HBO is editing modern Sesame Street episodes

[minor muppetz]

It was said in Street Gang that the shows producers decided to let the songwriters keep the copyrights on songs written for the show, in part because it helped get talented songwriters to contribute to the show. I wonder if the policy ever changed (it seems like later songs have been published to "Sesame Street, Inc." or something like that).

I was surprised when i read that, because original songs have been used again and again. Very few original songs have been cut from home video releases, many of the most iconic songs have been redone on the show and in albums so many times, I guess part of it could have come from good relationships between the song writers and CTW (and many of them stayed with the show for many years).

 

[D'Snowth]

Well heck, look at all the many artists out there who have covered "Sing," and not even for the show.

 

[Drtooth]

It was said in Street Gang that the shows producers decided to let the songwriters keep the copyrights on songs written for the show, in part because it helped get talented songwriters to contribute to the show. I wonder if the policy ever changed (it seems like later songs have been published to "Sesame Street, Inc." or something like that).

That's where it gets into a prickly artist rights issue. I'm strongly for artists' rights and all, I know what went down with Jack Kirby and all and it sucked. I applaud the fact that modern Batman projects credit Bill Finger (finally), and when it comes to music, I hate how even some families can't control who uses their music. Elvis's survivors weren't happy with those Viva Viagra commercials and were powerless to stop it. And I give CTW/SW credit for letting the musicians have the rights to their songs and Henson for letting them have the rights to the Muppet characters on the show (which is why the characters could easily be swapped around from show to show and movie cameos, just with a CTW credit at the end), but unfortunately the fact that the music rights are now screwed up that badly just takes the goodwill out of this collaborative effort.

Whatever estate and whoever owns the rights to certain songs now is being a little...I dunno...I don't want to be extremely dismissive about this, I'd like to see what their end of the perspective is. If it's a falling out between the estate and SW, that's one thing. If it's a case of "we want more money out of this nonprofit that needed money itself from a premium cable channel to survive," that's unforgivable. I really want to see both sides of the story here, but all I see is an estate that doesn't understand how mutually important these songs are, and refuses to let a show the songs were written for either have the song licensing rights for a reasonable price or at all. And considering Old School Vol 3, this seems to have been going on for some time.

On that note, I hate the title of this thread. It implies that this is all HBO's doing, rather than SW's own hand. Certain things have been cut from old Sesame episodes since the first Old School DVD set. Rights are sometimes hard to come by and often switch hands to greedier types who don't care about quality of the clips used if money's involved. Old School 3's lack of the freaking theme song was an embarrassment and a sign that something was going down well before this. It's easy to paint HBO as the villain in all this when all they have over the show is 9 month exclusivity.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, as you know, ARTHUR has a similar problem: notice how we never hear D.W. playing "Crazy Bus" anymore? Because they otherwise would have to pay royalties to Joe Fallon to use it, so rather than do that, they just say D.W. grew out of it.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, but Crazy Bus isn't as important to Arthur as..

the freaking theme song is to Sesame Street.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Well, as you know, ARTHUR has a similar problem: notice how we never hear D.W. playing "Crazy Bus" anymore? Because they otherwise would have to pay royalties to Joe Fallon to use it, so rather than do that, they just say D.W. grew out of it.

God, that show is dead.

 

[MuppetSpot]

God, that show is dead.

No Arthur is more like The Simpsons as in a zombie that's taking up airtime.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

No Arthur is more like The Simpsons as in a zombie that's taking up airtime.

Yeah, I know. That's more or less what I was saying .

 

[Oscarfan]

It was said in Street Gang that the shows producers decided to let the songwriters keep the copyrights on songs written for the show, in part because it helped get talented songwriters to contribute to the show. I wonder if the policy ever changed (it seems like later songs have been published to "Sesame Street, Inc." or something like that).

Publishers (like "Sesame Street Inc.") only control the commercial usage of songs and ensure the composers are properly compensated.

I'm not going to assume anything about this; everyone always jumps to conspiracies about these things ("The Workshop banned X segment because it stopped running!" i.e. they phased it out for newer material). I don't know who owns Raposo's estate and I'm not going to call them greedy if these edits are because of them. Because I know absolutely nothing except for the fact that the episodes' edits have a connection between them. That's all I know and I can assume things, but I won't infer anything.

 

[Drtooth]

I'll admit, it is a bit unfair to vilify anyone in this without knowing the full story. Home video rights are always illusive, and multiple parties can come to blame for these kinds of things, and in the end it's easier to just go around them and cut things or redub things.

Still, if we don't want to paint any estate or rights holder as greedy and or stubborn, I think we can agree that it's at least baffling to think that for whatever reason, things just can't get together between the two if that's the case. I understand that SW and HBO want to release these older episodes at as low a cost as possible. I understand the need for the estate of the artist to get their rightful dues from the songs written. The fact that, if this is indeed the case, a compromise couldn't have been worked out on the basis of "we're financially struggling right now and the songs were written for the show" is the bone of contention for me. IF it's the case.