What's new

WKRP In Cincinnati (1 Viewer)

David Rain

Screenwriter
Joined
May 7, 2005
Messages
1,165
Real Name
Dave
According to a recent audio commentary on a Simpsons DVD, using even a snippet of a song can cost $10,000 to license. There was no mention as to whether that's how much a "popular" song would cost.

Also, you can't entirely blame a studio for wanting to keep a cap on production costs when SO many older TV shows bomb on DVD. They're simply not going to take that chance. If they tried to license extra songs and charged a higher retail price then fans would gripe about that just as much, perhaps even more so. Mr. & Mrs. La-Z-Boy Recliner wouldn't know or care that it was because of music rights issues. They'd just know it cost more when they tried to pick it up from their local Wal-Mart with the 24 hour pharmacy.
 

WillG

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
7,563
1. That the music industry is using the same model of licensing costs for movies and applying that to "Television Shows" being issues on DVD, (or)
That's kind my thought on it. The music industry gets xxxx from a Spielberg production so they think it's fair that they get the same amount for the same song for WKRP. It's understandable in a way but also an unrealisitc way of thinking. The companies need to think in terms of scale.


2. That the music industry is using a music licensing cost dependent on how popular a television series is and adjusting according.
Which is also a flawed way of thinking. You could Google WKRP on DVD an come away thinking it's the most wanted thing in the world, but it's still a small cross section of actual demand.
 

HenryDuBrow

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
1,517
Real Name
Henry.
Point is actually, that more or less all its fans (in my experience) are rather fanatical and would therefore gladly pay astronomical prices, I know I would. C'mon, $60,- would be peanuts for the full monty...! I know we want things cheap today but quality/quantity sometimes cost, remember the insane prices new laserdiscs used to have...
 

kemcha

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 31, 2009
Messages
376
Real Name
Jaref
Thanks, WillG.

The downside to all of this is that the fans are caught in the middle. Fox Studios knows that fans of WKRP want the show intact with the original music. While I have no preference, I would prefer seeing the series released with its original music. WKRP is just one of those shows that really needs its original audio tracks intact because the music that was originally used for the show does play a very integral part to the series.

But, hopefully these movie studios can start being truthful to fans so that when they can't license the original music that they start offering transparency about how much it costs.

It's easy for studios to say that music licensing is out of control but they really need to back up their statements with facts. If they can't license the music and they want the fans to understand, I think the movie studios need to start backing up their claims with numbers so consumers can understand how much music licensing is costing for a particular show.

Far as that $10,000 fee goes? I would imagine that the licensing for that clip takes into account that thousands of copies of that particular DVD set are going to be sold and that the studio will make that money back for what they paid to license it for. Just remember, prices for DVD sets factor a lot of things. Licensing, shipping expenses, royalties to the creator, director, producer and actors/voice actors. There are a lot of fees that go into it. I'm sure that that $10,000 licensing fee for that song clip is much better than having to fork over whatever percentage to the music artist. Specific licensing cost is just a cheaper way of acquiring the license for that song instead of paying a % of profits.
 

younger1968

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
2,510
Real Name
paul young
I decided to watch WKRP S1 tonight. I grew up watching WKRP and still love the show today. I realize many of you were disappointed with music replacement.
I still think S1 was the best of seasons for WKRP due to fact the fish story and Turkey drop were in S1. I just hoped that remaining seasons can be released as it is classic comedy!!
 

derosa

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 4, 2009
Messages
857
Real Name
Grant
younger1968 said:
I still think S1 was the best of seasons for WKRP due to fact the fish story and Turkey drop were in S1.
Turkey drop is a favourite of mine too.
 

younger1968

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
2,510
Real Name
paul young
derosa said:
Turkey drop is a favourite of mine too.
The Fish Story is one of my favorite due to fact Jonny's reaction time gets quicker the more he drinks.
The Commercial episode about some day your are going to buy it is also a classic.
I made be a minority, but the music was not as important factor to why i watched WKRP.
 

LeoA

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
3,552
Location
North Country
Real Name
Leo
The phone police episode (I think it was a two parter) where the tower has a bomb planted in it is another great one.
 

