WKRP In Cincinnati: The Complete Series Review (See Posts #218 & 356 for Info) (1 Viewer)

[zoetmb]

Well, I think you need to reread the post & my previous posts. I never said I was unhappy with the set. I am ecstatic we got so many unedited episodes. The point I was making was that I gave them a chance, but will never watch the edited episodes, I will have to fix them to make them watchable. (Are you saying the Andy dub is good?) The music drowns out the dialogue in Frog Story, not so much increase in volume... What I wished would have happened with Pink Floyd? I wish a technician would have pulled a Star Trek "City on the Edge of Forever" & put the song in anyway & asked for forgiveness after the fact, because w/Floyd it wasn't a question of money, it was a because it was unavailable...

Don't be ridiculous...that could be a $million dollar lawsuit. Plus the price of the lawyers.

Contracts today usually try to get rights in all media for all territories in perpetuity. And today, to cover all eventualities, there's usually a clause like, "in all media, both that known today and that which will be invented in the future." But back then, no one knew there was going to be a gigantic home video market or the internet, so no one bought rights for anything beyond the TV network broadcast and possibly syndication.

Although I will be the first to admit that the music industry isn't doing well, the fact that labels and/or publishers held song rights back from this release is all about ego and greed. It would have done no harm whatsoever to have offered the rights for a reasonable and low cost and it could have even stimulated some sales of the tracks. It's not like you hear very much of each track or hear the tracks solo.

I'm amazed they cleared as much music as they did. I watched the show when originally broadcast (or in syndication), but I guess I didn't pay close attention because I never realized how much "real" music was in the show. With all those clearances, my guess is that Shout is not going to be making any profit on this release. Forget the licenses, just the labor cost of clearing the music must have been a small fortune. The only thing that makes it a little easier today is that there are now only three major record companies (Warner Music, Universal and Sony) and I suspect you can clear through the corporate parent and not have to clear via the individual labels and Shout, being a revival label, has a lot of experience clearing music for compilations and the like.

 

[Doris2k]

Don't be ridiculous...that could be a $million dollar lawsuit. Plus the price of the lawyers.

That's fine. LOL

 

[Brian Himes]

With all those clearances, my guess is that Shout is not going to be making any profit on this release. Forget the licenses, just the labor cost of clearing the music must have been a small fortune.

Actually, Shout will probably make a nice profit. They didn't license the show or the music in perpetuity. When a company like Shout or TimeLife makes these deals it's for a limited amount of time. Usually 3-5 years. At that time, when the Shout license expires then so does the licenses they were able to obtain for the music. So, if say, Fox then wants to release their own version of the series, they would have to again obtain the music clearances. The big studios usually only get licenses in perpetuity. That has been why WKRP and Wonder Years has not been released before. Music companies don't seem to like the 'in perpetuity' that the big studios like and are much more reluctant to give in to that type of license. A short term agreement, like Shout got, is preferable.

 

[Obtuse]

According to this article, Shout! spent "toward a million" for the WKRP music rights:

http://www.vox.com/2014/11/3/7145231/shows-not-on-dvd-music-rights-wonder-years-wkrp

They're gonna have to move quite a few units to get that back....

 

[Brian Himes]

Good read. So, according to the end of this article, it was pretty much a 'now or never' kind of situation to release both Wonder Years and WKRP (possibly Batman as well). I had suspected as much.

 

[Doris2k]

Good read. So, according to the end of this article, it was pretty much a 'now or never' kind of situation to release both Wonder Years and WKRP (possibly Batman as well). I had suspected as much.

Streaming is replacing physical media and downloads. People trust that their "purchase," stored on a server somewhere, will always be there. That's a very strange mindset to me. If I pay for something, I want it it my possession.

 

[jeffyoungct]

WKRP S3 E18 "Out To Lunch" is scheduled to air tomorrow night (Sunday 11/16) at 10:30 PM ET on Antenna TV in the US.

My prior recording of this episode from Antenna TV contains the songs Jive Talkin', Here Comes The Sun, and I Will Follow, none of which are present in the DVD release.

