Is anyone watching this. I know that the songs that were used in the original episodes can’t be used for the most part, but when Howard Hessman is mouthing lyrics to an guitar solo, that ruins it for me. I can’t wait until they air the Gigi episode to see what WGN uses to fill in for the songs.
Also, does the DVD set have the original music? I would buy that if I could see Hessman lip syncing to “Layla” and “Old Time Rock and Roll”
SSG Schwartz
I’ve watched the DVD versions, and the music (most? all?) has been replaced. Although I think it’s a crying shame they had to do it, I’d rather have the bowlderized versions than none at all.
However, I wasn’t sure if the WGN broadcasts were from the mangled DVD or the original. I just caught a glimpse of one the other night and Jennifer’s doorbell was the original “Fly me to the Moon”, not the DVD version of “I Dream of Jeannie”, so I thought the other tunes might have been the original, too. After all, the originals were cleared for TV broadcast, and WGN is broadcasting TV. The problem with music clearance came with the new, non-TV medium.
That’s “bowdlerized”. It took so long for SDMB to accept the post that I missed the edit window.
The songs have been changed on the the WGN episodes. If you saw last Sunday’s episode, you saw Fever singing to a guitar solo.
SSG Schwartz
Missed that one. But I wonder why the doorbell wasn’t changed in the one I saw?
In the one with the turkeys Johnny Fever was playing a Pink Floyd album with barking dogs in the background and he and Carlson were discussing it. It was played intact on WGN, but other music in the same episode was not. I assume that some, but not all of the music has been licensed for use.
Mmm… Bailey…
Except it’s not. Bowdlerization would be expurgation of material deemed morally offensive or unsafe for women and children.
I recently rented the 1973 tv movie Birds of Prey. Pretty good movie; David Janssen as a Salt Lake City traffic report copter pilot, chasing bank robbers across Utah’s badlands. Somehow, after 35 years, I remembered that his character liked the song “Three Little Fishies”, and I was actually waiting for the scene where he’s singing along with that song on the radio while in a high-speed aerial pursuit. Instead, you see him clearly singing something, while what’s on the radio is a generic '40s swing tune. I have to wonder: how much could the licensing for “Three Little Fishies” possibly cost?
And, Bailey: Hell, yes.
I get it here on American Life TV; AFAICT it’s untainted.
I think that hey should just show then the way they were originally recorded, and send the rights money to the artist (or their estates) directly. Let THEM argue with the record companies and agents.
It’s not a matter of TV vs. DVD. The licenses were for the original showing plus a set number of reruns (probably three in that area, but that’s just a guess). Any use after that would require a completely new set of negotiations.
The cost would probably be in the thousands per tune. Possibly millions for the whole series. And the age of the song wouldn’t make all that much difference.
First of all, I was correcting my own spelling error.
Second, I’m aware of the definition, which strictly speaking, refers to removal of offensive material. I was using the term to describe the way I feel about the altering of WKRP’s music due to copyright concerns. To me, the effect is similar to when some ultra-bluenose removes important material from a work of art to satisfy a perverse need to cleanse. Removing the music satisfies the attorneys need to cleanse due to inflexible copyright laws. Regardless of reason, it alters the original work in a way that is unacceptable to some.
OK? 
Sorry, but it can’t work that way. The TV stations are billed a fee for each syndicated program. Obviously, they can’t pay this fee unless someone first tells them how much it would cost.