Music Clearance Nightmare Shows (1 Viewer)

[banjo78]

On the subject of BJ and the Bear, yes the Greg Evigan twitter comment about a DVD release at Best Buy is untrue. Greg's wife Pam confirmed to me that yes it was a fake account and not the real Greg Evigan. Yes the music on BJ is all cover versions of popular songs and I know of an overseas company who shall remain nameless at present who are trying hard and have been for quite some time to secure this show for release. It is proving difficult but they are still confident it will happen - sometime.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Back on topic, another show with music-clearance problems:

IN LIVING COLOR, which was released, but with cuts all over the place. I would've bought complete seasons, but when I found out about the cuts, I kept my money (and my off-air VHS tapes)

 

[John Kilduff]

I'm hoping that music issues are the only thing keeping the world from seeing further complete season DVD releases of "Saturday Night Live". I know that the first 5 seasons were released mostly uncut, but they stopped the releases at season 5. All episodes from Season 6 onwards that can be seen on websites like Netflix or Hulu are chopped up. The musical performances? All gone. The uncut Dennis Miller "Weekend Update" segments that used copyrighted music at the beginning and end? All gone. Practically any sketch with a popular song (certain sketches like the "Michael Jackson PSA" and "More Cowbell" excepted)? You get the picture. I think Lorne Michaels has said it's a pride thing keeping him from releasing seasons 6-10 (when Jean Doumanian, then Dick Ebersol and Bob Tischler were producing the program), but if he wants to rewrite history, he could jump ahead to Season 12 and call that Season 6, like many "Saturday Night Live" fans who refused to acknowledge Season 6-11. I hope he wouldn't do that, though.

Anyway, music rights are probably why we won't see further season releases of "Saturday Night Live", and that's a shame, because there are 3 solid decades plus several more years of SNL episodes that are just being kept from the public.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff....

I had suggested on Shout! Factory's Facebook page that maybe they could take over the "Saturday Night Live" license, but seeing that the "Friday's" episodes will be missing musical performances (although many will still be included), maybe that wasn't the best idea.

 

[Corey3rd]

At least Shout! Factory was able to get clearance for all 4 songs the Clash did on Fridays.

Saturday Night Live just isn't that loved passed the original cast.

 

[John Kilduff]

At least Shout! Factory was able to get clearance for all 4 songs the Clash did on Fridays.

Saturday Night Live just isn't that loved passed the original cast.

Seasons 6-11 may not be loved, but many people have praised the show from season 12 onwards, saying that the cast with players like Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks and the late Phil Hartman was as good, if not better, than the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. The "Bad Boys Of SNL" era (1990-1995) has quite a few fans. People like Adam Sandler and Chris Rock may not exactly be doing well at the box office anymore, but people still have fond memories of their era of the show. Let's not forget the massive fan base that people like Will Ferrell and Tina Fey (who both joined the show in the 2nd half of the 90s have). Seasons 26-30 were when women like Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph were helping the show to new heights of success. We have seasons 31-38 (the season that just wrapped up)...Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg, Fey's occasional reappearances on the show with her Sarah Palin impression, records being smashed with both ratings and the show itself (Alec Baldwin overtaking Steve Martin's record for hosting the show, for example).

In essence, all the eras I mentioned have fans who love them, whether the number is few (Seasons 6-11) or many (seasons 12-15, 21-25). There has to be more to it than music issues.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Sorry for going off-topic, but music is very important.

 

[Adam_S]

I have a question...why is it that music clearance is usually less a problem for movie releases? The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Stairway riff being deleted from Wayne's World.

Medium Cool is another such movie, there was actually a lawsuit about it that established that contracts for theatrical and television clearance don't apply to home video.