mary tyler moore's other tv projects (1 Viewer)

[mark stevenson]

Does anyone know if Mary's short lived series, following the MTM Show are available - Mary (78) MTM Hour (79) and Mary (85)? Has anyone thought of including selected episodes as bonus features on future season sets of the MTM Show? What I don't understand is why "Dick Van and the Other Woman" (68) has never been released. I've seen clips on retrospectives, so I assume it's out there. The success of this special prompted CBS to offer Mary her own series.

 

[David Rain]

I'm guessing the odds of seeing Miss Mary's other shows is quite slim since the classic MTM series is supposedly selling so badly. The studios who own her other shows aren't likely to see a market for any of her lesser known projects. But I for one would like to see the 85 sitcom "Mary" again. It starred a then-unknown Katey Sagal as a tough talking reporter. A couple of years later she would be know by a different character name - Peg Bundy.

 

[JasonPW]

At some point, "DVD and the Other Woman" was supposed to be an extra on one of the "Dick Van Dyke Show" season. Music licensing issues made it either prohibitively expensive or impossible to include. The best they could do was to include a music-less chunk of the special relating directly to TDVDS.

As far as Mary's post-"MTM Show" variety series, the same problems may apply. I have a grubby VHS copy of an episode of the "Mary Tyler Moore Hour" with Lucille Ball that's.....uh....interesting. I'd like to see more, but in a "how did this get on the air" sort of way.

 

[mark stevenson]

Thanks for the feedback to my questions. I just wanted to state that the MTM Show on dvd is doing very well, in terms of amazons sales anyway - both Seasons 1 and 2 have been on sale for $15 each for the last week or so. Consequently, they're ranking in the top 100s.

Could you please explain why the cost of music rights is so prohibitive, in terms of dvd releases? The cost to license this music for original broadcasts must have been affordable originally.

 

[JasonPW]

Here's my simpleton knowledge of the whole thing. When we refer to licensing issues or music clearances, we're generally referring to payments that have to be made to the writer of a given song. The average variety show or variety special will include plenty o' tunes, including the variety staple of doing a "medley" of 7 or 8 different songs. The songs add up pretty quickly.

As far as why it costs so much to license songs for home video, as opposed to the original airing...if TV is anything like radio, a TV network, show or production company pays what's call "blanket" fees each year to the 2 major music licensing firms, ASCAP and BMI. A third, less used firm is CESAC (sp?) They pay the annual fee, and they have rights to sing or play any song represented by those licensing firms. However, since you and I are shelling out the big bucks for these DVD releases, the songwriters feel (and rightly so) that if their music is playing a role in a movie or TV show, they should get a chunk of our $19.99 or whatever.

Of course, if a songwriter doesn't like the way a song was used in a show....or if they just choose not to license their songs for anybody...all the money in the world won't help that. You can't use their song without their permission. This is why shows like SCTV have had to replace music, or cut entire skits.

It is MUCH, MUCH more complicated than this, I'm sure. But hopefully this info helps explain why certain shows aren't showing up.

Jason

 

[mark stevenson]

So the money to be made by issing the rights to a dvd release versus a tv broadcast is the issue. How does this influence shows that go into syndication? I have never heard music cut from their airings - eg: White Christmas snatch sung by Mary in the MTMS Christmas episode always intact when broadcast, but cut from the DVD release.