MTM - season 4 : We've made it halfway after all! (1 Viewer)

[george kaplan]

Sigh. Looks like another set I'll have to pass on. Oh well, if having principles didn't hurt, then I guess they wouldn't be worth having.

 

[Mike*SC]

I know you're being sarcastic, but for the record, titles are not copyrightable. Therefore, anyone can say "stairway to heaven" within dialogue and not owe anybody anything. If you choose to say "she's buying a stairway to heaven," that's a lyric, and whether it's spoken, sung, or typed out on screen, the copyright holder can charge whatever he wants for that.

(Of course, it's not always an exact science -- a common phrase is not copyrightable, whether it's used in lyrics or not. The song is just called "My Favorite Things," but if you used dialogue that said "a few of my favorite things to do on Thanksgiving are..." you would not owe the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate money for putting the "a few of" on the front. It's a common usage. You'd be hard-pressed to argue that "rainbows on roses and whispers on kittens" is a common usage, though.)

 

[David Von Pein]

And I'd also be hard-pressed to be of any desire to want to charge anybody for uttering those seven words too. Nor would I have a desire to bleed 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for the right to include those 7 words on an MTM DVD (even if I had the legal right to do so).

 

[EricSchulz]

This one really surprises me...There is a line in the first episode of "Friends" where Phoebe is trying to cheer up Rachel and she sings a line from "My Favorite Things". THEY seem to have no problem justifying the cost of including it....

 

[Mike*SC]

"Friends" is a much, much bigger seller than "MTM." It's really that simple.

 

[Richard Michael Clark]

Quick Question!
Does anyone know if this (or any other) MTM set has bilingual packaging in Canada? I've got seasons 1 - 3 from the US but pre-ordered season 4 from a Canadian etailer as the price was favourable.
Cheers if anyone knows!

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

I doubt it'll have bilingual packaging as the set doesn't have a French audio track or French subtitles. Usually they don't do French packaging on a DVD without a French track.

 

[CraigF]

The previous "Canadian" MTM sets didn't have bilingual packaging either.

 

[Richard Michael Clark]

Cheers guys!

 

[Richard Michael Clark]

Got my copy of season 4 earlier this week (over a week early yay! and I am in the UK!). I now buy these sets as soon as they are released as a kind of "thank you" to Fox for continuing to release them! Is that sad of me?
Having never seen the show before these dvd sets it really is superb to watch fresh, it's so well written and performed! I'm not going to get annoyed over (2 to date?) small edits as having never seen the episodes anyway I wouldn't notice unless I was told.

Do you think "Lou Grant" will get released? I know it's a very different animal to MTM but there's that obvious connection!

As for "Rhoda", that still (sometimes) airs here in the UK on Paramount Comedy Channel. From what I've seen (and I have no idea what episodes from what seasons I've seen) the prints are in very bad shape, almost unwatchable they are so faded. I assume any dvd release would use vault prints or something and not the kind that are on international tv?

 

[Brian Himes]

Well, I got my Season 4 seat yesterday and I've watched the first 4 episodes on the first disc. I'm really impressed with the way Fox has restored these shows. They look just great. This set is on par with the previous sets as far as picture quality goes.

Now I hope that we get Season 5 this year as well. Season 5 is the last season with Phyllis.

 

[CraigF]

I'll make a general comment about that, and not one specific to "Rhoda". IME and IMO, the series that were "archived" to early videotape tend to look awful in comparison to those of similar or earlier vintage which were archived to film. MTM is one of the best-looking 70's series because it was on the cusp. From what I've seen so far. Looks as good as many of the 60's series, which look a lot better than even most 90's series I've seen, and some from this century too!!

This is of course presuming early-generation materials were available for the DVD's...if not, then they can only look worse. I don't notice any true "restoration" going on with the many old TV series I've bought, perhaps a small amount of cleaning.

 

[David Von Pein]

Not quite. :frowning:

An eagle-eyed/eared MTM fan at Amazon has noticed at least one more edit/alteration. I'll quote from that person's Amazon review:

"The episode, "Angels in the Snow" (the second one on this set, and one of my personal favorites), has a classic scene at the apartment of the guy Mary is dating. When Mary and Rhoda walk in to the apartment, the song "Earth Angel" is playing in the background, to which Rhoda remarks how it's the same song that played at her High School prom. Well Folks, the geniuses at Fox (probably not wanting to pay for its use on the DVD) have removed that song and replaced it with, what sounds like, some generic 70s disco track. Now the joke makes absolutely no sense, as clearly Rhoda did not go to HS in the 70s! At the very least, the song could have been replaced by a generic 50s track, but 70s??!! Come on!!"

I've got to fully agree with that person's sentiments re. the odd "substitute" song for "Earth Angel". Obviously, a 70s-style "disco" song makes Rhoda's dialogue seem strange.

Why on Earth (Angel ) won't Fox pay for these song rights, I ponder? There's at least 4 such "musical" edits/changes spread throughout the 4 MTM boxed sets, starting with Season 1. It's fairly obvious that Fox just flat refuses to pay a dime for ANY song/music rights to keep these shows intact as originally aired. I just wonder why? Seems like a mighty curious and stubborn across-the-musical-board stance.

 

[David Von Pein]

BTW --- To illustrate just how much interest there is in "old-time" (and "classic"-style) TV shows on DVD.....

As of this date (June 22nd, 2006 A.M.), MTM Season 4 is the 16th best-selling DVD at Amazon.com. And that includes all DVD titles, not just TV shows.

While Superman Seasons 3-4 is doing even better, at #10! (It ranked #8 yesterday.)

And as of this current moment, per Amazon's data, there are 107,258 total DVDs in the Amazon database. So making it to the Top 20 (or 10) is pretty impressive.

Somebody's got good taste in TV programs....that's for sure. And it's good to see.