Nights in White Satin - On Freaks and Geeks but why not Wiseguy? (1 Viewer)

[Mark To]

I find it hard to believe that they were able to pay the clearance for the Freaks and Geeks set, a show which barely made it to a half season on the network but Wiseguy, a solid 3 1/2 year running show couldn't afford it? And it was far more important to the Wiseguy episode.

 

[Joshua Lane]

It's all about the numbers...

Basically, the Freak and Geeks set had a larger fanbase and thus sold more copies, meaning they could afford to license the song. Wiseguy, on the other hand, has a smaller audience and doesn't sell enough copies to pay for the song to get licensed. Then again, it could just be that the studio releasing Wiseguy didn't feel like hassling with it.

 

[Greg_S_H]

You can't really use Freaks and Geeks as an example. That was a special case. The creators were hellbent on getting it to the fans in an unaltered form, and they ponied up the big bucks to do so.

 

[David Lambert]

Read from this post on down in a thread that happened at the time of Wiseguy's release, for the most info I think we ever dug up on the subject. Courtesy of Randy "The Man" A. Salas, DVD Columnist & Entertainment Wire Editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

 

[Randy A Salas]

As a follow-up to my posts in that other thread, there are two important things to note:

1) As I dug deeper for an article I later wrote about music rights and TV shows, I found the path to the rights to Nights in White Satin much more labrynthine than what someone might infer from my initial post. I just wanted to clarify that; they extend well beyond the record-company exec I mentioned, lest anyone think I was oversimplifying things.

2) Most importantly, the producers of The Wiseguy DVD, to whom I submitted written questions (so they knew exactly what I wanted to discuss) about the issues they faced in clearing music and specifically the story behind Nights, declined to answer them for my article. That tells me everything I need to know about the difference between the two DVDs.

The funny thing is that the first season of Wiseguy entails eight discs (two separate sets; 22 episodes) and costs $129.98, while Freaks and Geeks entails six discs (one set; 18 episodes) and costs $69.98. And Freaks and Geeks uses much more music. But maybe that's the difference between the two fan bases and the hurdles each show faced.

 

[Mark To]

And also the difference in what I purchase and what I don't.

Freaks and Geeks - bought!
Wiseguy - I'll transfer my SP SVHS off-air masters and spend my money elsewhere. Money isn't an issue with me but altering the shows is.