Have an advance copy of Moonlighting DVD Seasons 1&2 (1 Viewer)

[paul_austin]

I got to "The Lady in the Iron Mask" finally and it really threw me off...im hoping at some point we can get some official comment on this and posibly have it as a bonus episode in a later set. The music sounds like a hitchcock score and take me out of the episode.

 

[Brent_B]

I emailed Lions Gate about this episode, but have yet to hear a peep out of them. I agree, the new music just doesnt work for me, which makes me mad because this is one of my favorite episodes of Moonlighting.

 

[Stas T]

Brent and Paul... totally with you on the "Iron Mask" music... the ep. was one of my favorites and the overbearing music on the disc really ruins it (or at least, ruins the scenes it plays over).

Hopefully, they'll put the original/air version on a subsequent season set. In the meantime, guess I'll have to see if I can find my old Beta tape of it from the original broadcast. Can't recall how the score sounded.

 

[RickER]

I know its all about the show. I do love the show, it was a good price, and i am happy i got it. BUT the collector in me says that packaging SUCKS, and it sucks hard! The cardboard cover doesn't work for me. I feel better now.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Lion's Gate being Lion's Gate, they probably had no idea that that episode had a different score than the one it originally aired with. It's clear that that different score was there in the print they used; the only question is where it comes from. One possibility is that the episode might have been re-scored for one of its umpteen repeats on ABC (because there were so few original episodes, every episode was repeated several times). Seems unlikely, though. Other than that, I'm stumped, except that it's obviously not a licensing issue.

For what it's worth, I checked the new score through headphones and it's in mono, and tinny mono at that, so it sounds like it was added to the mix some years ago -- it definitely wasn't newly-added for the DVD.

 

[Sam Favate]

It feels like it's missing the outer sleeve that so many TV releases have, like West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Babylon 5, etc.

 

[Brent_B]

I think I had read somewhere that Moonlighting was released in Europe as a "best-of" dvd set, a year or two ago, and on it they had used the weird new score for "The Lady In The Iron Mask" also. Its not like Lions Gate isnt familiar with syndicated episodes of a television series ( ALF), so why couldn't they get the version that ran on Bravo a few years back? It has the correct score on it (thank God I recorded it then!)

 

[Craig Beam]

Wouldn't the Bravo version be a syndicated print, with missing scenes? I'd much rather have the entire episode with alternate music.

As already pointed out, Lion's Gate is almost certainly not to blame for this issue. They're merely releasing whatever is provided to them by ABC and/or Glenn Gordon Caron. Given that Mr. Caron took such an interest in ensuring that the DVDs did NOT contain replaced music, I'm satisfied that the score changes for "The Lady In The Iron Mask" were done at an earlier point in time and with his approval.

Guys, this is an AWESOME set. We should be applauding it, not nitpicking it to death.

 

[Brent_B]

I'm not saying this isn't a great set. Lions Gate deserves praise for really doing a good job with how the show looks on this dvd set. I'm thankful that they finally decided to put this out on dvd. I thought this forum was THE place to nitpick dvds.:wink:

 

[Craig Beam]

Yeah, good point.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Moving on to a different episode -- I think my favorite meta-gag among the episodes I've seen is in the leprechaun episode ("Somewhere Under the Rainbow"), which starts with a parody of those coming-attractions trailers that a lot of shows used to start with in the '80s. All the Stephen J. Cannell shows and many others would begin with thirty seconds' worth of clips from the episode, cut together very fast and mostly highlighting stuff blowing up, so the "Moonlighting" episode does the same thing, except the clips are chosen totally at random and cut together in a way that makes no sense. A great spoof of '80s TV.

 

[Derek_J]

So... Has anyone noticed any cuts yet other than TLITIM?

And, anyone know any rumours for the next set? I hope they don't drag their heels.

 

[Sean R.]

Regarding any noticed cuts: on the contrary! I've only ever seen the first 3 1/2 seasons in syndicated form (my VHS tapes are from the Lifetime airings), and in almost every DVD episode I've noticed LOTS of new (new to me, anyway) material, which makes me believe that every episode is the original broadcast version! I've noticed everything from entire scenes I've never seen to small extensions of scenes (usually just a few extra lines of conversation, etc...).

