GOMER PYLE, USMC - The Complete Series (Coming to Blu-Ray on February 13, 2024) (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

If they were uncut, if CBS had gone back and put everything in, you better believe they would be crowing about it. The tragedy is, 95% of the songs cut didn't need to be cut. They just did it as an overreaction for legal reasons. I won't buy this if they are still cut, but what an "impossible dream" if they turn out to be complete.

I see what you did there... at least THAT moment was left in.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

 

[MartinP.]

I was watching an episode of Green Acres last night; Oliver had called a meeting at Drucker's store and the guys were all mad about it because they wanted to stay home and watch Gomer Pyle. Heh!

 

[Daniel Melius]

There was a very noticabe improvment with Hogan's heroes on blu ray compsred to the dvd's.

 

[Lecagr]

I'm figuring that this will probably be a straight reissue of the DVD content but this time on blu ray discs, with the same music edits affecting certain specific episodes.

 

[Tony Bensley]

View attachment 206859​

I'm figuring that this will probably be a straight reissue of the DVD content but this time on blu ray discs, with the same music edits affecting certain specific episodes.

That the cover art is EXACTLY the same as the DVD release rather screams same edited transfers, but with the Blu-ray uptick!

Better than nothing, I guess.

CHEERS!

 

[phil*]

"GOMER PYLE, USMC - The Complete Series (Coming to Blu-Ray on February 13, 2024)"​

SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

 

[BILLONEEG]

Yes. Standard US copyright length. In general, works published in the United States before 1924 are in the public domain. Works published after 1923, but before 1978 are protected for 95 years from the date of publication. If the work was created, but not published, before 1978, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. There are some fine points and minor exceptions.

CBS has tended to overreact on music copyright, often removing works *from their own library* for which *they* own the copyright. They seem to follow a "just remove it and there's no problem" approach to music copyright matters rather than performing due diligence and/or seeking a use/license agreement. The need for relicensing is typically caused due to TV series often using different licensing terms than movies, seeking to lower production fees and generally only worrying about original transmission, completely ignoring any future use (syndication, etc.). It doesn't help that many who own music publishing rights see huge dollar signs for relicensing their music in old TV series and often hold them for ransom (WKRP, for example), demanding high fees to relicense any music used.

If music rights have expired, they should be intact! If we don't get the "Complete" series with the music, I consider that false advertising! If any studio creates a show or movie that uses copyrighted music, that music must be signed off as part of the show with a fee up front to close the deal.

 

[Museum Pieces]

If music rights have expired, they should be intact! If we don't get the "Complete" series with the music, I consider that false advertising! If any studio creates a show or movie that uses copyrighted music, that music must be signed off as part of the show with a fee up front to close the deal.

To say it is the "Complete Series" is a bold-faced lie, not because of the music, but because several minutes of run time, whole scenes, have been cut out of the overall series. They're lying. They know it. We know it.

 

[Sky King]

Hi all,

I thought the CBS/Paramount DVD division was no longer.
I have the original Gomer Pyle DVD set they issued several years ago and don’t plan on upgrading, especially since its just an upscaled version of the existing set I already have.
IMHO its just a lazy reissue with no new extras.

John

 

[Lecagr]

Hi all,

I thought the CBS/Paramount DVD division was no longer.
I have the original Gomer Pyle DVD set they issued several years ago and don’t plan on upgrading, especially since its just an upscaled version of the existing set I already have.
IMHO its just a lazy reissue with no new extras.

John

Same with me, I'm just staying with the DVD's, edits, warts and all, I bought the five seasons individually when they were released a few years back. And aside from that, I don't have a blu ray player anyway and have no plans to get one, overall I'm content with the presentation that DVD provides.

 

[BobO'Link]

If music rights have expired, they should be intact! If we don't get the "Complete" series with the music, I consider that false advertising! If any studio creates a show or movie that uses copyrighted music, that music must be signed off as part of the show with a fee up front to close the deal.

And that's the issue - Music rights for all music in Gomer Pyle: USMC have *not* expired. I'll quote myself for the pertinent info:

Works published after 1923, but before 1978 are protected for 95 years from the date of publication.

That includes *almost all* music in Gomer Pyle: USMC for which CBS does not themselves own the publishing rights or that were not already in the Public Domain prior to production of the series. Most of the songs Pyle sings were cut from the DVDs as they are still under copyright.

CBS is the least likely distributor to bother checking to see what music in a series they own would require relicensing, often cutting music cueues from their own library (see The Fugitive thread for how far they will go - warning: it's a long read).

As far as licensing goes, music licensing for TV is quite a different animal than movies. Music can be quite expensive so producers will often utilize a license that provides the least expensive method for its use. That typically means it can be used *only* for the *original* airing and any reruns of episodes while the season in which they appear is originally airing. It rarely includes rights for syndication or other reproduction formats (home ownership and DVD weren't even a consideration at that time) *or* "in perpetuity." That means a new license would need to be acquired for syndication or other use. While they *could* license music much like is done for movies, which *generally,* but not always, covers such use, it's very expensive and TV shows operate under limited budgets that often don't take such expensive licensing into account. That doesn't even take into account that a single episode of a TV show can easily require as much music be licensed as an entire movie. We *all* wish music licensing agreements for TV series worked as a "forever" license, but it's very rarely done.

 

[MartinP.]

That typically means it can be used *only* for the *original* airing and any reruns of episodes while the season in which they appear is originally airing.

