Andy Griffith Show DVD travesty. I'M PISSED!

[3Much]

@Walloon

I forgot to ask — 3Much, what do the copyright notices at the end of the episodes on the DVD say, Copyright 1962 or Copyright 1963?

Just finished watching all of them, and every one said 1963.

As for those saying I shouldn’t bitch just because the price was $5.50, remember that next time your favorite crack-whore accidently bites down with her 6 remaining teeth. (Okay, so I over reacted, I liked the imagery and didn’t want to delete it. Sorry.)

[farrelldoc]

@3Much

I purchased a 2 DVD set of 16 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show at Wal-Mart the other day (ordinarily I wouldn’t admit to having shopped at Wal-Mart, but I thought it might be relevant). For some reason, none of the episodes have the theme song at the beginning. The opening is the same, with Andy and Opie walking down the road and Opie throwing a rock into the lake, but there is just some hokey piece of music playing over it. The DVDs are copyright 2003 KRB Music Companies Inc., and are produced by Raintree Home Video.
What possible reason could they have had to chop out the theme song? I at first thought that maybe they couldn’t get the rights to it, but that doesn’t make sense. They (presumably) got the rights to release the episodes on DVD, and the music IN the episodes is normal, just no theme song at the beginning.

I’ve been searching for the copyright info for the theme to place in my YouTube video that uses"The Fishin’ Hole," and that is how I came to this thread. For some reason, my embedded version* now has a commercial at the beginning. When I read your post, I wanted to find the song and answers for you.
*Send me a PM if that embedded version link doesn’t work. I’m about to update my website. I’ll update this post if I can.

Here are the answers that I found. I hope these answers save someone as much time as they took for me to gather!

Who owns the copyright
After an *extensive *search, I’ve found that EMI Special Products owns the copyright. (You might see it listed as Capitol Records in some places, but that citation is incorrect.) Search Capitol Records website. You won’t find it. They are owned by EMI. Search EMI. You won’t find it. It is in one of their divisions, which is also hard to find. (This research was a lot of work!)

Where to purchase just the two songs
You can purchase just the mp3 of “The Fishin’ Hole” or “The Andy Griffith Theme” (its actual name, see very last line/link) or both on this page on Amazon for $0.99 each.

Who wrote the music and lyrics
Further research also shows that the music is by Earle Hagen & Herbert W. Spencer and the lyrics are by Everett Sloane. (See links below for citations.)

Who whistles the tune
Either Earle Hagen or Fred Lowery whistled it (though Jerry Duane also claimed the honor). See this page for one lively discussion and here are others that indicate it was Earle Hagen alone:

[ul]
[li]http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/03/showbiz/andy-griffith-theme-song/index.html (This CNN article seems to also indicate the Hagen composed the music alone, but maybe he was just a spotlight hog or Spencer had already passed. I didn’t research that far.)[/li][li]http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-famous-door/104729/the-insidious-legacy-the-“andy-griffith-show”-theme[/li][li]http://www.tagsrwc.com/faq/index.php?cat=14#a103[/li][/ul]

Who sings it
Of course, Andy sings it.

[Harvey_The_Heavy]

Clerical errors like this happen. It’s the reason you see the same four Three Stooges shorts (Malice In The Palace, Brideless Groom, Sing A Song Of Six Pants and Disorder In The Court) on endless cheap compilations.

[Musicat]

@Walloon

For works originally published in the U.S. 1923-1963, the first term of the copyright lasted 28 years. Formal renewal of the copyright was required to enjoy the full 75 years (now extended to 95 years) of protection. For works 1964-1977, renewal for a second term was automatic. (These terms pertain to corporate copyrights, not those of individuals.)

You seem to know a bit about copyright in this era. What about a 1973 work, originally copyrighted by an individual, then assigned (in 1974) to a corporation? Was the work automatically renewed or not?

[Bumbershoot]

@Walloon

For works originally published in the U.S. 1923-1963, the first term of the copyright lasted 28 years. Formal renewal of the copyright was required to enjoy the full 75 years (now extended to 95 years) of protection. For works 1964-1977, renewal for a second term was automatic. (These terms pertain to corporate copyrights, not those of individuals.)

@Musicat

You seem to know a bit about copyright in this era. What about a 1973 work, originally copyrighted by an individual, then assigned (in 1974) to a corporation? Was the work automatically renewed or not?

Just so you know, this thread is almost 9 years old and Walloon has not posted in over 2 years, so you may not get an answer.

[Musicat]

@Bumbershoot

Just so you know, this thread is almost 9 years old and Walloon has not posted in over 2 years, so you may not get an answer.

I see that he hasn’t been by these here parts since 2010, but I’m not insisting on Walloon giving the only answer.

[Bumbershoot]

Yeah, I’m sure there are other people around here who are knowledgeable about copyright laws. From the way you worded your post, I wasn’t sure you realized this was a zombie thread.

[Toucanna]

And, unless he is a zombie, Walloon won’t be posting a response any time soon.

RIP, Walloon.

[Bumbershoot]

Well, shit. When I checked his profile I wondered why he stopped posting after being so active for so long.

A belated RIP, Walloon.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@ftg

Most rerun packages of “WKRP” have had the original songs replaced by “generic equivalents” since the rights are too expensive for low return reruns. Someday you’ll see a Simpsons episode with cheapo pop replacing Aerosmith and The Ramones.

Not necessarily. Music can be licensed in a variety of ways and not all shows cheap out for the shortest, most limited version - especially not shows that expect to keep selling, syndicating and licensing episodes for a long time. I’d bet that the Simpsons runners licensed music on long, if not ‘perpetual’ terms.

I believe Mad Men licensed “Satisfaction” on perpetual terms for that specific use, which doubled the cost of that episode. But g’damn, was it on-target and worth every dime…

WKRP and the movie that loosely inspired it, FM, both cheaped out on the licensing and paid the price for it.

[Musicat]

@Bumbershoot

A belated RIP, Walloon.

If he does reply, that will raise the definition of a zombie thread to a whole new level, eh?