just talk about The Wonder Years along the way, okay? It's hard enough thinking about our losses in any case. Thanks,