The Andy Griffith Show: Missing Scenes, Laugh Tracks, And Other Issues (1 Viewer)

[John*Wells]

Ok Got it .. I guess I was thrown off by the fact that Gomer Pyle had only one B&W Season as opposed to TAGS having 5

 

[MartinP.]

So I watched Return to Mayberry today. twice in fact. After which I read up on it .. I knew it was filmed on location in California. What I did not know until today was that the Original TAGS Sets (where the show was Originally filmed) were razed .. Why was this? It seems you would want to maintain such Iconic sets

On December 1st, this book was released:



From the synopsis:

This bizarre, magical place has been the home for hundreds of the most iconic and legendary films and television shows in the world for a remarkable and star-studded fifty years. It was the location for Tara in Gone with The Wind, the home of King Kong and Superman and Batman, of the Green Hornet, of Elliot Ness, of Barney Fife, of Tarzan, of Rebecca, of Citizen Kane, of Hogan’s Heroes and Gomer Pyle, of Lassie, of A Star is Born and Star Trek, and at least twice, of Jesus Christ. For decades, every conceivable star in Hollywood, from Clark Gable to Warren Beatty, worked and loved and gave indelible performances on the site.
And yet, today, it is completely forgotten.

I have the author's book about the M-G-M backlot and I plan to pick this one up. (It seems the Walmart edition has a different photo [King Kong] on the cover.)

 

[John*Wells]

On December 1st, this book was released:



From the synopsis:

This bizarre, magical place has been the home for hundreds of the most iconic and legendary films and television shows in the world for a remarkable and star-studded fifty years. It was the location for Tara in Gone with The Wind, the home of King Kong and Superman and Batman, of the Green Hornet, of Elliot Ness, of Barney Fife, of Tarzan, of Rebecca, of Citizen Kane, of Hogan’s Heroes and Gomer Pyle, of Lassie, of A Star is Born and Star Trek, and at least twice, of Jesus Christ. For decades, every conceivable star in Hollywood, from Clark Gable to Warren Beatty, worked and loved and gave indelible performances on the site.
And yet, today, it is completely forgotten.

I have the author's book about the M-G-M backlot and I plan to pick this one up. (It seems the Walmart edition has a different photo [King Kong] on the cover.)

I just downloaded it from I Books. Look forward to reading

 

[John*Wells]

Watched the Gomer Pyle episode "Opie Joins the Marines" Yesterday. However, I see no Corresponding TAGS episode that mentions Opie Running away .. Are we just supposed to assume that Sergeant Carter effectively talked Andy out of being hard on Opie and that that was the end of it?

 

[Wiseguy]

I think it's also worth noting that Gavin McLeod was a regular on McHale's Navy when he made his TAGS guest appearances.

Gavin McLeod left McHale's Navy after the second season. Although the series went on for two more seasons (1964-66), McLeod wasn't on it.

 

[Garysb]

Despite CBS's conservatism in removing unlicensed music from classic TV shows CBS is being sued by the estates of the writers of the theme song for the Andy Griffith Show because the estates claim CBS does not have a license to put the theme song on DVD sets or on digital downloads or streaming.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/cbs-sued-andy-griffith-show-theme-song-1213484


CBS Sued Over 'Andy Griffith Show' Theme Song

Photofest
The heirs of the song's creators claim CBS doesn't have a license to use the song in DVDs or on digital platforms.
The heirs of the two men who created The Andy Griffith Show's theme song are suing CBS for allegedly using the work without a license.

Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer wrote "Theme for the Andy Griffith Show" in the '50s, and registered its copyright in 1960, according to the complaint filed Thursday in California federal court. Their rights in the work were later transferred to their partnership, Larrabee Music. After their deaths, The Diana R. Spencer Trust and the Hagen Family Trust inherited the rights and eventually dissolved Larrabee and gave partial copyright ownership to the Hagen Children’s Trust and the Hagen Decedent’s Trust.

Now the heirs claim CBS is exploiting the theme without a license by selling DVDs of the series. They argue the network is relying on an 1978 agreement between Viacom and Mayberry Enterprises concerning rights to the series and that the agreement doesn't include home video or other modern media.

