# Rights to music in old TV shows - why all the difficulty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rights-to-music-in-old-tv-shows-why-all-the-difficulty/702261 "2014-10-23T16:56:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rights-to-music-in-old-tv-shows-why-all-the-difficulty/702261/41 "2014-10-30T18:45:25Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > As far as WKRP goes, it seems to me that except for part of the first verse of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” and some of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”, there really weren’t many _particular_ songs that were really important to an episode. Usually, anything that sounded Rockish would have worked. Listen to the song they played for the ending credits. There are a large number of seriously devoted fans of WKRP who would disagree with this sentiment. You can find message boards where people are debating the importance of tiny snippets of songs that appeared as incidental music (with others trying to point out that the songs really are not that important to the show). Some people are just purists who believe that changing any of the music is destroying a work of art, the equivalent of scribbling graffiti on the Mona Lisa. Similar discussions have arisen with regard to the Wonder Years. I seem to recall fans compiling a detailed list of which songs were and were not included in the DVD release, with extensive notations. Of course it’s only the most, shall we say “zealous” fans who take this attitude. I’m sure ShoutFactory will be able to sell plenty of DVD sets to people who aren’t quite so dedicated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rights-to-music-in-old-tv-shows-why-all-the-difficulty/702261.md?page=2)