KPmusmag

Screenwriter
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
1,627
Location
Henderson, NV
Real Name
Kevin Parcher
I love "Jennifer's Home for Christmas" - because after some shallow bickering they ultimately show kindness toward each other. I love every episode actually. The WKRP crowd are my friends.
 

younger1968

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
2,510
Real Name
paul young
The episode with scum of th earth was classic, especially with Jonny fever keeping an eye on them in the hotel room. I always will remember the scene were band said they do not want to go on and Traveers said we say you are going on (aka - fight)
The episode wihere WPIG and WKRP play baseball is great as well, especially with Less Nessman.
There are so many great episodes and i would have WKRP up there as one best situational comedies shows ever prodced. It is too bad that S2-S4 are being released as i would picked them up on a heartbeat. I said earlier in the post that music was not the main isse for me, but i do understand/respect people's opinion that music was bastardized in S1 set.
 

bryan4999

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
555
Real Name
Bryan Forbes
One moment that was so surprising - especially at the time - is the one where Herb kisses a woman and then finds out she was a man who had a sex change and he knew him in high school.
 

HenryDuBrow

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
1,517
Real Name
Henry.
One of the funniest and best cast sitcoms ever produced. I don't think I could pick the best episode as I pretty much like them all, except maybe the dullish baseball episode with the hapless Les other than that TV comedy doesn't come much finer than WKRP. The music's less important to me too but sometimes, or quite often actually, it would be part of a Fever joke or compliment a storyline. Sadly due to being videotaped, though visually fitting the show, not even replacement music's possible. Would be ideal if Fox made it available uncut at a certain price and those hardcore fans willing enough to shell out could do so. I have no idea how high a price that'd be, probably quite a bit, but the show mostly has diehard fans after all. I know I'd gladly do it. Anyway, because of their current license deal with Fox, I've suggested the show to UK company Fabulous Films for a possible release there and editing-wise it might suffer a better fate in R2 also.
 

The Obsolete Man

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
3,808
Location
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Real Name
Robert
younger1968 said:
The episode with scum of th earth was classic, especially with Jonny fever keeping an eye on them in the hotel room. I always will remember the scene were band said they do not want to go on and Traveers said we say you are going on (aka - fight)
The episode wihere WPIG and WKRP play baseball is great as well, especially with Less Nessman.
There are so many great episodes and i would have WKRP up there as one best situational comedies shows ever prodced. It is too bad that S2-S4 are being released as i would picked them up on a heartbeat. I said earlier in the post that music was not the main isse for me, but i do understand/respect people's opinion that music was bastardized in S1 set.
Music isn't as big a deal to me as episodes being edited to remove music.
I could live with replacement music if that were possible. But I can't support any show that's been hacked to bits.
If a good R2 Set were available, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. But I'd rather never see S2-S4 on DVD than to see another butcher job done on the show.
 

David Rain

Screenwriter
Joined
May 7, 2005
Messages
1,165
Real Name
Dave
So which versions are airing on Antenna TV ? Wasn't the show re-edited for syndication?
 

TravisR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
42,429
Location
The basement of the FBI building
David Rain said:
So which versions are airing on Antenna TV ? Wasn't the show re-edited for syndication?
I can't speak to WKRP (especially with the music) but the shows that I've seen on Antenna use the original length versions (not the syndicated versions) of the episodes.
 

skees53

Agent
Joined
Jun 3, 2012
Messages
47
Real Name
David
Some shows on Antenna (particularly the ones which haven't been widely shown in syndication) are unedited, but I've checked a few WKRP episodes and they are not. But most (not all) of the original music is intact on Antenna, and their airings (along with the airings from WGN, which were likely the same prints since Tribune owns both Antenna and WGN) have been some of the best ones to air in syndication in quite some time. The series was pretty much destroyed sometime in the 90s when Pat Robertson owned the MTM library (quite ironic really, considering the content of some of the series in the MTM library), but it seems that since Fox took over the library, they've at least been able to restore syndicated versions of their series back to their pre-destruction versions. Too bad the same can't be said for home media.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,806
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top