"CBS has refused to enter into a new agreement with Plaintiffs to authorize its exploitation of the Theme in additional media or to otherwise cease conducting such unauthorized exploitation," writes attorney Neville Johnson in the complaint. "To the contrary, Plaintiffs have since learned that CBS has licensed the Series to digital services such as iTunes and Amazon for distribution and public performance."

The heirs are suing for direct and contributory copyright infringement and are asking the court for an injunction to stop CBS from exploiting the theme, as well as seeking either actual damages and disgorgement of the network's profits or statutory damages.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Ah, good ol' overinflated copyright terms.

Thanks, Disney!

 

[John*Wells]

It’s a little late for this considering the DVDs are circulating

 

[bmasters9]

It’s a little late for this considering the DVDs are circulating

It certainly is-- if they didn't want Andy Griffith's famous title track on the DVDs, why didn't they say so when the releases first started circulating?!

 

[Mysto]

It certainly is-- if they didn't want Andy Griffith's famous title track on the DVDs, why didn't they say so when the releases first started circulating?!

'Cause then they couldn't sue for damages.

 

[bmasters9]

'Cause then they couldn't sue for damages.

True enough-- they still should have said so, at least IMO, and then CBS would have known where they stood.

 

[John*Wells]

I’m sure many others relied on the same agreements with Viacom. Gomer Pyle USMC comes to mind. How about Star Trek properties? If you watch DVDs or blue ray and noticed a lot of cbs show DVDs show a 1978 copyright. This could be the tip of a very large iceberg. It could affect physical as well as digital media

 

[John Karras]

Aside from his work as a composer/conductor, Earle Hagen was very involved in the business end of music and a crusader in the area of rights, residuals, contracts etc. You almost get the impression that you couldn't say "Good Morning" to him without first coughing up a license fee. I'm aware of one TV on DVD project that was aborted due to Hagen's demand for unreasonable and prohibitive clearance fees.

It is amusing that over the 15-year period "The Andy Griffith Show" has been available on DVD, the estate suddenly emerges with this legal claim. I'm suspicious that perhaps income from Hagen's work is slow at the present, and this ploy by the estate is an attempt to bring new life to the gravy train.

 

[JohnMor]

I take it Image, Calvada, Paul Browstein Productions et al, have all made whatever agreements may have been needed with Hagen’s heirs for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” dvds, blu-rays and streaming or we would have seen a simultaneous lawsuit there as well.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

I wish they would change the parts of these copyright laws that are not doing us fans any good. Keep whatever is fine, but remove or amend the parts of the law that are onerous.

~Ben

 

[John*Wells]

My question is what exactly do they hope to gain? An injunction, more money? Both?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

My question is what exactly do they hope to gain? An injunction, more money? Both?

Probably more money.

They are playing a dangerous game, though, after Sony pulled Love and Marriage from Married With Children when its rights holders held Sony up for too much money. CBS/P could do the same thing, explain it to people, and they'd likely accept it and the heirs would get nothing going forward.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I suspect the only thing this will accomplish is all TAGS physical media going out of print, and associated digital downloads/streams getting pulled.

Either that, or "The 'Ol Fishin' Hole" theme will be replaced with that godawful sounding shit that can be heard on some of the early '00s TAGS public domain releases.

CHEERS!

 

[LeoA]

Or just put in a static title card, at least for tv airings.

Networks have long not been not shy against butchering the end credits, so it would hardly be a shock to see it migrate to the openings of classic shows as well. I've already seen them shortened in the past like The Mary Tyler Moore Show on at least one channel to slip in another commercial. Could even mute the audio, air a commercial, and have the intro muted and playing in a window.

Not pleasant "solutions" and even if CBS wins this like I believe they deserve to given the long availability on home video of this classic, it's going to make their already over cautious legal team even more gun shy.

I know it's not fixable though. Copyrights are a mess and even if they expire after a reasonable amount of time like they probably should, it seems to destroy most urge the holder of the original prints, negatives, audio tracks, and so on has to ever remaster, strike new transfers, and release content.

So the fan still loses.

 

[John Karras]

It kind of makes you wonder if the absence of seasons 2 & 3 of Mayberry RFD has anything to do with headaches Warner is experiencing from the Hagen estate.