Your Thoughts: TMS Season 1 DVD

[KCJ506]

I now understand about them not getting the rights to the songs, but why would they cut out the Muppet Newflashes from the Joel Grey episode?

 

[Xela]

You can never make everyone completely happy...

Well, I plan to buy it anyways. As soon as I get money to buy it. Or perhaps my birthday; that's coming up soon.

 

[MrsPepper]

I don't know about you guys, but even with the changes, I am still counting down the days. 3 more...

 

[jetjaguar15]

I like Deep Discount DVD. I got my copy in the mail today.


Haven't been able to watch it yet, though.

 

[David French]

I can understand the arguments in both camps - on the one hand it is disappointing that cuts have been made, but on the other I understand why the cuts have been made.

I sympathise completely with those in the first camp - when TV 3 in NZ (owned by CanWest) played re-runs in the 1990's, they made horrendous cuts to all 120 episodes eg the Rita Moreno episode - Rita's first number was shown but then the first backstage scene, the Vets Hospital sketch and the second backstage scene were cut out completely, with the next scene being the Newsflash.

The comment "Some music rights are not available at any price. You may have Bill Gates' bank balance behind you, but if the rights holder refuses to grant you a licence, there's nothing you can do." is, I feel, slightly misleading. There will always be things available for use, it's just that sometimes the "studio" that releases the DVDs feels that it's too expensive for them to purchase the rights to use a song, even if it's only a 10-second sound bite.

A good example comes from the BBC's Doctor Who DVD range; a Fleetwood Mac song could be heard in the background from an episode transmitted in 1970. Unfortunately, the BBC felt that it was too expensive to pay the copyright holders the necessary sum to use that song, so it was removed from the DVD release.

At this moment in time I'm not really sure whether I'll buy this release when it's available R4; considering I used to gnash my teeth when TV 3 showed "butchered" episodes, I may ignore this release...but don't quote me on that.

 

[Ernie101]

1. As I haven't had a chance to see most of these episodes, knowing I'm missing a few scenes is a little disconcerting. (just a little). The excitement of being able to see them at all, however, is much, much greater than the dissapointment.

So glad to see that someone feels the same way as me. I have never seen but like one of these episodes, so to me this is like opening up a whole new world. I have no dissapointment because I have never seen the cut lines. I do however see how fans who have seen all of the episodes in their entirety are upset. I can barely wait..and this is such a great chance for me to see all of these episodes..I am so excited.

 

[KCJ506]

If I remember correctly when Nickelodeon aired the Rita Moreno episode they showed Fever as the opening number. The French cafe skit wasn't shown at all.

I also remember the "Act Naturally" song being shown in one episode. It was NOT the Victor Borge episode.

After thinking about I've decided that I'll buy it anyway. You guys are right. Five songs aren't a big deal. It just that two of those songs happen to be my favorite parts of the episode.

I'm still hoping for an uncut version in the future.

 

[G-MAN]

I understand about the rights thing for four of the songs, but I don't understand about the Danceros thing, from what Muppet Central's episode guide said it was just a creature getting his legs tangled up. Did he'she'it sing a song or something? (i've never seen the Jim Nabors or Charles Aznavour episodes before so I'm just confused.).

 

[anathema]

The comment "Some music rights are not available at any price. You may have Bill Gates' bank balance behind you, but if the rights holder refuses to grant you a licence, there's nothing you can do." is, I feel, slightly misleading. There will always be things available for use, it's just that sometimes the "studio" that releases the DVDs feels that it's too expensive for them to purchase the rights to use a song, even if it's only a 10-second sound bite.

Unfortunately, that's not true: a rights holder is under no obligation to licence their property if they don't want to.

A good example comes from the BBC's Doctor Who DVD range; a Fleetwood Mac song could be heard in the background from an episode transmitted in 1970. Unfortunately, the BBC felt that it was too expensive to pay the copyright holders the necessary sum to use that song, so it was removed from the DVD release.

And a better example from the same range is in "Remembrance of the Daleks": a Beatles song is playing in the background in a couple of scenes - the rights holder refused to clear these at all so they had to be replaced. This was not a case of the BBC not feeling it to be affordable.

 

[anathema]

I understand about the rights thing for four of the songs, but I don't understand about the Danceros thing, from what Muppet Central's episode guide said it was just a creature getting his legs tangled up. Did he'she'it sing a song or something? (i've never seen the Jim Nabors or Charles Aznavour episodes before so I'm just confused.).

Yeah, but the creature is dancing to music. Presumably the music couldn't be cleared.