Re: THE FUGITIVE, Season 2, Vol. 1 - Replacement Program Announced
On 02/24/2009, Jim Quirk said:
Quote:
| Too many of we fans, however, are soft touches in the sense that we suddenly believe CBS does care about us when the replacement disc program is announced. They care only about our money, and they knew they had to do something to get us back on board so they can make a couple million more dollars off us. |
I have to respectfully disagree (strongly) with Mr. Jim Quirk's above-quoted assessment of CBS/Paramount's actions and motives behind providing a
Fugitive Season 2, Volume 1 replacement disc program.
CBS/Paramount didn't have to do a damn thing. They could have just sat on their hands and ignored the fans who were outraged at the butchered Heyes-heavy version of S2V1.
And from what I've been reading on this forum, it would seem as though almost all
Fuge fans
were of the opinion (prior to February 17, 2009) that CBS/Paramount would, indeed, be sitting on their hands forever and would do nothing to rectify (even partially) the S2V1 music fiasco.
But, instead, CBS/P listened to the fans and took action by offering up free replacement discs that include a vast majority of the original
Fugitive music restored, with approximately "80%" of the original underscore being put back in, per the posts authored at this forum by the incredibly-knowledgeable "Carabimero" (aka:
"The Walking Encyclopedia Of Fugitive Musical Data").

And this replacement disc program was implemented, undoubtedly, at considerable cost to CBS/P, but at no additional cost to the outraged fans (except for the price of one U.S. postage stamp).
So, while I'm not too happy about
any of the original music being excised from S2V1, I am nonetheless grateful to CBS/Paramount for making an effort to restore (at least for the
most part) the inimitable music that is so much a vital and important part of each and every episode of Quinn Martin's
"The Fugitive".
I'm not thrilled with the small music cuts that were made to another of my favorite TV shows either (
"The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), but I still bought those DVD sets and enjoy them often.
Yes, I realize that the MTM comparison isn't a perfect analogy to the current (larger) underscore disaster we're facing with
"The Fugitive", but the underlying point is pretty similar ---
i.e.,
If it's a TV show I'd really like to own on DVD (and there actually are relatively few of those), and it comes down to a choice of purchasing a slightly-altered version of that show vs. not purchasing it at all because of a few music edits....I'm more than likely going to end up choosing the first option, and then just live with the musical edits the best I can.
And, after all, to put a little bit of additional common-sense perspective on this thing (as a whole) -- this
is only
TV-on-DVD we're discussing here. It's not the catastrophe of the ages if every last note of TZ music isn't to be found in the 15 episodes of
"The Fugitive: Season Two, Volume One".
And I doubt that I'm going to suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage if I watch a few episodes of
"The Fugitive" that include mostly Pete Rugolo's music with a little bit of Mark Heyes mixed in.

But, I also realize that every person's own mileage will vary with respect to their willingness to accept even a slightly-altered TV/DVD product from any studio.
Regards to all,
David Von Pein
03/08/2009 EDIT: Since posting the comments I quoted above, Mr. James Quirk appears to have changed his mind considerably about the motives of Paramount Home Entertainment and CBS. It appears that Mr. Quirk is no longer of the opinion that CBS/Paramount "care only about our money".
Edited by David Von Pein - 1/14/10 at 10:38pm