S1 E7 "Turkeys Away" is scheduled to air on Wednesday 11/26 at 10:30 PM. No word on the presence of Dogs, as I do not have a prior recording.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Streaming is replacing physical media and downloads. People trust that their "purchase," stored on a server somewhere, will always be there. That's a very strange mindset to me. If I pay for something, I want it it my possession.

I feel the same way... if I pay for media I want to own it, not rent it, and I want to be able to hold it in my hand.

I don't think physical media is going anywhere soon. it still offers too many things streaming doesn't... DVD extras, the ability to watch without an Internet connection, the lack of buffering, and the security of not trusting your media to third-party companies with no legal obligations to keep it available.

 

[Obtuse]

S1 E7 "Turkeys Away" is scheduled to air on Wednesday 11/26 at 10:30 PM. No word on the presence of Dogs, as I do not have a prior recording.

If it's still the same cut that's been airing since the 90's (as the other AntennaTV episodes have been), "Dogs" will be there, but Joe Cocker and CCR will be gone.

 

[Brian Himes]

I also like to have the actual disc in my hands. In my opinion this whole streaming thing is for the birds. When watching things online you still get annoying commercials. I hate that. When I watch something I want it to be commercial free. When I download it, I want it to be mine. Especially if I paid for it.

 

[Hasslein]

Don't be ridiculous...that could be a $million dollar lawsuit. Plus the price of the lawyers.

Or not...

 

[LeoA]

The only streaming I do is free stuff on YouTube.

Even there, it can be annoying when once in a while, it decides to freeze for a few seconds due to buffering.

I hate how so many people equate change to "progress", when it usually entails taking two steps backwards for whatever improvement supposedly is happening.

 

[Doris2k]

The only streaming I do is free stuff on YouTube.

Even there, it can be annoying when once in a while, it decides to freeze for a few seconds due to buffering.

I hate how so many people equate change to "progress", when it usually entails taking two steps backwards for whatever improvement supposedly is happening.

Absolutely. The studios realize that their bottom line will be bigger if they don't have to create and ship physical products. Not many other industries could get away with that...

So all they have to do it convince the public that streaming and downloads are some great improvement. I'm not buying it. Literally.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

What bothers me the most is this recent trend of bloggers and "journalists" to claim that every new technology means the approaching death of everything that came before. MP3's will kill CD's, and streaming will kill MP3's. Smartphones and tablets will kill PC's despite the fact that pretty much all meaningful work (as opposed to play) still requires PC's. And McDonalds is going out of business while all 300 million Americans crowd into Chipotle and Panera.

At least, it used to bother me before I realized that those bloggers and "journalists" have a vested interest in their readers thinking that the New Hotness is the next great step forward in the evolution of civilization. So you'd better read this article!

As long as there are people like us who value media as something more than disposable, ephemeral entertainment, there will be companies like Shout! and Criterion and StarVista giving it to us. The market may shrink, and they may not always have the wherewithal to spend a million bucks on music licensing... but that's why they're working to get all the important "problematic" shows, from the era of term-limited licensing, out on the market now.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

Streaming sucks and I'm not buying it, literally. What does this trend tell us about our current society, we want comfort and ease more than anything and we'll take that over quality. DVD/Blu clearly offers much better picture, so why there's no more outcry against this kids stuff streaming nonsense is sad. Physical product for me too, it's not going anywhere soon (I even use VHS daily still).

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Streaming works for me as a replacement for renting. If the material is something I want to watch many times, I will buy the physical media. However, since rental stores have disappeared from my neighborhood, streaming works for those things I only want to see once. If it disappears from the Cloud later, I don't care.

 

[Hasslein]

Never saw this before...Pretty cool...

 

[Ron1973]

Streaming sucks and I'm not buying it, literally. What does this trend tell us about our current society, we want comfort and ease more than anything and we'll take that over quality. DVD/Blu clearly offers much better picture, so why there's no more outcry against this kids stuff streaming nonsense is sad. Physical product for me too, it's not going anywhere soon (I even use VHS daily still).

I've been a busy beaver this weekend transferring off-air recordings of stuff not available on DVD to DVD-R. After they're dubbed, the tapes can go back to storage!

 

[Obtuse]

Gotta love YouTube.....

 

[Obtuse]

...and here's one related to the now mostly obsolete "unofficial" DVD sets floating about: