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Is there a ray of hope for WKRP?? - Page 2

post #31 of 77
11/30/03 at 5:41pm
All this talk of music rights makes me very nervous for Northern Exposure which plays a lot of different types of music (some popular, some classics, some opera, western, etc). The "NE" music plays a very important part on the show too. I hope when "NE" gets released, the music will be left intact and not be replaced or ommitted as a whole. It's scary that we may never see some of our favorite shows on DVD because of the music situation.
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post #32 of 77
11/30/03 at 6:42pm
Wow, I'd gladly pay the extra to have some WKRP on DVD... Hopefully someday we'll have it!
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post #33 of 77
11/30/03 at 6:45pm
If there's a chance to get it done *right*, I'd say do it. It is only going to be more expensive down the road.

Carlson: "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
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post #34 of 77
11/30/03 at 7:30pm
I want this on DVD, and I'd pay an extra $10 or whatever to get it. It would be worth it, just for the Thanksgiving episode.
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post #35 of 77
12/1/03 at 5:50am
Heck, they'd probably sell several thousand copies here in Cincinnati alone. I still hear people in Fountain Square say, "That's the WKRP fountain!" Fantastic show. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
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post #36 of 77
12/1/03 at 7:40am
Speaking of Miami Vice. I was watching a couple of the episodes from Columbia House with the substituted music. And it really changed the mood of the episodes.
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post #37 of 77
12/1/03 at 11:27am
I saw an ep of WKRP on TV Land the other day whilst channel surfing. First time I had seen it in years. I think the one I saw actually was the pilot.

Anyway, there were a couple of Johnny Fever scenes where he spun the record, and instead of a Who song or something that we would hear in the original airing, we heard some cheesy faux-rnr guitar instrumental. It was really awful.

I thought it was amazing how something like that could totally alter the whole feel of the show!!!!
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post #38 of 77
12/1/03 at 12:02pm
I'd pay extra for uncut episodes!

Oh, and Joey, thanks for posting the text of the infamous turkey bombing. I cracked up just READING it.
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post #39 of 77
12/1/03 at 12:54pm
Hear the big WKRP Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway!
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post #40 of 77
12/1/03 at 6:58pm
Yep, I'd pay a higher price for all 4 seasons with original music...

So many great lines, but so much of the humour was in the delivery.
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post #41 of 77
12/1/03 at 9:31pm
you can count me in for paying extra to get this series on DVD.
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post #42 of 77
12/2/03 at 8:45pm
Quote:
In his article it also metioned saturday night live being a real problem with the music issues. It can`t be that big of a problem, didn`t a big box set of just music acts on SNL just get released?


Yes, that set just came out, but it took years to clear the music for the release. When I was at Broadway Video I asked them about season sets of SNL and they basically said "No way." Not only would they have to clear the music, but also the guest stars. So that means 2 songs and at least 1 actor for every episode in a season. The amount of time they would pay lawyers would make this an expensive set!

Gord
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post #43 of 77
7/19/04 at 6:25am
Hi - I recently sent an email to the fine folks at Shout! Factory asking them about the possibility of Shout licensing WKRP for DVD release. The respose follows...

Quote:
We have received many a vote for the release of WKRP - I know the creative folks and legal folks are looking into the feasibility of it...so stay tuned.


Possibly good news. I guess we'll just have to stay tuned like they said!
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post #44 of 77
7/19/04 at 9:06am
Good to see this thread resurrected with the update on status.

My best memory is Bailey wandering the sudio halls late at night, after being stood up by Johnny, and hearing Earth, Wind & Fire's "After the Love is Gone" playing on the monitor.

To replace that song with any other because of some greedy present-day copyright holder would be a crime against TV history!
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post #45 of 77
7/19/04 at 11:34am
I consider myself a hardcore WKRP fan but the turkey episode isn't even in my Top 10, too many other genius and funny stories. I'd gladly pay a lot more than $10 extra, I love this show, I'd even buy it at $50 ! And I'd probably buy more than one copy too. A superb cult show like this deserves to be out on DVD. Wouldn't Fox make a whole bunch of money if they actually priced it very high and only, or mainly, diehard fans buying it ? Uncut episodes is the most important thing to me, then comes the music. A new documentary would be nice, and commentaries would be hilarious ! I have no doubts it would sell a lot better than MTM whose age group buys less DVDs than those into WKRP, I'm sure. It's only 4 seasons and we want them complete, come on Fox, and no best-of stuff like New Video's VHS pack. Thanx.
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post #46 of 77
7/19/04 at 11:41am
I agree that if it's only a matter of $10 per season, that wouldn't even cause me to hesitate.

I'd probably be willing to go as high as $150 a season for these sets, but I know it couldn't make a profit at such a high price point. Anything under $100, though, should be OK.

If they only get the first season released and then pull the plug, that's still better than nothing, because so many of the best episodes were from the first season.
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post #47 of 77
7/19/04 at 12:23pm
Goes for WHO'S THE BOSS ? anyway; the first season was the best, and that's what's out now.
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post #48 of 77
7/19/04 at 2:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
I consider myself a hardcore WKRP fan but the turkey episode isn't even in my Top 10, too many other genius and funny stories.

I actually agree with this; "Turkeys Away" was one of the earliest episodes and they were still working some of the bugs out in terms of writing and pacing. There are some slow patches up until the actual turkey drop. But that scene, and the final line of the episode, deserves its fame.