Wonder what that means for streaming series; it seems the above wouldn't apply to those entities.

 

[JayHink]

Wonder what that means for streaming series; it seems the above wouldn't apply to those entities.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think BobO'Link is talking specifically about TV that aired before streaming & hone video were considered....and nowadays, modern & streaming productions have the music rights written into the contracts, unlike those old shows.

 

[BobO'Link]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think BobO'Link is talking specifically about TV that aired before streaming & hone video were considered....and nowadays, modern & streaming productions have the music rights written into the contracts, unlike those old shows.

That is correct. Streaming was even more SciFi than was a small disc you could play back at home (we'd seen that kind of thing in SF shows/movies already). Re-licensing just for streaming is likely going to be less expensive than for physical media due to the transient nature of streaming. And shows that have already had a physical release with edited music tracks may have received new transfers for streaming with owners managing to work out licensing just for that market with no intention of a re-release on physical containing the newly restored material. Physical is pretty much a niche market now and it can take far more sales to recoup that investment than such a release would garner.

Even with today's licensing terms I'd bet you'll still find many aren't licensing the music long term as it's still incredibly expensive, especially with some catalog titles from hugely popular artists. The renaissance of classic pop/rock from the 50s to 70s in theatrical releases is likely driving up cost for those songs. Even with the mostly complete release of WKRP they were unable to license Pink Floyd's "Dogs" as well as at several other songs from "high profile" artists due to their high price.

You'd thing a song's use in a TV series would be good publicity and help generate sales so would be available for a lower license fee as a result. Nope. It's not like radio where a station typically pays a blanket fee to a national license agent. That fee is then split among all artists for the songs the station played during the year (some keep a log of everything played but the fee is based on the format and market size). The people owning the publishing rights for the songs have little say in how much a station is charged.

When I worked in TV we had to be very careful about any songs used in commercials or programs as we paid a "needle drop" fee - one based on the song itself, how much of it was used, and how many times it aired. To use that method we had to keep accurate logs of song use. One of our programs had a daily "Happy Birthday" segment and had music playing while pictures of birthday people were shown. Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" was chosen as it was far less expensive than The Beatles "Birthday" (which I argued for) or even the traditional "Happy Birthday" song (which at the time was under copyright and demanded very high fees for its use).

Considering how much push-back CBS received before getting the proper music restored for The Fugitive, how even that process was repeatedly bungled (with several disc recall programs), and their general use of new library music to avoid licensing fees, I'd be more than a little surprised if *any* of the previously edited out music in Gomer Pyle: USMC is restored for this release. Like it or not, it's just not as high profile a release as The Fugitive. If they surprise me and it *is* restored, I'll purchase a copy. Otherwise, my DVDs look plenty good to me.

 

[BobO'Link]

Wonder what that means for streaming series; it seems the above wouldn't apply to those entities.

It means re-licensing. *Any* use for copyrighted material beyond the original license agreement requires a new license contract. There's wording that can get around that but it's rarely used for TV productions and more likely to be in a music license contract for a movie. But even movies can fail to properly license music. It's more rare than with TV but has still happened.

 

[smithbrad]

Hi all,

I thought the CBS/Paramount DVD division was no longer.
I have the original Gomer Pyle DVD set they issued several years ago and don’t plan on upgrading, especially since its just an upscaled version of the existing set I already have.
IMHO its just a lazy reissue with no new extras.

John

An upscaled version insinuates that they would be using the same standard definition prints as the DVDs to create a high-definition resolution. I'm not sure if that is what you really meant, but these won't be upscaled. They created HD masters of the series prior to the DVD release and downscaled from HD to SD for the DVDs. This will be a true HD release from those original HD masters. Thus, there will be more detail available that should be evident on larger screens. Just how much will depend on the detail available within the original film elements.

 

[Jeff*H]

CBS DVD did something a little unusual with Hawaii Five-o’s music licensing in one instance. Season 11’s two-parter, ”Number One With a Bullet”, had several Bee Gees songs used in its network and original syndication versions. For the DVD release, they used replacement music on various episodes but, thanks to very vocal online fan demand, they did license Bee Gees music for Part 1 of that two-parter. They used replacement music in the second part. However, in the digital HD PVOD, streaming and newer syndicated versions, they replaced the music on both parts.

My understanding is that they didn’t want to have another “Fugitive” situation on their hands with upset fans refusing to buy discs, so they pressed a set amount of physical discs for DVD and got the licensed songs for an amount within their budget, whereas all digital versions would’ve cost much more, as it was a potentially larger viewing audience online, so they replaced it on digital.

As far as GOMER PYLE is concerned, I think this is an easy cash grab for them since the very expensive transfer work was completed long ago in HD, and they are recouping more of that investment with a Blu-ray release that probably only has authoring, disc production and distribution costs. I bought the December Odd Couple Blu-ray set and it’s pretty much the same as the DVD set, just with better resolution, which is nice on a 75-inch TV screen, but it still has the same music replacement. I expect GOMER to be no different in those regards. I’ll stick with my DVD set on this one.

I would also expect that if H5O gets a Blu-ray release, the licensed Bee Gees music will be gone!

 

[Sky King]

smithbrad,

You are correct, I used the wrong terminology. Guess my coffee hadn’t kicked in yet.
Never the less…I’m happy with my original all season Gomer Pyle DVD set.

John

 

[John*Wells]

Has the pre order date been announced yet?