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TV on DVD Behind Without the Music
from: filmfodder.com
by Matt Callahan
You may have noticed lately that there has been an explosion of TV series being released on DVD. It has become a weekly occurrence. The reason of course is money. The first seasons of "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" each sold over a million copies. TV on DVD sales in the past year accounted for $2 billion, and those figures are only expected to go up. And when studio executives smell money, they become like sharks converging on the bloated carcass of a whale, they can't feast enough. So they are emptying their archives, throwing as many titles out there as possible. From "Lost" to "Airwolf", old or new, long lived or cancelled after one season (Nowhere Man? Was that even ever on TV?), they are coming out on DVD.
And therein lies the problem. Especially with the older shows.
As this article from the Hollywood Reporter shows the music industry, (never shy when it comes to douchebaggery - i.e. suing 12-year-olds, installing software on your PC leaving you vulnerable to hacks, etc.) charges enormous licensing fees to renew music that originally aired on TV shows. The original licenses only covered broadcast rights, not DVDs because, well, DVDs didn't even exist yet (and later no one foresaw the popularity of TV on DVD). DVD studios have two choices pay the huge fees, or take the music off the DVD (and replace it with cheaper, usually crappier, music).
I first discovered this when I bought the complete series of "Keen Eddie", a quirky short-lived show on FOX where the music was almost a character in itself. Take a look at some of the songs that aired during its original run. The Specials, Madness, New Order, Duran Duran, they could have made a great soundtrack CD. What is on the DVD? None of it. It's all been replaced by some unidentifiable techno music. I never noticed the small disclaimer on the packaging "The music has been replaced for this Home Entertainment version."
This also explains why the complete series of "Freaks and Geeks" still retails for $70, despite being released over a year ago. All the original music, including the theme song (JOAN JETT's Bad Reputation) is on the DVD. The fees they paid to keep that music get passed on to us.
Starting with season 3 of "Married with Children", you will no longer hear Frank Sinatra crooning "Love and Marriage" during the opening credits, the theme song has been replaced with an instrumental which tries to "capture the essence" of the original (how does one capture the essence of "Ol' Blue Eyes" with instruments?). Don't hold your breath for a boxed set of "WKRP in Cincinnati", it used so many classic rock songs during it's airings it will cost 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment a fortune to license all the tracks (Fox says it's still considering it's options on WKRP-right).
I understand the industry wanting to be compensated, but when they look for so much money that studios seek alternatives (cutting them out completely) how is that a sound business strategy? I would think hearing the songs while watching the shows would entice people to go buy CDs with the music on it. Why would they want to encourage that in this error of declining music sales? I guess this is why I'm not a music executive.
Who is the big loser in all this? Why us, of course. We are the whale carcass bobbing in the sea of corporate greed. Our options will be either high priced DVD sets with the songs we remember, or cheaper ones gutted of their original music. Perhaps this is music's revenge for video killing the radio star.
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