With a delay like this, there just HAS to be some sort of strange licensing problem or something that’s keeping release of the series in limbo. What’s going on? Why is “The Wonder Years” not available on DVD? Is there any hope of a release?
Moved to CS.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
From that website:
Region Code: 0
DVD Format: Format-Free DVD-R
Undoubtedly, unlicensed.
If I had to guess why it isn’t out, it likely has to do with licensing rights to the music. The show prominently featured a lot of well-known '60s songs, which would be owned by all sorts of different record companies now – probably different ones than what existed when the show was airing. Music licensing delayed Miami Vice’s DVD release for years, and has kept The State, an early '90s MTV sketch comedy show, from coming out on DVD so far.
Bizarre. BBVL, do you know the answer to the obvious question - if they had the rights to use the music for the show, how do they not have the rights to release it on DVD? Does it have something to do with having the rights to “air” the music in a televised broadcast, but not to “sell” the music in a product for sale?
At least that answers my question about “The State,” though - shame.
I would bet it’s the music too. Another example is Beavis and Butthead. You can pick up the episodes on DVD, but all the video segments are edited out, which is a shame because their best stuff was when they were ripping on videos.
That’s it exactly. Broadcast rights are separate from distribution rights. Nowadays TV producers always acquire distribution rights to music as well, since just about everything new gets released on DVD. But for older shows it can be difficult.
Publishing rights come in many forms, and the copyright holder has the initial right to the media. Whoever bought the rights to air the music on tv did not buy rights to use the song on video or DVD (like you guessed). The show only has the right to use it in the original manner for which they bought it. So they couldn’t print sheet music, or put the lyrics in a book, probably couldn’t use the songs in commercials for the show (unless that was in the contract) and i THINK it has to be expressly agreed upon to air the episodes with the songs in question in syndication.
People nowadays probably buy the DVD rights as well when they buy the rights for a song for a show, as TV DVDs are so popular. No one really thought about it before because there really wasn’t a huge TV VHS boom.
There’s alot of good commentary about rights and clearances in The Simpsons DVD commentary because they used alot of different music. They needed clearance for everything, even characters just humming a tune.
IIRC music rights are the same reason the best sitcom of all time; *WKRP in Cincinatti * is never on reruns or on DVD.
Freaks and Geeks is another show where this was a problem. Set in the mid (or late?) '70s, songs of the era were featured prominently in the show, and the producers didn’t want to just edit them out or replace them with different music. So that’s why those DVDs are more expensive, and I believe they were also delayed in coming out – that’s why.
Correct. Nick At Nite was running edited reruns for a while but with songs changed or cut out. At the time, no one would have guessed someone might want to distribute copies of the show one day and getting the licensing for it now has proved near impossible. Pity.
I believe I read somewhere that the producers would not release the show on DVD until the rights to every last song were acquired, and it cost around $1,000,000 to get the rights for all of the songs.
The SCTV sets (which were put out by the same company) are also expensive due to the music rights- apparently, since the show was produced in Canada, they just “stole” copyrighted songs without paying for the rights to them somehow, but 90 to 95% of the copyrighted songs used in the show they were able to obtain the rights for for the DVD. (Some like Star Wars cues cost too much, IIRC).
WKRP is hung up due to music licensing rights, and I’m unsure if Miami Vice and Malcolm in the Middle will ever see DVDs past their first seasons. And there are some cases where most songs can be acquired, but some are too expensive- for example, many fans were angered when the song Knights in White Satin had to be removed from an episode of the cop series Wiseguy.
Another example I remember reading about that I just remembered: the theme song for Married with Children had to be replaced on some later DVD sets with a generic tune after the owners of the song Love and Marriage asked for an increased royalty the studio couldn’t afford.
I think something is wrong where you can get each episode for less than a buck. on the link given above. Not to mention that the site takes any currency. (not to eager to con you are they?)
Hmmm…I didn’t notice that. Definitely fishy, if nothing else is. Wonder why it (and some similar offers) is allowed to be so prominently featured in Google? One would think that the interested parties would act to shut such websites down quickly, in their own best interest.