Yes, TLITIM is very disappointing in terms of the music change (it IS awful), but like other posters here, I believe that for some reason this version has always been out there and was unknowingly used instead of the actual ABC version.

Bring on the next set!!!! Can't wait!!

 

[Michael Alden]

I'm a big fan of this show and I have to say that considering that it's released by Lion's Gate, only one screwed up episode is quite miraculous. It's not perfect but hey, look who we're dealing with here.

 

[James Luckard]

Man oh man, I'm watching The Lady In The Iron Mask now, and it's painful. Of course, I'm thrilled to have the rest of the episodes, and I know how lucky we are that they all are uncut, with the correct music, but this episode was always among my favorites, a perfect little film noir.

What's worst about the replacement of the music is not just that the new piece is godawful - part of it is even a playful waltz, totally going totally against the intended emotion - but that the main theme from the episode, originally a haunting female vocal, repeats almost every five minutes, so just as I'm getting back into enjoying the show and forgetting about the changes, this bizarre new music hits again, and again. And the end chase is so lifeless without the William Tell Overture. Aargh.

Most bizarrely, they used the same piece of score in the later episode "Witness For The Execution," and for that episode, it's been left in. Huh? Watch the scene when the old man tells his life story to Maddie and David, specifically at the 10:00 mark. THAT is the main theme from Lady In The Iron Mask.

It'll be wonderful to retire the other VHS tapes, but the video of "Lady" is one I'll be keeping, much like my widescreen videos of the original Star Wars movies.

Lions Gate has done a great job with this set and seems to have put real care into it, maybe once they learn of this hiccough they'll correct it. It sounds too good to be true, but until recently so did season sets of Moonlighting with the original, ruinously, impossibly expensive original music.

 

[Jeffrey]

Complete agreement on all points, James.

The least whomever was responsible for the music replacement in the chase sequence was to fly in the music from the pilot episode (the cue that accompanied Maddie storming to David's office to inquire about that wristwatch).

My guess is that this was an Anchor Bay oversight. Maybe we'll get a best-of compilation in the future that will rectify this...but I'm hoping my vintage RCA videocassette of 80's vintage will still be playable.

Jeffrey

 

[paul_austin]

thats funny I noticed the same thing about the music in "Witness For the Executuion" and it really made me scratch my head. And hearing the Star Wars theme during the chase in "Funeral for a Doornail" really made me miss having the William Tell Overature in "Lady In The Iron Mask".

 

[MaraKM]

I'm listening to the commentary on the pilot episode, and there's an incredibly annoying edit. Around 18 minutes in, talking about how all the network people were convinced that nobody would believe Bruce Willis with Cybil Shepard, and finally the one female executive stood up and said "I don't know if he's leading man/tv-star material, but he looks like a dangerous fuck to me." Only in this commentary, the word "man" is dubbed over the f-word. Grr. It's one thing to bleep or mute, but to lay in another word, one which makes the anecdote make no sense?

Another reason to hang on to my Anchor Bay pilot dvd, which has the same story with the cursing intact.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Two years later, I think I've solved the mystery of the "Lady in the Iron Mask" music.

As I understand it, what happened was this: originally, the score for this episode was composed by Richard Lewis Warren (from Remington Steele), who had written music for a couple of early episodes.

Glenn Caron didn't like the score, and he asked Alf Clausen (the show's regular composer) to write a new score, which included the "William Tell Overture" in the final chase.

When the show was being remastered from the original elements, the first score -- the rejected score -- was mistakenly used.

So that's what we're hearing on the DVD: the first score that was written for the episode, which was thrown out in favor of a different score.

I wish Lion's Gate would have included the correct version of the episode somewhere on the other DVDs, but there we are.

 

[chas speed]

I just edited the scene with the "William Tell Overture" from a lifetime rerun on to DVD-R. The funny thing was that the "William Tell Overture" bit was the funniest thing on the episode. They did such an amazing job on the whole set, but made that one tiny mistake. Thanks for clearing it up. The one thing they didn't have to pay a copyright fee for was the one thing they screwed up. The irony!.