What's more important is that "Turkeys Away" is by far the most popular episode of the show, which means that if (and I'm saying if) WKRP's first season got released, it would not have the problem of, say, Mary Tyler Moore Show, where the most famous episodes were not in the first season. Other extremely famous WKRP episodes that were in the first season: the "Fish Story" episode where Johnny's reflexes get faster every time he takes a drink and Herb walks around in a fish suit (which creator Hugh Wilson, ironically, wrote as his idea of a deliberately bad episode!), the "Hoodlum Rock" episode with the British band Scum of the Earth, and the tornado episode.

Basically, though, all four seasons were great.
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post #49 of 77
7/19/04 at 8:20pm
Quote:
btw i'm a Bailey Quarters fan ...

Me too, and I want to hear Jan Smithers stoned rendition of the "N-E-S-T-L-E-S" song again.
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post #50 of 77
7/19/04 at 8:55pm
I don't like WKRP enough to buy it on DVD, but I would definitely be willing to pay extra for season sets of The Wonder Years and Malcolm in the Middle.
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post #51 of 77
7/19/04 at 8:58pm
I also enjoy the two-parter where that sleazy photographer takes nude pics of Jennifer. That ribbing between Andy and Bailey was priceless!

"How about a champagne cocktail?"
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post #52 of 77
7/19/04 at 10:46pm
I'd pay practically anything the distributor wanted/needed to charge for pristine, complete, and unaltered WKRP season sets...

As for favorite episodes, I do love the Thanksgiving ep, but possibly my all-time favorite is the 4th-season 2-parter "An Explosive Affair" -- about the bomb threat. Johnny's whole "phone cops" paranoia bit was absolutely brilliant, as was the whole writing and pacing of that episode. It ran the gamut from side-splitting humor to tear-jerking tragedy, when Jennifer and Andy got the news that the transmitter had been blown up (and, Johnny and Venus with it, or so they thought). I also loved the other storyline, about Mr. Carlson and his former receptionist.

First-season faves include "Turkeys Away", the aforementioned "A Fish Story", as well as "Preacher" (brilliant!), "Hold Up" and "A Commercial Break". (I can still sing that funeral jingle!)

One of my all-time favorite ensemble casts, along with WINGS. (That's another one for which I'd pay basically whatever they wanted to charge.)
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post #53 of 77
7/20/04 at 1:42am
I would've bought the MTM show if I had'nt just finished watching it on nick at nite for several years and again for a couple of years on tvland. And then that really butt awful tv movie "Mary & Rhoda" really cooled my interest after that.
Besides there were other shows that I wanted more.
I'd buy a WKRP set if it was priced at $30-$50.
But if it's like the Incredible Hulk set (And I love the hulk too.) which only has 18 episodes and NO extras at all for $69 then I'll probably have to wait.
But it has restored or added material then I would pay extra. Having Jan Smithers on dvd would be worth it! I'm a Bailey fan too!!
I'd love to have all of the MTM shows but I'd rather have The Bob Newhart Show and WKRP on dvd more though.
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post #54 of 77
7/20/04 at 5:56am
Quote:
It was mentioned that getting the music clearances would add $10 to the cost of each set, which would hurt sales, which would require an even higher price, and so on.


Ten Bucks?

We're living in the era of $100 Star Trek and they're worried about a miserable TEN BUCKS?!

What a world ...
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post #55 of 77
7/20/04 at 8:43am
Quote:
Ten Bucks?

We're living in the era of $100 Star Trek and they're worried about a miserable TEN BUCKS?!

What a world ...

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, the actual cost increase might not be $10. That was a hypethetical scenario placed in the article by the Fox Exec. It could be a lot more than that depending on how much it would cost them to license all the music and how many units they planned on selling.

I agree, if it were only 10 bucks than I wouldn't have a problem...but they really don't know, or at least haven't said for sure how much the actual cost increase might be.
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post #56 of 77
7/20/04 at 9:24am
Maybe that's the question and therein lies the problem.

If they could guarantee $10 ok, but they won't know until they are done. What if they got halfway down the list and it came to ten? Would we go for twenty? Thirty? Forty? Exactly how high would we go?

Glenn
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post #57 of 77
7/20/04 at 9:36am
Thread Starter 
My own view is that a WKRP season set would cost somewhere in the range of the SCTV set from Shout! Factory. (If Shout! released WKRP itself, this would definitely be the case, but that's still a long shot.) SCTV seems to be selling well at that price and I think WKRP would too.
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post #58 of 77
7/20/04 at 11:03pm
I loved the tornado episode where Johnny says, "God really hates mobile homes, 'cause the tornadoes always go for them first and then they get really mobile." Count me in for season sets of WKRP with the original music, even if the cost reaches Star Trek levels.
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post #59 of 77
7/20/04 at 11:25pm
Something else to consider besides the fact that we don't reall know what kind of costs we'd be dealing with and that includes price increases...

It is also one thing to say on an internet forum that you'd be willing to pay X amount of dollars for this set, and then something completely different to actually pay X amount of dollars for the set. In some cases for some people they might say they'd pay X amount of dollars, but if the set actually saw a release whether or not they actually did it would/could depend largely on what else is being released at the same time and so on and so forth.

So while I think its good to keep this issue on the minds of the studio I think it will take a bit more than a bunch of people on the internet claiming to be more than willing to pay more for the set to actually convince the studio that it would be worth their while.
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post #60 of 77
7/21/04 at 6:52am
Quote:
It is also one thing to say on an internet forum that you'd be willing to pay X amount of dollars for this set, and then something completely different to actually pay X amount of dollars for the set. In some cases for some people they might say they'd pay X amount of dollars, but if the set actually saw a release whether or not they actually did it would/could depend largely on what else is being released at the same time and so on and so forth.

WKRP is my favorite TV show of all time. I would be willing to go without beer to afford these sets. For as long as it took!
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