Recent content by Sean Gaffney

Well, Carole King wrote 'You've Got a Friend'. Not sure if all the rights to her songs are owned by the same people, but if so, Loretta Swit's 'I Feel The Earth Move' is in trouble.

That being said, the new shot of the band sitting the ending out and Kermit waving works well for me in terms of the show's plot - it's not the original, but works well. I do miss Guy Lombardo, as with Jack Parnell, the ending makes little to no sense.

He spoke some of the song (the It All Depends on You part), but at other points he was genuinely singing. In contrast to, say, Spike Milligan, who speaks along with It's a Small World but clearly is not hitting notes.

Well, so much for my brilliant memory. Thanks to all! George Burns did sing, though. "You made me love you, I didn't want to do it..."

Having just watched the Harvey Korman episode on the DVD, it occurred to me: he never sings. Yes, he's a comic, but they had other comics on too, and they all sang. Is Harvey the only guest not to do a song?

The songs that were cut, with writer credits (this does not mean the writers own the songs, of course): Wayne and Wanda: Stormy Weather Words and Music by Harold Arlen Recorded by many, many people, including Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald Jim Nabors #1: Gone With The Wind written...

While I appreciate the disappointment, I think people are not understanding the difficulty of getting rights to music these days - especially for songs that are covers by other artists such as the Muppets. Rights change hands, and it might not just be that the song is too expensive. It could...

In terms of the edits, I'd say the Joel Grey ep is the least affected - I hadn't even known something was missing till I read the guide on MC. Williams is missing a great Muppet skit, but that's it. Aznavour is missing one of his numbers, a bigger loss. The shows most hurt by this are the...

The main questions I want to ask Disney (politely, of course): 1) Are the cuts due to music rights isues, or something else? 2) If something else, is it something that can be fixed with replacements? 3) If it is due to music rights, will this be an issue with future season sets? 4) While...

I have a feeling these might all be music rights cuts. Which I was sort of worried about when it was first announced. This kinda sucks, though I can see why Disney did not announce "Hey, Muppet fans, buy our edited box of shows!". Still...

Hrm. I had noticed the Joel Grey ep was missing Wayne and Wanda and the Newsman, but thought this might be a one-off accident. I wonder if the masters they used were incomplete?

I just got my copy (a store had it in early) and have watched the first 3 episodes. This is some nice stuff. Good picture and sound. I hadn't seen the Connie Stevens or Joel Grey eps in years, and it's great seeing them in their original form (yes, the JG ep has the added bit in the opening...

Well, the original openings don't have the ITV logo impaled on them like the endings do, so I imagine it was easier to leave them be.

I dunno, I think those were just random clips of the titles. Since it's restored from the original tapes, not the syndicated ones, they'd have to actively edit out each opening and replace it with a generic one, something I imagine that would be MORE expensive than keeping the originals. I'm...

Do we know what characters might give rights problems? I can guess the Sesame Street ones, as I think the Sesame and Muppet licenses are different. Do they need to clear shows where there was a guest puppeteer like Bruce Schwartz?