TV Shows that are unavailable to DVD due to music clearance BS (1 Viewer)

If those companies had the balls to pay up those music licencing fees and royalties, such as what StarVista had recently did for the China Beach sets, then I would be happy as hell for Cold Case, WKRP, Wonder Years, Clueless: The Series, Murphy Brown, Crossing Jordan, Malcolm in the Middle, The Bernie Mac Show, Ed, and New York Undercover to be finally released to DVD in its original aired versions without any cuts! But unfortanetly, that dream is never gonna happen, because the songs featured in said programs are cost prohibitive, and that's why none of these programs will never ever see the light of DVD's day.So which shows are unavailable to DVD due to the hefty costs of clearing the copyrighted pop songs, other than the ones I mentioned above, and you seriously want on DVD, ASAP?

Thankfully, none of the shows I care about that I don't have from the 50s, 60s or 70s have those issues and the shows post-1980, I recorded when they aired so I don't have to rely on the studios for my untampered with copies. But to answer your question, here are some other shows which have major music issues:

What Really Happened to the Class of '65
James at 15/16
The Equalizer
Wiseguy (hell, all of the Cannell shows have music replacements on DVD)

Just about any variety show from the 1950s to the 1970s.

- Kevin

These issues really are not that difficult to understand. They certainly are not "B.S.". If you want to release a film or TV series then you have to clear the rights to the music. You can't just use someone else's property without compensating them. That's called stealing. The companies that release the shows can't just "pay up". Who's going to pay for the music? Ultimately the customer will have to. If a company spends a huge amount of money clearing the rights to songs then that will be reflected in the price of the product. Inevitably customers will complain about the price and end up not buying the product. So the company that paid for that music ends up with a product that doesn't sell. It's basic business.

Missing or changed music might be disappointing but there is nothing nefarious going on. There's no vast conspiracy to keep customers from being able to get their shows.

All of the Warners Dectective Shows from the 50-60's as well as most of their westerns.

I would love to have "The Julie Andrews Hour" from 1973. There are only 24 episodes, but, as you can imagine, every one of them is full of music. I am all for the copyright holders to get their due, that is only fair. However IMO they need to make it easier to negotiate the rights. If the DVDs are never released, the copyright holders will never get anything at all, so it is their best interest to work it out.

Maude, It's a Living, One Day at a Time, Knots Landing and Delta.

David Rain said:

Who's going to pay for the music? Ultimately the customer will have to. If a company spends a huge amount of money clearing the rights to songs then that will be reflected in the price of the product. Inevitably customers will complain about the price and end up not buying the product. So the company that paid for that music ends up with a product that doesn't sell. It's basic business.

Missing or changed music might be disappointing but there is nothing nefarious going on. There's no vast conspiracy to keep customers from being able to get their shows.

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It would be really cool if the model for payments was $1 for each song used in a TV show,
and you also get an iTunes copy of the whole song as a download.

American Dreams. They put out season one more or less intact. It was pricey. It didn't sell. They never bothered with seasons two and three.

KIdd Video.

Ozzie and Harriet. Once Ricky starts singing in every episode, good luck seeing those shows with the songs intact.

derosa said:

It would be really cool if the model for payments was $1 for each song used in a TV show,
and you also get an iTunes copy of the whole song as a download.

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IMHO that model would fail due to being too expensive. In a typical WKRP/Wonder Years/Murphy Brown/Variety show/etc. episode you could be looking at 5-10 songs/snippets that would require payment. That could easily make a season cost upwards of $75 which most people would balk at paying. In my case I already own all the songs I want in most such programs and wouldn't see any value in a lossy download. I *might* purchase a program, depending on which and how much, but a iTunes (or other mp3 vendor) copy would be a additional cost I'd not want to pay.

BUT - For DVD/BR/Digital distribution of TV content, a "flat rate" payment for any song based on how long a segment is used would be a great solution going forward. The problem with such a distribution model is that too many artists/agents/estates/rights holders seem to vastly overvalue their product and would likely balk at such a simple solution. The sad part is those who tend to want outrageous fees are the ones who could afford to practically give it away as they are the richest in the profession. I'm not saying they *should* just give it away, but at times the fees involved border on the ludicrous.

Neil Brock said:

Thankfully, none of the shows I care about that I don't have from the 50s, 60s or 70s have those issues and the shows post-1980, I recorded when they aired so I don't have to rely on the studios for my untampered with copies.

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VHS: a much more valuable preservation medium than it's generally given credit for. A lot of stuff that simply doesn't exist in any other format is uploaded to YouTube off of VHS copies. I don't know how many YouTube channels I discovered when I was researching obscure shows from 50 or so years ago that had all this stuff that could only have been uploaded from VHS.

Vic Pardo said:

VHS: a much more valuable preservation medium than it's generally given credit for. A lot of stuff that simply doesn't exist in any other format is uploaded to YouTube off of VHS copies. I don't know how many YouTube channels I discovered when I was researching obscure shows from 50 or so years ago that had all this stuff that could only have been uploaded from VHS.

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I'm so thankful for my VHS collection. Thanks to the days in the late 80's early 90's when trading tapes was at it's peak, I "traded" with other collectors for many shows that won't see the light of day. I ended up with complete or semi complete runs of shows like: the 4 Warner detective series, Run For Your Life, Richard Diamond, Barnaby Jones, FBI, Green Hornet, Tightrope, He and She, My World, Burke's Law, and Judd. Plus select eps of rarer shows like: Occasional Wife, Love on a Rooftop, Accidental Family, and The Defenders. Truthfully, between those above, the other stuff I taped off air (ex - Batman, Wonder Years), and what has already been released by distributors, if they stopped releasing stuff today, I wouldn't be too upset. That being said.....

That brings me to another question: Which networks do people tape the music-heavy show's episodes from? Name one show and one network.

I just wonder if current series or series in, say, the last 7 years or so are negotiating the rights for DVD release when they use this type of music.

I am thinking of a show like The Good Wife that recently kept promoting a new episode by saying it featured new music by Bruce Springsteen. One would hope that the rights to the music for DVD release were cleared when the show was produced.

More than likely most of them would, as knowledge of DVD markets are big. Most things that we are mulling over on these issues are from the days before home media or the few occasional examples i assume where the earlier clauses didn't hold up for the current technologies (which i would imagine are few and far between, as "home media in perpetuity" should have covered any rights very much all the way through today)

DisneySwan1990 said:

That brings me to another question: Which networks do people tape the music-heavy show's episodes from? Name one show and one network.

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There's no special network that has these shows now. You have to get them when they originally air, whether its today or 20 years ago or 30 years ago. Many shows, the only way you will ever get them untampered with is on their original run. WKRP in Cincinnati already had music replacement (although not as much) on its first go around in syndication. I have no idea what the deal is with current shows as I really have very little in my collection from post-1990. But a show I did like was Ed, which I recorded all of the episodes from NBC when they aired. And if that ever gets released there's no way music won't be taken out, although I wouldn't mind seeing either of the 2 horrible theme songs gone.

ed is one of the few new shows that i watched. i liked it.

and yes frank and neil, i do think that the original music will one day come to us intact.

Ethan Riley said:

American Dreams. They put out season one more or less intact. It was pricey. It didn't sell. They never bothered with seasons two and three.

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now this show is different, imo.

i enjoyed it when it came out, but even when i was watching it, i knew that they were relying heavily on the music to make the show.

wonder years could stand by itself without the music. the music was perhaps some icing on the cake.

if you take away the music from american dreams, there may not be much show left.

so i am not confident about this one. it may be a lot of expense for people who may just say, i can listen to the music from my cd collection.